If you drive down the main road through Woodford Green you cannot fail to notice the open common land and many trees along the roadside. They are a remnant of the ancient Forest of Essex, now known in this area as Epping Forest. The City of London Corporation, as Conservators of the Forest, owns these green spaces, and it was the Corporation which planted the horse chestnut trees in 1892.

Redbridge does not abound in old houses. Hurst House, the white building near the Churchill statue, was erected around 1714 and is one of the earliest to survive in Woodford, although it was badly damaged by fire in 1936 and much of it is now a reconstruction. However, there are much older features in the district, in some of the trees and hedges which have survived the centuries. Looking at old maps, it is not difficult to recognise field boundaries which still define the line between the back gardens of houses in one road and another. Perhaps the oldest hedge which is still recognisable is that along the back of the Green at Broomhill Road. When cricket was first played on the Green in 1735, this hedge was already well over 250 years old.

I dare say many of you know how to tell the age of a hedge. The theory is that if you measure a stretch of 30 yards (say 30 adult paces) and count the number of woody species, that number gives the approximate age of the hedge in centuries. Of course, some common sense is needed in selecting a typical section — it is much better to check a number of consecutive lengths and take an average. The species in the Broomhill Road hedge, recorded a few years ago, included apple, blackthorn, elder, elm, field maple, hawthorn, laburnum, oak and sycamore, with the occasional cherry, hazel, holly and horse chestnut. Overall, the average was 5.2 species per 30-yard length, making the hedge at least 500 years old. Incidentally, blackberry or bramble and woody climbers such as ivy should not be included in the count, and only one side of the hedge is recorded.

Laburnum and horse chestnut represent the more recent history of the hedge. However, the presence of field maple and hazel would indicate that the hedge is indeed ancient, and could be older than the 500 years suggested. The fact that bluebells can be seen flowering beneath the hedge in May also points to an ancient hedgerow — provided they are wild plants and not garden waste.

Recording the species in the hedges of the Debden House camp site near Theydon Bois suggests an age of around 600 years. Without documentary evidence, it seems very likely that this area was cleared from the forest in the early medieval period, so the date is probably accurate. There is, however, a hedge near Piercing Hill at Theydon Bois with over seven species per 30-yard length, suggesting a date of around 1250. Documentary evidence confirms that it is the purlieu hedge recorded as the legal boundary of the forest in 1301. Given the pressures of being so close to human habitation over the centuries, it seems quite possible that the Broomhill Road hedge is of a similar age.

Thank you to Georgina Green of the Woodford Historical Society for the article