Bull Beach Boundary
Research has shown that the River Medway in Kent is a very ancient river and before the diversion of the Thames to its present course the Medway flowed across eastern Essex to join the Thames in what is now north Essex or Suffolk. The route of this river has left behind evidence of its existence as layers and patches of gravel between Hadleigh and Bradwell-on-Sea. The higher the altitude of this gravel the older it is and the highest of this gravel (known as Daws Heath Gravel and Claydons Gravel) is on the Rayleigh Hills between Hadleigh and Hockley which, in places, is over 80 metres above sea level. It is difficult to believe that this gravel, which caps some of the highest ground in south Essex, was originally the floor of an ancient river valley. However, this must have been the situation over 700,000 years ago. The Rayleigh Hills gravel contains distinctive pebbles of chert from the Lower Greensand of The Weald, together with other rock types that could only have been deposited by a river flowing from the south. The existence of this high level river gravel may even have contributed to the creation of the Rayleigh Hills by protecting the Bagshot Sands and Claygate Beds from erosion while the surrounding areas were slowly reduced to the present lowland. It is a vivid reminder of the immense erosion that has taken place during the ice age and how the land surface can be considerably reshaped in relatively short periods of geological time.
As Hockley woods are on part of the Rayleigh Hills this affects the drainage and this in turn affects the acidity of the soil (due to presence of sands, gravels and loess on hill tops) There is also varying amounts of fine sand, which is of an unusual grade for woodland soil, as a result of the Bagshot sands. The soil also consists of mor and mull (the result of humus from fallen leaves). The type here is mainly mor because of the soil acidity. The soil series as recognised by the “Soil Survey” is the Essendon Series:- a pebbley clay on hilltops and patches of some Bolderwood series (a heathland soil type)
The land surface in ancient woods has various meanings. It preserves natural features such as streams, dells, and landslips, which elsewhere have been levelled by cultivation or destroyed by tidy-mindedness. The artificial woodbanks are witnesses to the value once attached to woods and the care taken of them. A Kilometre of woodbank represents at the very least 3000 hours of digging: every such bank meant something important.
Most of our woodbanks date from an ill-documented antiquity. They reinforce the impression that the general location of the woods was determined in or before Anglo-Saxon times, but with many alterations since. Subdivisions of ownership are probably a post Roman process which went on for a long time and reached its climax about 1300. In the later Middle Ages the ownerships began to be re-amalgamated; many of them disappeared early, and banks are their only record.
In Hockley Wood, woodbanks are the most conspicuous features.
Woodbanks
The woods we know as Hockley Woods is a collection of older woods, ie Great Hawkwell wood, Great Bull wood, Beaches wood and some smaller woods. Woodbanks either demarcate the boundary between woodland and field, heath, or park, or define ownerships within a wood. They have been made over many centuries. When a wood was allowed to get bigger, a new boundary bank was usually made, after a time, around the extension, and the original boundary bank was left behind in the interior. When part of a wood was grubbed out, a new bank was made to mark the truncated edge. When part of a wood changed hands, this could involve making a new internal bank. In consequence a large wood has a network of many miles of banks and ditches of various dates.
Woodbanks have meanings. They record the histories of woods in ways which complement written records. Unlike most documents, woodbanks are precise as to place but vague as to date.
The relative ages of banks can be inferred from their profiles and courses. Early banks tend to be more massive, to be worn down by centuries of rain and frost, and to have sinuous courses (perhaps where they originally had to go round big trees). Later banks are regularly curved, and later banks still are straight; they are less strong but sharper in profile. Pollard trees on banks add to their meaning. A complex sequence of woodbanks can be understood by examining their junctions. When banks join to form a T or a Y, it can often be shown that one bank came first and the other was added later, while the meaning of the first bank was still remembered. Two banks may, however, cross at an X, in a way which tells us that a long interval must separate them: the first bank had become obsolete and was ignored, if not forgotten, by the makers of the second.
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The parts that remain of the perimeter banks within Hockley Woods are massive. Among the internal banks, the main ones represent an early division of the wood among manors; later banks reflect the ‘subinfeudation’ of the manors into separate farms each with its own wood lot.
The strongest bank is the great earthwork, separating Great Bull from Beaches Wood. It was evidently designed, not to separate a wood from a field, but to divide the ownership of an existing wood. Each party embanked half the boundary; the bank changes sides halfway where they meet in the middle. The parallel stream, which seems to be an obvious and labour saving boundary, was not used.
To claim this earthcache you will need to perform seven tasks:
1, Follow the Blue Boundary walk to N51 35.795 E0 38.580, take a photo of the two woodbanks, at right angles to each other, looking to the South
2. Estimate the height of the bank from the bottom of the ditch as it is now at N51 35.848 E0 38.343
3. Estimate the width of the bank as it is now at N51 35.848 E0 38.343
4. Take a picture of yourself and/or your GPSr with the bank of the earthwork in the background
5. Estimate the length of this section of the woodbank from this point (N51 35.843 E0 38.333) through to N51 35.833 E0 38.619. If you follow the path you can see the woodbank on your right.
6. From the estimate of the length of the woodbank, estimate how many hours would it have taken to dig this.
7, At N51 35.867 E0 38.421 you can see a shallow pit which was probably manmade- what purpose was it for?
Message me your answers to me.