Why is Hatfield so special?
Statement of Significance for Hatfield Forest Historical significance “Hatfield is of supreme interest in that all the elements of a medieval Forest survive: deer, cattle, coppice woods, pollards, scrub, timber trees, grassland and fen, plus a seventeenth-century lodge and rabbit warren. As such it is almost certainly unique in England and possibly in the world …….The Forest owes very little to the last 250 years ….. Hatfield is the only place where one can step back into the Middle Ages to see, with only a small effort of the imagination, what a Forest looked like in use.” Oliver Rackham, 1976. Hatfield Forest was declared a Forest, in the early 12th century, when Fallow Deer were introduced and it was part of the great Forest of Essex. Its function was the supply of deer for the King’s table, for the parks of gentry near and far, and for the occasional ceremonial hunt. It is the continuity of use by commoners and owners, which has ensured the long-term survival of the Forest in its p
