Eastwood Essex hotels:

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council owns and manages a block of woodland of approximately 200 acres situated on either side of the borough boundary with Castle Point Council. The woodland is presently referred to as Hadleigh Great Wood, though historically it comprised a number of separate but adjacent woods. The site is classified as Ancient Semi-natural Woodland. Parts of the woodland have a documented history dating back to the 12th century and belonged to the Diocese of Westminster. This woodland was very valuable property, often divided amongst a multitude of owners and tenants. Ownership was demarcated by the construction of massive earth banks, many of which can still be seen in Hadleigh Great Wood today. Coppicing was normal practice and would have been practised over this woodland from well before the Middle Ages. 'Coppice with standards' was a system that developed later that allowed standard trees to be grown on to meet the requirements for larger timber. All of Hadleigh Great Wood was historically managed using this system. Woodland once covered extensive areas locally. This is shown by the several small towns, such as Hockley, Rayleigh, Thundersley, Wheatley, Hadleigh and Leigh-on-Sea, which have the word ending in 'leah'. This word ending is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word, which meant a clearing or settlement in woodland. Two of the component woods of Hadleigh Great Wood were also called Horseleigh and Goldingsley, which indicate the woodland existed in Anglo-Saxon times. It is convenient to think of the woodland block as two separate units. Whilst both woods can be considered to be part of the Hadleigh Great Wood complex the eastern half of the woodland is not generally known by this name. The first unit is still called Hadleigh Great Wood, which is also know as Belfairs Nature Reserve, and the other referred to as Belfairs Wood, which is found within the boundaries of Belfairs Park.