FOR many hundreds of years local residents had certain rights on common land such as Epping Forest.

These included the right to take wood, gravel and turf, and to pasture some of their animals "on the open waste" without paying a fee. However, one very rarely gets something for nothing, and this was no exception.

All these privileges have to be seen in the context of Epping, or Waltham as it was known, being a royal hunting forest.

The area covered by the forest laws included not only the predominantly wooded area at the heart of the forest but also much of the surrounding farmland.

Commoners were not entitled to do anything that would disturb the venison (not only deer but also other beasts of the chase such as wild pig, hare and certain birds) and if they did they were liable for punishment. Also, the rights could not be exercised willy-nilly at any time of the year.

If the deer roamed into the fields and ate the crops, the farmer could not chase them off and had to put up with the resulting drop in yield.

Some claimed that they lost ten per cent of their crop to the deer and did not feel that they were adequately compensated by virtue of their common rights.

In the winter months when food for the deer was in short supply the cattle had to be taken off the forest and kept on the commoners own land. It was for this reason that the number of cattle a commoner could put out was directly related to the amount of land they held.

Each year there was a period of 15 days either side of old Midsummer Day (July 6) when all commonable animals had to be taken off the forest. This became known as the fence month.

The majority of the deer had their fawns during June and both mothers and young were protected from any kind of disturbance during this time.

By the end of the month the fawns were likely to be well able to keep up with their mothers and survive the rigours of life in the forest.

To prevent all the best pasture being eaten by the commoners' animals rather than the deer, the use of herdsmen was not permitted. Cattle did not have to remain in the parish in which the commoner lived, but were free to wander anywhere throughout the forest.

This principle of 'inter-commonage' was one of the unusual features of Epping Forest that weighed heavily in its favour during the fight for its survival in the mid-nineteenth century.

Long may extensive grazing be a feature of the forest, whether it is by wild deer or commoners' cattle.