Woodland rights

Woodland rights - The only fuel was wood or charcoal; farm buildings and cottages were of wood; cattle were kept off the otherwise unprotected common fields and meadows by hurdles [dead hedges]: so much so, that in manorial deeds of the period the cattle-herd is most commonly styled the hayward, i.e., hedge-ward. Wood, of course, had other uses. In Essex Review, xiii, 219, we read, "A common material for filling in spaces between studs of wallings was stiff clay, mixed with dry cut grass, bedded on a foundation of hazel sticks, and faced with rough lime stucco on the outside, and floated with fine mortar inside."