Enfield Chase is an open space in the London Borough of Enfield, North London. Historically, the name applied to a large common occupying the western part of the ancient parish of Enfield, extending from Monken Hadley in the west to Bulls Cross in the east, and from Potters Bar to Southgate.
Since 1994 the term 'Enfield Chase' has applied to the Enfield Chase Heritage Area of Special Character; a part of the former common area – largely owned by the London Borough of Enfield – that was never developed for housing and other urban uses.
The area was owned by a landlord, for many centuries the Duchy of Lancaster, who held Forest Rights and other rights such as the right to a certain amount of extracted wood. Local commoners also had wood extraction rights and grazing rights which were vital to their subsistence. Although the Chase was legally a Forest, the land was not woodland but wood-pasture; grazing land with a pollard and other trees set within it. Pollarding was a sustainable way that commoners could harvest wood from living trees in a way that did not kill them, but instead indefinitely extended their life span.
In the 1500s the balance of rights between the landowner (the Duchy of Lancaster) and the common rights of local people broke down, and Enfield Chase became a byword for socio-economic conflict. This mainly took the form of the Duchy taking more profit from the Chase at the expense of the commoners.
In 1659, parliament sold extensive areas of the Chase to wealthy and influential figures. The commoners tore down the fences and fought soldiers hired by the new landowners to enforce the new arrangements. Despite several inhabitants people being killed by musket fire, the people of Enfield overwhelmed the soldiers and saved Enfield Chase for another hundred years
In the 1700s, the rich and powerful 'rangers' of the Chase used their influence to help secure the Black Act of 1723, which made poaching and many other crimes punishable by death. Local communities in which offences took place faced collective punishment through reparations to the landowner.
The Chase was enclosed (privatised) in 1777 to stimulate economic growth and to end criminality in the Chase. Ancient common rights including access, grazing and wood collection were extinguished, and the land was given over to farms and private parks.
Much of the area enclosed for agriculture was urbanised in the mid-20th century; alarm at London's sprawl led to extensive areas of farmland, plus private parks such as Trent Park and Whitewebbs Park being brought into public ownership so they could be preserved for the benefit of the people of Enfield. Much of the publicly owned open space may now be built on due to projects such as a large new town at Crews Hill and Tottenham Hotspur's planned new training facility on part of Whitewebbs Park.
History Before Enfield Chase – Domesday and the Forest of Middlesex Domesday returns for Middlesex as a whole indicate that the county was around 30% wooded (much of it wood-pasture) in 1086, about double the English average.Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape, Rackham, p50 This would have been lower in the lower land, close to rivers that made it more attractive for farming, and higher in other parts of the county.
The area that would become known as Enfield Chase is likely to have been part of the Forest of Middlesex, an area under forest law which is likely to have had a high proportion of woodland. The citizens of the City of London held the hunting rights. The Forest of Middlesex was abolished (removed from forest law) by Henry II in 1218. This removed some of the protections the woods and common land had from encroachment by agriculture.'Hickling - Highgate', in A Topographical Dictionary of England, ed. Samuel Lewis (London, 1848), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp505-509 [accessed 19 April 2025]. No longer part of the much wider Forest of Middlesex, Enfield Chase became a legal forest in its own right.
Etymology Enfield Chase was recorded as Enefeld Chacee in 1325 and chace of Enefelde in 1373, from the Middle English chace, meaning "a tract of ground for breeding and hunting wild animals". The term Chase particularly applies to places, like Enfield Chase, where the forest rights are held by someone other than the monarch.Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape, Rackham, p168
In a charter of 1166–89 the hamlet of Southgate, sited around what is now Southgate Underground station, is referred to. It takes its name from its location at the South Gate of the old hunting ground, later known as Enfield Chase.
Ownership and management The chase was established by Geoffrey de Mandeville around 1136-1144. It appears it was not known as Enfield Chase until the early 14th century, and was known as Enfield Wood or Enfield Park before that time. The name Enfield Chase is first recorded in 1325.
It was referred to as 'Parcus Extrinicus' (Latin, 'the Outer Park') to distinguish it from the older and smaller Enfield Old Park ('Parcus Intrinsicus' ('the Inner Park') which was mentioned in the Domesday Book as a park and was later used for rearing game to be released into the adjacent Chase.Haigh, Douglas, Old Park in the Manor of Enfield, London 1977
In the middle ages a forest was an area managed for the breeding and hunting of deer, and was not necessarily wooded. Generally speaking the crown held the forest (hunting) rights, but in a few cases - such as Enfield Chase the forest rights were privately held. Enfield Chase was a forest but it was not a woodland, the habitat was wood-pasture - grazing land interspersed with trees. Many of these trees were pollards.
Enfield Chase covered (in 1777), the higher western half of the ancient parish of Enfield. It was part of an area of wood-pasture that extended nine miles northward to Hatfield in Hertfordshire.Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape, Rackham, p176-178
While the landowner held the forest (hunting) and a number of other rights, the land was primarily managed as a common, with various grazing and wood collection rights enjoyed by commoners of Enfield, Edmonton, Monken Hadley and South Mimms. Areas of common land across both areas was inter-commoned meaning that commoners of all districts enjoyed rights in each. This arrangement is thought to derive from sometime before the Norman Conquest when the four districts are thought to have formed a single territorial unit. Much of the wood collection rights was by a sustainable process called pollarding which indefinitely extended the life of the tree.Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape, Rackham, p176-178
Common rights are older than forest law which was a Norman imposition, and where these co-existed (most commons were not in legal forests) there was significant conflict between these two sets of rights. This was partly resolver by the Charter of the Forest, a sister document to the Magna Carta, which was produced in 1217. Forest rights were curtailed and the continued exercise of common rights within areas of forest guaranteed.The Story of Enfield Chase by David Pam - The Enfield Society - 1986 p16
Period of stability For hundreds of years the Chase was owned by the Mandeville and then the de Bohun families before passing to the Duchy of Lancaster in 1471. The Duchy held the manor of Enfield and the Forest rights in Enfield Chase. For the first hundred years, the Duchy was a very conservative landlord and made no attempt to infringe on common rights or to enclose any common land (as the landowners of Edmonton Manor had).The Story of Enfield Chase by David Pam - The Enfield Society - 1986 p16
It is believed that Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth I) often hunted on the Chase after she was granted the estate of West Lodge Park by her brother Edward VI in 1547.
Sustained social conflict In most forests (most forests being royal forests), there was a stable balance between the forest rights of the crown and the common rights of the local people. Enfield Chase experienced sustained social conflict as the Duchy of Lancaster, which had the forest rights, did not have the crown's traditional scruples about oppressing the tenantry. For centuries they sought to expand their own rights at the expense of the commoners (those who held common rights). The Duchy of Lancaster was (and is) a crown estate, but operated at arms length, in a similar way to a modern quango.Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape, Rackham, p163The Story of Enfield Chase by David Pam - The Enfield Society - 1986 p16
By mid 1500s population was rising (but was probably not at pre-Black Death levels) leading to pressure on natural resources. Competition for resources between the Duchy and commoners increased. This was exacerbated by the corruption of Duchy officials taking far more wood than they were entitled and selling it on outside the parish without giving local people the customary first refusal.The Story of Enfield Chase by David Pam - The Enfield Society - 1986 p16
Another problem for Enfield Chase was the enclosure of some common land in Edmonton; as Edmonton and Enfield intercommoned (shared each others common lands) the loss of common in one area increased pressure on common land in both. These factors combined to leads to a centuries long downward trend in the number of pollard and other trees in that wood-pasture environment.The Story of Enfield Chase by David Pam - The Enfield Society - 1986 p16
At the same time, the rights of the Duchy were being infringed through poaching of deer by gentry and commons alike.
The Duchy's response to the competition for resources included rationing, for the first time, the right to grazing and wood collection common rights. taking more than one's allowance became a crime.The Story of Enfield Chase by David Pam - The Enfield Society - 1986 p16
In 1659, during the Interregnum, desperate for funds, parliament sold off large parts of the chase to a number of parliamentarian army officers and other influential figures. Outraged at the loss of their ancient feudal rights, local commoners tore down the fences that the incomers had erected, so that they could graze their cattle there as before.The Story of Enfield Chase by David Pam - The Enfield Society - 1986, Chapter 5
The 'Intruders', as they were referred to, hired well armed off-duty parliamentarian soldiers to enforce their acquisitions. The soldiers shot and stole the commoner's sheep, and also shot cows and horses. Confrontations followed with the soldiers shooting and killing several locals, before being overwhelmed by the people of the parish. Several of the soldiers were captured and beaten, ending up at Newgate prison.. The Chase was secured for Enfield (and neighbouring intercommoned parishes) for another hundred years.The Story of Enfield Chase by David Pam - The Enfield Society - 1986 p16
In the 1700s, the ongoing social conflict meant Legal Forests, particularly Enfield Chase and Waltham Chase in Hampshire, came to have a bad reputation in parliament, especially among modernising Whigs who already viewed them inefficient and anachronistic.The Story of Enfield Chase by David Pam - The Enfield Society - 1986 Chapter 7Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape, Rackham, p172-173