1. The Geological History of the Wood, with a link to an article on The Geology of Norsey Wood Nature Reserve by Gerald Lucy of The Essex Field Club. more...
2. Neolithic and Mesolithic periods were part of the Middle Stone Age, about 8000-6000 BC/BCE. more...
3. The Bronze Age was the period between approximately 2500 BC/BCE to 700 BC/BCE in Britain, when metal (copper and bronze) was first used for tools and weapons. more . . .
4. Iron Age - A Glass Bead found in the wood was dated between 150 BC/BCE and 50 AD/CE (late Iron Age) more . ..
5. Roman Period - There was a Roman presence in the Wood for about 400 years, i.e. from about 75 BC/BCE to about 368 AD/CE more . . .
6. Medieval Period - The owners of medieval woodlands constructed permanent boundaries around their properties to protect their wood, timber and hunting rights. more . . .
7. The Victorian era was the most fruitful time for archaeological finds in Norsey. more . . .
8. Norsey Wood First World War Training Trenches. more . . .
9. Notable events from 1920 to present day. more . . .
10. Names & Owners - Owners of the Wood and it's Names through time. more . . .

Overview of the History of Norsey Wood.

The monument includes the perimeter earthworks and interior of Norsey Wood, an area of mixed and coppice woodland located immediately to the east of Billericay. The Wood contains one of the most remarkable collections of archaeological features to be found anywhere in the region. These include occupation areas and burial sites dating from prehistoric and Roman periods, earthworks relating to continuous management of the woodland from the medieval period onwards, and physical remains related to the military use of the Wood in comparatively modern times.

The Wood is roughly triangular in plan, covering approximately 66ha and dominated by a broad plateau of sands and gravels from which a number of streams flow into a steep-sided marshy valley on the southern boundary. Until the 1930s the Wood was almost completely enclosed by perimeter earthworks, perpetuating a boundary unchanged since the Wood was first mapped in 1593.

These boundary earthworks still survive to the east and south east (along Outwood Common Road and Break Egg Hill) and around the southern perimeter of the Wood. However, the north western section (alongside Norsey Road) was largely demolished to make way for a row of houses, and it is not included in the scheduling. Although sections of the surviving boundary earthworks have been termed 'The Deerbank' they mostly appear to be woodbanks; designed to prevent animals from entering and damaging the Wood and still typified by pollard hornbeam hedgerows on the banks and external ditches running alongside. The Wood is known to have been extensively coppiced between the early 17th century and the late 19th century, and such banks would have been maintained to prevent neighbouring stock (and wild animals) from grazing on the vulnerable new shoots. The banks may, however, have still earlier origins. The earliest recorded place-name for Norsey Wood (Nosseheye) dates from the mid-13th century and includes the Anglo-Saxon term 'haeg' or 'hey' which implies enclosure before the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Wood, attached to the manor of Great Burstead, was acquired by Bishop ado after the Conquest. It later reverted to the Crown and, in about 1200, passed with the manor to the Abbey of Stratford Langthorne. In 1280 the abbot received a royal license to sell timber from Norsey Wood. This suggests coppice management and the concomitant need for a substantial boundary to prevent animals (especially deer) from straying into the wood from the Royal Forest, which then covered most of southern Essex.

In a few places (especially alongside Outwood Common Road to the east) faint traces of an internal ditch can be detected flanking the woodbank, hinting at a period when the boundary served to keep stock out of the Wood. Evidence of such a period is also apparent in the southern part of the Wood where three sequential versions of the boundary extend in parallel across the narrow valley. The innermost, perhaps the earliest in the sequence, is extremely eroded, measuring barely 0.5m high. It is, however, accompanied by traces of a broad internal ditch which does support the possibility of a short-lived abbey deer park, as suggested by a single reference to Norsey as a 'park' rather than a wood in a document dated 1323. A large north-south oriented earthwork set within the eastern part of the Wood may also relate to this period of use. The bank here, although much altered in recent times, is still flanked by ditches on either side, implying that it was used to contain animals from both directions.

The enclosure of the woodland in the medieval period incidentally provided protection for traces of far earlier activity, some aspects of which were visible as earthworks whilst others remained unknown until disturbed by gravel extraction in the 19th century. The Wood formerly contained two Bronze Age burial mounds, or barrows. The surviving example is located on the gravel plateau to the east of the valley, some 20m from the southern edge of the Wood and the junction of Break Egg Hill and 'Brackendale'. The barrow is circular in plan with a low domed profile, measuring about 15m diameter and 1.5m high.

In 1865 the Rev E L Cutts supervised the excavation of a trench from the western edge to the centre of the mound. Fragments of Roman pottery and an indecipherable bronze coin were uncovered in the process, perhaps indicating some disturbed later internments, but the central grave group of three large inverted cinerary urns (vessels containing cremated human remains) clearly points to a Middle Bronze Age origin. The second barrow no longer exists. This lay on the opposite side of the wood alongside Norsey Road and was also trenched by Cutts in 1865 when a central group of seven urns was found, only one of which contained cremated remains. It was investigated once more in 1895, disrupted by residential developments in the 1950s and finally overlain by a house and garage around 1965. This area is not therefore included in the scheduling.

Occasional discoveries of later prehistoric burials are recorded from the early 19th century onwards, and a large number of cinerary urns were apparently kept at Thornton Hall (the home of the Petrie family, owners of the Wood from 1600 to 1899) until this collection was lost in the fire which destroyed the hall in 1878. Similar vessels were found in still greater numbers as a result of gravel extraction in the Wood which began in earnest in the 1850s. Between 1858 and 1880 an area of about 1.5ha was dug away towards the western end of the Wood alongside Norsey Road. This western pit was re-used to dump Billericay's rubbish until the early 1900s, after which it was infilled and partly built over. A second quarry (the eastern quarry) was opened around 1880 towards the centre of the Wood and expanded to nearly 2ha before being abandoned around 1915.

In 1865, during the excavation of the western gravel quarry, a number of cremation urns and related pottery assemblages were retrieved by J E K Cutts (the son of the Rev E L Cutts). In all some 15 coarse-ware urns were recorded, all wheel thrown and arranged either singly or in small groups of two or three (one vessel in each group containing the cremated remains -the others presumably containing burial offerings). A single un-urned cremation, without vessels but associated with some corroded iron objects, was also found near the other burial assemblages. In the published account these remains are described as Roman, although the accompanying illustrations show that some at least dated from the Late Iron Age (essentially the century preceding the Roman invasion of AD 43). B R Branfill, writing in 1895, reported the subsequent discovery of vessels similar to those recorded by Cutts. These were found 'in great numbers' during gravel extraction at both ends of the Wood, often sealed with flanged tiles -a feature which does clearly indicate continued use of the cemetery into the Roman period. One extremely elaborate Romano-British cremation burial was reported by J A Sparvel-Bayly, who monitored the gravel workings between 1874 and 1883. The burial pit was about 3m long and 2.4m wide, paved with stones and flanged tiles and containing an enormous quantity of broken pottery vessels, including Samian ware (a high quality import), in associated with cinders, ashes and burnt wood. The location of this burial is uncertain, although it probably lay in the vicinity of the eastern gravel quarry.

The earliest known evidence of occupation, as opposed to burial customs, emerged from the excavation of a pit on the fringes of the western quarry area in 1938. Day Kimball, investigating the area for the Ministry of Works, recorded the discovery of fragments of coarse, hand made pottery which he dated to the pre-Belgic (or Middle) Iron Age. J E K Cutts' report of 1865 includes a reference to an infilled ditch 'about eight feet deep' found near the western cremations. The ditch could relate to an enclosure around part of the cemetery, although some 30 years later Branfill noted that infilled ditches were widely encountered throughout both the eastern and western quarries with the dark, mixed fills containing deposits of ash and fragments of wheel-turned pottery and tile from the Late Iron Age or the Roman period. Some ditches doubtless served as boundaries, but it is possible that others, particularly the deeper examples, were dug to extract clay from beneath the Bagshot gravels. A small pottery kiln was discovered by workmen within one infilled trench in the eastern quarry area prior to 1895. This was reported to be some 1.2m in diameter with a domed roof and to contain 'a score or two' of black pots still stacked for firing. The pots were destroyed by the workmen without any accurate record being made. However, the kiln can still be dated (albeit roughly) to the Roman period by the report of thin square tiles used in its construction. Further evidence of small scale industry is provided by Branfill's short description of a 'primitive smelting furnace' also found by workmen in the eastern quarry area. Again, the furnace was destroyed before any details could be recorded, but Branfill did observe quantities of slag and ash on the spot and a small piece of soft white metal, apparently the waste from a lead casting, was recovered from the debris. Although there is no direct evidence for substantial Romanised buildings within the wood, the common occurrence of Roman tile (mentioned in every antiquarian report) suggests this as a distinct possibility. Other evidence of occupation is provided by a range of coins dating between the 1 st-and 4th centuries AD, and chance discoveries of items of a more domestic nature, such as the upper stone from a rotary quern recorded by Branfill in 1895.

Norsey Wood has been suggested as the site of the last stand of the Peasant's Revolt, the last remnants of which were finally crushed near Billericay in 1381 by the Earl of Buckingham. [Follow this link to fascinating modern research into The Battle of Billericay by local historian Julian Whybra.] Victorian theories regarding the woodbanks as the peasants' battlements have no validity, however military earthworks of a much later date do exist within the Wood. The large, double-ditched medieval bank which extends through the eastern side of the Wood parallel with Outwood Common Road was adapted during World War I to form a defensive position. The northern section of the bank (to the north of the Information Centre) is scored by a system of slit trenches over most of its 300m length, and the bank itself seems to have been enlarged in the process. Although the trenches have collapsed inwards over the years, the main components of the system can still be seen: a denticulated forward position with firing steps (each about 5m in length) facing east; a series of connecting passages, and a service trench running along the rear (western) side of the bank. The precise function of the trenches is uncertain. In hisLondon Defence Volunteers as part of the inner defence line for the capital. Such a line was envisaged during the War, but it was never properly implemented, and the Norsey Wood earthworks may simply have been dug as a training exercise. As with many Essex woods, Norsey Wood was used for army manoeuvres and storage during World War II. About six trenches were cut in the area immediately to the north of the eastern gravel pits, covered with curved sections of corrugated iron and used for storing ammunition. These features remain visible as a series of partly infilled depressions. A much larger dugout, which required timber shoring and a ventilated ceiling was constructed slightly further to the north and also used for storing munitions. This too remains visible, having been filled with rubbish and allowed to collapse after the War.

Woodland management (coppicing and hedging) continued through the early 20th century and resumed, on a more restricted scale, after 1945. In 1976 the Wood was acquired by Basildon District Council, and it has since been run as a local nature reserve. The combination of varied soil and topography, together with the long history of woodmanship, has produced a rich and varied flora and fauna, recognised by the designation of the Wood as a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1979.

A number of features are excluded from the scheduling, these are: all standing structures, all fences, fenceposts and gates, the modern surfaces of all driveways, car parks and rides, the foot bridges which span streams in the southern valley, all litter and dog-waste bins, benches, information boards and signposts, the ground beneath all these features is, however, included.