. > ...
the history of Leyton and Leytonstone
from . dot to … dots – with plenty of spaces
the Anglo-
5 for an illustration go to http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Lime_tree.jpg
The flooding of the marshes beside the River Lea made them better pasture. Settlements
were often located on the nearest dry land to a floodplain 3 . Down the east side
of the Lea Valley was a string of manor houses close to and overlooking the Lea Valley
but just on higher ground (see the map on the left). Each had land stretching west
into the marshes and east to the belt of forest and wasteland which survives today.
Ruckholt was the most southerly in what is now Waltham Forest (the others were Leyton
Grange, Mark House, Low Hall, Higham Benstede, Chingford St Paul and Chingford Earls).
There was also a moated house ‘Godsalves’ by 1547 where Etloe House was later built
on Church Road, Leyton 5b. The parish of Wanstead extended to the River Lea, including
what became Cann Hall Road. Presumably all these manors exploited their section
of the River Lea for hay-
Hornbeam, oak and beech do relatively well when a wood is grazed, but lime trees
do not 4. Lime trees 5 disappeared completely from Epping Forest, and this radical
change was completed in the Anglo-
By the time Domesday Book was prepared most villages had a parish church at which
mass would be said, and baptisms, marriages and burials performed. The foundation
of each church must have been instigated or at the very least assisted by the local
Anglo-
