Enfield Chase

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.