Families enjoying the 2018 Jessel Green Fun Day are following a centuries-old tradition, writes Stephen Pewsey.

What is now Jessel Green can be traced back as far as the 13th century, when it was a field called The Down.

This was later divided into two fields; Middle Debden and Hookey Down.

It was here on Hookey Down that, for hundreds of years Loughton’s harvest was celebrated in the boisterous festival known as Horkey or Hookey.

In the Loughton of yesteryear, harvest was the most important event in the calendar.

Most of the village was involved in getting the harvest in safely: men, women and children.

A good harvest meant the difference meant hunger and plenty, so once all the corn was cut and stacked, the villagers made merry.

The traditions of Horkey date back to pagan times.

A bough of oak was cut and decorated with garlands, and taken around the village in a cart by the harvesters.

They went from door to door calling for “largess” (beer money), and everyone was expected to pay up.

One sheaf of wheat was left standing in the fields, and decorated with a large corn dolly, a figure made out of plaited straw – the spirit of the harvest.

The centrepiece of the celebration was a feast for everyone involved in the harvest and their families.

A Horkey King and Queen were elected, to preside over the ceremonies.

In Loughton, the Horkey feast was held on Hookey Down or, in wet weather, in the barns of Loughtonhall Farm which once stood in what is now Burney Drive. Everyone put on their Sunday best, and headed for the accustomed hillside.

Just three families, the Wroths, the Whitakers and the Maitlands, had been Loughton’s lords of the manor since Tudor times, and down the centuries they hosted and were expected to pay for the Horkey.

The squire’s role was to hand out enough beef or mutton, beer and tobacco, to keep the party going.

After the Horkey King and the squire had given rousing speeches and toasts, the feast would get under way and, as harvesting was thirsty work, it would not end until every one of the 18-gallon barrels of beer had been emptied.

Loughton writer D.W. Gillingham described the last harvest-times in Loughton in his book Unto the Fields.

Written while the new Debden Estate was being built, he disguised some of the place-names, calling Hookey Down “Combed Upland”.

Soon the fields he loved would be replaced by bricks and mortar, and he wrote poignantly “…at the top of Combed Upland arose a hamlet of shining wheat stacks, thatched and sweet-smelling.

And no lovelier, more graceful architecture was there in all the proud manorial land of England to please the eye and satisfy the soul.”

Debden’s planners spared Hookey Down, which in due course became Jessel Green, an open space enjoyed by generations of Loughton folk as previous generations had enjoyed the Horkey there.

Present-day developers hope to concrete over this ancient site of our harvest festivals, so the 2018 Jessel Green Fun Day may be the last of the celebrations which for centuries have been held on this spot.

Steven Pewsey in a Loughton Residents Association town councillor.

The Jessel Green funday takes place this Sunday.