More information : Hyde Park is first mentioned in 1372 in the Inquisition post mortem of Ralph, 1st Earl of Stafford, when it is stated that it contains deer and that its herbage is worth 3/4d (1a). The park is again referred to in the Stafford Manor Bailiffs' Accounts of 1396-7. In 1403 the manor of the Hyde reverted to the Crown during the minority of the heir of the late Edmund, Earl of Stafford, and two-thirds of the park were granted to the Queen; the grant was confirmed in 1404 (1b).
The approximate area of the park is suggested by a group of eleven fields whose names as recorded in 1851 all contain the element `park' (1c). These lie in a compact group either side and to the south of the moated site at Coppenhall Gorse/Hyde Lea (SJ 92 SW 43), and are centred at SJ 9047 2000. On this evidence the limits of the park would seem to correspond to the green lane/footpath that today skirts around the eastern, southern and western sides of the moat, whilst its northern edge corresponds to the long field boundary that leaves Bigwood Lane at SJ 8990 1982 and heads for the north-west corner of the moat. These boundaries were all perambulated, but no trace of a park pale seen. The area of the park is under plough. (1)
Medieval documents indicate that Hyde Park contained two fishponds. If, as seems likely, the documented ponds are to be equated with two which survive as earthworks associated with the moated site at Coppenhall Gorse/Hyde Lea (SJ 92 SW 43), this suggests that the area of the park was originally larger than that suggested by authority 1c and certainly extended further east. The evidence is discussed further and possible boundaries are suggested (centred to c SJ 905 201) in the report on RCHME's Stafford Castle Survey (2a) in the NMR. (2) |