Noakes Grove was part of Sewards End Farm

Downloads:

The history of Noakes Grove and its current management plans [download as pdf booklet [in first draft only]]

The Saffron Walden-Sewards End Living Landscape Conservation Project [download a printer friendly pdf booklet]

• The 1844 Tithe Awards Map and survey shows that Noakes Grove wood and surrounding fields have retained the exact sizes and boundary hedges that they had 165 years ago (and probably for much longer than that)
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• The Tithe Awards records show the names of the fields and woods at Noakes Grove, who owned them and farmed them and what they grew. The sizes recorded in 1844 in Acres, Rods & poles correspond exactly with the Rural Land registry 2009 data in Ha

• Map plot	Plot name	Use	Acres	rods	poles	Ha (2009)	Owner	Occupier
  690	Arbury Field	Arable	6	2	10	2.66	Emson, John	Hawes, James
  697	Noakes	Grass	1	1	39	0.60	Trustees of Clayden, William	Allen, John & Edmund
  698	Noakes Grove	Wood	1	0	3	0.41	Trustees of Clayden, William

From the 1920s, Noakes Grove was farmed as part of Sewards End farm by the three Reeve brothers.

Arbury Field was known in the 1970s and 1980s (and still is) as "The Fete Field" as the brothers allowed the village fete to take place there.

Following the death (intestate) of the last of the Reeve brothers, farm was sold in lots at aution. Noakes Grove was bought by a family who wished to use it for equestrian purposes. The removed the scrub from the southern part of Arbury Field and created the clover and wild flower-rich pasture land that is there today. This can be seen by comparing the following aerial photographs:

Aerial photo taken in 1999

Aerial photo taken in 2007