The earliest known owner is to be found in the Domesday Book of 1086 - a survey of the whole country compiled on the orders of William I. This survey recorded the owner at the time of the Norman conquest as INGAR, a Saxon thegn, who was the Lord of the Manor of Burghesteda Magna (Great Burstead) and therefore owner of Norsey Wood. Following the Conquest, he was replaced by Bishop ODO, half brother of the Conqueror. On his way to Rome in the hope of being elected Pope he was arrested by William on extortion charges.

The ownership lay for some years in the hands of the Crown but In the 1200s the Cistercian Abbey of STRATFORD LANGTHORNE was granted the Manor. This abbey, the original site of which is not far from the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park in East London, had been founded by William de Mountfichet in 1135. Owing to persistent flooding, the monks moved to Great Burstead, according to Leland in the mid 1550s.

As a result of the Dissolution of Monasteries Act, the Abbey was dissolved in 1538, its lands and goods surrendered to HENRY VIII . The king then granted the Manor and Rectory to SIR RICHARD RICH and on his death they were passed to his sons in succession. The estate was sold by the third son to SIR JOHN PETRE and was passed on to succeeding members of his family until eventually sold to a MR J SPURLING about 1899. 

A map dated September 1931 can be seen in the Essex Records Office which shows roads and houses which were to be built on the Wood’s site. Fortunately nothing came of this but the reason is not known. In that year the Wood came into the hands of Mr JASPER LAYLAND whose son had a more enlightened attitude and developed a coppicing regime.

In 1961 Bob Layland sold the Wood to MR A C BUTT, a local builder, who later attempted to partially develop it. This aroused strong local opposition, which was actively supported by DR CROFT, a retired biologist at Queen Elizabeth College, London University, and who lived next to the Wood in Deerbank Road. She submitted copious reports on the fauna and flora to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. 

In 1976, after a public enquiry, the Woodland was saved when Basildon Council purchased it to run as a nature reserve. From that time, it has been under a proper management plan involving re-coppicing which has greatly benefitted its previously declining wildlife.

                                                      1250               Nossesheye               Cotton Charters

                                                      1276 - 1323    No(s)cieshey              Pleas of the Forest (National Archives)

                                                      1280               Noteshaye                  Calendar of Patent Rolls

                                                      1291               Nossessheygh            Public Works in Medieval Law

                                                      1688 - 1888    Norsey Wood              Lord Petre’s Wood Book

                                                      1704               Northsey Wood           Lord Petre’s Wood Book

                                                      1768               Nossy Wood               Morant’s History of Essex

                                                      1777               Nossy Wood               Chapman and Andre Map of Essex

                                                      1805               Nossy Wood               Ordnance Survey Map