Quitchells Ditch

Haileybury is increasingly full of cars these days and the increased traffic has led to the appearance of speed bumps and a rule that those walking along College Road behind the kitchens to and from Highfield should cross one of the bridges and walk along the path near the eves of the wood. The bridges cross the Quitchells Ditch, which runs down from Highfield all the way along the edge of the XX Acre. It is a boundary marker and is about 360 years old. 

Molly Matthews in Haileybury Since Roman Times says the ditch was dug by Colonel Lawrence, nephew of Oliver Cromwell, who was Lord of the Manor of Goldington. Lawrence was a friend of Milton's, and the latter came out to see him in his country estate and wrote a sonnet about it. Matthews suggests the scene of Milton and Lawrence walking along the side of what is now Twenty Acre. Anyway, Lawrence had the ditch dug along the boundary, already ancient between the Manor of Goldington and Hailey Bushes, the part of the Manor of Hailey on which the College now stands. 


The boundary was also marked by a line of pollarded oaks of which, according to Matthews the Quitchell's Oak on the corner by the sports centre car park is the last remaining, though the fine tree next to it is also great and possibly ancient. Pollarding, cutting back the branches of the young tree, made the trunk grow thicker to prolong the life of the tree. The Quitchells Oak was probably planted in the 13th Century, not so long after the time of Robin Hood. 


The Ditch is now a bit up in the air as when the cricket pitches were leveled it was left rather high and dry. 


Today, both manors are owned by the College and Matthews says 'The Bursar presiding in his office over problems concerned with the Heath is the lineal descendent of Ralph de Limesi and Geoffrey de Bec, or to go one step further back, of the unnamed Bailiff who managed Great Amwell for Earl Harold and Ulwin, the Thane of Hailey.'