Of the wood formerly existing, there are still some relics, in fine oak trees of great age; one of these, nearly 20ft. in girth, is to be seen by the garden gate at the abbey farm house; another stands near the drive to Halstead Hall, in the east of the parish; and others are nearer the Witham, in fields adjoining Newstead House farm. The present Stixwould wood, or Long wood, south of the village, is of comparatively modern growth; but on the eastern border of the parish is Halstead wood, separated from Sto-bourne wood, by what, probably, was formerly a “stow,” “stoke,” or stake-marked “bourn,” or boundary stream, being a ditch of running water, which gives its name to the latter wood, which lies in the next parish; the two woods until recent years, belonging to the two different manors. At the time of the Norman Conquest, we find only two names of Saxon landowners in this parish, viz.:—Ulviet, and Siward, who had here between them, about 720 acres. Both these would seem to have been thanes of some importance, as the former held, in demesne or otherwise, lands in at least ten other parishes, in various parts of the county; and the latter had lands in eleven parishes, also widely distributed, and further, had sufficient influence to continue as tenant, under the Norman proprietors, to whom the Conqueror transferred the lands previously owned by Saxons. {187} Of Normans, a grant of 270 acres (that amount having been previously owned by Ulviet,) was conferred by King William, upon Waldin Brito (or the Breton), a distinguished soldier, who accompanied him from Normandy. These Bretons were highly valued for their faithful services, by the Plantagenet kings, and were largely employed in court offices; Waldin also received manors in eight other parishes in this neighbourhood. Another favourite of the Conqueror, who received land here, was Alured, of Lincoln. The Domesday Survey gives him as owning 180 acres of arable, meadow, and wood land in Stixwould, with fifty-one manors in the county, beside lands elsewhere.