A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



Highway Trusts' Between 1770 and 1774 the trust 

 remade the road at Goldings Hill in order to reduce 

 the gradient.'' Soon after this the road between 

 Loughton and Buckhurst Hill was also remade. '<• 

 Finally in 1830-4 the trust built a new road through 

 the forest from Woodford to the 'Wake Arms', running 

 along the western boundary of Loughton parish and 

 by-passing the village.*' 



In 1 79 1 a daily coach ran from Loughton to 

 London, and a wagon on Tuesday, Thursday, and 

 Saturday.*^ In 18 17 a daily coach from Loughton 

 called at the 'Three Nuns' and the 'Bull', Whitechapel, 

 and the 'Pewter Plate', Gracechurch Street, London.*' 

 In 1839 there were coaches to London and Epping 

 twice a day and carriers' wagons to London every 

 weekday except Friday. *■• The services remained un- 

 changed until 1856, when the railway from Stratford 

 and London was opened. *' By 1 863 there were twelve 

 trains a day to London; coaches still ran twice a day to 

 Epping.*^ The extension of the railway from Loughton 

 to Epping and Ongar was opened in 1865.*' By 1892 

 there were 42 trains a day to London.** The line 

 from Woodford and London was electrified in 1948 

 and that from Loughton to Epping in 1949.*' This 

 had been planned before 1939. It is now possible to 

 travel direct from Loughton to central London. A 

 bus service from London started in 191 5, and in 1920 

 was extended to Epping."" 



Loughton had a postal receiving house in the early 

 19th century. The delivery was extended in 181 5" 

 and a new receiver was appointed in 1828. '^ A sub- 

 post-office was set up by 1867.9' Loughton now has 

 a central post-office and sub-post-offices at Goldings 

 Hill, Roding Road, and The Broadway. Telegraphy 

 was introduced in 1 871''* and the telephone in 1906.'' 



The history of Epping Forest, including the events 



which led up to its pre- 



LOUGHTON JND servation in the 19th 



THE PRESERVATION century, has been told by 



Of EPPING FOREST W. R.Fisher in his /■ow/ 



of Essex.'*'' Minor in- 

 cisures from the forest had been going on in Loughton 

 and other forest parishes from early times." In 1666 

 Sir Henry Wroth, lord of the manor of Chigwell, applied 

 to the Crown for licence to inclose 1,500 acres of the 

 wastes of the manors of Chigwell and Loughton, but 

 this was refused.'* Wholesale inclosure does not appear 

 to have been suggested again until the 19th century, 

 and then the Crown took the initiative. 



In 1 8 17 the Commissioners of Woods and Forests 

 presented to Parliament a Bill to disafforest the whole 

 forest, to extinguish the rights of common and to vest 

 part of the forest in the Crown." Anthony Hamilton, 

 Rector of Loughton 1805-51, was one of the few sup- 

 porters of this proposal, which was withdrawn after 



78 Winstone, Epping and Ongar High* 

 nvay Trusty ch. ii. 



" Ibid. ch. V. 



*» Ibid. ch. vi ; and see Chigwell. 



" Ibid. ch. ix. For a map of this road, 

 1835 see E.R.O., Q/RUm 1/54. 



»2 Univ. Brit. Dir. (1791), i, Essex, 12. 



85 Johnstone' i Comm. Dir. ( 1 8 1 7), iv, 24. 

 »■» Pigot's Dir. Essex (1839), 128. 

 «5 Kelly's Dir. Essex (1855); inf. from 



Brit. Rlwys. 



86 fVhite's Dir. Essex (1863). 

 8' Inf. from Brit. Rlwys.; cf. E.R. Iviii, 



207-8. 



88 Da-vis' Epping, Loughton and Ongar 

 /ilmanack, 1892. 



/ 



Strong opposition. The commissioners, however, were 

 still determined to inclose the forest. They connived 

 at illegal inclosures and pressed private land-owners to 

 purchase the forest rights of the Crown. Hainault 

 Forest was disafforested in 1 8 5 1 and was inclosed soon 

 after." In 1857 the commissioners invited W. W. 

 Maitland, lord of the manor of Loughton, to purchase 

 the Crown's rights over 1,377 acres of uninclosed waste 

 within his manor. He agreed to pay j^5,468 and the 

 conveyance was made in 1 8 5 8-60.2 These facts were 

 never disputed during the evidence before the Epping 

 Forest Commission in 1873, and they are important 

 because they show that the first move towards the 

 inclosure of this substantial part of the forest was made 

 not by the lord of the manor but by the Crown. 

 Inclosure appears to have been considered locally 

 during the lifetime of W. W. Maitland, and in 1859 

 a proposal to the Inclosure Commissioners was dis- 

 cussed.' Soon after this Maitland died and no further 

 action appears to have been taken until 1864, when his 

 son the Revd. J. W. Maitland decided to inclose the 

 forest.* According to the steward of the manor, W. C. 

 Metcalfe, Maitland was moved to this action 'at the 

 instance of some of the principal freeholders and copy- 

 holders'.' 



Maitland and his larger tenants stood to gain 

 financially by the inclosure of more than 1,000 acres of 

 forest. On the other hand those who desired inclosure 

 argued that the close proximity of the forest had had 

 some bad social effects on Loughton in the past. In 

 the 1 8th century the forest was the haunt of highway- 

 men, among them the notorious Dick Turpin (1706— 

 39) who is said to have roasted an old woman over a 

 fire at Traps Hill Farm in order to make her reveal 

 where her money was hidden.* As a defence against 

 such attacks many of the houses in Loughton con- 

 tained 'Turpin traps', consisting of wooden flaps which 

 were let down over the head of the staircase and kept 

 there by a pole placed against the ceiling so that they 

 could not be raised from below. As late as 1891 there 

 were those still living who had seen Turpin traps in 

 some of the houses.' It was not suggested in the i86o's 

 that highwaymen were still a serious menace, but the 

 forest still harboured some unwelcome characters, 

 including gipsies.* The supporters of inclosure also 

 believed that the poorer people of Loughton were 

 tempted to idleness and crime by the custom of 

 'lopping' for firewood in the forest during the winter 

 months. The views of the inclosures were summed 

 up by a writer in 1861: 'inclosures, however, seem to 

 be commencing in the neighbourhood, which will 

 probably check these irregular and to a certain extent 

 demoralizing tendencies.'' As a final argument it was 

 asserted that part of the forest was stunted and of poor 

 quality.'" 



89 Inf. from Brit. Rlwys. 



90 Will Francies, 'Memories of the High 

 Road', fVest Essex Gazette, 20 Mar. 1953. 



«■ P.M.G. Mins. 1815, vol. 29, p. 64. 



92 Ibid. 1828, vol. 33, p. 267. 



93 Brit. Post. Guide, 1867. 

 9't P.M.G. Mins. 1871, vol. 92, Min. 



730- 



95 E.R.O., T/P 13 iii. 



96 Cf. F.C.H. Essex, ii, 615 f. For 

 additional details about the forest and 

 Loughton see Waller, Loughton, \, 21 f., 

 32 f., 50 f., 66 f. See also Manor, below. 



9' W. R. Fisher, Forest of Essex, 321 f. 

 And see Agriculture. 

 98 Ibid. 329. 



114 



99 Ibid. 339. 

 ^ See Chigwell, Lamborne. 



2 Proc. of Epping Forest Com. {1873), 

 i. S3'-3- 



3 Ibid. 574-5. 



* Ibid. 543-4. 



5 Ibid. 544. 



6 E.R. xi, 21, 80. 



7 Ibid, xxiv, 204. 



8 About 1830 there appear to have been 

 many criminals in hiding in the forest at 

 Buckhurst Hill and in Hainault Forest: 

 see Chigwell, Parish Govt. 



9 D. W. CoUer, People's Hist. Essex, 

 487. 



"> Proc. of Epping Forest Com. i, 582. 



