between Whipps Cross and Woodford, the road being realigned and improved early in the 19th
century to make it possible to bypass the awkward main route to Woodford via Salway Hill
(Law & Barry 1978). English Elm suckers are prolific in the vicinity of a boundary bank at
Theydon Bois (see Fig. 5). English Elm in the hedgerow by Woodford Golf Course is probably
the result of an eighteenth or nineteenth century enclosure. The Wanstead Park English Elm is
a definite planting. It was planted as an avenue across the Plain as a landscape feature resulting
in a fine avenue of trees now gone. Suckers also occur on either side of the Glade.
English Elm is particularly prolific in the Yardley Hill area. Yates meadow hedgerows are
full of suckers and also the Gilwell Lane hedgerow.
English Elm Sites in Epping Forest, 1989
Bell Common TL 453014 North Farm TQ 413950
Birch Grove TQ 439986 Oak Hill TQ 395911
Debden Green TQ 442984 Theydon Bois
Gilwell Lane TQ 384961 Village Green TQ 453992
Gilwell Lane Wanstead Park TQ 415875
(Boundary Bank) TQ 383961 Warren Hill TQ 413954
Hatch Grove TQ 393934 Woodford Golf Course TQ 394932
Knighton Wood TQ 411929 Woodford Green TQ 404925
Lords Bushes TQ 416936 Yates Meadow TQ 385960
East Anglian Elm (Ulmus minor)
This is another rather infrequent elm in Epping Forest. Typically it is a tree of north Essex and
as expected it is less frequent than English Elm. With this species we come to the large surviving
mature trees.
At least four types of East Anglian Elm are to be found in the Forest. There are suckers of
this group on the very southern tip of Epping Forest on the edge of Wanstead Flats by Capel
Road, together with a dead, now felled, pollard which has been turned into a seat but covered
in the fungus Pleurotus cornucopiae. Another elm, also on Wanstead Flats, is presumably a
result of a deliberate planting. It is growing by the edge of a trackway and has a g.b.h. of 5 ft.
9 in. Suckers nearby are presumably from this tree. Leaves from this mature tree would seem
to be related to the East Anglian Elms in Wanstead Park. Here there are dozens of well-grown
suckers along the Northumberland Avenue side of the Park. Leyton Flats too has well grown
suckers, near the road bridge over the London underground line. These are a long-leaved type
of East Anglian Elm. The Hatch Grove, Western Sewage Farm site has two very distinct clones
of East Anglian Elm. One includes a tree with a girth of 6 ft. 2 in., about 65 ft. high. Another
smaller tree with a completely different spreading growth habit and leaf is to be found in the
hedgerow around the house. Leaves from these trees are illustrated on p. 16. Another large
East Anglian Elm, g.b.h. 7 ft. 10 in., is to be found on Chingford Golf Course. This has similar
leaves to the one in the hedgerow at the Western Sewage Farm site. This golf course elm is
growing on ridge and furrow which points to it being a deliberate planting. The crown of
Yardley Hill has elm suckers in abundance, some of which may be from a member of this group.
Bell Common has hundreds of suckers of this elm, now up to 30 ft. high, growing along the
roadside margin of the common. These suckers have been thinned out on at least two occasions
by the Conservators. The trees are suckers from a double row of trees planted to celebrate Queen
Victoria's Diamond Jubilee of 1897. This planting did not meet with everyone's approval and
a Mr. W. Patchett appeared as plaintiff at Epping Petty Sessions to call attention to the illicit
tree planting which would obscure the fine view, but more important, be detrimental to the
grazing. A contemporary photograph shows the newly planted trees and heavily grazed
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