parish who would assess the state of repair of roads and estimate costs and. as under the previous
Acts, could compel the 'statute labour' to work on the roads. The Act also made provision for the
construction of turnpikes at which a toll could be collected to finance road improvements and every
cart, carriage, wagon, horse, mule, donkey and every drove of cattle, sheep or pigs was liable to incur
payment of this toll.
The surveyors, in addition to the powers given to them to direct statute labour, were authorised 'to
dig, gather, take and carry away gravel, furze, heath, sand, stones, chalk or other materials out of any
waste or common of any parish, town, village or hamlet in or near which... the same highway or roads
do lie, and for want of sufficient gravel... take and carry away the same out of the waste or common
of any neighbouring parish ... in the same county, without paying for the same' (Winstone. 1891).
This particular part of the Act bought local parish surveyors into conflict with the Forest law. In 1810
Henry Mott and Thomas Smith, respectively the surveyors of the parishes of Woodford and Chingford,
were presented before the Court of Attachments for digging gravel pits and leaving them in a dangerous
state, the first for digging pits across a ride, the second for leaving the pits improperly sloped (CA III
p.98). The right of the surveyors of each parish to take gravel from common land within their own or
neighbouring parishes is presumably the reason why there is such a wide distribution of old gravel
pits in Epping Forest. They are found at Bush Wood, Leyton Flats, Gilbert Slade. Walthamstow Forest.
Powells Forest, Lords Bushes, Strawberry Hill, Blackweir Hill, Loughton Camp and High Beach
(many) and elsewhere in the Forest.
Not all roads in the Epping Forest area were badly maintained. The Stump road through the Lower
Forest beyond the town of Epping was in part maintained by a donation - proceeds from the rental of
a farm, made by John Baker, a mercer of Epping in the year 1519, and for nearly 230 years the Stump
road was kept in a good state of repair. During ten years from 1705 to 1714. 2,303 loads of gravel
were needed to maintain just this section of road at a total cost of £174 11s. 3d. (Winstone, 1891).
In 1719 there is a possible reference to small scale gravel extraction in the Epping area, perhaps to
fill in pot holes in the road. An entry in the roll of the Court of Attachments relates to the 'leaving
unfilled severall holes in yt part of ye Forest near Epping adjoing to ye Great Rd.'
In 1752 Joseph Mason under-keeper of the Epping Walk presented 'several persons unknown for
digging sundry pits for gravel for the use of the Turnpike in the paths and ridings without filling up
or levelling the same to the danger of Travellers and Sportsmen in the Forest' (CA II p.28). By 1789
the level of unlicensed gravel extraction had reached such an extent that it was considered necessary
to print hand bills to be given to those not having licence or authority to dig gravel and that the keepers
should summon those persons to attend the next court (CA II p. 159).
Private individuals were not infrequently presented for digging gravel pits in the Forest. Two
Chingford labourers were presented in 1810 for digging pits and not infilling afterwards (CA III p.98)
and in 1811 Benjamin Bruce of Woodford was presented for digging a large pit 45 yards in
circumference four to nine feet in depth and for digging a dangerous ditch (presumably to drain it)
leading from it (CA III p. 103).
Perhaps the most interesting of the entries relating to the unlicensed extraction of gravel are those
made in 1812 (CAIII p. 115) when Mr. John Moore (Bailiff to Lord Maynard the lord of the manor
of Walthamstow Toney) was brought before the court for digging a gravel pit which by then extended
over 6 acres 'opposite to Mr. Bosanquets' in the parish of Walthamstow' and likewise a Mr. Richard
James of Leyton Parish had excavated another gravel pit 'nearly opposite Mr. Bosanquet's". This area
is now known as the Hollow Ponds on Leyton Flats. As early as 1787 (CA II p. 126) James Gilbert,
the woodward of Lord Maynard, had been presented before the court of attachment for cutting and
destroying thorns within Walthamstow Walk and also for selling turf, loam, clay and gravel from here,
giving an approximate date for the commencement of the gravel pits later to become known as the
Hollow Ponds.
In 1831 the illicit removal of gravel was still a serious problem and the Lord Warden of the Forest
at this time relates. 'Gravel and sand pits were open in all directions and the materials removed without
restraint, large spots of ground from which the turf had been removed, rods of ground dug up. and the
soil removed for use in gardens both near to and distant from the forest, bushes and underwood cut
and removed at pleasure' (Fisher, 1887).
The parish surveyors carried on taking gravel from the Forest beyond the Epping Forest Act of 1878.
It was considered reasonable that parishes should be allowed to take gravel from the Forest to repair
roads within the boundary of the Forest, with the proviso under the terms of a 1753 Act that once
extraction had ceased, and within 14 days, the pits should either be filled in or the sides sloped. In
1883 the parish surveyors were noted extracting gravel from Lords Bushes (Hanson. 1983).
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