Chingford Plain was obviously widely enclosed before Rangers Road was constructed. The road
cuts through the ditch and bank of an old enclosure (Fig. 7). The ditch between the Ching Brook and
Butler's Retreat pond has a rather gappy hedgerow associated with it, mostly of Common Hawthorn.
However, Oak, Sallow, Maple, Crab and English Elm are all present.
Coal Duty Posts
At several points in the Epping Forest area are to be found four-sided cast iron posts with flattened
corners, surmounted by an ornate cap bearing the arms of the City of London. These posts found on
the Epping New Road opposite Ambresbury Banks, Jack's Hill on the Theydon Road, at the Nazeing
End of Galley Hill Green and others on the boundary of the former district of Waltham Abbey, all
bearing 1861 dating, mark the points of entry by road into the Metropolitan Police District. They
replaced the old coal posts, set up to mark the points at which liability was incurred for a tax on coal
brought into the London area, originally imposed to finance the rebuilding of London after the great
fire of 1666. The duties were abolished in 1889 (Addison, 1977).
Wild Service and Boundary Banks
In Britain Service (Sorbus torminalis) is rather an uncommon tree. In woodland its presence is
usually taken to indicate a long continuity of tree cover at a particular site. Essex has a good population,
particularly in the south of the county, and notably in the Southend area. The Epping Forest area, too,
has the tree in significant numbers. I have particularly noted it on or near the boundary banks of lanes
and coppiced woodland, recording it thus:-
Lane Boundary Banks
Blind Lane, Lippitts Hill (TQ 392974)
Clapgate Lane (TQ 3802)
Fairmead Lane (TQ 408967)
Gilwell Lane, Yardley Hill (TQ 383962)
Monkhams Lane. Knighton Wood (TQ 409933)
Rugged Lane, Upshire (TL 417008)
Squirrels Lane, Lords Bushes (TQ 414934)
Coppice Woodbanks
Beachet Wood, Theydon Mount (TL 492013)
Birch Grove, Theydon Bois (TQ 438987)
Hatch Grove, Chingford (TQ 394934)
Larks Wood, Chingford (TQ 383924)
Linders Field, Buckhurst Hill (TQ 418945)
Wood, Chingford (TQ 394934)
Park Boundary Bank
Between Clapgate Lane and Homefield Wood (TL 389027)
Between Clapgate Lane and Galley Hill Road (TL 394027)
At the majority of these locations Service grows on the boundary bank. In the case of the Larks
Wood site, along Inks Green Road, the boundary bank has largely been destroyed but at least four
trees are found on this edge of the wood, one of which is found on what I assume to be a minute
fragment of woodbank here. An immense Service pollard grows on the bank of Beachet Wood.Lloyd
(1977) reported a Service pollard on the boundary bank of the Forest near the Dick Turpin Cave public
house (now gone) and Richard Warner (1771) recorded the Wild Service tree thus. 'In woods and
hedges. Found in Sake's, commonly called Snakes Lane. On a bank between Mr. Warners Fields and
Ribton Lane and in a wood called the Sale, in the parish of Walthamstow'. The bank referred to is
once again a boundary bank. I suspect that in the past Wild Service, at least in this part of Essex, was
planted for a particular reason on boundary banks, perhaps as a marker tree.
References
Addison, W. (1977) Portrait of Epping Forest, p. 160 Hale.
Fisher, W. R. (1887) Forest of Essex. London.
Lloyd, E. (1977) The Wild Service Tree in Epping Forest. Lon. Nat. No. 56. p. 22-8.
Warner. R. (1771) Plantae Woodfordienses. Privately published.
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