side adjacent to Theydon Plain. It was operated by John Riggs son,
Thomas, and it is of interest that in the period 1896 to 1900 he was
advertising in Davis's Epping, Loughton and Ongar Almanack that he
was prepared to supply and deliver in the surrounding areas potatoes
and other root vegetables at a price of 3/- per hundredweight. An
illustrated brochure shows that by 1911 the retreat was being managed
for him by Mrs. Martha Turner whose husband was chauffeur to
Mr. Gerald Buxton at Birch Hall. In 1915 or 1916 the Turners left
the retreat and removed to Bath where one of their daughters was
married in 1919. When later they returned to the area, Mr. and
Mrs. Turner became licensees at the Carpenters Arms at Thornwood
Common.
By 1916, possibly because of war-time conditions, and because
by then Thomas Riggs would have been near his sixties, the retreat
passed into other hands and eventually was taken over by Edwin Yates.
Fair Mead Lodge
Edwin Yates was born in Leyton on 12 October, 1872. Originally
a groundsman for Wanstead Cricket Club and later for Epping Cricket
Club, where he achieved minor fame by bowling the Essex and
17