102
Epping Forest - still growing
JEREMY DAGLEY
Forest Ecologist, Corporation of London,
The Warren, Loughton IG 10 4RW
Introduction
Epping Forest curls out from the East End of London, stretching northwards for miles into Essex.
With the Lea Valley (Hill 2000) it forms an immense area on the edge of the capital city; rich in
wildlife it is one of Essex's hotspots of biodiversity.
When it was first saved from destruction the area under the control of the Conservators and regulated
by the far-sighted Epping Forest Act 1878 was around five and a half thousand acres. Today the
extent of the Forest is over 6,000 acres. It is further protected to its north and cast by 2,000 acres of
sympathetically-managed farmland and woodland, collectively known as the Buffer Lands.
The Forest has always combined complete public access with conservation aims. It is a success story
and, along with the steady growth and blooming of the younger Lee Valley Regional Park (Hill, this
volume), it provides a counterpoint to the seemingly endless onslaught of housing and development
in the south-east.
New additions to the Forest
Unlike other wildlife sites Epping Forest has actually grown in size in recent years and is now larger
than when it was saved from destruction in the 1870's. The most recent gains have been two areas of
open land, under contrasting management, on the Forest's western flank. The first area was purchased
in 1994 and consisted of two large fields that had been intensively cultivated. By the time of their
purchase the fields were under set-aside. This site was christened 'Trueloves' after the farm from
which it was purchased.
Overlooking Trueloves were some fields of damp, rough pasture on steep, slumping clay slopes.
Once grazed heavily by ponies they had been abandoned awaiting development as a golf course.
The site was purchased in 1997 and named 'Fernhills' after the ancient wood that once flanked the
fields and of which there are still remnants, with ancient Hornbeam boundary pollards.
The two new purchases sandwiched the Forest's historic green lanes (already protected under the
Epping Forest Act) running down to the Lea Valley. They are ancient open fields and can be seen on
the Chapman & Andre Map of Essex of 1777. Linked to existing Forest Land in this way allowed the
Conservators to incorporate the two sites into the Forest, under the protection of the Act. Together
the two sites form a new block of Forest land of more than 54 acres (22 hectares).
In the 5 years since it was first incorporated into the Forest at the end of its set-aside agreement,
Trueloves has developed into an attractive grassland. Each of the last four years a Tree Pipit has
displayed there. In late summer it is smothered in Fleabane, a nectar source for thousands of insects.
A little earlier in the year, Ragged Robin, Common Centaury, Square-stalked and Hairy St. John's
Worts, Agrimony and Common Spotted Orchid can be found along with a variety of sedges including
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 17 (2000)