Welcome

Introducing the People's Forest

Welcome! I’m delighted that you’ve made it here.

I’ve set up this substack because I want to tell you about a corner of North-East London and South-West Essex that is covered by remnants of an ancient forest.  Epping Forest, ascending on a ridge between the Lea Valley and the River Roding, and Hainault Forest, to the right of the Roding, while tiny on the scale of global woodlands, contain a history - natural, recorded and confabulated - to rival any.

Now known for the specialised flora and fauna that thrive on the fallen limbs of pollarded oaks, beech and twisted hornbeam, the present-day character of these forests is everywhere imprinted with their rich cultural past. 

The stories of Epping and Hainault contain a wide array of fabulous characters and vivid episodes that tell of a distinctive and, in my view, very special place.  But the broader tale of their erosion and survival, so close to the metropolis, is also part of a bigger story, one that charts some of the pressures that have led to England having one of the lowest levels of woodland cover and biodiversity in Europe.

Epping Forest. The view over Chingford Plain from Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge.

I have been diving down rabbit holes and following the real and conceptual paths of these wonderful forests for the last three years, and I think you might be interested in what I’ve found.  But this substack will also give me a reason to spend my time digging deeper. I will go where my interest takes me, bringing no particular authority, just curiosity, passion, a fair dose of outrage and a history graduate’s attachment to the historical record. In doing so I am indebted to many other lovers of the forest from local historians, novelists, painters and campaigners.

Expect everything from high court drama to low-life intrigue, from fungi to fiction, and pollution to protest.  I’ll also be sharing reflections on connecting with land and place as a city-dweller.

I look forward to the discussions I hope these snippets will spark. Do you know Epping or Hainault Forest or perhaps another remnant of the Forest of Essex?

Why ‘The People’s Forest’?

Epping Forest was designated ‘the People’s Forest’ by Queen Victoria when it was dramatically saved by primary legislation in 1878.  It was saved, in part, because of the reaction sparked by the tragically different fate met by Hainault Forest, some 20 years before; a seminal moment that has been associated with the birth of the conservation movement.

And that symbol?

I know! This is one of the marks that has been used to brand cattle that graze in Epping Forest.  It represents the letter A and Waltham Holy Cross.  Probably medieval in origin, indicated by the cross rather than a crown which suggests it pre-dates the dissolution of the monasteries (Waltham Abbey was one of the most important abbeys in the country and the last to be dissolved by Henry VIII).  The brand is a great icon for this newsletter because it symbolises one of the main reasons that Epping Forest was saved - the right of inter-commonage.  Cattle needed to be branded because they were permitted to graze anywhere in the forest, not just on the land of their home manor.  Long-horned cattle have been re-introduced to the forest in the last few years and are a wonderful, almost pre-historic sight when you glimpse them through the trees.