Epping is a market town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, England. Part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, it is 17 miles north-east of Charing Cross. It is surrounded by the northern end of Epping Forest and is on a ridge of land between the River Roding and River Lea valleys.
History.
Epinga, a small community of a few scattered farms and a chapel on the edge of the forest is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. However, the settlement is known today as Epping Upland. It is not known for sure when the present-day Epping was first settled. By the mid-12th century, a settlement known as Epping Heath (later named Epping Street) had developed south of Epping Upland as a result of the clearing of forest for cultivation. In 1253, King Henry III conveyed the right to hold a weekly market in Epping Street, which helped to establish the town as a centre of trade and has continued to the present day (the sale of cattle in the High Street continued until 1961).
The village of Epping Heath developed into a small main-road town, and by the early 19th century, development had taken place along what is now High Street and Hemnall Street. Hemnall Street was until 1894 in the parish of Theydon Garnon, as was the railway station. Up to 25 stagecoaches and mailcoaches a day passed through the town from London en route to Norwich, Cambridge and Bury St. Edmunds. In the early 19th century, 26 coaching inns lined the High Street. Two survive today as public houses: The George and Dragon and The Black Lion. The advent of the railways ended coach traffic, and the town declined, but it revived after the extension of a railway branch line from Loughton in 1865 and the advent of the motor car.
A number of listed buildings, most dating from the 18th century, line both sides of the High Street, although many were substantially altered internally during the 19th century. Some of the oldest buildings in the town are at each end of the Conservation Area, such as Beulah Lodge in Lindsey Street (17th century) and a group of 17th- and early 18th-century cottages numbered 98–110 on High Street.
The original parish church, first mentioned in 1177, was All Saints' in Epping Upland, the nave and chancel of which date from the 13th Century. In 1833, the 14th-century chapel of St John the Baptist in the High Road was rebuilt in the Gothic Revival style. It became the parish church of Epping in 1888 and was again rebuilt. A large tower was added in 1909.