EII020 - The Hanged man - Background information<

Eerie's researcher noted the following regarding this area of South-Essex, the borders of Chigwell.

Dick Turpin (a subject of a previous Eerie Investigation) was said to frequent the "Kings Head" inn in Chigwell - as it was known in those days. The Kings Head at Chigwell still remains and stands to remind us of what a great Tudor Coaching Inn looked like.

As a main road town Epping had many "Coaching Inns" at one time over 16 of them. It saw many travellers who passed through and stayed here, including Samuel Pepys in 1660, Charles the II in 1684 and Queen Anne in 1705 and 1707.

It was also a haunt for Highwaymen, in particular with Dick Turpin supposdly operating here. Turpin was said to have shot a forest keeper in 1737. He was also unflatteringly described as "a male of only average height and much marked by Smallpox".

The last recorded highway robbery took place in 1837, when a local solicitor was robbed by 3 men. The coming of the Great Eastern Railway in 1865 virtually put an end to both main road prosperity and thoughts of highway robbery and the road itself was toll free in 1870. Epping gradually grew as a favoured town of residence for those who worked in London.

Chigwell was also mentioned in The Doomsday Book, it was known as 'Cinghuella'. And in 1135 reference was made to 'La Bocherste' (Buckhurst Hill), an area then referred to in much later years as 'Buckett Hill', meaning a hill covered with beech trees - the signature tree of Epping Forest.

The three communities remained as a small forest clearing through the centuries, but with only Chigwell and Loughton having churches. In the great days of the forest's role as a royal hunting ground, visits from monarchs were frequent. Henry VIIO often stayed at a hunting lodge known as 'Poteles' at Buckhurst Hill and Kings Avenue today perpetuates the memory of his visits with Anne Boleyn. James I was also entertained at Loughton Hall in 1605.