River Ching Highams Park

River Ching
The River Ching flows south towards the Lee

Post to the north Friday Hill
Post to the south Woodford Green and Hale End
Post to the west Chingford Hatch
Post to the east Woodford Wells

Beechwood Road
This is part of the Highams Estate

Chingford Lane
Some early Warner Estate development with terraced housing in the late 1870s.
St.Andrew's Church of England. This opened in 1880 with services held in the Working Men's hall and then in a room nearby. An iron church was erected in 1888. In 1923 the iron was replaced with cement and the frame had moved north to make room for a hall, and kitchen. The original wooden bell-tower was also removed

Elm Grove
This is part of the settlement of Woodford Row which grew up around the windmill and the main road.

Forest Glade
The road runs along beside woodland and the River Ching and the area known as The Sale

Grealock Road
This is part of the Highams Estate

Henry’s Avenue
Park Farm had stood at the eastern end.
This is part of the Highams Estate developed in 1932.  Henry was a family name.

Keynsham Road
This is part of the Highams Estate

Lichfield Road
This is part of the Highams Estate. Developed by Warner in 1932, he was MP for Lichfield

Marion Grove
This is part of the Highams Estate

Montalt Road
This is part of the Highams Estate, where some of the earliest development in the area was in 1897 when the lodges were built. These are a series of very grand semi-detached buildings designed by John Dunn and overlooking the golf course. Warner’s  Father in law was Earl of Montalt.  An open space in the centre of the road was abandoned all laid out and nothing built. It thus became an area of prefabs post Second World War
18 Tulip Hall of the Christian Tulipeans from 1942 

Mornington Road
This road was to be extended in the 19th as ‘Australia Road’. The enclosure was however declared illegal by the Epping Forest Commission and the land was returned to the Forest in 1878.

Sunset Avenue
Named because of its views which include dramatic sunsets
Woodford Golf Club. Established in 1890, with a nine-hole course designed by Tom Dunn. At first it was strictly divided on class lines with members who were professionals, and then the tradesmen, has restrictions on when they could play and were barred from the clubhouse. In the Second World War anti-gliding trenches, were built across the fairways and were not filled in until 1947.

The Highams Estate
The estate was developed by the Warner family – along with other estates in east London. Thomas Courtenay Warner was the son of Edward Warner who in 1849 purchased the Manor of Higham Bensted, extending from the High Road at Woodford Green to the river Ching; In 1875 Courtenay Warner started developing these landholdings. Housing development however did not accelerate until the 1930’s, with plans by architects William and Edward Hunt for 532 houses in standard designs of mainly semidetached houses  - with detached houses on corners and some garages. The builders were the Law Land Building Department, a subsidiary of Warners

The Highams Park
In the 1890s Sir Thomas and Edward North Buxton, both Forest Verderers, facilitated the purchase of the lake and park with money raised from the Corporation of London, the local authorities and their own money. The park is maintained by the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is on a hill with a gradual rise to the north end and was previously part of the manorial lands of Highams Bensted.  It is part of the gardens laid out when a new house was built in 1798
The River Ching flows past the lake but does not flow into it but an outflow at the south end of the lake flows into the river. Originally a sluice was installed at the north end in order to flush fresh water through the lake.  A bridge was built over this channel. Some trace of the sluice remain in the bed.
Footbridge built in 1999 on a site near the where the  sluice was, but this is a successor to others since demolished
Bridge - now demolished this used to cross the lake
Highams Park Lake is on the west side and is owned by the City of London Corporation. When the estate was created in 1794, Humphrey Repton, the landscape planner, suggested that the Ching be diverted into a new channel and thus construct the lake. Rocks near the top end are thought to be remaining landscaping by Repton but it has also been suggested that they, and a since demolished, stone shelter, came from Old London Bridge.
Foundations are from a demolished toilet block.
Flower meadow developed in the area between Henry’s Road and Marion Grove.

The Hollow
Estate of ‘Spanish’ style arcaded houses. Unbelievable.

The Sale
In the 15th the area between Oak Hill and Chingford Hatch, was called ‘Higham Bushes’ but in the 17th the Manor was licensed to enclose and sell the trees in an area which became known as ‘The Sale’ and in the 1790’s the enclosed area was extended to cover the area which became the estate of Highams Manor house. However, objections by the Forest Court of Attachments led to a strip of waste remaining to allow a right of way between Walthamstow and Chingford Hatch for cattle and people. This strip now remains as the woodland area on the western side of the Ching along Forest Glade

Woodford Golf Course
The Dell – a copse which contains water filled gravel pit.
The Gravels - this is an old pond in the centre of the Course. This is probably an old gravel pit.
Hatch Plain. -Evidence of ridge and furrow ploughing remains here and date from the 19th when this area of common land was to be enclosed. The Epping Forest Commission declared such enclosures were illegal however the area had already been divided into fields and housing plots and proposed roads had been laid out, which can be traced.
The Lops – this was common land and the name refers to the practice of pollarding which was allowed to commoners.  Lopping rights began at midnight on 11th November and ended at midnight on 23rd April.
Blasted Oak – the tree was struck by lightning in the 1920s

Sources
London Journal. Article on Warners
London Encyclopedia
Victoria County History
Plummer and Bowyer. Courtney Warner
St.Andrew's Church web site
Law & Barry. The Forest in Walthamstow and Chingford
Woodford Golf Club web site
Highams Park Society web site
Highams Park Wikipedia web site
Friends of Epping Forest web site

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