Epping Bower Hill


Post to the east Coopersale Street
Post to the south Flux's Lane



Bower Hill
Theydon Bower. This was a ‘big’ house built around 1800 with castellations ‘pleasant but fanciful’. The site is now ‘an apartment complex’.
Bower Hill Industrial Area. This is the site it Epping Gas Works. The Epping Gas Co. was formed in 1862 and began to supply gas about 1865 as the Epping gas and electricity company.  In 1911 it became part of the Bishop's Stortford and District Gas Co., which in 1949 was merged in the Eastern Gas Board. There were two holders and originally sidings from the railway line – although these are not shown on maps from the 1930s.
A number of factories are shown post- Second World War on sites adjacent to the railway.

Bower Vale
Epping Sanitary Steam Laundry. This was set up by Crispus Cottis. The laundry’s derelict buildings are being replaced by housing

Centre Drive
William Cottis and Sons. Manufactured everything from ornamental lampstands to hay sweeps. Crispus Cottis company in 1858 originally for agricultural machinery but also expanded architectural fittings, transport and household items. The Cottis Brick works was in Bower Hill 1888 and 1904. And later on the site which is now Epping Station car park. The company’s Archimedean Ironworks was in the High Street. Changes from the 1950s onwards led to a decline in the business and the foundry closed in 1982 after a period of being operated by other owners,
British Mathews and W. C. Pantin Ltd, they designed and manufactured mechanical handling equipment sold to firm like Fords, Midlands steel, breweries. In the 17th Pantin had offices in central London. And traded in commodities. They realised that it would be cheaper to produce handling equipment via a manufacturer from the USA as British Mathews part of WC Pantin. In 1937 the entire operation was moved to the former Cottis brick and nail making site at Epping.  In the early 1980’s demand for conveyors started to fall and the company was sold and in 1989 the site closed and in 1992 flats were built there,

Station Road
Epping Station. Opened in 1865 it is now the terminus of the Central Line from Theydon Bois. It was originally promoted by a small specialist company as an extension from Loughton to Ongar in 1858 and was eventually opened by the Great Eastern Railway. The station was a quarter of a mile south of the town centre and described as an intermediate terminus. It had a passing loop, a goods yard and an engine shed was added in 1892. Before 1914 there was a double track to Epping from Loughton.  In the 1930s it was decided that the line should be taken over by London Transport as part of the Central Line but this was delayed due to the Second World War. By 1949 the line to Epping had been electrified and this was eventually extended to Ongar in 1957. From 1970 London Transport wanted to close the line to Ongar and this happened in 1993. The line was sold to a private rail group, the Epping Ongar Railway, who have never been allowed to reopen the service to Epping.
Goods Yard. This was at the London end of the down side. It closed in 1966.

Stewards Green Lane
This is a green lane that was once the main London to Newmarket Road. It is now a bridleway, linking Stewards Green Road to Cooper sale Street running through arable fields bounded by old hedges. At the south end there is a double hedge and ditch. In the hedges are oaks plus some ash. field maple hawthorn and blackthorn as well as elms, holly, wild service and plum.

Stewards Green Road
A small estate on the north side of the road is in this square – the rest of the road isn’t. The estate was built in the 1960s and replaced a wartime prefab estate.

Stonards Farm
On some maps from the 1920s this is shown as “Stonehurst”.
Stonards Farm. In 1518 John Baker left the profits of the farm to a charity for repairing the highway between Harlow and London. In 1637 the Commission for Charitable Uses decreed that no more than £20 a year should be spent on the highway and in 1768 the road came under the care of the Epping and Ongar Highway Trust and in 1780 the Lord Chancellor directed that all the profits of Stonards should be applied to the poor. By the early 19th funds raised from the sale of timber hakd been invested and the income spent on apprenticing poor boys and by 1863 give to Epping British School and go towards almshouses. The almshouses were built in The Plain in 1877. Eventually Stonards was sold and the money invested.


Sources
Brady Pocket Guide to London
British History on line. Epping. Web site
Day. London Underground.
Epping Forest District Council. Web site
Epping Forest Guardian. Web site
Epping Society. Web site
Jackson. London’s Local Railways.
London railway record
Troy Homes. Web site

Comments

Stephen Cooper said…
Thank you for sharing this!!!
Window Medic
1 January 2019 at 20:55
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