A Forest Overview
Epping Forest covers over 6000 splendid, verdant
acres.
This ancient place is on the North East edge of London and straddles the M25,
which has to burrow under it.
The M11 runs nearby its Eastern flank.
It starts near Epping Town in the North and runs south to Wanstead in London.
There's lots of public transport access -
with tube, train and bus terminii and stations around it.
There are many car parks. And Tea-huts and cafes. AND AMPLE PUBS.
Our WALKS programme always has
a useful outline map of the Forest, too.
Or click here to view a central, close-up forest map,
courtesy of streetmap.co.uk, and there,
link for further more detailed or perhaps broader views of this wonderful space.
Running along ridges that lie roughly north/south,
the main part is about 18k by 5k at its longest and widest.
Maintained and managed by the
Corporation of London as Conservators of Epping Forest,
three quarters of the forest is designated
a Site of Special
Scientific Interest -
in recognition of its large numbers
of ancient trees which support a wealth of wood-boring beetles and fungi,
its old grasslands and heaths, as well as its many ponds which contain interesting
aquatic life forms.
There are over 80 'ponds' marked on OS maps of the Forest,
probably none of which are natural: being man-made for purposes such as
gravel extraction, stock-grazing, drainage of land, bombs, V2 Rockets and
golfing hazards!
There are Iron-Age earthworks, Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge(1543),
the Greenwich Meridian; teeming animal, insect and bird-life;
ancient woodland, grassland, heaths, bogs and marshes -
and hills with views to central London! It's a very special place.
Even Dick Turpin hung around here for a while!
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