General Info

Epping is a market town and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of the County of Essex, England. It is located 3 miles northeast of Loughton, 5 miles south of Harlow and 11 miles northwest of Brentwood. Although it is the terminus for London Underground’s Central Line, the town retains some elements of rurality, being surrounded by Epping Forest and working farmland. Epping has many very old buildings, some of which are Grade I and II listed buildings. The town also retains its weekly market which is held every Monday and dates back to 1253. In 2001 the parish had a population of 11,047 although this has increased marginally since then to 11,461 at the 2011 Census. Epping has been twinned with the German town of Eppingen in north-west Baden-Württemberg since 1981. Although the once-famous Epping Butter, which was highly sought after in the 18th and 19th centuries, is no longer made, the well-known Epping sausages are still manufactured by Church’s Butchers who have been trading on the same site since 1888.

Epping History

By the mid-12th century a settlement known as Epping Heath, had developed south of Epping Upland as a result of the vigorous clearing of the 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 linear village of Epping Heath developed slowly into a small main-road town and by the early 19th century considerable development had taken place along what is now High Street and Hemnall Street. 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. 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.

Tree Surgeon Epping