Dagenham churchyard
The gravel path ends mysteriously a few metres from a bench – go to the bench and turn right on a surfaced path. Follow this to a pelican crossing at Ballards Road (B178) and go ahead down Church Lane, which turns right in 150 metres. Enter the churchyard, known as ‘God’s Little Acre’ (in fact it is two), of St Peter and St Paul Church, and wander through it to the church, which forms an attractive group with the Cross Keys pub and the war memorial. Turn right here along Exeter Road, turn right on footpath 29, and at the end of Dewey Road turn left for Dagenham East tube.
BLACK POPLAR, Populus nigra
Like most species of poplar (and other common British trees such as the willow and the holly), the black poplar is a dioecious tree: some trees are male, others female, and therefore they need to be close to each other to pollinate and hence reproduce.
Female black poplars are less common in Britain than male black polars; there are as few as 600, although there are 10 times as many males. The six black poplars in Dagenham are all females, with no male trees for many miles (although there are some on the Lea, in Walks 5 and 6). They are therefore an isolated population that will grow no further, although cuttings from them were planted in South Norwood Country Park in the 1990s.
Look for the yellow-green catkins (those of the male are red), which appear in the early spring. Its triangular leaves help distinguish it from the more common white poplar, which has five-lobed leaves.
It may look as though the Dagenham trees are in danger of falling, as their trunks are at an angle. However, this degree of lean is a characteristic of the species. Equally typical are the ‘bosses’ or burrs on the trunk, which is grey-brown and deeply furrowed.
WALK 3
Epping Forest from Chingford
| Start/finish | Chingford station (TQ 391 946) |
| Distance | 5½ miles (9km) |
| Time | 2½hrs |
| Maps | OS Explorer 174, Landranger 177 |
| Refreshments | Station House pub and cafés in Chingford; Royal Forest Inn and café by Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge |
| Parking | Bury Road car park, E4 7QJ (TQ 394 949) |
| Local group | Friends of Epping Forest www.friendsofeppingforest.org.uk |
Epping Forest sits on a slowly rising gravel bank between the rivers Roding and Lea, and stretches from the inner London borough of Newham in the south to well into Essex in the north. It’s been an essential place of rural escape for east Londoners since mid-Victorian times. This walk skips both sides of the present London boundary, and shows off a wide range of its habitats – pond and stream, wood and clearing, bog and plain.
At Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge
From the station turn right, then take the second left into Bury Road, and in 60 metres go half-right on a path waymarked for the London Loop. At the next waymark take the rightmost of two paths heading slightly uphill. If starting from the car park, turn half-right from the signboard at the back of the car park, and in 100 metres take the rightmost of the two paths heading slightly uphill.
Go through a gate to Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge. Cross the road, go ahead on a rough lane, continuing on a track through a gate with Warren Pond on your left. Some 75 metres from the gate, look for a path on your left which keeps close to the pond, which will lead you downhill to cross the little Ching Brook. Just after crossing the brook, turn left in a clearing, the path soon becoming a horse-ride. This is one of the many broad paths cut through the forest with the needs of horses (and riders) in mind.
QUEEN ELIZABETH’S HUNTING LODGE
The timber-framed lodge, or ‘standing’ as it was known then, was in fact built in 1543 for Elizabeth I’s father, Henry VIII, so that royals could view hunts from the then-open top storeys. It is the only remaining standing in England that is still situated within the forest it served. Although Elizabeth did later arrange its renovation, she may never have visited. Her successor James I certainly had little if any use for it, and by 1608 it was converted to hold the Manor Court, a function that remained there for nearly 250 years. The Victorians then carried out an intrusive restoration, remedied in the early 1990s when a more weather-resistant, and traditional, limewash exterior replaced a hard plaster infill.
The lodge now hosts an exhibition on Tudor life; its neighbour, known as The View, has displays about the forest itself. Both are open from 10am to 5pm daily except Mondays, and occasional other events.
Cross a road and continue for 200 metres until turning right at a path crossroads. At Connaught Water you pick up the red waymarks of the Willow Trail. Follow them past the car park and the head of the Water (1). Here, you ignore both the boardwalk and the path on the right to continue straight ahead. Look out for a footbridge on your left in 350 metres, cross it, and turn left again. Keep following the waymarks for nearly a mile, in which there is first a right turn and later a left turn. Eventually you come to a triangular junction, where instead of veering left you turn half-right for a few metres. Continue ahead, over a crossing track, and turn left at the end of the clearing. Don’t worry about the ‘wrong way’ waymarkers on this stretch!
Hornbeam pollard, a staple of Epping Forest management
In 500 metres turn left on to a forest ride which dips down attractively to cross the Cuckoo Brook, a tributary of the Ching. After it, note the several pollarded hornbeams, a staple of the Forest’s silva. Just before a road, turn left for 50 metres, then right to cross the road, continuing ahead on a path waymarked for the London Loop. After nearly 400 metres take the path (2) which slowly diverges to the left, keeping close to the edge of a golf course. Eventually this climbs a little to bring you to the trig point and obelisk on Pole Hill. There’s a useful bench just beyond.
Cuckoo Brook
The obelisk here dates from 1824, as a marker for the Greenwich meridian. By 1850, however, new calculations put the meridian about six metres to the east, where (within centimetres) the trig point now stands. The obelisk also commemorates TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), who lived in a hut on the hillside for a time in the 1920s.
Retrace your steps from the bench to the trig point and take the path half-right for just 25 metres, then half-left. Continue downhill and then, in a more open area, turn right. Turn right at the club house of the Royal Epping Forest golf club for Chingford station, or for the car park continue the few metres to Bury Road.
ARTIST’S BRACKET FUNGUS, Ganoderma applanatum
The bark of a tree is its first defence against damage. It’s living tissue, unlike the older heartwood at the tree’s centre. But if the bark becomes wounded,