1.
N11 road (Ireland)
–
The N11 road is a national primary road in Ireland, running for 129 km along the east side of Ireland from Dublin to Wexford. It passes close to Bray, Greystones, Wicklow, Arklow and Gorey and also passes through Enniscorthy, beyond Wexford, the route continues to Rosslare as the N25. The road forms part of European route E01, as of 2015 the N11/M11 is of dual carriageway or motorway standard from Dublin as far as Gorey in County Wexford. Summer Friday and Sunday evenings also see heavy traffic as Dubliners decamp to. The N11 commenced where it met the N4 on the end of OConnell Bridge in Dublin city centre. The route proceeded along DOlier Street, College Street, the route continued around College Green and Grafton Street. This route section in the other ran via Leeson Street Lower, East and North sides of St. Stephens Green. The N11 ran in both directions along Leeson Street Lower after the junction with Pembroke Street, having crossed the Grand Canal the route divided again for a portion of Leeson Street Upper, with outbound traffic proceeding via Sussex Road. The route continued via Morehampton Road and Donnybrook Road, through Donnybrook, with the route becoming dual carriageway at Donnybrook Church, the Stillorgan Road brought the road past Belfield, where University College Dublin is located and onwards to its junction with Mount Merrion Avenue. This former section of the N11 is now the R138, the N11 currently starts in Mount Merrion at the junction with the N31 to Dún Laoghaire harbour. From this junction it heads south to Stillorgan village, Stillorgan village is bypassed to the east by the N11 dual carriageway, which proceeds southeast through Galloping Green, bypassing Leopardstown and Foxrock to the east also. Then the Cabinteely Bypass and part of the Bray Road bring the N11 via Loughlinstown and Shanganagh to north of Shankill, the entire length of the N11, from Mount Merrion to the Loughlinstown roundabout, is provided with a Quality Bus Corridor bus lane. Dublin Bus Route 46A operates over this stretch of road as far as Foxrock Church. Along the Shankill Bypass, the M11 is joined by the Dublins M50 motorway ring road and this link allows motorists to drive on continuous motorway and dual carriageway all the way from Clough, Co. Wexford to various destinations around the island via the M50 and the roads it serves. Traffic on the N11 inside Dublin proper is expected to ease due to traffic being given other route options before entering the city, west of Bray in County Wicklow, the motorway ends, with the N11 continuing south as dual carriageway through the Glen of the Downs. The upgrading of the road to dual carriageway through the Glen of the Downs was controversial, expanding the road resulted in the removal of some woodland. After Glen of the Downs the N11 continues south to bypass Kilpedder, the road becomes the M11 again at Junction 14 and bypasses Ashford, Rathnew and Arklow
2.
M25 motorway
–
The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a 117-mile motorway that encircles almost all of Greater London, England, in the United Kingdom. An ambitious concept to build four concentric ring roads around London was first mooted in the 1960s, further widening is in progress of minor sections with plans for managed motorways in many others. To the east of London the two ends of the M25 are joined to complete a loop by the non-motorway A282 Dartford Crossing of the River Thames between Thurrock and Dartford and this crossing, which consists of twin two-lane tunnels and the four-lane QE2 bridge, is named Canterbury Way. Passage across the bridge or through the tunnels is subject to a toll, in the opposite direction, to the east of the point where the M25 diverges from the main east–west carriageway, that carriageway become the M26 motorway. The radial distance from London varies from 12.5 miles in Potters Bar to 19.5 miles in Byfleet.8 miles, major towns listed as destinations, in various counties, adjoin the M25. North Ockendon is the settlement of Greater London situated outside the M25. In 2004, following a poll, the London Assembly mooted for consultation alignment of the Greater London boundary with the M25. Inside the M25 and outside/beyond the M25 are colloquial, looser alternatives to Greater London sometimes used in haulage, the Communications Act 2003 explicitly uses the M25 as the boundary in requiring a proportion of television programmes to be made outside the London area. Two motorway service areas are on the M25, and two others are accessible from it. Those on the M25 are Clacket Lane between junctions 5 and 6 and Cobham between junctions 9 and 10 and those directly accessible from it are South Mimms off junction 23 and Thurrock off junction 31. Cobham services opened on 13 September 2012, originally, the M25 was unlit except for sections around Heathrow, major interchanges and Junctions 23–30. By 2014 only one significant stretch was still SOX-lit and the units were removed the same year, the motorway passes through five counties. Junctions 1A–5 are in Kent, 6–14 are in Surrey, 15–16 are in Buckinghamshire, 17–25 are in Hertfordshire, policing of the road is carried out by an integrated policing group made up of the Metropolitan, Thames Valley, Essex, Kent, Hertfordshire and Surrey forces. The M25 is one of Europes busiest motorways, in 2003, a maximum of 196,000 vehicles a day were recorded on the motorway just south of London Heathrow Airport between junctions 13 and 14. A precursor of the M25 was the North Orbital Road, the idea of an orbital road around London was first proposed early in the 20th century and then re-examined in Sir Charles Bresseys and Sir Edwin Lutyens The Highway Development Survey,1937. Sir Patrick Abercrombies County of London Plan,1943 and Greater London Plan,1944 proposed a series of five roads encircling the capital, the northern sections of the M25 follow a similar route to the World War II Outer London Defence Ring. Little was done to progress these plans until the 1960s when the Greater London Council developed its London Ringways plan consisting of four rings around the capital. Sections of the two outer rings – Ringway 3 and Ringway 4 – were constructed in the early 1970s and were integrated into the single M25 orbital motorway, but the Ringways plan was hugely controversial owing to the destruction required for the inner two ring roads
3.
Roads in the United Kingdom
–
Roads in the United Kingdom form a network of varied quality and capacity. Road distances are shown in miles or yards and UK speed limits are indicated in miles per hour or by the use of the speed limit symbol. Some vehicle categories have various lower maximum limits enforced by speed limiters, enforcement of UK road speed limits increasingly uses speed guns, automated in-vehicle systems and automated roadside traffic cameras. A unified numbering system is in place for Great Britain, whilst in Northern Ireland, the earliest specifically engineered roads were built during the British Iron Age. The road network was expanded during the Roman occupation, some of these survive and others were lost. New roads were added in the Middle Ages and from the 17th century onwards, certain aspects of the legal framework remain under the competence of the United Kingdom parliament. Although some roads have much older origins, the network was subject to development from the 1950s to the mid-1990s. From then, construction of roads has become controversial with direct action campaigns by environmentalists in opposition. In the UK, vehicles drive on the left and on multi-lane carriageways drivers are expected to keep to the left lane except when overtaking, in Great Britain, the Highway Code applies to drivers. In Northern Ireland, the Highway Code for Northern Ireland applies, UK speed limits are shown in mph. With a few exceptions, they are in multiples of 10, unless a lower speed limit is posted on a road, the national speed limit applies, which varies between class of vehicles and the type of road. In a built-up area, unless signs indicate otherwise, a limit of 30 miles per hour applies, other limits are shown in the table. For a road to be classed as a carriageway, the two directions of traffic flow must be physically separated by a central reservation. Roads in the UK are classified as M, A, or B roads, as well as categories of more minor roads, for internal purposes. These numbers follow a zonal system, there is no available explanation for the allocation of road numbers in Northern Ireland. The majority of the major routes are motorways, and are designed to carry long distance traffic. The next category is the A roads, which form the route network. A primary route is defined as, primary destinations are usually cities and large towns, to which, as a result of their size, a high volume of traffic is expected to go
4.
Loughton
–
Loughton /ˈlaʊtən/ is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. Loughton includes three areas and there are 56 listed buildings in the town, together with a further 50 that are locally listed. The parish of Loughton covers an area of about 3,724 acres, of which over 1,300 acres are part of Epping Forest. The ancient parish contained over 3,900 acres, but in 1996 some parts of the south of the old parish were transferred to Buckhurst Hill parish, and other small portions to Chigwell and Theydon Bois. At the time of the 2001 census Loughton had a population of 30,340 and it is the most populous civil parish in the Epping Forest district, and within Essex it is the second most populous civil parish and the second largest in the area. The earliest structure in Loughton is Loughton Camp, an Iron Age earth fort in Epping Forest dating from around 500 BC, hidden by dense undergrowth for centuries it was rediscovered in 1872. The first references to the site of modern-day Loughton date from the Anglo-Saxon period when it was known as Lukintune, following the Norman conquest, the town is also mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, with the name Lochintuna. The settlement remained a village until the early 17th century when the high road was extended north through the forest. The road quickly became the route from London to Cambridge and East Anglia. Sir Robert Wroth and his wife Lady Mary Wroth entertained many of the literary figures of the time, including Ben Jonson. It was rebuilt in 1878 by Revd, J. W. Maitland, whose family held the manor for much of the 19th century. It is now a Veecare Homes care home and is a grade II listed building, Loughtons growth since Domesday has largely been at the expense of the forest. Expansion towards the River Roding was arrested owing to the often flooding marshy meadows, encroachments into the forest to the north and west of the village were nevertheless possible. As the forest disappeared and landowners began enclosing more of it for use, many began to express concern at the loss of such a significant natural resource. The arrival of the railway spurred on the towns development, the railway first came to Loughton in 1856 when the Eastern Counties Railway, opened a branch line via Woodford. In 1948 the line was electrified and transferred to London Transport to become part of the Central line on the London Underground, the arrival of the railways also provided visitors from London with a convenient means of reaching Epping Forest and thus transforming it into the East Enders Playground. The Ragged School Union began organising visits to the forest for parties of poor East End children in 1891 paid for by the Pearsons Fresh Air Fund, Loughton artist Octavius Dixie Deacon depicted many scenes of the town including some of its residents during the late Victorian period. As the Great Eastern Railway Company did not offer workmens fares, much of the housing in Loughton was built in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, with significant expansion in the 1930s
5.
Harlow
–
Harlow is a former Mark One New Town and local government district in the west of Essex, England. In Old Harlow is a field named Harlowbury, a de-settled monastic area which has the remains of a chapel, the M11 motorway passes through the east of the district, entirely to the east of the town. It is also a part of the London commuter belt and employment centre of the M11 corridor which includes Cambridge. There is some dispute as to where the placename Harlow derives from, One theory is that it derives from the Anglo-Saxon words here and hlaw, meaning army hill, probably to be identified with Mulberry Hill, which was used as the moot or meeting place for the district. The other theory is that it derives from the here and hearg, meaning temple hill/mound, probably to be identified with an Iron Age burial mound. The earliest deposits are of a Mesolithic hunting camp excavated by Davey in Northbrooks in the 1970s closely followed by the large and these deposits are mostly known because of the large numbers of surface-bound, worked flint. Substantial amounts of worked flint suggest an organised working of flint in the area, large amounts of debitage litter the area and tools found include axeheads, hammers, blades, dowels and other boring tools and multipurpose flints such as scrapers. An organised field walk in the late 1990s by Bartlett indicates that most of the area, some 80 hectares and this indicates organised industry existed from 5000 BC to 2000 BC. The deposits are so large and dispersed that any major work in the area will have to take this into consideration before any ground work is started. Harlow was in Roman times the site of a town with a substantial stone built temple. The entry in the Norman Domesday Book reads, Herlaua, St Edmunds Abbey before and after 1066, Geoffrey from Count Eustace, Thorgils from Eudo the Steward, Richard from Ranulf, Mill,7 beehives,8 cobs,43 cattle,3 foals. The mill is now a 300-year-old listed building and restaurant, the original village, mentioned in the Domesday Book, developed as a typical rural community around what is now known as Old Harlow, with many of its buildings still standing. This includes for instance the Grade II listed St Marys Church in Churchgate Street and its former Chapel is in a ruinous state in a field which was once the Harlowbury Abbey part of Old Harlow, is Grade I listed and is a scheduled ancient monument. The original Harlow New Town was built after World War II to ease overcrowding in London, Harlow was a Mark One New Town along with other new towns such as Basildon, Stevenage and Hemel Hempstead. New Towns were designated following the New Towns Act of 1946, the town was planned from the outset and was designed to respect the existing landscape. A number of landscape wedges - which later known as Green Wedges - were designed to cut through the town. Each of the neighbourhoods is self-supporting with its own shopping precincts, community facilities. Harlow has one of the most extensive cycle track networks in the country, connecting all areas of the town to the town centre, the cycle network is composed mostly of the original old town roads
6.
London Stansted Airport
–
London Stansted currently serves over 170 destinations across Europe, North Africa, Central and North America and more scheduled European destinations than any other airport in the UK. Stansted is a base for a number of major European low-cost carriers, being the largest base for low-cost airline Ryanair, in 2015 it was the fourth busiest airport in the United Kingdom after Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester. The airport is owned and operated by the Manchester Airports Group, MAG agreed to buy the airport from Heathrow Airport Holdings, formerly BAA, on 18 January 2013, and the sale was completed for £1.5 billion on 28 February 2013. BAA had been required to sell the following a ruling originally made by the Competition Commission in March 2009. In 2016 Stansted handled a record 24.3 million passengers, London Stansted Airport has one main passenger terminal, near the village of Stansted Mountfitchet. The base of each structure is a utility pillar, which provides indirect uplighting illumination and is the location for air-conditioning, water, telecommunications. Passenger totals have since risen, and in 2016 recorded an increase of 8. 0% to 24.3 million. Although the official name was Stansted Mountfitchet, the base was known as simply Stansted in both written and spoken form, the station was first allocated to the USAAF Eighth Air Force in August 1942 as a heavy bomber airfield. As well as a bomber base, Stansted was also a Air Technical Services Command maintenance and supply depot concerned with major overhauls. After D-Day, these activities were transferred to France, but the base was used as a supply storage area for the support of aircraft on the continent. After the withdrawal of the Americans on 12 August 1945, Stansted was taken over by the Air Ministry and used by No.263 Maintenance Unit, in addition, between March 1946 and August 1947, Stansted was used for housing German prisoners of war. The Ministry of Civil Aviation finally took control of Stansted in 1949, the US military returned in 1954 to extend the runway for a possible transfer to NATO. The transfer to NATO was never realised, however, and the airport continued in civil use, the school was responsible for the training of all aviation fire crews for British airfields as well as those of many overseas countries. From the outset, however, BAA and the British government planned to develop Stansted into Londons third airport, to relieve Heathrow, the airports first terminal building opened in 1969 and was expanded the next year to handle the growing number of passengers. The current terminal building was designed by architect Norman Foster, construction was undertaken by John Laing and took place between 1988 and March 1991, costing £100 million. In 1990 it was awarded the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture / Mies van der Rohe Award, continental Airlines also operated services in the late 1990s from Newark, but this service was stopped shortly after the 11 September 2001 attacks. Long-haul services to the USA returned in late 2005, when Eos Airlines, in 2006, MAXjet expanded their service with flights to Washington, D. C. American Airlines began daily flights to Stansted in October 2007 from New York–JFK and was expected to operate a second daily flight from April 2008
7.
Bishop's Stortford
–
Bishops Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. It is just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex and is the closest sizeable town to London Stansted Airport. Bishops Stortford is 27 miles north east of Charing Cross in central London and 35 miles from Liverpool Street station, Bishops Stortford has a population of 38,202, adjusting to 37,838 at the 2011 Census. Nothing is known of Bishops Stortford until it became a small Roman settlement on Stane Street, the settlement was abandoned in the 5th century after the breakup of the Roman Empire. A new Saxon settlement grew up on the site, named Steort-ford, in 1060, William Bishop of London bought Stortford manor and estate for eight pounds, leading to the towns modern name. At the time of the Domesday Book the village had a population of around 120, the Normans built a wooden motte-and-bailey edifice known as Waytemore Castle. Only the baptismal font survives from the Norman church of St Michaels and its conspicuous belfry and spire were built in 1812. Despite outbreaks of the plague in the 16th and 17th centuries, the River Stort is named after the town, and not the town after the river. When cartographers visited the town in the 16th century, they reasoned that the town must have named for the ford over the river. After 1769, the River Stort was made navigable, and the became a stop on the mail coach road between Cambridge and London. By 1801, Bishops Stortford was a town, and a corn exchange had been established. While the main industry was malting, in 1842 the railway came to Bishops Stortford. Another Victorian introduction was the opening of a hospital in 1895, in 1901 the population exceeded 7,000. The 1901 house known as Carfield Castle was used as a billet in World War I. During World War II, Bishops Stortford was the centre for many Britons. By 1951, Bishops Stortfords population had reached 13,000, the M11 motorway, Stansted Airport, and rail links to London and Cambridge contributed to its rise in population to about 35,000 in the 2001 national census. Post-war development has enlarged the area further. In March and April 1825, a number of buildings in Bishops Stortford were set alight, a committee that formed offered a £500 reward for information on the arsonist
8.
Cambridge
–
Cambridge is a university city and the county town of Cambridgeshire, England, on the River Cam about 50 miles north of London. At the United Kingdom Census 2011, its population was 123,867, there is archaeological evidence of settlement in the area in the Bronze Age and in Roman Britain, under Viking rule, Cambridge became an important trading centre. The first town charters were granted in the 12th century, although city status was not conferred until 1951, the University of Cambridge, founded in 1209, is one of the top five universities in the world. The university includes the Cavendish Laboratory, Kings College Chapel, the citys skyline is dominated by the last two buildings, along with the spire of the Our Lady and the English Martyrs Church, the chimney of Addenbrookes Hospital and St Johns College Chapel tower. Anglia Ruskin University, evolved from the Cambridge School of Art, Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology Silicon Fen with industries such as software and bioscience and many start-up companies spun out of the university. More than 40% of the workforce has a higher education qualification, the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, one of the largest biomedical research clusters in the world, is soon to be home to AstraZeneca, a hotel and the relocated Papworth Hospital. Parkers Piece hosted the first ever game of Association football, the Strawberry Fair music and arts festival and Midsummer Fairs are held on Midsummer Common, and the annual Cambridge Beer Festival takes place on Jesus Green. The city is adjacent to the M11 and A14 roads, settlements have existed around the Cambridge area since prehistoric times. The earliest clear evidence of occupation is the remains of a 3, the principal Roman site is a small fort Duroliponte on Castle Hill, just northwest of the city centre around the location of the earlier British village. The fort was bounded on two sides by the lines formed by the present Mount Pleasant, continuing across Huntingdon Road into Clare Street, the eastern side followed Magrath Avenue, with the southern side running near to Chesterton Lane and Kettles Yard before turning northwest at Honey Hill. It was constructed around AD70 and converted to use around 50 years later. Evidence of more widespread Roman settlement has been discovered including numerous farmsteads, evidence exists that the invading Anglo-Saxons had begun occupying the area by the end of the century. Their settlement—also on and around Castle Hill—became known as Grantebrycge, Anglo-Saxon grave goods have been found in the area. During this period, Cambridge benefited from good trade links across the hard-to-travel fenlands, by the 7th century, the town was less significant and described by Bede as a little ruined city containing the burial site of Etheldreda. Cambridge was on the border between the East and Middle Anglian kingdoms and the settlement slowly expanded on both sides of the river, the arrival of the Vikings was recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 875. Viking rule, the Danelaw, had been imposed by 878 Their vigorous trading habits caused the town to grow rapidly. During this period the centre of the town shifted from Castle Hill on the bank of the river to the area now known as the Quayside on the right bank. In 1068, two years after his conquest of England, William of Normandy built a castle on Castle Hill, like the rest of the newly conquered kingdom, Cambridge fell under the control of the King and his deputies
9.
London
–
London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
10.
North Circular Road
–
The North Circular Road is a 25. 7-mile-long ring road around Central London in England. It runs from Chiswick in the west to Woolwich in the east, together with its counterpart, the South Circular Road, it forms a ring road through the Outer London suburbs. This ring road does not make a circuit of the city. The road was designed to connect local industrial communities together in addition to bypassing London. In the early 1990s, the road was extended to bypass Barking, the uncertainty of development has caused urban decay and property blight along its route, and led to criticism over its poor pollution record. Several London Borough Councils have set up regeneration projects to improve the environment for communities surrounding the North Circular, the North Circular Road forms the northern part of a ring-road around Central London. Although the route has alternative names at some points, it is referred to as the North Circular throughout for route planning purposes. In areas where improvements made slowest progress and upgrades are unlikely, the road begins in Gunnersbury at the Chiswick flyover, from which the South Circular Road heads south over Kew Bridge. The first section runs along Gunnersbury Avenue through Gunnersbury Park to Ealing Common, the road crosses the railway west of Paddington to the Hanger Lane gyratory system, a large roundabout on top of the Western Avenue with Hanger Lane tube station. This is one of the busiest junctions in London, incorporating 10,000 vehicles an hour, the A406 runs on purpose-built road to the north of Hanger Lane Gyratory, and is referred to as North Circular Road on street signs. The road is a dual carriageway that connects the industrial estates in the area. Beyond this, there is a junction with IKEA and the Neasden temple to the southeast, and this section of the North Circular was used for filming the car chasing sequences in Withnail And I. Northeast of Brent Cross, at Henlys Corner, the North Circular briefly shares carriageways with the A1 which joins it from the left, the junction complex also serves a local road from Hampstead and pedestrian traffic, and consequently is a major bottleneck on the route. Transport for London have invested in the junction, including a special hands free crossing for the local Jewish community, the road passes north of St Pancras and Islington Cemetery towards Friern Barnet and Muswell Hill. The road narrows to two lane carriageway to pass under a railway bridge, and continues as Telford Road towards Bounds Green. Traffic on the North Circular Road must turn right from Telford Road into Bowes Road, the road continues past densely packed housing and business areas before widening at Green Lanes and assuming the North Circular Road name again. At Great Cambridge Interchange, its most northerly point, the A406 crosses Great Cambridge Road, Angel Road railway station is partially located beneath the flyover at Angel Road, in an area marked for redevelopment known as Meridian Water. This leads onto the Lea Valley Viaduct that provides a crossing of the River Leas flood plain
11.
Epping Forest
–
Epping Forest is an area of ancient woodland near Epping, straddling the border between Greater London and Essex. It is a royal forest, and is managed by the City of London Corporation. It covers 2,476 hectares and contains areas of woodland, grassland, heath, rivers, bogs and ponds, and most of it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation. The forest lies on a ridge between the valleys of the rivers Lea and Roding, its elevation and thin gravelly soil historically made it unsuitable for agriculture and it gives its name to the Epping Forest local government district which covers part of it. The name Epping Forest was first recorded in the 17th century, the area which became known as Waltham, and then Epping Forest has been continuously forested since Neolithic times. The former lime/linden Tilia-dominated woodland was permanently altered during Saxon times by cutting of trees. Todays beech-birch and oak-hornbeam-dominated forest was the result of partial forest clearance in Saxon times, the forest is thought to have been given legal status as a royal forest by Henry II in the 12th century. This status allowed commoners to use the forest to gather wood and foodstuffs, and to graze livestock and turn out pigs for mast, but only the king was allowed to hunt there. Forest in the sense of royal forest meant an area of land reserved for royal hunting, where the forest laws applied. In Tudor times, Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I may have hunted in the forest, in 1543, Henry commissioned a building, known as Great Standing, from which to view the chase at Chingford. The building was renovated in 1589 for Queen Elizabeth I and can still be today in Chingford. The building is now known as Queen Elizabeths Hunting Lodge, and is open to the public, there is another hunt standing, which now forms the core of the Forest HQ at the Warren, Loughton. There were disputes between landowners and commoners, one group of commoners was led by Thomas Willingale who on behalf of the villagers of Loughton continued to lop the trees after the Lord of the Manor had enclosed 550 hectares of forest in Loughton. This led to an injunction against further enclosures, the Epping Forest Act 1878 was passed, saving the forest from enclosure, and halting the shrinkage of the forest that this had caused. Epping Forest ceased to be a royal forest and was placed in the care of the City of London Corporation who act as Conservators, in addition, the Crowns right to venison was terminated, and pollarding was no longer allowed, although grazing rights continued. This act laid down a stipulation that the Conservators shall at all times keep Epping Forest unenclosed and unbuilt on as a space for the recreation. In compensation for the loss of lopping rights, Lopping Hall in Loughton was built as a community building, the City of London Corporation still manages Epping Forest in strict conformity with the Epping Forest Act. This care is funded from Citys Cash, the funds of the Corporation rather than any money for its upkeep coming from local rates or taxes
12.
Huntingdon
–
Huntingdon is a market town in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was chartered by King John in 1205 and it is the traditional county town of Huntingdonshire and the seat of the Huntingdonshire district council. It is known as the birthplace of Oliver Cromwell, who was born in 1599 and was the member of parliament for the town in the 17th century, the former Conservative prime minister John Major was the MP for the town from 1979 to 2001. Huntingdon was founded by the Anglo-Saxons and Danes and it prospered successively as a bridging point of the River Great Ouse, as a market town, and in the 18th and 19th centuries as a coaching centre, most notably The George Hotel. The town has a medieval bridge that used to serve as the main route of Ermine Street over the river. The bridge only ceased to be the crossing point to Godmanchester in 1975. Its valuable trading position was secured by the now vanished Huntingdon Castle, the site is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and is home to a beacon used to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Spanish Armada. In 1746, the botanists Wood and Ingram of nearby Brampton developed a species of elm tree, Ulmus × hollandica Vegeta. Original historical documents relating to Huntingdon, including the borough charter of 1205, are held by Cambridgeshire Archives, between the railway station and the old hospital building, stands a replica cannon. In the 1990s the replica was installed to replace an original Crimean War one, when the replica was installed it was placed in the opposite direction to the original. The George Hotel, on the corner of High Street and George Street was once a posting house and it was named after St. George in 1574 and was bought some 25 years later by Henry Cromwell, grandfather of Oliver Cromwell. Charles I made The George his headquarters in 1645, later Dick Turpin is reputed to have been a visitor when it was a coaching inn on the Great North Road. The mid-19th century saw two wings of the inn burnt down but two were saved including the one with the balcony overlooking the yard. Since 1959 the courtyard and its balcony have been the setting for performances of the plays of Shakespeare, Huntingdon is has a town council consisting of 24 councillors. As elsewhere, local elections are every four years. Two of the town councillors serve also as mayor and deputy mayor, Council meetings are normally held once a month at the town hall. Huntingdon has three wards of Huntingdon North, Huntingdon East and Huntingdon West for Huntingdonshire District Council. The ward of Huntingdon East is represented by three councillors and the two wards each by two
_map.svg)
, Bishop's Stortford, Cambridge, London
→
.svg)
