I started this blog post last September and for some reason it has languished in my drafts folder since then. In the past few weeks so many questions about this house have popped up on my Facebook timeline as a result of more than the usual amount of people stumbling across it, now seems the time to finish it.  Having said that the research has taken me much longer than anticipated and it probably won’t answer everyone’s questions but I hope it is of some use. If anyone has anything to add please comment below.

In September 2019 I joined in part of the Epping Forest Centenary Walk. This is an annual event (probably not this year) organised by the Epping Forest Heritage Trust and West Essex Ramblers along the whole length of the Forest from Manor Park in the south to just beyond Epping in the north. It was a very hot day and I managed half of it abandoning at the lunch stop which was 5 minutes’ walk from home.

Walking through the forest rather than the road can affect your sense of direction and more than once I was surprised to discover I was on home turf. I am ashamed to say that I never realised for instance that there was a forest path underneath Waterworks Roundabout!

Later in the walk I discovered an anomaly in Chingford which is the main subject for this post – a derelict house practically in the Forest close to Chingford Hatch which strangely comes under Redbridge Council not Waltham Forest. The boundary you can see here partly follows the course of the River Ching.

Site of Forest Cottage on Redbridge borough map. Redbridge is to the right, Waltham Forest to the left.

There is a sort of driveway and I discovered later it links to a bit of Chingford I had never visited before – Newgate Street off Chingdale Road, Chingford Hatch.

I was curious to find out more and did get some information from an Epping Forest Constable on the walk which then prompted me to do my own research.

Strangely for a building seemingly within Epping Forest the land the house is on isn’t owned by the Corporation of London but had been sold in the 1880s ie shortly after the 1878 Epping Forest Act for the building of a sewage farm.

I started my quest to find out more about this property with the title register. For the small cost of £3 you can often find out useful information about a property on the HM Land Registry website. Obviously there are occasions where the £3 is wasted but I think it’s worth the risk.

The title register for Forest Cottage, Newgate Street has this interesting paragraph:

“The land has the benefit of the rights granted by but is subject to the rights reserved by a Conveyance of the land in this title and other land dated 12 March 1885 made between (1) The Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London Conservators of Epping Forest and (2) The Woodford Local Board.”

The register mentions another title number which on purchasing the register I discovered that this refers to a plot of land known as “Land at The Pines, London”. The Woodford Green road called “The Pines” is close by. Due to copyright issues I can’t share the image but the register and plan show that the site of Forest Cottage was originally part of this “The Pines” title number but was removed from it in 2015. “Land at the Pines” is still owned today by the London Borough of Redbridge, the successors to the Woodford Local Board. The separate title for the cottage passed to a private individual who is the person now responsible for the series of planning applications in relation to the house.

It would seem that there was no provision in any of the legal documents for what would happen to the land if the sewage farm was no longer needed. If forethought had been given to this it might well have ended up back under the control of the Corporation of London and in a much better state.

I wondered whether the site was originally part of any of the farms in the vicinity. According to Morna Daniels’ book on Chingford Farms published by Chingford Historical Society there were several farms in the vicinity. Morna states that Brook Farm was probably attached to Brook House also known as Canister House. This can be seen on historic OS maps.

There was also Manor Farm but this was on the other side of the Ching close to the junction of what is now Chingdale Road and Groveside Road; there is of course a Manor Farm Drive too. This farm was originally known as Peppercorn’s Farm. I have seen some suggestions on social media that Forest Cottage was originally part of Manor Farm but I can’t find anything to substantiate that it was connected to this particular farm. If anyone has any evidence please comment below.

Lastly there was Vale Brook Farm which was at the corner of what is now Newgate Street and Friday Hill. There is a reference in 1927 to what is now Newgate Street being referred to as Brook Vale Road.

There is a limit to how much research I can undertake and it has taken me far longer than originally intended but it is worth looking at the historic OS maps held by the National Library of Scotland to see for yourself how the area developed.

Again due to copyright restrictions I can’t show the maps on here but the service is free to use. Just go to https://maps.nls.uk then ‘Find my Place’. Type in ‘Chingford’ then scroll on the graph to the relevant square. Click once and then the relevant OS maps will appear on the right-hand side for you to select. For the area around Newgate Street there is a choice of 8 maps. The maps published in 1898, 1921, 1946 and 1953 clearly show the site of the sewage farm with its filter beds. From looking at the shape of the Ching and where Newgate Street crosses the Ching the site of “Forest Cottage” appears to be right next to the filter beds. Other maps of the area including the 1777 Chapman & Andre map can be seen on the Layers of London website.

There is some information about the Western Sewage Works as it was known in the 1998 journal of the London Natural History Society in relation to how the Ching and Highams Park Lake were affected by the sewage works. By the time the site closed in the 1960s the area had been transformed with modern housing estates nearby meaning that the volume of sewage passing through the site must have increased dramatically. The journal states that “The discharge of the treated sewage effluent into the River Ching, part of which was diverted into the lake, was responsible for many of its siltation problems today.” The journal says that the site closed when Deepham’s Sewage Treatment Works in Edmonton were expanded in the 1960s and the sewage was diverted from Chingford.

100 years earlier on 5 July 1898, Walthamstow UDC wrote about the pollution of the River Ching at Chingford Hatch and The Clerk was requested to write to Buckhurst Hill and Woodford UDCs and request immediate steps to prevent the discharge of sewage into the River from their sewage works. (Information obtained from Chingford Historical Society Notes.)

Back to the 20^th century and the Medical Officer of Health Report for 1964 states that there had been a delay in the sewage being diverted to Edmonton but it was hoped that this would take place during 1965. It added that “In the meantime everything possible is being done to ensure as good a standard of purification as possible”. The 1964 report is the latest one that’s available. The MOD reported in 1961 that the works were only of about half the required capacity.

As an aside these Medical Officer of Health reports which have been digitised by the The Wellcome Library are in themselves a fascinating read. On a topical note unrelated to this post the report from 1897 (page 6) discusses that as there had only been a handful of deaths from infectious diseases the previous year that the building of an isolation hospital might make people think this was a “needless luxury”. This report goes on to say that unfortunately Chingford’s “… propinquity to such populous centres as Walthamstow and London renders it extremely improbable that we shall always enjoy our present immunity from zymotic disease.”

From my very worthwhile subscription to the British Newspaper Archive I have found a couple of articles which give a bit of background to the opening of the sewage works. If you have a subscription the articles were published between February and March 1885 mostly in the Chelmsford Chronicle and Essex Herald.

It was reported that the Woodford Local Board had taken“by compulsory powers” under the Public Health Act 1882 from the Conservators of Epping Forest four acres of land for the disposal of sewage from the western slopes of the parish of Woodford and the parish of Chingford.  It was then realised by “gentlemen of the legal persuasion” that as well as paying the Conservators for the land that they would have to pay compensation to the commoners for the loss of their rights.

At a meeting of the Essex Field Club in March 1885 it was reported that at a recent meeting of the commoners that the general view was that the compensation should be used to purchase additional land near the forest to compensate for the 4 acres lost “because if portions of the Forest were to be taken first by a railway and then by a sewage farm it would soon be considerably diminished.”

A question was also asked in Parliament. On 12^th March 1885 the Secretary of State for the Home Department was asked “… whether he had observed that it was intended to sell about 4 acres of Epping Forest to the Woodford Local Board; and whether such sale was not in contravention of the Epping Forest Act 1878.” The minister’s reply was that “… the matter was not under his control, but he had received information from the City authorities that this land was taken by the Woodford Local Board by compulsory powers … under the Public Health Act 1882.”

It was already too late; the conveyance was dated that same day.

I have tried very hard to find out more about the Moule family who occupied the house which was initially tied to the job at the sewage works but I have so far found out very little information. I was just about to publish this post and tried one more search on Find My Past and did find one George William David Moule who was born in 1898 and died in 1959. His address was given as “Westens [sic] Outfall Works Newgate St Chingford.” If I had found this earlier in my research I may have tried to find out more about the family but I feel that enough time has been spent on it and I need to move on! If however anyone else has information about this family please comment below.

Since the title passed to the individual owner in 2015 there have been a number of planning applications. The most recent one was approved late last year although there were a number of conditions attached to this approval.

This approved application was for the demolition of the house and the erection of 1 two bedroom flat and 1 four bedroom flat. More details including the plans and the objections can be found on this link. There were only a handful of objections but some of them cite that there was a lack of notices displayed about the application and previous applications had received many more complaints.  Other objections related to the unusual arrangements for bin collections. Bins would have to be wheeled to the end of the driveway, more than 100 yards from the house along a rough track.

The site is currently an eyesore; it would seem the house has been left to fall down. Rubbish including broken glass has been dumped on the land belonging to Redbridge Council. I personally would prefer that the house was repaired and restored rather than demolished. Let us hope that something positive happens soon.

The author of this blog (Joanna Moncrieff) is a qualified City of Westminster and Clerkenwell & Islington Tour Guide and when not in lockdown leads regular walks both in Central London and Chingford and Walthamstow. Joanna is also available for online talks.

Sources consulted:

The Streets of Waltham Forest Volume 2 by J M Hayward

Chingford Historical Society: Chingford Farms by Morna Daniels, Chingford Hatch by Morna Daniels, Chingford Historical Society Notes

National Library of Scotland for historic OS maps (online and free)

Layers of London – free online maps

Medical Officer of Health reports, Wellcome Library (online and free)

British Newspaper Archives (subscription required)

HM Land Registry (£3 per title)