Epping Forrest - Are You Brave Enough?

Epping Forest

If you go down into the woods today!

If you are Brave enough?

You most certainly ARE in for a Big Surprise

Epping Forest stretches over 9 square miles and is covered with thick trees that have not been cut in over 100 years, due to the Epping Forest Act of 1878

If the trees are not enough to spook you perhaps the 34 documented cases of suicide, hangings, murder and drownings of both men, women and 3 children in the Pond, Forest and Hangman’s Hill most certainly will.

One of the most famous names associated with the forest is Dick Turpin and his accomplices Mathew (Tom) King and Stephen Potter, so notorious were the Essex Gang that no Public Inn would receive them as guests.

They made their way to Epping forest from Cambridge where they first met and decided to make a cave hidden by dense bushes and undergrowth for fear of being discovered. It was only then at dusk they would continue to carry out their callous crimes favoured by robbing isolated farmhouses and torturing the female occupants if they refused to cooperate. Installing fear and panic amongst the locals.

For some months they were able to keep their whereabouts hidden until Turpin made a grave mistake.

Murdering a man who tried to arrest him over the theft of one too many horses and almost being caught by another he shot and killed, Turpin immediately fled to Exmoor by a little used track and gathering several profitable coups along the way.

Here he stayed for many months until he felt it safe to return nearer to his home. Busy wooing the only daughter of a wealthy widow.

Eventually his former gang members were caught following an Advertisement in the London Gazette and sent to the gallows while the Hunt for Turpin was growing even stronger.

For many years there have numerous sightings of a figure wearing a tricorn hat and riding a horse in the forest and reports of dark shadows and, strange noises within. Could this be Dick Turpin returning?

It is also said that The forest has been a refuge for people escaping the plague and the bombing of London during the Second World War. Although much of its history and folklore has been lost over time, the stories that do survive often reveal a darker more unpleasant side.

Hangman ‘s Hill

On a slip road at High Beech, a very strange phenomenon occurs. If you park your car at the bottom of the hill at night, turn the engine and the power off, the car can be seen to roll slowly uphill. Local legend has it that the car is being pulled towards an ancient tree by a hangman’s noose. The tree itself is believed to be the site of a hanging of three witches.

It is said that at night 3 woman can be seen along Hangman’s hill that simply vanish into the Forest!

Suicide Pond

Over 300 years ago a young couple embarked on a dangerous and forbidden relationship, meeting secretly at a beautiful pond deep within the Forest. The girl’s father found out and in a fit of anger Killed the girl at the pond. On hearing of his lovers murder the boy committed suicide at the very same spot.

After than no birds were heard and no animals were ever seen there and the water became black.

People with no inclination committed suicide including 8 people and 3 children over a number of years with some parts of the pond being up to 15 feet in depth being noted of unsound mind!

It has been said in recent years that the suicide pond is deep in the heart of the forest far away from any road, dank, dark, and malignant and evil beyond measure. An atmosphere unpleasant beyond description.

Will You Join Us ?

Here's a list of who may haunt there .....

Information I found in Newspapers during the period

Sidney Howe aged 52 shot himself while of unsound mind in 1935 20th September

Epping forest fires 1887 burned for 3 days

Alexander Scott Grove aged 50 yrs. suspended by a white silk handkerchief around thick oak tree 25th November 1844

Jules Myers hanged himself of peculiar mind 6th July 1902

John Thompson aged 25yrs in 1907 September poisoned himself near the pond

Edward Reese Jones aged 37 3rd august 1928 throat cut, self-inflicted in forest

George Danaher sentenced to prison for wounding a woman with a razor in Epping forest in February 1923

30yrs old Unknown man found hanging in Epping forest in 1901 with a note in his pocket saying I am sickly suicide

August 1900 a couple found entwined together with a gun near shot themselves Auguste and Olga

Williams Henry Oates aged 33 found dead with severed arteries between thumb and forefinger in each hand 25th January 1885

26th March 1892 Unknown respectable 21 yr old man found with gun shot wounds to his mouth

Williams Hudson 19 November 1881 a single dad with 7 children who he did not send to school found with gunpowder in his mouth dead

Death of a woman in the lake in Epping forest Mrs chamberlain of unsound mind 12 October 1895

Thomas weaver aged 51 found dead with gunshot wounds to his mouth 21 July 1900

Henry Carter aged 40 years found dead with gunshot wound to his mouth 11 January 1902

1 august 1883 William Newman poisoned himself aged 70 yrs.

22-year-old man with his throat cut found in 1884 august

1934 john Wilmot 34yrs man died from head injuries thought to have been murdered 30th June

1892 unidentified man of unsound mind was cut from the trees 30 January 1892

October 1892 22 yr. old man found with gun shot wound to his head stated of unsound mind for the previous few months

60-year-old Man found drowned in pond Epping forest September 1903

June 1907 well dressed man found drowned in the pond

November 1955 woman found in shallow grave in Epping Forest Eileen Dora Taylor aged 31

June 1933 two people were struck by lightning in Epping forest and killed James Scott 17 and

Mr Ewing hunter 70 yrs. old

July 1863 18-year-old Eileen smooth was stabbed and killed then buried in the forest by her lover

Phyllis Brace aged 24 found dead in dense undergrowth and mud July 1936

1909 Sargent major silwood found drowned in shallow pond in Epping forest

A man named Peggy as he made his own wooden stump for his leg from a tree in the Epping Forest living in the forest for the past 20 years February 1913

Mary jane Heathcote killed her 3 children aged 3 and 5 by drowning them in the lake in July 1891 as she could not cope

December 1858 woman and baby murdered and found in the lake in Epping forest

A young woman by the name of Frances Robinson found dead in the forest considered foul play found drowned in the deepest part of the lake 15 feet down June 1887

Samuel bass was missing for 18 days and found dead the water May 1890 married man of unsound mind

William abergfell found hanging from a tree of unsound mind in April 1892