High Beach (or High Beech) is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

inside

Epping Forest Epping Forest is a area of ancient woodland, and other established habitats, which straddles the border between Greater London and Essex. The main body of the forest stretches from Epping in the north, to Chingford on the edge of the Lond ...

in south-west

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England. Part of the civil parish of

Waltham Abbey Waltham Abbey is a suburban town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, within the London metropolitan area, metropolitan and urban area of London, England, East London, north-east of Charing Cross. It lies on the Greenwich ...

, the village is within the

Epping Forest District Epping Forest District is a local government district in Essex, England. It is named after the ancient woodland of Epping Forest, a large part of which lies within the district. The district covers northeastern parts of the urban area of London ...

and the

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

of Waltham Abbey High Beach, and lies approximately north-east of

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has been the notional "centre of London" and became the point from which distances from London are measured. ...

. It is the location of

Lippitts Hill Lippitts Hill is a hill located in Epping Forest at High Beach, Waltham Abbey. It has played several historic roles in the defence and policing of London. The hill was the site of a gun emplacement in the First World War and used as an anti-airc ...

and the

Metropolitan Police Air Support Unit The Air Support Unit (ASU) was a Central Operations branch of London's Metropolitan Police Service. The main responsibility of the unit was to provide aerial reconnaissance and other air support operations. Helicopters are particularly useful i ...

Elevations

High Beach is in the uplands of Essex, which reach heights of

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

on the western fringes of Epping Forest. Areas of the surrounding

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

are also named High Beach or High Beech. However, individual smallholdings of land are given over to residential, agriculture and mixed uses, particularly beside the straight A-road which bisects it.

Ordnance survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

website Many of the forest paths are naturally gravel-lined with underlying deposits of Bagshot Sands. It is believed that the name High Beach came from an early description of the localised sand and gravel exposure in this part of the forest.

The Church of the Holy Innocents

Holy Innocents The Massacre (or Slaughter) of the Innocents is a story recounted in the Nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew ( 2:16– 18) in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children who are two years old and u ...

’ church is surrounded by

. It was built in 1873 by

Thomas Charles Baring Thomas Charles Baring DL (16 May 1831 – 2 April 1891) was a British banker and Conservative Party politician. Life Baring, informally called "T. C." or "Charley" to distinguish him from the other Thomases in the Baring family, was the so ...

to replace the earlier church (St Paul's) which was located in Church Road around 1 mile away from the present church's location and had fallen into disrepair. The new church was designed by the

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Arthur Blomfield Sir Arthur William Blomfield (6 March 182930 October 1899) was an English architect. He became president of the Architectural Association in 1861; a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1867 and vice-president of the RIBA in ...

, and was built in the Early English style at the cost of £5,500. It was

consecrated Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

in 1883 and became the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

in 1884. The

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

and

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

contains 13

hemispherical A sphere (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ) is a surface (mathematics), surface analogous to the circle, a curve. In solid geometry, a sphere is the Locus (mathematics), set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three ...

bells cast at the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells ...

.History of High Beach church
Retrieved 09 March 2016

Notable residents

In July 1837,

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

John Clare's deteriorating

mental Mental may refer to: * of or relating to the mind Films * ''Mental'' (2012 film), an Australian comedy-drama film starring Toni Collette * ''Mental'' (2016 film), a Bangladeshi romantic-action film starring Shakib Khan * ''Mental'', a 2008 docu ...

disorder caused him to be admitted to the High Beach private asylum under the guidance of the enlightened Dr Matthew Allen. The poet, after suffering from depression, was invited as a guest to Allen's asylum. Clare spent four years at the asylum before escaping in July 1841.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of ...

lived at Beech Hill House from 1837 to 1840. During his short stay he may well have encountered Clare and other inmates. Tennyson was reported by a journalist as being "...delighted with the mad people...the most agreeable and the most reasonable persons he has met with." The lawyer William St Julien Arabin lived at Beech House, later renamed Arabin House. The mixed martial arts pioneer

Edward William Barton-Wright Edward William Barton-Wright Civil engineering, CE, FRSA, MJS (member of the The Japan Society of the UK, Japan Society) (8 November 186013 September 1951) was an English entrepreneur specialising in both self defence training and physical ther ...

lived at The Lodge, High Beech, in 1932.

Culture and community

Amenities include the church, primary school, horse riding school and three

pubs A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

: the ''Duke of Wellington'' (now closed), ''The King’s Oak'' and ''The Owl''. Owned and managed by the

London Borough of Waltham Forest The London Borough of Waltham Forest () is an Outer London, outer London boroughs, London borough formed in 1965 from the merger of the municipal boroughs of Municipal Borough of Leyton, Leyton, Municipal Borough of Walthamstow, Walthamstow an ...

, the Suntrap Forest Education Centre and The

Field Studies Council Field Studies Council is an educational charity based in the UK, which offers opportunities for people to learn about and engage with the outdoors. History The organisation was established as the Council for the Promotion of Field Studies in ...

Epping Forest Field Centre offers field studies and other activities to schools and other groups. Epping Forest Visitors’ Centre in Nursery Road is one of three visitor centres in the forest that provide learning, tours, exhibits and recreational facilities. Kings Oak

Sport and forest walks

In February 1928, an oval

cinder Cinder or Cinders may refer to: In general * Ember, also called cinder * Ash, also called cinder * Scoria, or cinder, a type of volcanic rock In computing * Cinder (programming library), a C++ programming library for visualization *Cinder, Ope ...

circuit to the rear of the ''Kings Oak'' public house was the venue for Britain's first

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

meeting. Courses and appropriate tracks for outdoor pursuits include

horse riding Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding ( Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting. This broad description includes the ...

mountain biking Mountain biking (MTB) is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability ...

orienteering Orienteering is a group of sports that involve using a map and compass to navigation, navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a specia ...

and seasonally there are

running Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion by which humans and other animals move quickly on foot. Running is a gait with an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is in contrast to walkin ...

events. The Epping Forest Centenary Walk passes through the locality. The route was established in 1978 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the passing of the ''

Epping Forest Act 1878 During the middle of the nineteenth century, a number of initiatives were started to protect the rights of the public to use open spaces and for the areas to be conserved for their specific environmental features. Some notable people of the tim ...

''. Section 18 of the

London Loop The London Outer Orbital Path—more usually the "London LOOP"—is a 150-mile (242 km) signed walk along public footpaths, and through parks, woods and fields around the edge of Outer London, England, described as "the M25 for walke ...

, a

long distance footpath A long-distance trail (or long-distance footpath, track, way, greenway) is a longer recreational trail mainly through rural areas used for hiking, backpacking, cycling, equestrianism or cross-country skiing. They exist on all continents exce ...

, can be joined at nearby

Sewardstone Sewardstone is a hamlet in the parish of Waltham Abbey, in the Epping Forest District of Essex, England. It is located south of the main built-up area of Waltham Abbey, lying between Epping Forest, Chingford and Enfield. It is 11.6 miles nort ...

. In Mott Street the High Beach

Cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

Club play in Division 4 of the Herts & Essex League.

Governance

High Beach is part of the civil parish of Waltham Abbey, and the parish council is Waltham Abbey Town Council. The local authority is

Epping Forest District Council Epping may refer to: Places Australia * Epping, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Epping railway station, Sydney * Electoral district of Epping, the corresponding seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly * Epping Forest, Kearns, a h ...

. Residents of High Beach fall into the Waltham Abbey High Beach Ward, which also covers

and

Upshire Upshire is a village in the civil parish of Waltham Abbey in the Epping Forest District of Essex, England. The centre of the village is on Horseshoe Hill (a minor road), on which is The Horseshoe public house, and the church of St Thomas, a Grade ...

. Traditionally, the ward has been a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

safe seat. In the late 2000s, there was a strong showing for

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

- but they failed to accumulate enough votes to win the ward - the support for them has since diminished. In the 2019 Local Elections, the Conservatives won with 60% of the vote.

Transport links

Road *Major roads A104, M25, A121 and the A112 pass through or close by to the locality. Rail *

Chingford railway station Chingford railway station is the terminus of the Chingford branch of the Lea Valley Lines, located in Chingford in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is one of three northern termini of London Overground's Weaver line, down the lin ...

is approximately away. London Transport *

Loughton tube station Loughton () is a London Underground station, serving the suburban town of Loughton in the Epping Forest District of Essex. It is on the Central line (London Underground), Central line between Buckhurst Hill tube station, Buckhurst Hill and Debde ...

is approximately away. Bus * London bus route 215 serves the A112 Sewardstone Road, approximately away. Arriva route 66 connects into

Loughton Loughton () is a suburban town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. The town borders Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell, Chingford, and Buckhurst Hill, and lies north-east of Charing Cross. For statistical purposes ...

and runs approximately hourly to the fringes of the village close to the Woodbine pub.

Notes and references

;Notes ;References {{authority control Villages in Essex Waltham Abbey