Turpin's Cave

High Beach (or High Beech) is a village inside Epping Forest in south-west Essex, England. Part of the civil parish of Waltham Abbey, the village is within the Epping Forest District and the ward of Waltham Abbey High Beach, and lies approximately 11 miles (18 km) north-east of Charing Cross. It is the location of Lippitts Hill and the Metropolitan Police Air Support Unit.

Loughton Camp is an Iron Age (~500 BC) Hill fort in Epping Forest, one mile (1.6 km) northwest of the town of Loughton. The camp's earthworks cover an area of approximately 10 acres (4 hectares) and are visible today as a low bank and ditch encircling the main camp. The banks were most probably once a single high rampart, used for defence and the appearance of the ditch suggests it was once very wide and deep in places. The camp lies on one of the highest points in the surrounding area, on a ridge of high ground, likely to have once been strategic. It is speculated that the camp was used by the Trinovantes in defence against the Catuvellauni. Its elevation suggests that the camp was possibly once a lookout post. However, it may have simply been used as fortification for protection of cattle. A stone Iron Age grain millstone (quern) was found close by. More colourfully, local legend has it that Boudica used the camp, and that Ambresbury Banks was the site of her defeat in AD61 however there is no evidence to corroborate this.The southwestern edge of the camp falls away sharply to an area known as Kate's Cellar (a hermit who reputedly once lived in this area of the forest). An early 19th Century map shows Dick Turpin's hideout here (there are a number of locations within Epping Forest's 6,000 acres (24 km2) which claim the same). The camp was 'discovered' by Mr Benjamin Harris Cowper in 1872. The first archaeology carried out was by General Pitt-Rivers in 1881. In 1882 the Essex Field Club further excavated the banks. Roger Nolan, in his Julius Caesar's Invasion of Britain (2018) says there is no doubt that Loughton Camp was the third marching camp used by Caesar in his invasion of 54BC, en route from Kent to the defeat of the British tribes at Wheathampstead (Devil's Dyke). The Loughton site has never been comprehensively excavated; any proof of this might be apparent from such an excavation. A corresponding camp Ambresbury Banks exists closer to the town of Epping. Both are Scheduled Ancient Earthworks and, as such, must only be explored on foot.

Epping Forest is a 2,400-hectare (5,900-acre) 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 London built-up area. South of Chingford the forest narrows, and forms a green corridor that extends deep into East London, as far as Forest Gate; the Forest's position gives rise to its nickname, the Cockney Paradise. It is the largest forest in London.It lies on a ridge between the valleys of the rivers Lea and Roding. It contains areas of woodland, grassland, heath, streams, bogs and ponds, and its elevation and thin gravelly soil (the result of glaciation) historically made it less suitable for agriculture. The Forest was historically managed as a common; the land was held by a number of local landowners who exercised economic rights over aspects such as timber, while local commoners had grazing and other rights. It was designated a royal forest meaning that only the monarch had the right to hunt deer. The extensive urban areas on the Forest's doorstep bring many visitors to the Forest, and cause a strain on the Forest's ecology; however local recreational users of the Forest were crucial in saving the Forest when it was threatened with enclosure and destruction in the late 19th century. The huge public outcry led the City of London Corporation to buy and so save the site in what was the first major success of the environmental movement in Europe - the Corporation still owns the Forest. This environmental milestone came at a cost, as the City of London's early conservators did not understand the human processes that shaped the forest and its ecosystems, and discontinued the practice of pollarding trees while allowing grazing to decline. This changed the character of the Forest and has led to reduced biodiversity. The modern Conservators are mindful of these historic errors but it is probably not possible to reverse the effects of this long interruption of historic management methods.The Forest gives its name to the Epping Forest local government district, which covers part of it, and to Forest School, a private school in Walthamstow towards the south of it.

Great Monk Wood is a wood within Epping Forest, in Essex, England. The wood, in the parish of Loughton, is centred on the Wakes Arms junction roundabout of the A104 Epping New Road, and the A121, and is southwest from the town of Epping and north from Loughton. The London orbital M25 motorway skirts the wood at its north. The nearest significant villages are High Beech, which is southwest within Epping Forest, and Theydon Bois to the east outside the Forest. Nearby railway or tube stations include Chingford, Buckhurst Hill, Loughton and Theydon Bois.

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 in aiding searches for missing persons, car pursuits, suspect capture and large public order operations such as football matches. The ASU also supported other emergency services, including the London Fire Brigade, London Ambulance Service and Marine Coastguard. On 31 March 2015, the National Police Air Service took over providing air support to the Metropolitan Police Service (along with all other police forces in England and Wales). This resulted in the closure of the Metropolitan Police Air Support Unit. The Metropolitan Police Service has also reportedly been secretly using Cessna aircraft for a number of years that have been fitted with surveillance equipment capable of intercepting mobile phone calls and listening in on conversations.Formed in 1980, the unit was based at Lippitts Hill, Essex and had 48 personnel comprising 3 sergeants, 18 constables, 4 aircraft engineers, 1 avionics engineer, 11 pilots and was headed by an inspector. The unit also employed other members of staff, including operations room staff and an intelligence officer. The senior management were based at Wapping police station. All pilots were ex-military Royal Navy but also Army Air Corps. Each aircraft was crewed by a pilot with two officers acting as observers, and averaged over 260 flying hours per month.In 1980, the ASU started with Bell 222A helicopters and in 1993 transitioned to Eurocopter AS355N Squirrel helicopters.In July 2007, the ASU took delivery of three new Eurocopter EC145s costing a total of £15 million, using the call signs India 97, India 98 and India 99. Each aircraft has an L-3 Wescam MX-15 sensor pod which houses a gyro-stabilised colour "day" camera and a thermal imaging camera with digital video downlink from the helicopter.In February 2015, it was announced that the control of the Metropolitan Police Air Support Unit was to be transferred to the National Police Air Service (NPAS) on 31 March, and that the base at Lippitts Hill would close in the following year. A projected new base at Elstree was intended to serve Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Essex as well as London. However, by February 2017, a replacement for the Lippitts Hill base had not been procured, and the possibility of using RAF Northolt instead was being investigated.On 7 September 2017 it was provisionally agreed by Epping Forest District Council to allow the unit to operate three helicopters and one fixed wing aircraft from North Weald Airfield in Essex, with a 25-year lease.

Lippitts Hill is a hill located at High Beach, Epping Forest, Essex. 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-aircraft site in the Second World War. The United States's 184th anti-aircraft artillery installed their own guns in 1941, and added an underground control room and block houses to the site. A prisoner of war camp was established at Lippitts Hill by the British after the camp was abandoned by the Americans in 1944. Relics from the Second World War at the camp include a memorial to the American forces that served there, and a concrete sculpture of a man, left by a German prisoner of war, Rudi Webber. The local branch of the Peace Pledge Union, a pacifist organisation, would invite local prisoners of war from the camp to their homes on Christmas Day.The hill was the location of the bodies in the Babes in the Wood murders in 1970.

Upshire is a village and area 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 II* listed building in Arts and Crafts style dating from 1902. Areas of built-up Waltham Abbey around Upshire Road and Pick Hill, most of which was developed in the latter half of the 20th century including northern parts of the Ninefields Estate, are also considered part of Upshire. The M25 motorway passes close to the village. Less than half-a-mile (650m) to the north-east is the hamlet of Copthall Green. Education is provided by Upshire Primary Foundation School.

The National Jazz Archive is a collection of materials pertaining to jazz and blues that is kept at the Loughton Library in Essex, England. The archive was founded by British trumpeter Digby Fairweather in 1998 and contains visual and print materials from the 1920s to the present.Patrons of the archive have included Baroness Amos, John Altman, Liane Carroll, Deirdre Cartwright, Gary Crosby, Paul Jones, Soweto Kinch, Cleo Laine, Michael Parkinson, Courtney Pine, John Prescott, Clare Teal, Kate Westbrook, and Mike Westbrook.In 2011 the Archive was awarded a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The grant enabled the cataloguing and digitisation of a substantial proportion of the collection, as well as a learning programme for schools and young people.The National Jazz Archive is a registered charity and relies on support from donations and volunteers.

The A121 road is a road in England connecting Waltham Cross and Woodford Wells.

Roding Valley High School is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form located in Loughton, Essex, England, founded in September 1989 by the merger of three schools.

King Harold Business and Enterprise Academy (formerly King Harold School) is a secondary school and specialist business and enterprise college located in Waltham Abbey, Essex. Students attending the school are between the ages of 11 and 16.

Loughton () is a London Underground station in the Epping Forest district of Essex. It is entirely above ground, and platforms are accessed by staircases which rise from ground level. It is served by the Central line and lies between Buckhurst Hill and Debden, in Travelcard Zone 6. It is the larger of the two Underground stations in the town of Loughton, with Debden station being the smaller. It acts as a terminus for services from Ealing Broadway at peak hour.