Epping Forest

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.

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 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.

Turpin's Cave is an area of Epping Forest in Essex which has been attributed as a hiding place of the highwayman Dick Turpin. Dick Turpin knew Epping Forest well and organised many criminal activities from a base between the Loughton Road and Kings Oak Road, which in legend became known as 'Turpin's cave'. After an incident in May 1737, Turpin escaped to Epping Forest, where he hid (according to accounts "in a cave"). He was seen by Thomas Morris, a servant of one of the Forest's keepers close to what is now 'The Robin Hood' pub. Morris armed with pistols, attempted to capture Turpin on the 4th of May; Turpin however shot and killed him with a carbine. The murder was reported in The Gentleman's Magazine The terrain in most of Epping Forest comprises Bagshot Beds, which are sand and gravel and not solid enough to provide habitable caves such as the one illustrated. Though several locations for Turpin's hiding place were suggested, legend attributed it to a site off Wellington Hill at High Beach. D'Oyley, the Loughton surveyor, who drew up the maps for the Epping Forest Commission in the 19th century marked the area to the north of Loughton Camp as Dick Turpin's Cave and the name was applied to a pub at that location B H Cowper, who excavated Loughton Camp in the 1870s referred to maps identifying Turpin's cave within the camp, but found no evidence of a cave there. However an identifiable dug-out was visible in the 19th century as in 1883 John Croumbie Brown wrote "Turpin's Cave is as much one of the exhibitions of Epping Forest as Turpin's Oak is of Finchley Common, and who shall begrudge to the admirers of each, in these unromantic and prosaic days, the indulgence of their tastes".The Turpin's Inn pub dates from some time in the 19th century as it was visited by John Davidson in 1893 who complains in his "Random Itinerary" of being made to pay a deposit for the drinking pot there. A housing development has since been built over the pub but next to it was a fenced-off dug-out in the clay and gravel soil described as Turpin's Cave, all or part of which was visible when the photograph was taken in the 1960s. The site in Epping Forest is not the only one with the name Turpin's Cave. There is a "Turpin's Cave" at the edge of Bostall Woods in Plumstead Another site known as Dick Turpin’s Cave is at Rammamere Heath near Heath and Reach, Bedfordshire .

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.

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 () 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.

Waltham Forest was a royal forest that existed from around the time the Forest of Essex was disestablished in the 13th century. After that Forest Law was focused on areas with higher concentrations of woodland than the sparsely wooded Forest of Essex ever had. Forests were legal institutions introduced by the Normans to denote an area where the King or another magnate had the right to keep and hunt deer and make Forest Law. Initially there was a very weak correlation between the extent of the legal forest and what might be termed the 'physical forest', the often wooded Common Land areas where the deer lived. In later centuries there was a much stronger correlation – with Forest areas decreasing in extent to more closely align with wooded area. Eventually the word forest became synonymous with woodland. Waltham Forest was focused on the heavily wooded areas subsequently known as Epping Forest and Hainault Forest. Outside those areas woodland cover would have been modest, particularly near the Roding and Lea rivers. Waltham Forest was bounded by the River Lea in the west and the originally Roman Romford Road (A118) in the south. It stretched north with boundaries in the Harlow area. The London Borough of Waltham Forest was named after this institution.

Loughton () is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, within the metropolitan and urban area of London, England. Situated 12 miles (19 km) north-east of Charing Cross, the town borders Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell, Chingford, and Buckhurst Hill. The parish of Loughton covers part of Epping Forest, 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. It is the most populous civil parish in the Epping Forest district, and within Essex it is the second most populous civil parish (after Canvey Island) and the second largest in the area. At the 2021 census, it had a population of 33,353. Loughton has three conservation areas and there are 56 listed buildings in the town, together with a further 50 that are locally listed.

Debden House is a conference centre and campsite located in Loughton, Essex, England. The house is owned and operated by Newham London Borough Council. The house is used as a conference centre with residential facilities during the week, and is available for hire. Newham Borough Council use the house extensively for staff training, team-building exercises and conferences. Residential accommodation is available for students. The campsite at Debden House is open from May to September every year. Facilities include a shop, cafe, washing and drying machines, electric points, toilets and showers.

East 15 Acting School (East 15) is a British drama school in Loughton, Essex. Its degrees are awarded by the University of Essex, with which it merged on 1 September 2000. As of 2020, Essex University, where East 15 is located, has been ranked No. 1 UK university for studying drama and dance in the Guardian's University Guide. It is a member of the Federation of Drama Schools.