National Jazz Archive

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Loughton Hall is a large house in Rectory Lane, Loughton, Essex. The architect was William Eden Nesfield, and it is grade II listed with Historic England. It is now a 33-bedroom residential care home for elderly people.

Roding Valley Meadows is an 18.9-hectare (47-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Buckhurst Hill in Essex. It is part of a 65.2 hectare Local Nature Reserve with the same name, which is owned by Epping Forest District Council and Grange Farm Trust, and managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust.The meadows are bordered to the south west by the River Roding. They form one of the largest areas of grassland in Essex which are traditionally managed as hay meadows, flood meadows and marshland. They have a rich variety of plant species, including the largest beds in Essex of the rare brown sedge. The flood meadows have a number of uncommon species, including carex panicea and marsh-marigold. There are nearly ten miles of hedgerows. Management is by hay cutting and grazing by traditional breeds of cattle.The main car park is on Roding Lane.

Thrift Wood is a 19.4-hectare (48-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south-east of Bicknacre in Essex. It is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust.The site is an ancient semi-natural wood on acid soil. It is of two types, both unusual habitats, pedunculate oak/hornbeam and sessile oak/hornbeam. Wild service trees and elders are found in the shrub layer, and a pond has a raised sphagnum bog. Twenty species of butterfly have been recorded.There is access from Main Road.