FROM LIVERPOOL STREET TO LOUGHTON.
Diverging at (1+ miles) Bethnal Green from the Chingford line, this railway runs via Coborn Road to (4 miles) Stratford, a busy junction, where it diverges (left) from the main Chelmsford line.
The main line goes on via (6 miles) Manor Park, with the cemetery in which is buried John Cornwell, V. C., the boy-hero of the battle of Jutland, and (7+ miles) Ilford, north of which is Valentines Park, to (12+ miles) Romford, with its large breweries, etc. (see the Blue Guide to England). Becontree, south of Ilford, is a new suburb laid out by the London County Council.
Both (5+ miles) Leyton and (6+ miles) Leytonstone have other stations on the London Midland & Scottish line from St. Pancras to Southend. Close to Leyton station on the latter line is the Essex County Cricket Ground, and circa + mile south west, in Church Road, is Etloe House, in which Cardinal Wiseman spent his latter years (1858- 64).
About + mile east of Leyton (London North Eastern) is Wanstead Park (200 acres), a public park (1880), containing a string of lakes, surrounded by fine woods (fishing, 2/ per day). On the farthest island is a heronry of fifty nests. The park once belonged to Wanstead House, a magnificent mansion built by Earl Tylney in 1715 and pulled down in 1822. Among the former residents in this house were Louis XVIII. and the Prince de Conde. To the south are Wanstead Flats, another public open space, much used for games.
7+ miles. Snaresbrook. To the left are Leyton Flats, with a boating-lake, and the Snaresbrook Orphan Asylum. 8 miles. George Lane. 9 miles. Woodford (Castle Hotel, D. 3/6; Sir Wilfrid Lawson, temperance, D. 3/).
A branch-line curves hence to the south to (6+ miles) Ilford, via (2+ miles) Chigwell, the church of which has a Norman south doorway and a fine brass of 1631 (in the chancel), William Penn attended Harsnett's free school at Chigwell in 1656. The picturesque old King's Head here is the original of the 'Maypole' in Dickens's 'Barnaby Rudge.' To the south east lies Hainault Forest, about 800 acres of which were rescued for the public in 1905 (public golf course). The nearest station is Grange Hill.
10+ miles. Buckhurst Hill (Roebuck Hotel, L. 3/, tea 1/3) lies about 1 miles from the main Forest, but immediately to the south west of the station is a beautiful patch of woodland, known as Lord's Bushes (120 acres), with old oaks, beeches, and hollies.
11+ miles. Loughton (Crown Hotel) lies + mile from the east edge of Epping Forest.
As the line goes on to its terminus at Ongar it gradually leaves the Forest. 13 miles. Chigwell Lane. 15miles. Theydon Bois. 16+ m. Epping (Thatched House, L. 3/6, D. 4/6; Cock; Bell Inn, L. 3/6, D. 4/6, near the forest), lies about + mile from the forest. The Lower Forest is an isolated patch to the north of the town. 19 miles. North Weald; 20+ miles. Blake Hall. 22+ miles. Ongar, or Chipping Ongar (King's Head), is a small village with an ancient castle-mound, dating from Anglo-Saxon times, and a church (13-15th century) in which Jane Cromwell (died 1637), cousin of the Protector, is buried William Byrd, the composer, died at Ongar in 1623. About 1 mile to the west is the little Greenstead Church, with a remarkable nave, probably Anglo-Saxon, the walls of which are formed of upright tree-trunks, split in halves (key at the lodge of Greenstead Hall). The body of St. Edmund rested here for a night in 1013 on its return from London to Bury St. Edmunds, whence it had been removed in fear of the Danes.
