Lippitt’s Hill, Fernhills, Hangman’s Hill and Jacob Epstein at Loughton

The Friday after the Westminster Terrorist attack and flags are flying at half-mast over the public buildings at Woodford. I head down over the golf course to Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge and pop into The View Visitor Centre where I buy a postcard of a painting by Jacob Epstein. The lady at the counter tells me that she thinks that it shows ‘The Lost Pond’ (the painting is untitled) – Epstein lived at Baldwin’s Hill, Loughton and often painted the forest. She has matched the image on her morning dog walks along the Loughton Brook. She shows me roughly where the Lost Pond is on the map covering the floor although it isn’t marked. ‘I’ll try and head back that way later’, I tell her, although I’m bound in the opposite direction – out through Bury Wood towards Fernhills.

Before I’d found myself lost in the forest in the dark the previous weekend I’d been tempted to follow the Cuckoo Brook north. Checking the map in the pub afterwards I saw how it would have led me to an area just outside the forest I’d never visited so today that was where I headed.

Epping Forest view

The views from Fernhills were as fine as I’d hoped for – stretching out over Waltham Abbey and to the Epping Uplands. The footpaths of the Greenwich Meridian Trail towards Mott Street also offered majestic views of the Lea Valley and led me to witness the curious anomaly of Hangman’s Hill. A mini reversed towards me from Pynest Green Lane and the young driver wound down the window, ‘Do you the story about this area?’, she asked. ‘No, but I bet you do’, I replied. ‘Apparently if you release your breaks your car is pulled uphill’, she told me, ‘this was a place where people were hung and they were dragged up here to the gallows’. She then released the handbrake and the car appeared to slowly roll back up the hill. As we stood there a couple of lads pulled alongside in their car and the same thing happened.

As I walked off I saw them both repeatedly returning to the same spot and surrender their vehicles to paranormal forces not wanting to mention that on foot you could see that there was a slight camber in the road that actually sloped away downhill.

Turning back across High Beach I decided to find the location of Jacob Epstein’s painting but had forgotten the directions the lady had given me to the ‘Lost Pond’. Arriving at Baldwin’s Hill Pond I matched it to the postcard and found a good enough likeness to declare in the video above that this was spot Epstein had painted. Subsequently it has been pointed out that the ‘Lost Pond’ is elsewhere, near the Loughton Brook. The hunt for the location of Epstein’s painting goes on.

Woodbury Hollow Loughton

Emerging from the forest I was greeted by the expansive views right across London from Woodbury Hollow, apparently reaching as far as Crystal Palace and Croydon.

 

On 2nd May I’ll be in conversation with Will Ashon at the Wanstead Tap about his new book Strange Labyrinth – Outlaws, Poets, Mystics, Murderers and a Coward in London’s Great Forest

8 Comments

  1. Duncan Abbot   •  

    First, loved the film. We cycled a version of it on Sunday.

    However, in respect of the Epstien picture I think you were at the wrong pond. The pond you were at is Baldwin’s Pond. The Lost Pond is marked on the map as Blackweir pond for some reason. If you go to grid ref: 424978 on Explorer Sheet 174 I think you will match the painting with the landscape.

    I am going to get a cop[y of the card and waddle up there to check!

    keep up the good work.

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  3. Jay Jeffery   •  

    I ended up on this page researching Jacob Epstein & found the vt most enjoyable, it would seem I need to venture the far side of Epping Forest as I’m mostly in & around Little Monk Wood & Loughton with my two dogs nearby where I live. It does seem that the pond you were seeking is (as another has pointed out) Blackweir Pond aka ‘The Lost Pond’. Unusually it is near the top of Blackweir Hill about five minutes walk from Baldwins Pond & isolated with no tributaries coming or going; it was maybe an old stone quarry very many years ago. The pic looks a little like the southeast bank that is closest to Baldwins Hill, it’s one of my favourite places to go but has unfortunately been full of algae this summer. Anyway here’s how to find it on Google Maps….
    https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Blackweir+Pond/@51.6612548,0.0539035,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x47d8a1b7cb39c52b:0x47d8a1b7c17f6105!8m2!3d51.6612683!4d0.0561354

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  6. Kathleen   •  

    Landed here after watching this week’s search for the lost pond. A double treat for sure. And do you still have that postcard?

    • JohnR   •     Author

      I do indeed Kathleen- you can see it in the recent Lost Pond Video

  7. Pingback: The Lost Pond - Autumn walk in Epping Forest - the lost byway

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