Recently I’ve been doing my research for the Loughton local election results and as a result firstly found a detailed map of Loughton with all the houses and gardens - I intend to share it on this site later - but then found another map, which has totally fascinated me. It’s a map of Epping Forest and surrounded towns and villages from the beginning of the last century. This map has amazed me because I’ve never known what Loughton, Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell and Epping used to be at that time.

I’ve cut a bit from it where Loughton is. Below is the old Loughton map from circa 1910.

As you see, there are plenty of self-explanatory road names like

• Alderton Hall Road - where Alderton Hall used to be; now Alderton Hill;
• Rectory Lane - where the Rectory used to be;
• Church Hill - where St John’s Church is;
• Borders Lane - from Border’s farm that used to be located nearby.

Pink coloured spaces on the map show where the houses stood at that time and - no surprise here - currently the oldest houses in Loughton are still there. Despite the fact that railway station has been opened in 1856, there hasn’t been much of a development around it. I assume that the majority of houses alongside High Road, Forest Road and York Hill have been built before the railway came to Loughton.

Loughton has even had its own hotel at the time and a couple of chapels in addition to St.John the Baptist’s, St.Mary’s and St.Nicholas’s churches. The last one is used to be where Epping Forest College is now.

The map is so peaceful and gratefully old that I can just imagine myself being in that beginning of century Loughton with fields all around the town, farms and churches with unobscured views. No newly built commuter belt houses yet, no Debden Estate, the old railway terminus is in place of current Sainsbury’s parking lot, roads are not congested and railway trains are fast and reliable.

The whole 1910 Epping Forest map can be found on the Hunt House website.

Well, technically Debden is a part of Loughton town because officially there’s no town called Debden and all Debden addresses are Loughton addresses too. So on paper Debden is a suburb of Loughton, an estate that was built after the World War II to house people who lost their homes during the war. Why then there’s still a divide between the old part of Loughton and new Debden - the former council estate where these days almost all houses are privately owned?

I think this comes from the different types of people who live in different parts of Loughton as well as costs of houses and access to amenities and local transport. It’s like the divide between Old Harlow and Harlow but much less distinct.

Whereas houses in old Loughton are in totality respectfully old, distinctive and expensive; houses in Debden are new-ish, were cheap to build and with minor variations look the same.

Old Loughton houses rich people, white collar workers from London City; Debden on the other hand have simplier popuation - mostly London service sector workers like builders and taxi drivers.

Old Loughton has a lot of shops, cafes, eateries, two big supernarkets, leisure centre and several chirches; Debden has its own town centre with shops and two small supermarkets but simple local cafes and no well-known restaurant chains.

I think you get the trend. Debden is like a little sister of Loughton - it’s more disrespectful and less politically correct, younger and therefore prone to errors. But it doesn’t make her less of a sister - she is still loved and hated in the same time, just like in a real family. Old Loughton like an older sister would always look after Debden no matter what. And in my observations people don’t tend to say “I live in Debden” or “I live in old part of Loughton”, they just say “I live in Loughton” and this is how it should be.

So do you consider Debden to be a part of Loughton?

Here are couple of for and against points to consider:

For:

• Two towns are united under one name - Loughton. Debden is just a name of the locality now, which came from Debden Green - a hamlet north of Loughton. Debden is not recognised on road maps.
• Debden has generally lost its “estate” feel because the majority of houses are privately owned.
• People who live in Debden go shopping to Old Loughton and often visit Loughton Leisure Centre, restaurants and a night club because these have not been opened in Debden yet.
• Some areas considered to be Debden are closer to Loughton town centre than to Broadway (i.e. Debden town centre)
• Old Loughton and Debden have the same bus routes - almost all buses that go to Loughton also go to Debden.

Against:

• There’s a visible class divide between the people in old Loughton and Debden as well as different types of houses.
• Old Loughton and Debden have their own town centres, the undergound stations and designated end-of-route bus stands.
• Old Loughton and Debden are geographically divided - Old Loughton occupies the north-west of geographical Loughton and Debden occupies the south-east.
• Old Loughton residents mainly vote for Conservatives; Debden residents mainly vote for Labour and LRA.

The green spaces in Loughton are very important for the Loughton residents. They allow children to be active outside of their homes and in the same time to be monitored by their parants. They allow adults to be active too by doing some jogging and excercises on the fresh air away from the cars and buses. They allow the dog owners to walk their dogs there and to play with them.

The green spaces were wisely put in our town to bring the joy to those who live nearby. This is not concrete London and not even Athens where in some areas for miles around there are no green spaces at all. We love Loughton because of its greenness and areas free from cars and houses.

And now our “much-loved” Epping Forest District Council decided to deprive the Loughton people of their pride and joy because the government don’t have enough houses to give to the immigrants who come to the UK, claim benefits and live in houses that are given to them by the government itself. That is the only reason for Gordon Brown’s government to build millions of new houses around London and that’s why councils are obliged to find the space to build them.

But that’s the subject for another much wider discussion. Here, I want to focus on the protection of green spaces in Loughton. They are mentioned on the Loughton Residents Association website here and are not just some derelict overgrown areas – these are spaces that are well looked-after and used by people. (Click here for the related Loughton Council news.) Maybe except the little wood alongside Oakwood Hill, all of the green spaces in Loughton are there for a reason. And even the wooden area is there to shield the town from the motorway M11.

All the green spaces in town need to be preserved at any cost because they are there for our children and children of our children. How can we do that? That’s a good question. Do what you can: sign the LRA petition, send a letter to Loughton and Epping Forest councils arguing agains the concrete jungles in Loughton, put a banner on your car or in the window of your house, spread the word by telling everyone about the problem.

Indeed, in addition to the reasons for the green spaces, there are plenty of reasons against Loughton expansion and more and more residents. The town’s infrastructure is not capable of supporting more and more cars on the roads. The capacity of schools in Loughton cannot expand forever. The surgeries are full. The supermarkets are overcrowded. Why do Loughton people have to suffer because of the stupid policies carried out by the government of this country in the name of people who oppose these policies?

Say “Yes” to preserve the existing green spaces in Loughton!

Say “No” to more houses in Loughton!

Save Loughton’s authenticity, stop it becoming just another London suburb!