Footbridge over the River Ching in Highams Park

Image: © Marathon Taken: 1 Apr 2015

The River Ching is a tributary of the River Lea, originating in Epping Forest and flowing south and then west, to join the Lea by the Banbury Reservoir. It was dammed by Humphrey Repton to form Highams Park lake which is just downstream from this view. During the reign of King Henry VIIIth, the manor of Higham belonged to Sir Giles Heron. The present manor house was built in 1768 for the then Lord of the Manor, Antony Bacon MP. It was he who first enclosed this part of Epping Forest. In 1794 on the advice of Humphrey Repton he formed the tree-line lake.The lake was created partly to provide water for deer living in the nearby woods. For each project Humphrey Repton produced a "red book" containing overlays showing how the redesigned landscape would look. The red book for Highams Park survives and is kept at the Vestry House Museum in Walthamstow. The lake was formed by widening the River Ching. The manor house is now the central part of Woodford County High School. In 1891 Sir Courtenay Warner sold the lake, together with a strip of land either side, to the Corporation of the City of London for £6,000, assisted by donations from Walthamstow and Woodford local boards and private individuals. The latter amounted to £1,500. This land was added to Epping Forest and opened to the general public. The Great Eastern Railway took advantage of this new attraction and renamed Hale End station as Higham Park station in 1894 but got rather carried away in advertising the delights of Highams Park as "the most beautiful lake within a day's travel of London". Much of the remaining estate was sold during the 1930s and built on.

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