Thomas Willingale (1799–1870), lived in the village of Loughton in Essex, UK. Year 1799 ( MDCCXCIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Year 1870 ( MDCCCLXX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Loughton (ˈlaʊtən or lau-ton) is a town and Civil parish in the Epping Forest district of Essex. Essex is a county in the East of England. The County town is Chelmsford, and the highest point of the county is Chrishall Common The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located He was instrumental in the preservation of Epping Forest and is commemorated for his actions. Epping Forest is an area of ancient Woodland in south-east England, straddling the border between north-east Greater London and Essex.
"Lopping" was the ancient practice of cutting or lopping the boughs and branches of trees by commoners for use as fuel during winter. For other uses of the term "Pruning" see Pruning (disambiguation. Thomas Willingale was a man who guarded this right, and every November 11 at midnight, he went into the forest as he believed that if no-one started lopping at the appointed hour, the rights would be lost forever. Events 308 - The Congress of Carnuntum: Attempting to keep peace within the Roman Empire, the leaders of the Tetrarchy declare
In 1860, the lords of the manor were encroaching on the forest to stop the commoners from practicing their lopping rights. Year 1860 ( MDCCLX) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year starting There is a legend which cannot be proved or disproved, but is still commonly told in Loughton, that the major local landowner, William Whitaker Maitland, tried to end this custom by inviting all those with rights to lop to a supper at the King's Head pub (now a restaurant in the "Zizzi" chain), in Loughton High Road. He was hoping that by midnight, they would all be too drunk to go into the forest and exercise their rights. The legend says that Thomas Willingale realised treachery was afoot, and at midnight he lopped off a branch before triumphantly returning to the King's Head.
Four years later, the Revd John Whitaker Maitland enclosed 1,318 acres (5 km²) of forest land, with the intention of selling this on for building or horticulture. Enclosure or inclosure (the latter is used in Legal documents and Place names is the term used in England and Wales Horticulture is the art and science of plant cultivation Horticulturists (or horticuluralists) work and conduct research in the fields of Plant propagation Thomas Willingale was incensed of this further erosion of commoner rights in the forest and decided to fight the enclosure. He continued to lop and was prosecuted at Waltham Abbey court; some members of his family, though not Thomas himself, were imprisoned as a result. Luckily a number of well-to-do people came to Thomas's aid, promising support and more importantly financial help. These included Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton of Warlies, a prominent landowner, his brother Edward North Buxton of Knighton, a leading member of the Commons Preservation Society and John T. Bedford, a member of the City of London Corporation. The City of London Corporation (formerly known as the Corporation of London)is the municipal governing body of the City of London.
Eventually the City of London Corporation was persuaded to take on the landowners and “secure for the People, for the purposes of public health and recreation” the remainder of the forest of Epping. Legal proceedings by the Corporation, against the enclosures began August 1871 resulting, ultimately, in Epping Forest Act 1878. Year 1871 ( MDCCCLXXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common
Unfortunately, Thomas Willingale died in 1870 and was unable to see the forest given the protection it deserved. The abolition of lopping was, however, part of this settlement.
Today, Epping Forest is still enjoyed for recreation by thousands of people each year. The forest itself is protected from development of any kind, and as a result still stretches from the heart of East London out into the Essex countryside, a green lung for the area which has of course become much more built up since 1878. Thomas Willingale is commemorated in Loughton by the street name Willingale Road, the Thomas Willingale School, and formerly had a pub named after him in Chingford (renamed "The Station House" in 2006). Chingford is a town in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is a suburban development situated northeast of Charing Cross. The Lopping Hall in Loughton was paid for out of compensation money for extinguishment of the lopping rights. It contains a carved hornbeam memorial tablet to Willingale and its north entrance includes a terracotta pediment illustrating loppers at work in the forest. There is a blue plaque on the wall of St John's Churchyard, where Willingale is buried in an unmarked pauper's grave. In the United Kingdom, a blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event
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