The Gypsies of Hainault Forest

Hainault Forest had always supported a large population of Gypsies and Tramps; disafforestation forced many of them to live on the outskirts of the area in places like Collier Row and Marks Gate. They made money by making and selling pegs etc. and by horse-trading in Romford Market. (In about 1935 I can remember my mother buying pegs from a Gypsy woman calling at the house selling pegs!) Over 300 gypsies that had encamped on the common at Chigwell Row were causing a lot of damage to the Forest and intimidating the local population with their stealing and bad behaviour. Cyril Groves said his father told him how the local children were often ‘relieved’ of their lunches on their way to the school opposite the Common by the Gypsy children; and how the gypsy women would settle their arguments by stripping to the waist and fighting in the yard of the Two Brewers public house! 

In 1903 it was said that as many as 300 Gypsy’s were camped on the common at Chigwell Row and Lambourne End, having been driven there by the various 19th century acts allowing the forest to be cleared. 300 may have been a slight exaggeration but there was a large number of Gypsies occupying all of the common and the adjacent woodland. Removing them was going to prove very difficult. Mr Buxton paid them handsomely, some 30 shillings each to move, which they did, but they returned a couple of days later and then refused to leave! Mr Buxton was in no mood for compromise and brought a team of burly men and carthorses from the family brewery, Truman, Hanbury & Buxton, and together with Rangers from Epping Forest, tried to physically eject them. As fast as they pulled them off they came back, tying branches to their wheels to prevent them from being moved. One was alleged to have tied his wife to the wheels but all to no avail. Several Gypsy men were arrested and gaoled on condition that they would not be released until they moved off the land. After three days when most had been ejected the rest finally moved off. 

Written by L. Peter Comber