PEOPLES PUBS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2011 :: RMTnews 32 T he public outcry against the current Tory-led government's plan to sell off public forests led to a dramatic climb-down, but nearly a third of all forestry workers' jobs are still under threat. They can take heart in this struggle from the example of Thomas Willingale, a forester who took on the lord of the manor and the government 150 years ago and defeated their attempts to enclose most of Epping Forest. Workers back in 1860 relied on the common land to graze their animals and collect firewood to supplement their living. The ancient rights to this dated back centuries, but were being threatened again by the latest round of enclosures - whereby the rich fenced off the common land and declared it their own. Epping Forest's lord of the manor, Rev John Whitaker Maitland, had already built on 2,000 acres of woodland through newly introduced legislation during the 1850s. Next he targeted the so called "lopping" rights of commoners to collect firewood in the winter. To maintain this right at least one person had to lop off one branch at midnight on November 11 each year and present it to the lord of the manor. On that night in 1860 Maitland hatched a devious plan to prevent this and so end the right. He invited all the loppers to supper and copious amounts of free beer at the King's Head in Loughton in order to make them drunk and incapable of lopping. To make doubly sure he locked them in the pub as well. But he had reckoned without Thomas Willingale (1798-1870), one of the loppers who had kept his wits about him, being rightly suspicious of Maitland's motives. Willingale used his axe to break down the locked door and left at 30 minutes to midnight towards the nearby forest. He lopped off a branch on the stroke of midnight and returned to present it in triumph to Maitland and so preserve the ancient right. Vindictively, Maitland took Willingale to court accusing him of injuring trees. Willingale was found not guilty, but three months later similar charges were brought against his son and two nephews who were imprisoned for seven days each. Willingale's biggest triumph, however, was to prevent the further enclosure of Epping Forest. When the common land was reduced to just 50 acres he formed the Commons Preservation Society to take legal action against further enclosures in 1866. He rejected large amounts of money to drop the case, and, with considerable public support, won in court. The battle was finally won with the Epping Forest Act of 1878 (after Willingale's death) that guaranteed the forest be kept unenclosed as an open space for the public, and protected its natural resources, including the trees. This meant the end of lopping. But the commoners were compensated for this with cash which was used to construct Lopping Hall, in Loughton (between Station Road and High Road) in 1883. There is a sculpture over the hall entrance of loppers to commem- orate their historic battle. Willingale, a labouring man who had built himself a cottage on the edge of the forest in Loughton, was buried locally in an unmarked grave. His name lives on, however, through the Thomas Willingale School, in Willingale Road, Loughton; and his great-great-granddaughter, Gwendoline Gathercloe, lives in Ye Old Loppers Cottage, in Forest Road, Loughton. "He must have been quite a guy to stand up to the lord of the manner," she said. "But if he had not taken up the fight there would be no forest left today." A Pub Crawl Through History, The Ultimate Boozers' Who's Who," by Mike Pentelow and Peter Arkell, is published by Janus. ISBN 978-1- 85756-701-4. PEOPLE’S PUBS - Words by Mike Pentelow, Pictures by Peter Arkell THOMAS WILLINGALE (recently renamed Station House) 134 Station Road, Chingford, London E4 Gwendoline Gathercloe