Epping Forest Act 1878 |
This page is part of the campaign to
Save the Epping Forest Act.
The Act appointed an Arbitrator (Sir Arthur Hobhouse Q.C.) to oversee the process whereby the Corporation was to buy up all the remainder of the land in the Forest. Most of the text of the Act therefore became obsolete when he completed this job in 1882. Section 7 is the only important part of the Act now: there are no “technical” clauses in it.
Unfortunately, whilst all recent legislation is readily available online, this is not the case for either the Epping Forest Act 1878 or any of the Corporation of London Acts that have amended it is available online.
The Home Office has seen fit neither to rectify this situation nor to include the relevant sections in its consultation document. There might have been an excuse for this on the grounds of the labour involved in transcribing the Act, if it had been particularly lengthy, but in fact it is shorter than many of the individual papers that have been prepared the planning application and are already in the public domain.
You can buy a copy for £6. The following parts of the Act are those that are mentioned in or relevant to the Home Office consultation document.
An Act for the Disafforestation of Epping Forest and the preservation and management of the uninclosed parts thereof as an Open Space for the recreation and enjoyment of the public; and for other purposes.
[Disafforestation does not mean the removal of trees but of the legal status of being a forest.]
... Her Majesty was graciously pleased to express her concurrent in the desire that open spaces in the neighbourhood of the Metropolis might as far as possible be preserved for the enjoyment of her people;
... the Corporation of London have made great exertions to preserve the Forest as an open space for the recreation and enjoyment of the public, and for that purpose have purchased and hold a large proportion of the waste lands and have expended large sums of money, as well in those purchases as in the prosecution of the said suit and in the proceedings before the Commissioners, and otherwise;
And whereas the Corporation of London are desirous of being constituted Conservators of the Forest, and are willing and able to defray such expenses as are to be borne by the Conservators, and the Commissioners Scheme proposed and it is expedient that they be so constituted:
... but the objects aforesaid cannot be attained without the authority of Parliament: be it therefore enacted ...
Epping Forest shall be regulated and managed under and in accordance with this Act by the Corporation of London, acting by the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of the same city in Common Council assembled, as the Conservators of Epping Forest...
All rights of common pasture and of common of mast or pannage for swine on or over Epping Forest, as they exist at the passing of this Act, shall continue, without prejudice, nevertheless, to the provisions of this Act (which rights are in this Act comprised under rights of common).
[This means the right to turn out pigs on the land during the pannage season (autumn) in order to eat beech mast, acorns and nuts.]
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Conservators shall at all times keep Epping Forest uninclosed and unbuilt on, as and open space for the recreation and enjoyment of the public; and they shall by all lawful means prevent, resist, and abate all future inclosures, encroachments, and buildings, and all attempts to inclose, encroach, or build on any part thereof, or to appropriate or use the same, or the soil, timber, or road thereof, or any part thereof, for any purpose inconsistent with the objects of this Act.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Conservators shall not sell, demise, or otherwise alienate any part of the Forest, or concur in any sale, demise or other alienation therefor, or of any part thereof.
Subject to the provisions of this Act, the public shall have the right to use Epping Forest as an open space for recreation and enjoyment.
(2) Provided that the Conservators, in exercising the powers of this section in relation to planting, sheep, or volunteer corps, shall not so anything that would materially take away or hinder the exercise of rights or common, and in relation to volunteer corps, shall have regard to the use of the Forest as an open space for the recreation and enjoyment of the public.
If any person, except as authorised by this Act, after the expiration of the present session of Parliament, and before the making of the final award of the arbitrator, makes any new inclosure of land in Epping Forest, or commits any waste, injury, or destruction of the herbage, trees, shrubs, or other growing things in or on any land in the Forest, not by or under this Act allowed to remain inclosed, he shall for every such offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds.
[The Home Office consultation document says that this section “creates a criminal offence of making a new enclosure of land in the Forest without such enclosure being authorised by the Act”. However, this is nonsense in the context of the Act because the offences defined above ceased to apply a long time ago. In fact, this offence is now Byelaw 3(1).]
(1) For the purpose of enactments of empowering the metropolitan police, Epping Forest shall be deemed to be a place of public resort; and the powers and duties of the metropolitan police and of the police of the county of Essex in relation to pubic safety and preservation of order and protection of property shall extend to the Forest.
(2) Nothing in this Act shall extend the power of levying police rates to any person or property to which the same would not have extended if this Act had not been passed.
(3) For the services of the constables of the metropolitan and county police of the Forest the Conservators shall contribute out of the income of the Epping Forest fund sums to be agreed on with the Commissioner of Police of the metropolis and the justices of the peace for the county of Essex respectively, or, failing agreement, to be settled by the Ranger with the advice and assistance of the First Commissioner of Her Majesty’s Works and Public Buildings.
The principal addition to the 1878 Act was made in the one of 1977.
List of amendments (search for ccxiii or Epping: there is no internal link):
This document was translated from LATEX by HEVEA.