{Around the outer arch:}
Licensed pursuant to Act of Parliament of the Twenty fifth of King George the Second
{Around the inner arch:}
Loughton
{Between the tympanum and door:}
Lopping Hall
Initially we thought this inscription referred to the 1878 Epping Forest Act of Parliament but then we came across another community building with a similar, but more legible inscription, and that enabled us to fill in the beginning and end of this one. It's nothing to do with lopping and all about the proprietors' legal right to put on shows and sell booze, a law dating back to the 1750s. So not a memorial at all, but we've done all the research so we're keeping it.
Site: Lopping Hall - Station Road (2 memorials)
IG10, Station Road, Lopping Hall
The erection of Lopping Hall, a community building, was funded by the City of London as compensation for the loss of lopping rights. See Epping Forest Act 1878 for the background.
From British History Online: "The hall contained reading and lecture rooms and accommodation for parish meetings. In 1902 it was enlarged at a cost of £1,330 by a new wing of which the upper floor was let to the newly formed urban district council for a council chamber and offices and the lower floor to the Midland Bank Ltd... In 1936 the library was sold. In 1937 further alterations to the hall were made at the cost of the Midland Bank." Supported by the 1915 map, we think that would have been the 3 storey building to the right of the picture (at the green car), with the overhanging mansard, although that feature is probably much more recent.
