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> United Kingdom > England > East of England > East of England
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| Established | February 28, 1974 |
| Disbanded | Still Active |
| Contributor | RP |
| Last Modified | RBH November 17, 2021 01:28pm |
| Description |
This is a semi-rural seat on the borders of Greater London in Essex, which was political home to Conservative former minister Steve Norris from 1988 to 1997. Like many of the seats in Essex, there is much history here. A thousand years ago, a church was built on the site of the town that is now Waltham Abbey. King Harold prayed there before the battle of Hastings. The Epping Forest itself contains some well preserved examples of ancient native British trees, some of which are believed to have been the very ones around which Henry VIII rode when he was hunting, and under which Elizabeth I is reputed to have had her famous liaisons with the Earl of Essex. Furthermore, the constituency claims several literary connections, with both Charles Dickens and Anthony Trollope having spent time in the Epping Forest area while writing some of their most famous novels. The constituency today lies on the line of the Greenwich Meridian and is dissected by two major motorways - the M25 London Orbital motorway and the M11, which links Cambridge to London. The seat encompasses a number of middle class towns and villages which are dotted along the far eastern section of London Underground's Central Line in Zones 5 and 6, namely, Epping, Buckhurst Hill, Loughton, Theydon Bois and the particularly affluent "Birds of a Feather" village of Chigwell. These are strong areas for the Tories and contain many private roads lined with mansions. Tory Eleanor Laing secured the seat in 1997 with a majority of just under 10%.
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