Highams Park Lake was once part of the “Highams Estate” and was created by the famous landscape designer Humphry Repton, in 1794, as part of the grand landscaping around the former manor house (now Woodford County High School for Girls). Repton’s original red book of designs show that much of what he planned was carried out.
The lake has been used for recreational boating and from 1981 it has been used by a local Scout Group for canoeing. Angling is permitted on Highams Park Lake.
Highams Park Lake is one of the largest stretches of open water in Epping Forest and is owned and managed by the City of London Corporation under the Epping Forest Act of 1878.
The area is part of the Epping Forest SAC (Special Area of Conservation) and SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest). The Lake and surrounding area include a number of plants and tree species such as Scots Pine, Sweet Chestnut, Deodar, Weymouth Pine, Alders and Willows. Upstream of the Lake, you can enjoy the ancient pollarded Hornbeams and a grove of young Oaks dating from 1977. The lake attracts a variety of birds including swans, mallards, great crested grebes, tufted ducks, coots, moorhens, pochards, herons and, more recently cormorants.
Please find below some pictures taken of Highams Park Lake over the last three months or so, we hope you enjoy them:
For those of you who couldn’t get out get out we uploaded a few pictures of Highams Park Lake taken at dawn on 25th March, 2020 which you can see below.
If you click on the following link you can see some more beautiful pictures of the lake, surrounding woods and bird life at the lake taken by local people over the past couple of years.