When our bovine buddies roamed free

4:54pm Tuesday 28th October 2008

The history of cows in the green lands of Redbridge and Waltham Forest only really ended with the BSE crisis back in 1996. Guardian reporter DANIEL BINNS finds out some udderly surprising things about the past of our bovine buddies.

All things considered, it does seem rather surprising that cows were still a common sight in bustling urban areas such as Wanstead High Street until the 1990s.

Indeed, looking back at the local history of our four-stomached friends, their lives can at best be described as a docile battle against adversity.

According to the cow-culations of zoologists, cattle herding in Epping Forest dates back at least 1,000 years to the Norman Conquest, when common rights of grazing and wood cutting helped provide food and warmth to hundreds of people.

Apart from feeding the hungry tums of residents, the cows enjoyed a largely risk-free existence until the advent of creeping urbanisation, industrialisation and population growth, which left the bovine order increasingly threatened.

In the 18th and 19th centuries there were fierce political battles between the local community and the landed classes, as multiple attempts were made to destroy and enclose huge swathes of the creatures’ native habitat in Epping Forest.

However with some help from the Corporation of London in 1874 the land was secured for the public in perpetuity.

The cows may have had plenty of room to roam, but one of the most common crimes of pre-Victorian Britain was animal rustling. A quick delve through the archives of the Old Bailey reveals literally hundreds of bovine theft cases in Wanstead, Woodford and Leytonstone throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.

A typical example is that of Robert George in September 1731, who was given the grave punishment of deportation after he was caught stealing a cow from a field in Woodford Bridge.

Court transcripts reveal that George was caught when he tried to sell the animal on to a butcher who reported being quite suspicious at the thief’s enthusiasm to sell the creature, but bought the cow anyway.

He decided to send his servant out on a scouting mission through Essex to find out the truth, which ultimately led to George’s demise.

It is the growth in motor traffic that has posed one of the greatest threats to the cattle throughout the 20th century. By the 1960s, the Government proposed to abolish grazing rights in Epping Forest via the City of London (Various Powers) Bill, because of worries that the cattle “constituted a danger to road safety and damaged public and private property.”

Luckily, after fierce protests from residents, and Wanstead and Woodford Borough Council, a House of Commons select committee agreed that the offending clause should be dropped, and the bill passed without it.

After that, the cows have got along reasonably well, bar a few road accidents and the odd invasion of Whipps Cross Hospital.

However, their numbers began to decline sharply and by the time mad cow disease came along in the mid-1990s their days were well and truly numbered.

But there is hope for a bovine renaissance.

In 2002 the Corporation of London oversaw a small scale reintroduction of the animals in the forest, and current estimates put their population at around 50.

So who knows?

Perhaps one day the familiar call of the bovine will echo through our streets once again.