PLACE NAME
At the start of the 15thCentury John Traps, son of William, was known to have held a tenement, a property shared by multiple households, at that time called Schadeshill (variously, Schodeshill, Schaddyshykll), in this area of Loughton. There was also a later farm house, Traps Hill Farm, which, in 1735, it is claimed that the infamous highwayman Dick Turpin and his accomplices broke into. Turpin, who had been living at nearby Buckhurst Hill since 1730, demanded that the occupant, an old woman called Shelley, tell him where her valuables were, when she refused they threatened to roast her over a fire. Terrified the woman’s son revealed the location of her prized possessions and the gang made off with £100, a silver tankard and some other household items. This street appears on Chapman and Andre’s 1777 map of Essex as connecting the High Road to a small settlement called Traps Hill, after which it is named.
