Debden, Epping Forest
| Debden | |
|---|---|
 Debden
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| Debden shown within Essex | |
| OS grid reference | TQ442962 |
| Civil parish | |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LOUGHTON |
| Postcode district | IG10 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Essex |
| Fire | Essex |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| EU Parliament | East of England |
| UK Parliament | |
Debden is a suburb in the civil parish of Loughton, in the Epping Forest district of Essex, England. It takes its name from the ancient manor of Debden, which lay at its northern end. The area is predominantly residential, but is also the location of Epping Forest College, East 15 Acting School and the De La Rue printing works. It forms part of the Greater London Urban Area and is one of a limited number of places outside Greater London to be served by the London Underground.
The name (Deppendana in the Domesday Book of 1086) is derived from the Old English dep, 'deep' and den, 'valley'.
Debden originated as a manor of 40 acres (160,000 m2) in the Ongar hundred of Essex. The manor became the property of Waltham Abbey in 1086. By about 1254 the manor of Loughton had absorbed Debden. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540 the manor passed to the king and later to private owners.
In 1944 John Maitland sold 644 acres (261 ha) of land to the London County Council for the building of a housing estate. The Debden Estate was constructed between 1947 and 1952. Because of post-war restrictions on building, a supermarket could not be opened until 1952.
Debden station on the London Underground is a renaming (1949) of the Chigwell Lane railway station, which was originally opened on the Eastern Counties Railway in 1865.
There is considerable light industry, including the De La Rue print works, which prints Bank of England banknotes. In 2005, Higgins Group PLC moved its headquarters to Debden, and, in 2008, Amstrad announced its intention to move the group HQ to Debden from Brentwood. A new HQ is currently (2012) under construction nearer the centre of Loughton. The Broadway is one of Loughton's two main shopping centres and forms an architecturally important parade consisting mainly of family-run shops together with a small weekly market.
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Wikipedia