I've been told that, before the cows here all went mad, cattle used to be grazed on Whipps Cross roundabout. Trufax?
Yes. Epping Forest and the Wansted Flats are common land, and every year there were herds of cattle grazing, making walking back from the Fleece on dark night an interesting variant of Russian Roulette, it is why there are cattle grids on the entry points to the North Circ up by the
Waterworks and A12 at the
Green Man.
They used to wander the streets around here, munching on all the tasty flowers they could reach; leave your garden gate open at your peril. Greatest amusement was to be had as they would wander across the Aldersbrook Road, holding up drivers. Often, the uninitiated would sound their horns, which mostly had the effect of stopping Daisy in her tracks as she pondered what was making so much noise.
The twin effects of the mad cow fiasco and rustling put paid to the economics of it, so it stopped.