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		From the Fire Station to the Talbot Starting at the fire station end, where the allotments and adjacent houses now are, was the site of the a transport 48 Cafe. Cafes were numbered in miles from London, so the one opposite Furzton was the 46 Cafe, and it is 46 miles from London, 48 Cafe (Loughton) was 48 miles from London. London Road was part of Old Watling Street - built originally by the Romans, starting in Dover to London to North Wales, and was the old A5, now V4. Coming further this way - where Olde Bell Lane is now - is where the Bell field was - a sort of paddock behind The Bell, for horses etc. We (Parish Council) wanted to keep the 'Bell' name in that area, but they wouldn't call it Bell Lane as there is one in Woburn Sands and one at Old Bradwell, so we insisted on something like that so thats why it is called "Olde" Bell Lane here. Parish Council also made suggestions for other new road names - Specklands, Ashpole Furlong and so on when the were doing that part of Loughton. The Bell itself - in the1930's - was kept by blacksmith. Smithy was in the outbuildings. Traffic on the Watling Street was mainly steam engines and steam tractors. I remember one day a young horse was being shod and this engine came clanking by - the blacksmith had put the first shoe on - but it frightened it so much the horse only ever had that one shoe on for the rest of its life! Next to The Bell, there's two old cottages - I think they are flats now - this was the garage, along with The Bell outbuildings. There were two petrol pumps out the front. As well as doing repairs to motorbikes and sidecars, and cars, just coming into vogue - also had a fleet of tipper lorries - for carting gravel and sand. Edgar Daniels' garage. His father lived in the cottage. Edgar lived in Beech Cottage, School Lane. The Bell was demolished around 1935. Then the area that it occupied was made into hardstanding for the lorries. When Edgar Daniels sold the new owners had a fleet of low loaders. You could drive a caterpillar tractor or a diger onto it.Apart from transporting cranes and things, they would dismantle, transport and reinstall factory machinery over weekends.
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