Coordinates: 51°42′01″N 0°06′31″E / 51.7004°N 0.1087°E / 51.7004; 0.1087

Epping is a small market town and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of the County of Essex, England. It is located 3.5 miles (5.6 km) north-east of Loughton, 4.6 miles (7.4 km) south of Harlow and 10.9 miles (17.5 km) north-west of Brentwood.

The town retains a rural appearance being surrounded by Epping Forest and working farmland, and has many very old buildings, many of which are Grade I and II listed buildings. The town also retains its weekly market which is held every Monday and dates back to 1253. In 2001 the parish had a population of 11,047 although this has increased marginally since then.

Epping has been twinned with the German town of Eppingen in north-west Baden-Württemberg since 1981. Although the once-famous Epping Butter, which was highly sought after in the 18th and 19th centuries, is no longer made, the equally well-known Epping sausages are still manufactured by Church's Butchers who have been trading on the same site since 1888.

Rick Epping is a California-born musician who has immersed himself in American old-time and Irish traditional music since the 1960s. He is an accomplished player of the harmonica, concertina, banjo and jaw harp.

During the 1970s he lived in Ireland where he studied traditional Irish music. He was the 1975 All-Ireland Harmonica champion and a member of the successful folk group Pumpkinhead. He has recorded with many other Irish and American musicians and groups over the years, including Christy Moore, Mick Hanly, Bob Zentz, George Winston, Mary Staunton, Priscilla Herdman and Robbin Thompson.

Epping worked for the Hohner company for many years and during that time patented the "Extreme Bending" harmonica, which includes additional reeds that allow players to "bend" notes that cannot be so altered on traditional diatonic instruments. He currently conducts workshops internationally for Hohner harmonicas.

Epping has recently involved himself with a number of musicians and projects, including the trio "The Unwanted", which features himself, Dervish singer Cathy Jordan and fiddler Seamus O'Dowd. Their 2009 CD Music Of The Atlantic Fringe was picked in Irish music publication Hot Press as one of their top ten albums of the year.