Waterloo became important as a staging post, with travellers halting there for the night before attempting the crossing of the Forest. It was a dangerous place. Armed gangs hid among the trees, waiting to attack and rob those foolish enough to travel after dark. At one point there were around twenty auberges. One such was Petit Paris, a name that still lingers as the intersection of the Chaussée and La Cense/Richelle. The Plateau d’Ange, where the main church now stands is named for another coaching inn, ‘The Angel’ in English. Given a local population of about four hundred, that is a striking ratio.
Their trade would persist in memory through names. In the first edition of René Stevens’ map of the forest, a valley is marked Fond des Braconniers. It runs alongside the present-day Proefteeltenweg, then known as Chemin des Palissades, and even now there is an uneasy feel to the place, especially at dusk. It looks unkempt, neglected.
By the 1917 edition, this cut has shifted to run alongside the Chemin du Beau Chêne, where an oddly meandering stream lies in the bottom.
Why the name moved to a nearby yet different location can only be guessed at. Perhaps it slipped and shifted like the braconniers themselves, always staying just beyond the reach of the law.
Credit to Lucien Gerke, author of Miscellanées sur Waterloo - Histoire, Folklore, Archéologie for some of the above detail.