January 2021

A black swan –named Bruce – took up temporary residence on Snaresbrook’s Eagle Pond earlier this month.

“Black swans are native to Australia. They were brought to the UK as ornamental birds for collections but, like other captive species, occasionally escape. This bird was recently seen at Walthamstow Reservoirs as well. Their habitat requirements are not dissimilar to those of mute swans, and so they could turn up on any stretch of freshwater, or occasionally in sheltered harbours,” said Tim Harris of the Wren Wildlife Group.

Local decoupage artist Lou Clouter is seeking donations of unwanted magazines and books to use in her latest project.

“Like so many others, my real job (casting director) has been put on the back-burner. So, to stop myself going loopy in 2020, I decided to concentrate on my love of art. I’m now looking for publications that feature good quality photos of any subject from which I will be making themed decoupage boxes and small furniture pieces,” said Lou, who recently launched a shop on Etsy.

The Corner House Project – a Wanstead-based initiative that supports the vulnerable, homeless and those in need of guidance – is seeking donations of towels.

“The Corner House Project works with a nearby half-way house and they are short on towels. If you are having your third lockdown clear out and can help, please bring them to me at 43 Langley Drive, Wanstead,” said Juliette Harvey.

Items needed include face cloths, hand towels, bath sheets and bath mats. All donations should be new or in good condition.

The consultation period for Redbridge Council’s School Streets initiative has been extended, following delays in notifying affected residents due to Royal Mail backlogs.

The scheme – which will see non-residential traffic banned from certain roads at the start and end of the school day – is set to be introduced at several schools in Wanstead.

Residents now have until 14 February to contribute to the consultation.

Visit wnstd.com/schstr   

Parent-led group Redbridge For Education (Red4Ed) has been registered as a Community Interest Company and is seeking donations for the purchase of laptops and tablets for homeschooling.

“During the pandemic, we have been supporting parents by holding virtual public information meetings… One of the main concerns we had is the remote learning issue. Far too many families in Redbridge do not have sufficient devices or access to the internet,” said Vicky Taylor, one of two Wanstead residents involved in the group.

A survey of schools conducted by Red4Ed estimates 7,000 devices are needed borough-wide.

“We have now registered as a Community Interest Company so we can take donations and pass the equipment on to the schools that need them.”

Visit wnstd.com/Red4Ed

Essex Art Club president John Tookey is known for his dynamic bold watercolours that sparkle with light. He will be demonstrating these skills at a Wanstead House event this month

I was born in Ilford in 1947 and attended the Sir John Cass School of Art, London, taking a course in graphic and fine art during the mid-sixties. After working for several small London advertising agencies, I decided to become a full-time artist and tutor in the mid-eighties.

This risky decision was helped by a series of commissions to illustrate four travel books, one of which was East Anglia for Gordon Fraser Books, which proved to be very successful.

This in turn led to galleries wanting to show my work, and a series of successful, one-person shows followed at various galleries in East Anglia.

I work in several mediums, including watercolour, oil, acrylic and pastel. I try to capture the essence of the subject rather than a topographical copy. My inspirational sources are everything around me, from the landscape, townscape, interiors and people.

I will frequently work onsite or from sketches completed at the scene. The effects of light and atmosphere on a subject particularly interest me and both watercolour and pastel are excellent mediums for capturing the fleeting effects of nature.

I have shown work at many of the big society exhibitions at the Mall Galleries, London, and I am a member of the Pastel Society UK and the Institute of East Anglian Artists, as well as President of the Essex Art Club. I currently teach a watercolour class at Bedford House Community Association and also for the Loughton Art Group.

The title of the demonstration for the Essex Art Club will be ‘People and Buildings’ and will be painted in a free and lively style.

John’s demonstration will take place at Wanstead House (21 The Green, Wanstead, E11 2NT) on 23 January from 2.30pm to 4.30pm (visitors: £5). For more information, visit essexartclub.co.uk

In the 24th of a series of articles charting the Wild Wanstead project, Nicola Steele explains how you can help garden wildlife in winter

It’s nippy out there! Winter is the hardest time of year for many of the creatures that rely on our gardens for food and shelter. But there are simple things that will ensure your outdoor space is a precious winter wonderland for insects, birds and our fantastic urban wildlife.

Leave the leaves
Old leaves are a vital spot for minibeasts to overwinter. Rather than removing them all, pile them up in a wild corner. Heaps of leaves or brushwood can also make the perfect nest in which animals like hedgehogs, toads and newts can hide, rest and hibernate.

Have a rest
In the old days, gardeners would clear up borders at the end of summer, cutting back vegetation and removing seed heads. It is now believed it is better to leave the task of tidying up the garden until early spring, providing shelter for insects throughout winter.

Feed the birds
Native plants, hedges and trees are a natural larder for birds, providing berries and seeds, as well as a home for insects – a critical food for many types of bird. With vegetation now swapped for paving in many gardens, putting out extra food can help. Provide a range of seeds, fresh unsalted peanuts and table scraps (cheese and fruits, such as apples and pears.) Garden birds also love dried mealworms or waxworms. Other menu specials for garden birds include:

• Fat blocks, with added peanuts for starlings, insects like mealworms for tits, and berries for finches.
• Finely chopped bacon rind and grated cheese for small birds, such as wrens.
• Sunflower seeds for sparrows, finches and nuthatches.
• Good-quality seed mixes for robins and tits
• Niger seeds for goldfinches.
• Over-ripe apples, raisins and song-bird mixes for thrushes and blackbirds (on the ground).

Make a compost heap
Compost piles are fantastic for minibeasts as well as creating soil improver for the garden. In winter, the warmth generated by decaying vegetation makes it a welcome habitat for toads, and even grass snakes and slow-worms.

Break the ice
If your garden pond freezes over, make a hole in the ice by placing a pan of hot water on the surface so that wildlife can drink and get in and out. Never hit the ice to crack it, as the shockwaves can harm creatures in the pond.

Offer water
Provide a shallow dish or container of water at ground level. This will benefit other garden wildlife that needs to drink, as well as birds.

Bug hotel
Make an insect or bug hotel and put it up in a sheltered position. Overwintering ladybirds and lacewings will find this useful.

Plant winter flowers
Pollinators that emerge early can struggle to find food in winter, and researchers think this could become a growing problem as climate change messes with long-standing weather patterns. Spring bulbs are an easy solution. Great options for pollinators include crocuses, snowdrops, alliums, grape hyacinths and snakes-head fritillary.

Healthwatch Redbridge is asking people to complete a survey about COVID-19 vaccines.

Two vaccines have now been produced and approved for emergency use and the NHS has begun vaccinating people against coronavirus at numerous hospital hubs in the country’s biggest immunisation programme in history.

“We are aware that some communities and individuals are slightly reticent about having a vaccination. With this in mind, we are currently asking people to tell us if they were offered the vaccination would they have it, and if not, why not? Once you have completed the survey, we would appreciate if you could share the link with people you are in contact with, including colleagues, family and friends in order for us to understand where there might be concerns and to ensure we can provide specific information for individuals to make informed choices on being immunised,” said a Healthwatch Redbridge spokesperson.

The survey itself is anonymous and has an optional section where you can leave your contact details if you wish to say more on the topic.

“We feed back information to NHS and care providers to ensure they understand the issues that local people face.”

The survey takes about four minutes to complete.

Click here to take part.

Do not contact your GP for a COVID-19 vaccine. The NHS will contact people directly and there will be extensive public information announcements about how, where and when you can get vaccinated. 

Following the involvement of Redbridge Council, the restoration of the iconic red telephone box outside Wanstead Station has been undertaken by BT.

Wanstead Park Councillor Sheila Bain said: “I’ve been working with BT over the last few months on the refurbishment of the telephone box. It is protected as a Grade 2 listed structure and BT has a responsibility to maintain it as the owners. The door had been removed for safety reasons and there was some delay in being able to get a replacement, which is now installed.  All the missing glass has been replaced and there is a working phone. A fresh coat of paint will be applied in the Spring.”

A message from Jim and Sue Carroll, organisers of the Poppy Appeal in Wanstead.

“A huge thank you to the people of Wanstead for their response to last year’s poppy collection for the British Legion. In spite of the difficult circumstances and the very last minute change of plans (apologies to those of you who missed Jim the Poppy Man later in the week) as a result of the lockdown, you still gave extremely generously to the cause.  A one day ‘flash sale’ of poppies outside the old bakers shop (sadly missed but very helpful for us) netted £1,184.48 in a single day, with socially distanced queues forming at the table! It took a little while to get the odds and ends in and counted because of the sudden door closures, but we are proud to say that the Wanstead area collected £3,247.35, a bit over half of the normal annual rate. Specials mentions to Moments and Wanstead Station, both of whom really surprised everyone and also to Daisy the Florist, Harveys the Grocers and Cafe ChiChi, not only for doing really well, the last two as first time collecting stations, but for staying open during the lockdowns to keep us supplied with what might not be life saving essentials, but were certainly mental health essentials!
With the vaccines coming on line, we hope that this year will have something like normal service, but in the meantime we would like to wish everybody a happy and most importantly healthy 2021.”

Russell Kenny and Paul Hayes have devised a series of self-guided history walks around the Wanstead area, which can be followed on a phone or from a printable map. In the first of a series of articles championing these tours through time, we discover some local historical highlights

History isn’t confined to museums or National Trust properties. As a lockdown project, we compiled a series of walks to encourage friends and neighbours to discover the history on their doorstep. Future articles in this series will outline each of the walks, but in this first instalment, we focus on snapshots of that history, starting in the ‘dark ages’ and working through to the 20th century.

Walking north along the insignificant-looking River Roding, we retrace the steps of a group of Anglo Saxon settlers known as The Hroðingas, who sometime in the sixth century began a journey up the river whose name derives from theirs. They went up into Essex to settle the area of land around the villages now also called The Rodings.

Wanstead Flats was cleared of woodland on the orders of the Abbot of Stratford in the 12th century, to provide grazing for sheep. Many of the great religious houses farmed huge flocks over vast acreages. The wool sustained a large domestic weaving industry, and supplied a very profitable export market in Europe.

Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty, acquired Wanstead Hall in 1499 as a hunting lodge. Henry VIII also hunted there, as did members of Elizabeth I’s court.

Sir Josiah Child became governor of the East India Company, which had a monopoly of trade with India and China, generating vast wealth for individuals and capital to finance the Industrial Revolution. Child bought the Tudor Wanstead Hall and Manor, and transformed the parkland. Later, his son Richard replaced the Hall with a new, grand Palladian style Wanstead House. Completed in 1722, it was hailed as the ‘English Versailles’.

Wanstead House was inherited by a young Catherine Tylney-Long in 1805, but was held in trust for her until she was 21. Meanwhile, the French Prince de Conde, cousin of the guillotined Louis XVI, rented Wanstead House whilst exiled during the Napoleonic period. Louis XVIII, who regained the throne after Waterloo, was a frequent visitor, in 1808 joining the Prince of Wales to review British troops on Wanstead Flats.

Perhaps surprisingly, the railway through Manor Park is one of the oldest in the world, opening in 1839, only two years after Euston became London’s first mainline station.

Wanstead also played its part in World War Two. Aircraft production was carried out in the tunnels of the Central Line. Anti-aircraft guns and barrage balloons were deployed on the Flats, which also housed German and Italian prisoner of war camps. Bombed-out families were rehoused in prefabs near the Golden Fleece pub, and allotments were established as part of the government’s ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign.

We hope this brief taste of the continuing presence of history in our everyday world has whetted your appetite to read future instalments, or better still, to access the walks themselves and get walking while learning about the history around us.

It appears the Margaret Centre does not feature in plans for the new Whipps Cross Hospital. It provides specialist palliative care and cannot be lost, says Julie Donovan, a retired occupational therapist

The Margaret Centre grew from a need. You would have dying patients on the ward with just a curtain around them, family very upset, grieving, no support, nothing afterwards, lots of gaps. In 1987, the vision of the staff was realised and the Margaret Centre opened at Whipps.

I started there in 1988. I loved the work and I stayed for 27 years. We cared for our patients in the community, day care and in the in-patient beds on the unit. I would work with my patient in each setting. Being able to come in for a stay helped patients stay at home for longer. Planned respite admissions allowed a family a break if they had been struggling.

Many of our patients died at home. It was planned, with the services, equipment and everything that was needed. But some situations were too difficult and stressful. Sometimes, from the diagnosis, the staff would suspect a difficult death. And that would have been discussed carefully with the patient and the family. We had the closest multidisciplinary team working I have ever seen in any service.

The Psychological Support Service on the unit offers not just bereavement counselling but support before the death to help a family prepare, including children who face losing a parent. Complementary therapy like aromatherapy or Indian head massage is available to patients and to relatives as well, to help a family member who may be very stressed or not sleeping. Again, quite unique.

There is a day room for relatives and a kitchen where you can make hot drinks and a microwave for snacks. It is very comforting; the process of making a warm drink is actually quite therapeutic. That adds to the whole family feeling of the unit.

The main purpose of my work as an occupational therapist was to maintain people’s independence for as long as possible, allowing them to live while they were still alive. One man loved painting. We rigged up an easel over his bed. I made him brushes with grips, giving large handles, and I left him sitting up in bed painting.

Teaching techniques for conserving energy in the daily activities is a big area of work, showing family or carers how they can assist somebody comfortably, without hurting them – pain is a big issue.

New gardens completed in the last year were really well used over the summer. They were funded out of the charity for the Margaret Centre, which people donate to very regularly. In fact, the extension half of the building was funded by £1.17m raised by local people and charities. An added obligation to maintain the Margaret Centre.