May 2023

Redbridge in Bloom – the borough’s annual amateur gardening competition – returns this summer with a royal theme.

“This year, we will celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III, and so we are encouraging the residents of Redbridge to create a garden fit for the King!” said a spokesperson for Vision RCL, which organises the competition.

The closing date for entries is 3 July, with judging to take place from 10 July. Categories include best front garden, best container garden and best sustainable garden.

Visit wnstd.com/bloom

Ann Holmes reflects on 100 years of lawn bowling at Wanstead Bowling Club, and invites residents to have a go at this historic sport at this month’s open day event

What have the Romans ever done for us? Anyone who has watched Monty Python’s Life of Brian may recall the list. But we also have them to thank for refining the Egyptian practice of rolling stone balls towards targets into the modern game of bowls. It was adapted across Europe, spreading through the British Empire and The Commonwealth and is hugely popular in Australia.

Indeed, it was so beloved that a succession of laws was passed restricting play from the 13th century onwards. Far too much time was being taken away from archery practice, a skill integral to success in battles. The game was exclusively thereafter only played by royalty and the upper classes until Queen Victoria relaxed restrictions in 1845.

The invention of the lawnmower by Edwin Beard Budding in 1830 enabled the greens to be brought to a much higher standard and opened up the sport to the masses. The famous cricketer WG Grace founded the English Bowling Association in 1903 and went on to represent England in the first six Home International Series. 

Our club started out as an offshoot of Wanstead Cricket Club. In 1912, veterans of the ‘willow’, looking for a less strenuous sport, started playing bowls on the eastern side of the cricket ground. As the game became more popular, Wanstead Sports Ground Ltd arranged for a good Cumberland turf green to be laid in front of the golf clubhouse. A new club was born and formally opened on 30 June 1923.

For many years, the dress code was very formal. These days, women no longer have to play in skirts, nor men in long-sleeved collared shirts and ties. Many clubs now have patterned tops and play with a myriad of coloured bowls rather than just black. 

Our ethos is to be inclusive. We have members of all ages, with different physical challenges, and some no longer able to play competitively, who are just happy to have a friendly ‘roll up’ or sit and watch. We go on lovely day trips to play other clubs and have a busy social calendar, with quizzes, race nights, bingo and murder mystery evenings. 

Our special centenary open day is on 14 May, from 12 noon to 4pm, where there will be a plant stall, cream teas, ladies playing in vintage dress and much more. You can have a go, if you want, with fun events on the green. An added bonus is that we are in the unique and privileged position of being within the beautiful surroundings of Wanstead Golf Club – a little oasis in the East End!

Wanstead Bowling Club is located within Wanstead Golf Club on Overton Drive. For more information, visit wnstd.com/bowls

In the 32nd of a series of articles, David Bird discusses the work of Redbridge Music Society and introduces Belgian harpist Lise Vandermissen, who will be performing in Wanstead this month

Redbridge Music Society will round off its current season of bringing high-quality musical events to the borough with a recital given by award-winning young harpist Lise Vandermissen. Her performance will include music by Haydn, Liszt, Debussy, Ravel and the Welsh bardist John Parry, as well as more modern compositions by Freddie Mercury, alongside her own work. 

Lise graduated magna cum laude at LUCA School of Arts in Belgium with harpist Lieve Robbroeckx, followed by a Master’s degree (with distinction) at Guildhall School of Music & Drama (GSMD) in London with Imogen Barford. She then completed a two-year fellowship programme, also at GSMD. 

Lise has been a successful participant in numerous international competitions and has gained many awards and prizes, including first prize at the fifth International Harp Competition in Slovenia, second prize at the fifth International Harp Competition in Hungary and second prize at the North London Camac Harp Competition. She was awarded the Guildhall Harp Prize and was selected to be a Live Music Now musician, a Concordia Foundation Artist and a UKHA Emerging Artist. She received the Culture Prize in Bilzen, Belgium, and won places at the London Sinfonietta Academy and the Académie Camac in France. 

Lise has played as a concerto soloist with orchestras in the UK (Croydon and Guildford Symphony Orchestras), Poland, Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands, both on the modern pedal harp and on the Italian triple harp. She is also a chamber ensemblist, playing in the Duo Molinello and Aglica Trio ensembles. 

Recently, Lise performed Handel’s Harp Concerto at the London Handel Festival and has just completed a six-month residency teaching and performing at an international harp academy in Hong Kong. She gave the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Four Meditations for solo harp and performed her own transcription of Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin at the World Harp Congress in Wales. She has just recorded her first commercial solo album, Transformed, which contains many of the pieces you will hear at the recital.

Lise currently lives with her harps on a houseboat on the London canals, and when she is not playing the harp, loves to jog along the canal banks. Her recital will be a very special evening of music-making, celebrating traditional and modern music. I do hope you can join us for this final event in our current season of recitals.

Lise Vandermissen will perform at Wanstead Library on 16 May from 8pm (tickets on the door; visitors: £12; members: £8). Call 07380 606 767. Redbridge Music Society is supported by Vision RCL and affiliated to Making Music.

On 27 May, the St Mary’s Church organ will be 100 years old. A weekend festival of music will celebrate this centenary and Michael Blighton – who tunes the organ – will give a talk about the instrument

The pipe organ in St Mary’s Church will celebrate its 100th anniversary in May. It was built by the Leyton firm of Robert Spurden Rutt. In organ terms, this instrument is still considered a spring chicken! The church itself dates from 1790, and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to see an organ of the same date in the church (as with other furnishings), so I will also talk about what we know of previous instruments in the church in my talk this month.

Organs are thought to have existed in churches in England for over a thousand years, although we have very little surviving organ material from before the English Civil War (1642–1651), and even less from before the English Reformation of the 1530s, but there is a fair amount of early written material about organs and organ builders surviving in the archives of our great cathedrals and colleges.

During the 18th century, organs began to become popular again, especially in ordinary parish churches; then, during the Industrial Revolution (with the expansion of our cities and subsequent church building) organ building got its largest boost in history, especially with the founding of so many Nonconformist churches and chapels, all needing their own organs. Some 19th-century organ-building firms became huge, supplying the home market as well as the British Empire. One firm in Norwich produced one new organ a week; today, most firms would take four to five months for such a task.

An organ works by each of its pipes being blown with wind when the corresponding notes are played by the organist on the keyboards or pedalboard. The wind itself comes from the organ’s bellows which these days are fed by an electric blower rather than some poor choirboy operating the pumping handle at the back of the organ! ‘Organ stops’ are ranks of pipes which can be drawn by the organist either alone or in combination to change the sound effects and power of the organ. There are many videos on the internet that can demonstrate how a pipe organ works and are well worth taking a look at.

My job is to keep the organ in good working order and tune the pipes (all by ear); this is done about twice a year. Let’s hope this fine organ continues to play for another century!

The church will be holding a May Music Festival from 26 to 29 May featuring four events. The Sonare Vocal Quartet will kick off the celebrations, and we’ll also hear from a number of local professional musicians in a chamber music concert to mark the centenary. Everyone is invited to come along and help mark this special birthday.

St Mary’s Church is located on Overton Drive, Wanstead. The May Music Festival will run from 26 to 29 May (event details below). For more information, email alisongwells@me.com

Shakespeare’s Macbeth will be performed at the open-air Greek Theatre in the grounds of Woodford County High School this summer.

“With 10 actors in period costume, this promises to be a summer’s evening full of magic and drama. And for those studying the play for GCSE, it will reinforce understanding and a love for Shakespeare,” said a spokesperson for the Drama Impact Theatre Company. The performance will take place on 30 June from 7pm.

Readers can use code ‘WVD’ for a 10% discount.

Visit wnstd.com/macbeth

The annual RideLondon cycling event will pass through Redbridge on 28 May, causing some road closures in the west of the borough, including the Green Man Roundabout, Hollybush Hill and Woodford Road.

“The event will bring extensive benefits to Redbridge, attracting visitors to local high streets and encouraging people to take up cycling… In the lead-up to the event, we will publicise the locations of crowd zones where people can view the cycling,” said a Redbridge Council spokesperson.

Visit wnstd.com/ride23

With the skylark protective fencing on Wanstead Flats being vandalised, Wren Wildlife Group members Bob Vaughan and James Heal are keen to educate the community on the need for this temporary measure

At certain points in history, Wanstead Flats has been at risk of enclosure and being developed. We should be forever grateful for the committed local citizens of East London and Essex who resisted those moves.

Wanstead Flats has, however, been enclosed and utilised a number of times, albeit on a temporary basis: a prisoner of war camp in World War II, a police muster station during the 2012 Olympics and a temporary mortuary (that was thankfully not really used) during the pandemic. Another enclosure of sorts is the temporary fencing put up around sections of the broom fields on Wanstead Flats where our local skylarks breed. Nobody wants to see Wanstead Flats enclosed, but, as with all things in life, there are times for compromise, and it seems to me that temporarily not being able to walk or take dogs into a relatively small section of grassland to give our ground-nesting birds the best chance of survival seems like a price worth paying. 

Skylarks can be heard singing on Wanstead Flats every spring, the closest colony to central London. However, this small brown bird is now a red-list species of conservation concern.

Over the years, the Wren Wildlife and Conservation Group have been monitoring the numbers of singing male skylarks on Wanstead Flats and have noticed a rapid decline from double figures in 2010 to just three or four in the last few years. As it is a ground-nesting bird, the skylark is prone to disturbance, and with the increase in footfall on the Flats, we are concerned that skylarks might soon be lost as a breeding species locally. A further complication is that skylarks will not nest near tree cover; they prefer open spaces.

So, in 2021, the City of London agreed to put up fencing during the breeding season (March to August) over a couple of small areas in the middle of the Flats. This experiment has worked well and, although it is difficult to be precise, with no breeding recorded in 2020, it is believed at least one pair bred successfully in the last two years.

However, this year, someone has been cutting down the fence. We are not sure why this is happening. We want everyone to support this initiative, which is now being adopted elsewhere to ensure the skylark’s song will remain a delight throughout the UK. The Wren Group has been involved in helping the community – especially dog walkers – understand the need for this temporary fencing. The public has been very supportive and appreciative of the lovely lilting song as they walk through the Flats on the main paths. Unfortunately, a small number of individuals seem keen to break the rules and ruin things for the majority.

Community. Neighbourliness. Dialogue. Understanding. Progress. These all seem like pertinent words at the moment.

For more information on the Wren Wildlife Group, visit wnstd.com/wren

Tinder Sticks will resume its Walk in the Woods programme this month. Here, lead instructor Alison O’Connor explains why she is keen for people to connect with Wanstead Park and Wanstead Flats

Why not join one of our Walk in the Woods events to help you explore Epping Forest deeper and connect further with nature through healthy activities and bushcraft workshops? Our monthly events will take place in Wanstead Park and on Wanstead Flats and Leyton Flats (Hollow Ponds) on Tuesdays. 

May’s events include making washing detergent from ivy, an exploratory walk linking Wanstead Flats and the park and campfire cooking with spring edible plants. Working in harmony with the City of London’s no-foraging policy, we will collect plants from areas which have permission to forage. We feel it is important we respect not only the wildlife that lives in Epping Forest but the organisation that manages it for our enjoyment.

I am a firm believer in the healing power of nature. We all know how relaxing a walk in the woods can be and evidence shows us the quality of our relationship with nature is part of the reason for its positive impact on our well-being. Having a stronger connection with nature means we have a stronger emotional attachment to our surroundings and this increases the mental well-being benefits. Our events aim to create those strong connections via workshops in whittling wood, nature drawing and weaving with plants, for example. All such events have the ability to allow us to be present in the moment and not trapped in our heads, which are filled with the stresses and strains of daily life. Even just sitting and chatting around the campfire is a joy in itself! 

Alongside the adult programme of events, we will be running Little Owls for preschool children in Wanstead Park. These monthly sessions will allow your kids to go a bit wild in the woods, cooking up a storm in the mud kitchen, following nature trails, learning about the plants and animals or swinging in the hammocks listening to stories. Each month will have a different theme, and May is all about trees! Make a leaf crown, match up the picture and discover how to identify trees or create woodland art on the forest floor. 

Tinder Sticks Community Interest Company also secures funding to deliver projects for marginalised sections of the community to help break down the socio-economic barriers that stop people from enjoying the outdoors. We believe that everybody should have the opportunity to relax, enjoy and learn from the nature around us. It is thanks to the City Bridge Trust that we can provide both of these projects free of charge to you with the aim of connecting the community to Epping Forest and improving well-being.

I hope to see you in the woods!

Walk in the Woods events are free to join, but booking is required as spaces are limited. Events start from 9 May. For more information, visit tindersticks.org.uk

Redbridge Council is cracking down on irresponsible dog owners following an increase in public complaints about dog fouling and uncontrolled dogs. Council Officer Jo Smallman reports

As well as complaints about dogs not on leads, last year, nearly 800 reports were made to the council, up from the previous year, over people failing to pick up after their dogs and instead letting their pooches foul public spaces.

The increase has sparked a council-led campaign aimed at dog owners, as well as the use of specialist cameras by the council’s enforcement team to catch offenders. 

A dog control Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) is also currently in place in the borough covering several areas of dog control, including ensuring dogs are on leads and the maximum number of dogs allowed under one handler in locations where the PSPO applies. Under the PSPO, it is also an offence for anyone in charge of a dog to foul land in the borough by failing to clear up their dog’s mess. Offenders can be issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice of up to £100, and if the case goes to court, it could cost the owner, or person in charge of the animal, up to £1,000.

While the majority of dog owners clear up after their dogs when walking them in the borough, a minority are still breaking the law by failing to do so and causing problems for the public.

So, the council recently launched a boroughwide campaign encouraging dog owners to be ‘Proud to Pick Up’. As part of the campaign, signage has been placed in parks and on more than 200 litter bins around the borough reminding dog owners they can dispose of bagged dog mess in any public street litter bin in Redbridge. Anyone unable to find a bin near them should take their dog waste home and put it in their own waste bin.

The council’s enforcement team are also using specialist cameras that can be easily deployed in hot-spot areas to help catch offending dog owners, with clips being shared on Redbridge’s ‘Wall of Shame’, which regularly features footage of people committing environmental crimes across the borough and encourages the public to come forward if they can help identify any of the lawbreakers.

Dog fouling is not only deeply unpleasant and unsightly; it can also be dangerous. Whilst rare, contact with dog excrement can cause toxocariasis – a nasty infection that can lead to dizziness, nausea, asthma and even seizures or blindness (at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London, about 20 to 30 patients with retinal damage from toxocariasis are treated annually). Another reason to keep it off our streets.

The law states that being unaware a dog has fouled or not having a suitable bag is not a reasonable excuse to leave dog mess behind.

To report dog fouling in Redbridge, visit wnstd.com/dogfouling

For more information on the dog control PSPO, visit wnstd.com/dogpspo

Four open-air evening performances will take place in Wanstead Park this summer.

Award-winning theatre company Illyria will begin the season on 30 May with Robin Hood, followed by performances of Twelfth Night (29 June) and Pride and Prejudice (28 July).

All-male theatre group The Lord Chamberlain’s Men will conclude the programme with a production of Romeo and Juliet on 27 August.

All shows take place in the Temple enclosure from 7pm, and attendees are encouraged to bring their own seating and a picnic.

Visit wnstd.com/wp23

Residents are invited to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla at a festival on Christ Church Green on 7 May from 11am to 6pm.

“This will be a fabulous opportunity for the community to come together. There is a full line-up of events planned for the whole family, including music and entertainment from local talent. There will also be fairground rides, stalls, a bar, food and refreshments,” said a spokesperson. The event will raise funds for the Mayor of Redbridge Appeal and Tin in a Bin.

Volunteering brings communities together, says Nurun Begum, Volunteer Centre Manager at Redbridge CVS, which provides information, training and support to organisations and residents

The Volunteer Centre Redbridge is based at Redbridge CVS (Redbridge Council for Voluntary Services) in Ilford and aims to make Redbridge a place which values volunteering and recognises the contribution volunteers make to the community. We support organisations in recruiting volunteers and, importantly, help guide volunteers towards the right organisation and roles for them.

Volunteering not only contributes towards social cohesion, bringing local communities together to achieve a common goal, but improves mental well-being, builds confidence and tackles isolation and loneliness. It can also provide a helpful pathway to employment, particularly for younger people or those returning to work. This is evident from the positive feedback from volunteers and organisations we work with, such as Age UK, who are currently recruiting for a kitchen aide in Wanstead. One of their amazing volunteers, a 66-year-old who regularly helps in this role, said: “I am sure some people may feel nervous about making the decision to volunteer. Perhaps it takes them out of their comfort zone. But I can wholeheartedly recommend it.”

I am always awestruck when I meet the many incredible people who show such dedication and compassion in their volunteering roles and give up their free time for worthy causes. And it is great to see the launch of the national campaign for volunteering, The Big Help Out, to promote volunteering to a wider audience. The initiative kick-starts with a national day of volunteering on the Coronation bank holiday, encouraging people to pledge their time, whether a single day or regularly.

I am passionate about breaking down barriers which deter and hinder people’s volunteering experience, and keen to continually source volunteering opportunities which are as diverse as the communities we live in. My team and I will be hosting our annual Volunteer’s Fair at the Town Hall in Ilford on 6 June (11am to 2pm) and hope to meet lots of prospective volunteers. Plus, we hold monthly workshops open to anyone who’d like to find out more about volunteering in the borough. We also offer a one-to-one, confidential, drop-in service for anyone who’d like to discuss opportunities individually. We strive to ensure people have a positive volunteering experience that is both meaningful and mutually beneficial to individuals, organisations and the community.

If this has inspired you to volunteer, take a look at our website to view the current opportunities and register your interest for the roles. We can often get people started on their volunteering journey almost immediately.

For more information on Redbridge CVS, email volunteering@redbridgecvs.net. To view current local volunteering opportunities, visit wnstd.com/volunteer