Features

In the first of a series of articles looking at historic photos of the local area found in a 100-year-old family album, historian Richard Arnopp  presents a selection of images of Wanstead Park Since 2007, I’ve been involved in the campaign to raise public awareness of Wanstead Park, an important and historic open space. I’ve also been an active researcher into various aspects of the park’s history, to inform the development of plans for the future by shedding light on its past. One of my projects has been to build up a collection of historic images of Wanstead Park, Bush Wood and Wanstead Flats. In 2017, I acquired an album of photographs taken by members of the Hobbs family, some of whom lived locally. The album is dated 1896–1907 on the cover. There are just over 100 photos, of which at least seven are of Wanstead Park, which was what piqued my interest. A related album sadly escaped, as bidding pushed the price beyond what I was willing to pay. Many of the photographs in the collection were faded, degraded or damaged to varying degrees, and it took a good deal of time and effort to restore them to the...

Rising at Molehill Green in Essex, the River Roding passes through the Wanstead and Woodford area en route to the Thames, bringing with it a very real flood risk to local homes. In the seventh of a series of articles, Nina Garner from the Environment Agency reports on the River Roding Project, which aims to reduce that risk. Photo by Geoff Wilkinson On Saturday 21 December 2019, the Environment Agency issued flood alerts and warnings along the River Roding due to heavy rainfall. These informed local residents of a risk of flooding and covered areas including Woodford, Ilford, Barking, Loughton and East Ham. Although no properties were flooded in 2019, the river peaked at 7am on 21 December, reaching 1.83m. This river level reached was the highest on record since the 2000 floods. The 2000 floods caused widespread disruption to major roads across Redbridge and approximately 400 properties were affected. The recent flooding caused some disruption to local residents and the Roding Valley parkrun was cancelled as the route was flooded, leaving the local runners disappointed. Prepare, act, survive Whether you live on a hill, in a flat or in an area that’s never flooded before, flooding can still affect you....

Members of the Wanstead, Woodford and Barkingside Marie Curie Fundraising Group have reached their £100,000 target. Jill Playford thanks local supporters and explains how the money will be used A celebration was held in February to thank all supporters and collectors who helped us to raise the fantastic amount of £100,000 over the last few years, paying for 5,000 Marie Curie nursing hours. We get wonderful support from our local communities with local businesses donating raffle prizes, Wanstead High School donating the proceeds from their annual charity cross country run, Wanstead House holding cake and coffee mornings to raise money and students from Forest School helping out at our Great Daffodil Appeal collections. The group was formed in June 2013 with four members who had all been local supporters of the Marie Curie charity. The initial aim of the group was to raise awareness of the work of the charity in the local area as well as to fundraise. At that time, we did not set ourselves a target – this evolved as the amount of money raised increased each year. Group membership has changed over the years, and we always welcome new members, as they bring new ideas and energy...

Before being diagnosed with cancer in 2016, Wanstead Business Network member Lucy Howe ran a wellness clinic in South Woodford. Now in remission, she is keen to help others again Being told you have cancer is one of the scariest things you can ever hear. I know, because I’ve heard the words: “You have cancer.” That was the day the world fell out of my bottom! Being diagnosed with cancer four years ago shocked me to the core, but made me realise the environment of my body was out of balance and I was being warned something needed to be done. What can cause cancer? Is it the toxicity around us or is it stress-related from a busy lifestyle? Who knows? Making choices to reduce the toxicity in your life, starting with the food you eat, targeted organic supplements and only using good quality organic skincare will help. As will keeping your stress levels down and being happy. The choices I made helped me beat cancer and I now live without the fear of it returning. I didn’t want cancer to beat me and there is no way I want it to come back. Hippocrates said: “Illnesses do not come upon...

Historian and author Diane Atkinson – whose latest book has become the definitive history of the suffragettes – will be discussing some ‘remarkable lives’ at Wanstead Library this March I’m really looking forward to coming to Wanstead Library to talk about my latest book, Rise Up Women! The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes. It is a collective biography of 200 women – there were thousands more – who worked so hard and sacrificed so much for women’s suffrage. Women from all social class backgrounds, all ages, all parts of the United Kingdom and all life experiences ‘came out’ as suffragettes, many of them leaving their previous lives behind forever. For many years, the suffragettes were written out of the story of women getting the vote, or dismissed as self-interested, middle-class hobbyists, but nothing could be further from the truth. In 1907, a woollen weaver from Huddersfield, Dora Thewlis, aged 16, was called ‘The Baby Suffragette’ by the newspapers when she was arrested in Westminster by the police while trying to enter Parliament with other Women’s Social and Political Union women. Her mother had put her on the train to London, telling her to do her bit for ‘the cause.’ Kitty...

In the 22nd of a series of articles, David Bird discusses the work of Redbridge Music Society and introduces violinist Henry Chandler and pianist John Paul Ekins, who will perform in Wanstead this month edbridge Music Society continues its current programme of bringing high quality musical events to the borough with a recital given by prizewinning young musicians Henry Chandler and John Paul Ekins, who will perform music by Beethoven, Schubert and César Franck. Although still in his twenties, Henry Chandler has already performed under famous conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Leif Segerstam and Sir Roger Norrington and has played with prestigious orchestras, including the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, English National Opera, Oxford Philomusica and European Union Chamber orchestras. He has also appeared in a masterclass with world-renowned violinist Maxim Vengerov. Before going to university, Henry studied at the Royal College of Music (RCM) Junior Department, where he was awarded the Esther Coleman award for ‘outstanding musician’. He read music at Oxford University and followed this with the Artist Diploma Course at RCM, where he studied under violinist Professor Maciej Rakowski, who also taught Nicola Benedetti. Currently, Henry plays violin in the Alke String Quartet and leads the Zeitgeist Chamber Orchestra. In addition...

Colin Spence runs dog training classes in Snaresbrook and has been working with man’s best friend – and their owners – for 23 years. Here, he explains how much exercise a puppy needs This is a much-talked-about topic and a conversation I have with new puppy owners on a daily basis, as many are not sure how much physical exercise their very young puppy should get. Well, let’s take a look at this and what we trainers and behaviour practitioners believe in how much is too much and how much is just right and why. Once we get our eight-week-old puppy home, for the first few hours or first few days, they will be getting used to their new environment, moving around the home, investigating everything. As the hours and days go by, puppies get more energetic, and roughly around the 16-week mark, will have had their last injection and be ready to exercise and explore the outside environment. Many owners then take their puppy out for a walk; some even allow the puppy to start running and jumping obstacles. Allowing puppies to exercise outside is important, but it is also important that the common sense factor comes into play. Puppies are very...

In the first of a series of articles by Refugee Welcome Wanstead – a community group planning to welcome a Syrian refugee family to Wanstead – Eleanor Taylor explains how local residents can help I’m sure you will recall the dreadful scenes in the news in recent years of buildings flattened, people killed or injured and families torn apart as a result of the war in Syria. For eight years, the war has raged, creating the world’s largest refugee crisis, and forcing people into camps in Lebanon and Jordan. Life in these refugee camps is precarious, and most families dream of being able to settle down somewhere to start afresh and rebuild their lives. It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed when we see these stories, to feel there’s nothing we can do to help. The events are happening so far away, and we don’t make the decisions about how many families are rescued from these terrible conditions. But there is something we can do. In addition to the standard number of refugee families taken in by the UK government and resettled in this country, the Home Office operates a programme called the Community Sponsorship Scheme. Communities can come together and offer...

Marian Temple of the Wanstead Community Gardeners tells the stories behind two blooming stars of Wanstead and how these horticultural happenings came to be Garrya elliptica: now in catkin flower around Wanstead Station. A few years ago, someone said to me: “It’s a pity about the Garrya elliptica at the station. We never see the catkins.” My ears pricked up. I had only just found out about Garrya elliptica a few weeks previously when I’d seen them at Anglesey Abbey’s winter garden and been transfixed by the curtains of hanging catkins. Did we really have such things skulking around Wanstead Station and not performing? Yes, we did! Lots of them but the contractors pruned them every autumn, cutting off the developing catkins. Of course, we never saw them. We contacted the Redbridge Council department to get the time of pruning changed with mixed results, sometimes a show and sometimes nothing. This year, the Garrya elliptica were not pruned at all and we have the resulting curtains of hanging catkins. In future, we’ll try and get them pruned in April as soon as the catkins finish so we should have them every year. They are just too good to miss and definitely worth...

In the 20th of a series of articles charting the Wild Wanstead project, Susie Knox reports on a new initiative to stop the decline in British insects and encourages us all to help Insects. Love them or loathe them, we certainly need to look after them – they are, after all, the foundation of life on Earth. That’s why one sunny lunchtime back in November, I nipped to the Museum of London to join the launch of a new report into the state of insect life in Britain. It is known that insects are in calamitous decline across the world – ‘insectageddon’ as it has been termed by the newspapers. In 2017, a study reported that flying insects had declined by around 75% in the last 25 years on German nature reserves. But what is the situation in the UK and how should we all be responding? Those are the questions addressed by Insects and Why They Matter, a report by leading entomologist Professor Dave Goulson. Considering their importance, there is remarkably little data monitoring insect populations. One of the best-studied groups in the world is British butterflies. Our common butterflies have declined by about half over the last 40 years, and...

In the seventh of a series of articles looking at the work of Age UK Redbridge, Barking and Havering, Janet West explains the operation of their user involvement service Voices of Experience Voices of Experience is Age UK’s user involvement service, which has been established in Redbridge since 2004. It was set up to enable older people to have their say on a number of issues that affect their daily lives. The service consists of a questionnaire group and a citizens panel of 15 members, who meet monthly for discussion and to hear from speakers from the council, Clinical Commissioning Groups and other statutory and voluntary organisations. The coordinator of the service engages with older people through questionnaires, face-to-face discussions with groups of older people, as well as one-to-one phone discussions, so people get the chance to have their views heard in a way that suits them. It might be about a current local authority consultation, for example, and their views can be given back to the council to ensure their voices are heard. Discussions are also held at the Allan Burgess Centre in Wanstead with older people who have popped in for a coffee and a chat or for...

In the fourth of a series of articles, local photographer Geoff Wilkinson discusses his new exhibition – entitled ‘Quick! Before it goes’ – depicting London’s East End, an area which resonates with many residents here Preparing a new photography exhibition about London’s East End for my Wanstead gallery invariably involves a lot of walking. Cold, dark, wet nights are my preference as the light from street lamps, shops and traffic bounces in the rain and reflects on the pavements and roads, filling the pictures with energy and life, unlike daylight. The other thing I can’t resist is an alleyway or a street with a curious name; in this case, it was Park Lane. The very name conjured up for me mental images of grand hotels and luxurious apartments overlooking London’s Hyde Park. This particular Park Lane, however, is just off Stratford High Street and is a wonderful example of the old and the new. As you can see from the photograph, at the north end of this short road stands an old, small, white-painted building now used as a house of worship. Surrounded and dwarfed by its modern neighbours, the photograph shows a prime example of how change continues. Like the Thames...