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In the eighth of a series of articles featuring the images of local photographers who document the wildlife of Wanstead Park and the surrounding area, Don Taylor presents his shot of a Red Fox in the snow 

I took this photo of a fox in the snow a few weeks before Christmas 2022 in the City of London Cemetery, which lies adjacent to Wanstead Park and Wanstead Flats. There are several families of foxes there, and when the snow came that year, I just had to head over and bide my time to get the shot I wanted.

Foxes develop a thick winter coat, so their cold-weather behaviour isn’t much different from any other season. They devote most of the winter to hunting or foraging, with no need for a den until the mating season begins. So, it’s not uncommon to find a fox sleeping in the open beneath a blanket of snow! They breed from January to March. 

I now work part-time for the Corporation of London. I retired fairly young and wanted to do something in the outdoors. I do some litter picking over Wanstead Flats and Wanstead Park and through this, I’ve got to know some great photographers. And it was because of these connections that I put together a 2024 calendar of Epping Forest photos.

I must say a word of thanks to the other volunteer litter pickers and groups who do such a wonderful job looking after our open spaces. Sarah Shaw leads the Wanstead Flats Pickers and Gill James coordinates the Friends of Wanstead Parklands’ monthly clean-up. And not forgetting Eileen Elton, a one-woman band (unless her sister is over from Australia). Alongside this, I’ve also discovered the Wren Wildlife Group and always love meeting up with their members. 

I also belong to the Orion Harriers running club and I’ve completed many marathons. I love adventures and probably the maddest, most dangerous activity I took part in was driving a Tuk Tuk 2,000 miles through India!

I love Epping Forest, and having only taken up photography in the last few years, it has provided everything I need to snap away!

For more information on the Epping Forest 2024 calendar, visit wnstd.com/ef24

In the 35th of a series of articles, David Bird discusses the work of Redbridge Music Society and introduces Redbridge Music Service, whose students will be performing in Wanstead this month

During its current 75th anniversary season, Redbridge Music Society is focusing especially on two of its long-standing aims – promoting and supporting young musicians, especially those residing within the borough, and bringing a diverse range of musical styles and genres to the people of Redbridge. These aims will certainly be realised when the students of Redbridge Music Service put on a recital in the Churchill Room of Wanstead Library this January. 

Redbridge Music Service, based at the John Savage Centre in Hainault, is the jewel in Redbridge’s musical crown, and throughout the many years of its existence, it has nurtured numerous talented young musicians, a large number of whom have gone on to become professional musicians.

Redbridge Music Service is the lead organisation of the Redbridge Music Education Hub and has a reputation for exceptionally high-quality music education. All music hubs establish local plans involving opportunities for students to progress and create music together, especially through live performances. To this end, Redbridge Music Service provides a wide range of instrumental and vocal tuition in schools throughout the borough – even at nursery and reception level – with instruments being available for hire from the service’s instrument centre. Redbridge Music Service also provides opportunities for its students to perform music together, and every year presents over 50 local concerts, ranging from concerts at the John Savage Centre to public recitals, such as this Wanstead performance, and other events at Redbridge Town Hall. Every two years, there is also the well-renowned Redbridge Schools’ Choral Festival at the Royal Albert Hall.

Being involved in musical activities and gaining performance skills is very beneficial for a young person’s development and learning to play a musical instrument can significantly improve cross-subject developmental qualities, such as self-confidence, imagination and creativity, memory and co-ordination skills and communication, team and social skills.

Redbridge Music Service encourages its students to explore music from a wide range of historical periods, genres and traditions and this will be very evident at the recital at Wanstead Library, when the students will perform an eclectic mix of music and musical styles. Their recital is now a standard annual feature in Redbridge Music Society’s calendar and is always a popular and well-attended event. Please come along and support our borough’s exceptional young musical talent!

Students of Redbridge Music Service will perform at Wanstead Library on 23 January from 8pm (tickets on the door: £8). For more information, call 07380 606 767. Redbridge Music Society is supported by Vision RCL and affiliated to Making Music.

With South Woodford’s Barclays set to close in February, and with NatWest having left Wanstead in October 2023, our high streets have suffered another blow, says Delia Ray

News that Barclays on George Lane will close on 23 February means no high street banks will remain throughout Wanstead and Woodford. In a remarkably short time, bustling branches of banks once competing on every street corner have become empty husks – or even been reinvented as an artisan bakery. 

The changes come on the back of a growing use of digital banking. Barclays state 94% of its South Woodford customers mostly bank online. They also say that fewer than 10 customers regularly use the branch for all their transactions. Other banks cite similar figures. Given these numbers, the banks claim it’s too expensive to staff branches. Perhaps it’s no surprise they are pulling out of smaller sites, to focus on densely populated areas such as Barkingside and Walthamstow – at least for now. Nationally, the number of bank and building society branches fell by about 34% between 2012 and 2021, according to the Office of National Statistics.

Closures force customers into challenging journeys. They also lead to fewer cash machines (at least, free ones). Research by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2022 found that older people, people in poor health or on lower incomes, and those less able to manage their finances, depend more on cash. In 2019, the FCA identified bank closures would affect much the same groups. 

People adept with computers, who pay for everything through their phone, may meet the loss of local branches with a shrug. But many who find online banking difficult welcome the support of bank staff. Transactions are not always straightforward. Small businesses which take cash will always need somewhere to deposit their takings.

What does this mean for Wanstead and Woodford? Fortunately, South Woodford recently regained its Post Office, where banking functions can still be carried out. As in Wanstead, visiting the Post Office to send a parcel or run through a passport application provides a sound reason to visit the High Street – and visit local shops at the same time. The Nationwide Building Society recently pledged to keep its current branches open until 2026, which means they’ll remain for now in George Lane, South Woodford.

But if local services continue their decline, one option for us may be a banking hub. The number of hubs – shared spaces letting customers of multiple banks perform everyday banking tasks – is growing across the UK. Sharing makes them more viable than a branch of a single bank. Post Office staff operate counter services, where you can withdraw and deposit cash and pay bills. Bank representatives visit at different times. It’s early days, but with queues forming outside hubs as far afield as Brixham and Rochford, this innovation could restore vanished services. It could even revitalise our high streets.

For more information on banking hubs, visit wnstd.com/bankhub

Within this most desirable of local neighbourhoods, some rather large shapes which circulate the streets cast a troubling shadow, says Liz Bodycote from Wanstead Climate Action

I moved to Wanstead from an inner London borough eight years ago. Beckoned by the trees, as parts of ancient forest nestle amongst the layers of development down the centuries, it feels such a privilege to make a home here – to enjoy the friendliness of neighbours and the benefits of independent local businesses. Yet within this most desirable of local neighbourhoods, there is a troubling issue which needs to be addressed.

Wanstead’s wealth seems to bring with it a lot of awfully big cars on its roads – those urban jeeps and their crossover cousins, collectively known as ‘sports utility vehicles’ or SUVs – our home-grown contribution to the 330m on the planet, which in 2022, emitted nearly a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2). Where did they come from? There was a time, back in the day, when the automotive lust was for ‘sleek and lean’. Now it seems to be for ‘big and butch’. How did that happen? What drives us as drivers?

It is likely the beginning of the story starts with that engine of our economic system: profit. Early in the life of SUV production, car manufacturers found they could command a profit margin of around 25%, in contrast to only 5% for the ordinary cars on the roads at the time. From thence, advertising was called in to do what advertising does – to create an appetite for ‘goods’ (or ‘bads’?) we didn’t know we needed. So, as the certainties of our world seem to be breaking down and our politicians seem unable to deliver the safety and security we are looking for, how appealing are the images of command and control over rugged nature, spectacular and remote, or the lure of well-apportioned protective spaces within.

But, of course, we feel we can see through the adverts. Fact is, it feels a safer and better ride from higher up there at the wheel. There’s more room for all the kids and kit. Much easier as a family – you don’t have to keep bending down with that dreadful battle to get the kids into the car seats. My mother, who has mobility problems, finds it much easier to get in and out. There will be many and varied personal reasons why an SUV feels better than the car we had before. And in this, we are bang on trend. The SUV share of new car sales in Europe has risen from 7% in 2006 to over a half of sales by the beginning of 2023.

And yet, not only is there reason to doubt the real increase in safety and protection SUVs deliver (certainly for the pedestrians and other road users with whom they may collide, and also for the drivers and passengers of SUVs themselves), the weight of their carbon cost is undeniably heavy.

At a time when it is critical for our children and grandchildren that we start to eradicate fossil fuels from our diet, the global oil consumption of SUVs increased by 500,000 barrels a day between 2021 and 2022, (for non-SUV cars there was little change) and the CO2 emissions from driving them increased by nearly 70m tonnes. For a sense of how outsized the SUV impact has become, we could try and take in the International Energy Agency’s calculation in 2021, that if the world’s SUVs constituted an individual country, it would rank sixth in the world for absolute emissions!

Though the sale of electric SUVs is on the rise, switching only the energy source whilst keeping the design is unlikely to be compatible with the needs of our climate. These energy-hungry vehicles require significantly bigger batteries than average electric cars, so adding to pressure on battery supply chains and the critical minerals needed to make them. It seems clear that costs of what have come to be our treasured car comforts are well beyond the capacity of the planet on which we all can live.

In street surveys undertaken by Wanstead Climate Action and at the last Wanstead Festival, people were asked to rate how concerned they were about the climate crisis on a five-point scale, from ‘not worried’ to ‘terrified’. The overwhelming majority clustered around ‘seriously concerned’ to ‘terrified’. Though taking into account those who stopped to take the survey are likely to be those tending to be concerned, it could be taken as an indication there is a community in Wanstead for whom the climate emergency is a pressing reality. With SUV ownership being such a significant contributor to hastening climate breakdown, is this an area in which we can review our lifestyle choices so that Wanstead can become greener for us all?

A friend of mine drew my attention to the world’s first advertisement for the car in 1898. It urged ‘dispense with a horse’. As we begin 2024 in Wanstead, is it possible to contemplate it as a year where we might now ‘dispense with the SUV’?

To pursue this conversation, email wansteadclimateaction@gmail.com

For more information on Wanstead Climate Action, visit wnstd.com/climate

The Wanstead Charity – an initiative which supports the homeless – is appealing for more clothing donations.

“As winter approached, we realised the need for good-quality used coats for those we serve at outreach. Local people were so very kind supplying some, but the supply quickly reduced, and we now need more. Can you help with coats, sweatshirts, hats, gloves, trainers or new socks? The people we help are in such need and are so grateful for anything, it’s humbling,” said Liz Calvert.

Email thewansteadcharity@gmail.com

Redbridge Council is petitioning the government for financial support to repair Broadmead Road bridge in Woodford, which has been closed to traffic since July. Essential structural repairs are expected to cost at least £25m.

“The Prime Minister’s decision to cancel the northern leg of HS2 means billions are available to help fund transport projects… We are calling on the Transport Secretary to allocate urgent funding to help cover the enormous cost of this unforeseen project,” said Councillor Kam Rai.

Visit wnstd.com/brr

A new police hub on the Orchard Estate in Woodford will become a base for local Safer Neighbourhood Teams, including those covering Wanstead Park and Wanstead Village wards.

“The new hub will be home to at least 20 officers, working in partnership with council staff and Redbridge housing officers to prevent antisocial behaviour and support people across the west of Redbridge,” said a Redbridge Council spokesperson. Local police will continue to be based in Barkingside until the hub is operational in the summer.

In the seventh of a series of articles featuring the images of local photographers who document the wildlife of Wanstead Park and the surrounding area, Deepak Dembla presents his festive feel-good image of a Robin

My name is Deepak Dembla and I’m an IT professional. Photography, stargazing, fitness and dancing are my passions. Covid lockdowns made me explore Wanstead Flats and Wanstead Park more than ever with my camera. And ever since, nature has always surprised me with something amazing: wildlife, beautiful sunsets and sunrises or something amazing in the sky, like a beautiful rainbow or a comet, the moon and planets. I must say, it’s a treasure!

I never had any formal education in photography. While in college, I joined an astronomy club called ABAA. This is where I met Dilip Kumar, former president of the club. I was inspired by his amazing astrophotography, landscape and wildlife photography skills, and bought my first camera and started playing with it. When I moved to London 16 years ago, I always made sure I lived close to a park or a forest to enjoy nature and practice my photography skills.

I love that Wanstead Park is just a few minutes’ walk from where I live. I try to visit the park every week if I can. I can easily spend four hours or more just trying to see and capture something new in the park.

While shooting birds, I use a 500mm zoom lens so I can shoot from a distance and not disturb them. The UK’s favourite bird is pictured here, the European Robin, known simply as a Robin or Robin Redbreast. It is found across Europe, east to Western Siberia and south to North Africa. Robins are small, insectivorous birds, around 12cm to 14cm in length. Unlike other small birds, Robins are not so shy, and one can get really close to them if they don’t feel threatened.

As a non-migratory species, Robins can be seen throughout the year, although there are quite a few legends surrounding their relation to Christmas. One legend goes back to Victorian times, when the tradition of sending Christmas cards started. They were delivered by postmen wearing bright-red coats. These postmen were nicknamed ‘Robins’ or ‘Redbreasts’ with the popular early cards of the era displaying the Robins who characterised them. A theme which continues to this day. 

But legend also has it that the Robin’s redbreast has a direct link to Christianity. One fable suggests that when the baby Jesus was in his manger, the fire which had been lit to keep him warm started to blaze up. A brown Robin, noticing that Mary had been distracted, placed himself between the fire and the face of baby Jesus. The Robin fluffed out its feathers to protect the baby, but in so doing, its breast was scorched. This redness was then passed on to future generations of Robins.

To view more of Deepak’s wildlife photos, visit wnstd.com/deepak

With former members having served in two world wars, Eton Manor RFC is now planning to build a memorial wall to honour its fallen heroes. Michelle Linaker reports

In 1909, a philanthropically-minded group of Old Etonians: Arthur Villiers, Gerald Wellesley, Alfred Wagg and Sir Edward Cadogan, set up a charitable mission to give the children of London’s East End the opportunity to try out all kinds of sports and leisure activities. In 1912, the site of the previous Manor Farm in Hackney Wick was purchased to build a new clubhouse and sports ground, and the Eton Manor Boys’ Club was established. 

Activities at the Eton Manor Boys’ Club included boxing, amateur dramatics, debating, drawing, squash, tennis, football, cricket, rugby, billiards, table tennis, photography, badminton, athletics and rifle- shooting. In 1923, the club moved to 30 acres of waste ground known as ‘The Wilderness’ at the eastern end of Hackney Marshes. The Wilderness remained the home of Eton Manor until its closure in 1967.

Eton Manor RFC continued to play on Hackney Marshes before moving to our current home at the ‘New Wilderness’ in Wanstead in 1996.Eton Manor RFC is one of the last sporting clubs still existing to have grown out of the Eton Manor Boys’ Club. Eton Manor Athletics Club continues in Leyton, while Eton Manor Football Club was based in Hertfordshire until closing in 2017.

Many members are still in contact with one another today and all acknowledge the profound impact the Eton Manor ‘family’ has had on their lives. The club now holds mixed teams up to the age of 12, and we are proud to have under-12s, under-14s, under-16s and under-18s girls’ rugby, as well as a thriving women’s team. We still hold true to our values of inclusivity and keep fees low to ensure rugby is available for all to play. We even have bursaries and support for those who do not have the funds to play. 

A total of 22 members of Eton Manor died in the First World War, and out of 600 that served, 59 died in the Second World War. ‘Lest we forget’ is a term often used, and at Eton Manor, we are keen to ensure we give those who gave their lives the respect and honour they deserve. So, to this end, we propose to build a beautiful memorial wall. It will be 15 metres long and formed of a board-finished concrete (to remember the shoring of the trenches), consisting of 15 facets on a 15m radius. It will feature the names of Eton Manor’s fallen, with space for 280 plaques available for purchase by members to remember their loved ones. Up to 15 benefactors will also have the opportunity to have their names engraved in perpetuity as those who helped build the wall.

We plan to involve the local community and will be hosting an open event to talk in more detail about the history of some of our local lads who gave their lives for our freedom.

For more information on the project, email michellelinaker@mirror.co.uk. To donate, visit wnstd.com/emwall

When you support a small business, you are supporting someone’s dream, says Wanstead resident Paul Canal, who urges us all to enjoy the High Street and shop local this Christmas

The sight of our bustling High Street thronged with Wansteadians, their friends and visitors gladdens the heart and quickens the pulse. Our High Street is the heart of our community, with an eclectic mix of independent shops, cafes, bars and restaurants that is the envy of our neighbours.

Our local businesses are the backbone of our community in Wanstead, both culturally and economically. The knowledge, expertise, products, services and sense of camaraderie we get from our local independents is something we cannot mimic elsewhere. Put simply, local is our past, present and future.

Our local entrepreneurs emerged from Covid bruised but defiant, and were then hit by the Ukraine tsunami with rocketing fuel costs and tighter domestic budgets. Many are still paying back Covid loans or dipped deep into personal savings. They need our help to survive and thrive. Ghost towns happen when we don’t shop locally. It is time for us all to step up and spend more of our hard-earned cash in our local shops.

This Christmas, Britons will spend over £80bn. Here in Wanstead, the average family will spend over £2,000. Collectively, we will spend over £26m. Imagine the impact if we all pledged to spend a proportion of that here in Wanstead with our local independents.

When you support a small business, you are supporting someone’s dream. 

Environmental sustainability is another key advantage of shopping locally. Our local independents invariably have a smaller carbon footprint compared to larger chains and e-commerce giants. 

That is why I am challenging every reader of the Wanstead Village Directory to spend more locally. Buy your wine from Daygustation, your fish and smoked salmon from Wanstead Fish, the best panettone from More Italy. Get your cards and gifts from The Art Shop and Moments, your books from Wanstead Bookshop and make sure your Christmas flowers come from Lillies and Daisy florists, who beautifully bookend our High Street. Adorn your loved ones with jewellery from Keatings and perhaps some festive fashion from Azzurra. Laden with bags, put your feet up at City Place, enjoy a coffee at Bare Brew, sip a glass of wine at The Cuckfield or lounge at The Larder, as no High Street has our range of amazing bars and cafes.

And as you relax, let’s not forget those who are less fortunate; let’s spread the love. Please buy some extra food for the Tin in a Bin foodbank network (wnstd.com/tinabsites) or make a donation direct to The Wanstead Charity (wnstd.com/charity), who support the homeless. That way, we can all have a happy and healthy Christmas.

Paul Canal is a Wanstead resident and Conservative councillor for Bridge ward. 

Cattle warden volunteer Gill James reflects on the recent return of cows to Wanstead Park. Photo by Tony Morrison

When three large mammals with massive curving horns appeared in Wanstead Park recently, there was shock. We did not expect to see cows here so late in the year. We had no cows at all in 2022, due to the long drought ruining the grazing. 

So, the cattle warden volunteers rushed into action, sporting smart new City of London high visibility jackets. Our main aim was to tell people why the cows were there and to discourage them, and their dogs and children, from getting too close, especially keen photographers and small children. Ten metres was the rule. Some people had never seen a live cow before. Most dogs and their owners wisely decided to keep a healthy distance. A few owners had not trained their frisky dogs to come when called, but soon learned to keep them on a lead when near the cows.

We expected a few people to be angry. “Do you think you own this park?” “What about my dog’s right to roam?” “Why were there so few warning signs up?” But most people were delighted to welcome ‘our’ cows back, and many people remembered them from 2021. A surprising number were well informed already. 

They asked questions. “What happened to the calves they had?” “What are their names?” “Are they pregnant?” “Why are they here so late in the year?” “How long will they be staying?” “What about all these cowpats?” “Where do they go at night?” 

Answers: Quinine, Nina and Mara (new girl). They were delayed by the requirement for bovine TB testing as a nearby farm tested positive. None pregnant. They will stay until the grazing gives out in January or February. They stay out all night. Cowpats are very good for improving the soil and overwintering these hardy cattle encourages certain insect species. The grazing clears the habitat of encroaching scrub and biodiversity is improved.

“The cows have an important job to do grazing the main acid grassland to remove course vegetation and young scrub, which improves the biodiversity of this special area of Epping Forest. Grazing is particularly important for Wanstead Park because to mow with machinery would destroy one of the main features of wildlife interest, the Yellow Meadow Ant hills,” explained a spokesperson for the City of London Corporation, which manages the park.

Mara, Nina and Quinine are magic in an unexpected way. Calm down, you frantic urban creatures, they say. Though not in so many words. And just a few days after that first excitement, the park went quiet. The cow-gazers still came, but now there was acceptance that this was a special space to share and enjoy. Dog walkers, strollers, cyclists, joggers, we all have to make space for each other. And smile. And look.

A heartfelt thank you to Epping Forest from the volunteer wardens for this wonderful opportunity to engage with the public in the park, to hear so many stories about cows in people’s gardens or back home in India or Ireland or Iran, and to enjoy the park we know so well from a new perspective.

For more information about the cows in Wanstead Park, visit wnstd.com/wpcows

The Cuckfield is inviting residents to help decorate its charity Christmas tree.

“Buy a special decoration to add to the tree for £1 and help us raise money for The Wanstead Charity, a local initiative that supports the homeless in East London. This will be a great way to get into a community festive spirit, and every decoration hung will mean extra support for someone in need,” said pub manager Lizi Arnold.

The decorations are available from Daisy the florist (121A High Street) or direct from The Cuckfield (31 High Street).