Editor

Local swan rescue volunteers are collecting unwanted blankets to aid the transport of injured birds.

“Avian influenza means nothing used for one bird can be used for another, and we have rigorous cleaning routines in place. We use bedding in the ambulance travel pods and also when a rescued bird doesn’t need admission but is held locally for observation,” said Swan Sanctuary volunteer Gill Walker.

Bed linen, sheets and blankets will be collected at an event at Eagle Pond on 14 January from 11am to 12 noon.

Visit swvg.co.uk/swanrescue

The presenter of East London Radio’s Talking Stories – a programme dedicated to the spoken word – is seeking local storytellers, poets and authors to take part in future shows.

“Talking Stories is the first and only UK radio show dedicated to the art of storytelling. Our audience is growing – we have 43,000 listeners across the globe – and we would like to feature your stories and promote your talents, of which there are plenty in Wanstead and Woodford!” said presenter Tony Cranston.

Email totocranston@hotmail.com

Local councillors have questioned Barclays’ decision to close their South Woodford branch on 23 February.

“Obviously we are disappointed, especially as this was announced so soon after the Post Office had just returned to George Lane. They are talking about a replacement ‘deposit service’ offered by Link as opposed to a banking hub, which we have argued for as an alternative. We have made contact with Barclays and asked them to reconsider their decision, but I fear it is a fait accompli,” said Councillor Joe Hehir.

Some South Woodford scribbles from DD, our resident diarist, commentator and observer of all things local. Illustrated by Evelyn Rowland

I’m writing about bereavement this month. “You can’t write about that!” some have said. Others have said: “Go for it.” Perhaps the sense of national shared grief following the death of the Queen brought the subject into the headlines. I was unashamedly amongst those who did indeed find it strange and sad that she was ‘no longer around’. The majority of the population had never known another person on the throne. Or on the stamps. As for me, I could remember the life of her father George VI ‘drawing peacefully to a close’ and feeling a 12-year-old’s sympathy for the princesses losing their dad well before his time.

Years later, I vividly recall driving with my sister and brothers behind our father’s hearse and being moved and somehow comforted by the sight of two workmen putting down their pneumatic drills, removing their caps and bowing their heads as we passed. I was thinking: “He will never put his arms around me again and give my back a good rub.” Our mother slipped away early in the morning of her 98th birthday; my sister and my son and I were nearest to the hospital and arrived a few hours later. My sister held her and whispered in her ear: “Don’t worry, Mum, we’ll always be your kids!” Small incidents in themselves but all contributing to the inevitable, painful, yet somehow celebratory and thankful journey we had begun as ‘orphans’. 

But there’s got to be a time when it’s absolutely OK to weep; to sob; to howl. I’ve been looking at some of the consoling letters that flooded in when my husband died, and some of my replies. To one I wrote: “The sense of loss is frankly terrible, though I know, somehow, I will be able to get through, not around it, in time. I came upon a letter in his familiar handwriting this morning. I allowed myself a few moments of wailing and then got down to the nearest job available, emptied the dishwasher and stacked things away.” 

People are all different, unique, with their own life experiences and relationships. Not surprisingly, their route through bereavement will also be different and unique. As usual, when preparing this diary, I have relied on the help of people I meet ‘down the lane’. So many are happy to talk; so varied their insights: “I lost my partner five years ago. I live in a cul-de-sac. If I didn’t go out, I would see no one all day. I know I must make the effort. Make a habit of getting out. Be in the world like Fred always was.”

“The 10 years of my husband’s deepening dementia were really a slow, prolonged bereavement. He became less and less the person I knew. My chum, my soulmate. When he died, the sense of relief that he was no longer struggling was all mixed in with my sense of absolute desolation. We had been together from schooldays and never apart. It’s as if I’m holding things in balance. On one of those old-fashioned sets of scales. Sometimes the loss weighs more heavily, sometimes the thankfulness that he has finally been released from his cage of confusion.” 

“I still have chats with my dear wife, even after several years. And I am grateful for the friends who understand how much I need to talk about her. They don’t avoid the subject.”

“Never a day goes by when I don’t remember my mother. Especially when I’m ironing shirts.” (Tell me more.) “At school, in Home Economics, we were taught the correct way to iron shirts, so when I got home I told my mother she wasn’t doing it right. She was definitely not well pleased!” (But what a loving smile that recollection produced!)

“Yes, I am in mourning. Other pet owners will understand. My dog would always greet me as if she hadn’t seen me for years. She gave me unconditional love, whatever my mood: sad, happy, anxious, whatever. We knew something was seriously the matter but the diagnosis yesterday took us by surprise. The vets could offer no cure. We had fetched her from Battersea Dogs’ Home when she was 11 months old. She ‘went to sleep’ yesterday evening, 10 years later. I am grieving for my loved companion. It feels very raw. But I’m comforted by knowing we were able to give her a good life.”

“I lost my grandma recently. She was very special. We were very close. I’ll be learning to drive soon. It would have been good to take her out for a ride to celebrate when I pass the test. She used to meet me from primary school sometimes. There was a seat in the park that we called ‘our seat’. We would talk together about the day. Or just sit in silence enjoying each other’s company. I miss her very much. I always will.”

“I have seen neighbours cross the road when they see me coming. Some have told me ‘they don’t know what to say’. But if they just said ‘I don’t know what to say,’ it would be more comfortable. Then we could chat.” 

Well, dear readers, was I right to choose this subject? You be the judge. For me, there were beautiful moments even in the first few days of my bereavement: my Hindu neighbour walked over the road and sat quietly, cross-legged on the sitting-room floor for some hours just to demonstrate, as he said, that ‘he was here for me’. A Jewish work-colleague rang me on a day when I was feeling very low. “I am thinking of you,” she said, “and I wish you long life.” Another neighbour knocked on the door holding quite a large shrub in a pot. I had to peer around it to see who it was. He was near to tears. No prepared speech. “Remembering him. Brought you a plant.”

To contact DD with your thoughts or feedback, email dd@swvg.co.uk

Redbridge Museum will open a new permanent exhibition in spring 2023 exploring 200,000 years of local history. In the sixth of a series of articles, Museum Officer Nishat Alam looks at some of the items on show

Happy New Year from Redbridge Museum! While we remained closed in 2022, it was a very busy year for our team. We spent time meeting with local people and collecting more stories, writing text labels and panels, and working with designers to come up with some brand-new displays telling the story of the people, places and events that make up Redbridge’s history.

Through this column, I’ve explored various themes that will feature in the new museum, from Wanstead’s Roman past and local women’s history to the difficult stories surrounding historic figures and houses in the Woodford area. While it seems as though I may have covered nearly all of Redbridge’s history in the past year, there’s still plenty I haven’t mentioned. Some of the new displays to look forward to are a new and bigger early history section, a Mini Museum for under-5s and a new roomset featuring one of the most unique objects in our collection: a 1970s Keracolor ‘Space Age’ television, pictured here.

The museum redevelopment wasn’t the only thing we were working on in 2022, of course. We opened our Asian Roots in Redbridge exhibition in April, celebrating the history of South Asian life in Redbridge, and Royal Redbridge to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in May. In June, we worked with an app developer to create an exciting augmented reality experience with a Victorian mangle from our collection, combining history and technology for Redbridge Central Library’s Tech Ilford festival.

A personal highlight for me was People Powered, a major project in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery. In the summer, we held workshops with local young people and acclaimed photographer Eddie Otchere, exploring photography and the history of Ilford Limited, the world-famous photographic company. The project ended with the Ilford Limited: Analogue Stories exhibition, which opened in December and remains on show until March 2023.

Schools and families can also continue to enjoy Redbridge Museum programmes while we’re closed. Teachers across the borough can still book our popular education sessions for their year groups, taking place online or in the classroom. And anyone with children to entertain can view and download a variety of Museum from Home activities from our website. 

The good news is we don’t have too long left to go! The new Redbridge Museum, complete with old and new stories about the borough’s past, will reopen this spring. We hope that Wanstead and Woodford residents will join us to celebrate this new chapter.

For more information on Redbridge Museum and to complete a survey about the new displays, visit swvg.co.uk/rm

A student from Woodbridge High School has been selected for the GB junior cycling team.

Henry Hobbs, a Year 11 student, started cycling at the age of seven and follows in the footsteps of his older brother, Noah, who also attended Woodbridge and is currently training for the Olympics. Henry trains up to 10 hours a week whilst keeping up with his GCSE studies.

“We are incredibly proud of Henry. He is a brilliant athlete and student, and we are looking forward to seeing what the future holds for him,” said a school spokesperson.

An illustrated talk on the history of riots in London will take place at All Saints Church on 11 January.

“We will look at riots going back to the Massacre of the Jews in 1189. We will trace common themes and causes in London’s riots and discover that the riots of the past, such as the Gordon Riots of 1780, have much in common with, say, the Brixton Riots of 1981,” said historian Nick Dobson. Hosted by the National Trust’s Woodford and District Centre, the event will take place in the church hall from 2.30pm (visitors: £3).

Call 07774 164 407

The Haven House Christmas Cake Appeal raised over £1,200 in December.

The annual fundraiser was embraced by nine volunteer bakers, whose festive cakes were delivered across Wanstead and Woodford in exchange for a donation to the Woodford Green hospice.

“I would like to say a big thank you to the bakers for their time and effort, and for paying for the ingredients out of their own pockets, and to the buyers who gave very generously, many of whom support this cause year after year,” said organiser Sarah-Jane Mendonça.

Volunteer litter pickers braved the cold December weather to help keep Wanstead Park tidy.

We have litter-picked in snow, rain and sun, but never before in freezing fog! The seven volunteers at our December event had a good haul, including a lethal carving knife and a frozen cushion. We also sold £40 worth of knitted Santas and angels and several books and cards,” said Gill James of the Friends of Wanstead Parklands.

The group’s first litter pick of 2023 will take place on 8 January from 11am (meet at the Temple).

A new air quality monitor is set to be installed in the playground of Ray Lodge Primary School.

The solar-powered device will measure a variety of harmful pollutants, with data gathered 24 hours a day and available online.

“This is such great news for the school, for Woodford and for the borough. It demonstrates the level of concern that residents have about localised air pollution. This data will be invaluable for helping us gain a better insight into local air quality. It will expand the network of monitors in Redbridge and enable us to take action where needed,” said Rachel Southern, who applied for the equipment via the Breathe London Community Programme on behalf of Mums for Lungs Redbridge.

It follows the installation of a similar device in Elmhurst Gardens last March. The new monitor is due to be operational by spring.

Email mumsforlungsredbridge@gmail.com

In the first of a series of articles marking Woodbridge High School’s 85th anniversary, headteacher Steven Hogan reflects on the school’s history and a former student recounts their wartime memories

Woodbridge High School first opened its doors as two separate schools: St Barnabas School for Boys and St Barnabas School for Girls in 1937. The two schools then merged to become the co-educational Woodbridge High School in September 1972, making  this academic year the 85th anniversary of schools on the site, and the 50th anniversary of Woodbridge.

We had the pleasure of welcoming a group of former staff and students to the school last term for a special event to celebrate the milestone. The visitors received a tour of their old school, listened to some musical performances from current students and enjoyed tea and birthday cake.

There was also the opportunity to look at lots of school memorabilia, including the original school log, which began in 1937 and tells the story of the school in the war years, as well as a school trip to Nazi Germany in 1939 just before the outbreak of war, where a group of St Barnabas boys played football with the Hitler Youth.

It was a pleasure to meet so many former students and share their memories of Woodbridge and St Barnabas down the years. They loved being shown around by our current students and checking out their old classrooms. Some say your schooldays are the best days of your life – I don’t know whether that is true, but I do know the memories stay with you forever, and we had a lovely time reminiscing.

Former student Robert Putt, who attended the school in the early 1940s, remembers the 17-foot, chain-link fences that divided the grounds at the front and back into two schools. He recalls how it was forbidden for the boys and girls to have any contact with one another whatsoever! Punishment for breaking this rule was the cane for the boys and usually detention for the girls. “I enjoyed my schooldays more than anything. They were happy days, despite the war… You should always treasure your schooldays, as life after school becomes repetitive and is therefore harder to remember. But your schooldays are when lots of things are new and they stick in your memory forever,” said Robert. 

To continue our anniversary celebrations, we held a Christmas fayre with an anniversary theme, where students were able to look through the history of the school. We have also put together a time capsule and will give out anniversary memorabilia badges to our students. Plus, there will be other anniversary-themed events throughout the rest of the school year.

Woodbridge High School is located on St Barnabas Road in Woodford Green. For more information, call 020 8504 9618 or visit woodbridgehigh.co.uk

Friends of Wanstead Parklands member Richard Arnopp reflects on the avian influenza pandemic and addresses the ongoing debate over the rights and wrongs of feeding our local wild birds at this time. Photo of Eagle Pond by Geoff Wilkinson

Avian influenza (bird flu) has been much in the news in recent months. It belongs to the same family of viruses as human influenza (which also ultimately originated in birds and reached us via domesticated pigs). It can infect human beings but, as it is not an airborne disease, does not spread very readily. 

The roots of the present pandemic go back to 1996, when the highly pathogenic H5N1 variant of the virus was first identified in China. This was the ancestor of the variant which spread west across Eurasia to reach the British Isles in November 2021. While there are many strains that are mild, H5N1 has a high mortality rate in susceptible species. There is no vaccine and no effective treatment.

By June 2022, it was being reported that British seabird colonies had been hit hard, with thousands of birds dying and some important breeding sites being left almost deserted. Locally, bird flu was confirmed in Epping Forest in October, and there have since been dozens of fatalities among geese and swans. Epping Forest, after consultation with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), published advice to the public as soon as bird flu had been confirmed:

• Do not feed wild birds.
• Do not touch dead or sick birds.
• Keep dogs away from wild birds.
• Do not touch wild bird feathers or surfaces contaminated with wild bird droppings.

The request not to feed birds – on the grounds that it encourages flocking – proved controversial, with two local organisations taking opposing positions. The local Swan Rescue group do good work picking up injured swans and geese and arranging for their treatment and rehabilitation. They have been very active during the bird flu outbreak and have encouraged the public to feed birds on the grounds that good nutrition will help them avoid or fend off infection. The Wren Wildlife and Conservation Group, on the other hand, with which the Friends of Wanstead Parklands work closely, agree with the official advice not to feed birds at this time.

The Friends take the official position on feeding seriously. The reason we have not hitherto taken a stronger line on social media is twofold. Firstly, at the time of writing, Epping Forest is not actively enforcing its no-feeding advice. So far, the death toll on the Forest’s water bodies has been lower than feared. Until something changes, it has publicised Defra’s advice but is not taking any further steps. Secondly, although the official no-feeding advice makes perfect sense in general terms, we acknowledge the argument that local conditions may justify a different approach. In the more urbanised south of the Forest, birds have come to expect and depend on feeding, and already live in unnatural population densities because of it. This may suggest a pragmatic case for continued feeding in present circumstances. To give a specific example, the many hungry birds on Eagle Pond, off Snaresbrook Road, can only be supported by additional feeding, as natural resources are insufficient. In the short term, there is possible evidence that the extra food supplies are helping some swans to overcome this infection. However, it is too early to claim it as a success as new arrivals attracted by feeding may bring in further infections. 

In principle, the sustained, predictable feeding of wildlife is not a good thing. As well as facilitating the transmission of disease, crowding in response to human intervention has a variety of other undesirable consequences. One is that each breeding pair of swans needs access to a reasonable sized aquatic territory with sufficient natural food to raise a brood successfully. Too small an area may cause territorial battles or prevent some individuals from pairing or successful breeding. Also, swans are large birds which uproot and consume submerged aquatic vegetation. They eat between four and eight pounds of material per day, often uprooting more than they consume. Overpopulation may cause ecological damage and overfeeding may lead to pollution and rat infestations from the dumping of food. 

Of course, the reality is that people like to feed animals and birds, and the wildlife likes to be fed, so trying to stop it is an uphill struggle. In the meantime, the watchword on bird flu is still ‘wait and see’. Ecologists are doing their best to monitor the situation, but data available so far does paint a worrying picture which will only be aggravated by the arrival of more migratory birds from Europe. If Epping Forest concludes that active enforcement of the no-feeding message is required during the bird flu pandemic, we will endorse that, and hope local people will cooperate.

To report dead wild waterfowl to Epping Forest, call 020 8532 1010

For more information on the Friends of Wanstead Park, visit swvg.co.uk/fwp