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The Thames21 project is making improvements to the River Roding adjacent to Wanstead Park. Catchment Partnership Development Officer Will Oliver provides an update in the second of a series of articles

The environmental charity Thames21 has joined forces with Vision Redbridge Culture and Leisure, City of London (Epping Forest) and the Friends of Wanstead Parklands to improve habitats within a stretch of the River Roding bordering Wanstead Park.

By adding fallen trees to the channel, we can provide homes for a wider variety of animals and plants by encouraging the river to ‘rewild’ itself away from its current straight, featureless form.

In the last edition of the South Woodford Village Gazette, I discussed in more detail how this process works. But before work on the Roding could begin, we first had to secure a Flood Risk Activity Permit (FRAP) from the Environment Agency (the government body responsible for protecting the environment).

Bar a few exceptions, all work that happens in a main river or on its floodplain must have a FRAP. This permit is only granted if the work will not increase the flood risk to properties or businesses. Since my last article, the Thames21 river restoration team have written up their plans to improve the Roding alongside Wanstead Park through the addition of staked and secured fallen trees. These plans were submitted to the Environment Agency and, at the end of February and the beginning of March, the work got underway.

I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight a similar project which Thames21 has recently completed on the River Cray at Footscray Meadow, Bexley in south London.

The River Cray is one of only 200 chalk streams in the world. Unlike rivers such as the Roding, which receive large amounts of rainwater, chalk streams are almost entirely fed from underground water stores, which rise through chalk bedrock. This filtered water means a chalk stream should run crystal clear. Just like the Roding, the River Cray has been artificially straightened and widened over the years, reducing the value of the habitats it holds. In 2020, Thames21 worked with local volunteers to introduce 16 fallen trees to the river channel alongside Footscray Meadow. The photo above shows a section of the Cray before and after fallen trees were used to narrow the channel. Already, the processes described in my last article have been kick-started with the river developing wilder areas for animals and plants to thrive.

Fingers crossed, we’ll soon be seeing similar improvements in the Roding!

For more information on the Thames21 project in Wanstead Park and other areas, email will.oliver@thames21.org.uk

Redbridge Council will be hosting a women’s safety walk around Woodford on 14 March.

“Women and girls are invited to point out to us any places where they do not feel safe around the Woodford Station area and share any suggestions on how we can make improvements. We will also be joined by colleagues from the Metropolitan Police. Although this is a female-only event, there may be male enforcement officers present. Meet by the station car park entrance at 6pm,” said a spokesperson.

Visit swvg.co.uk/wsw

A rescue package of works to restore Wanstead Park’s historic Grotto will begin in March.

“The Grotto was damaged by fire in 1884 and while it has had patchy repairs over the past 138 years, it has been badly declining and is on the Heritage at Risk Register. The edges of the landing stage have been crumbling. Major stones have been dislodged and the banks are now collapsing,” said a spokesperson for the Heritage of London Trust, which has raised £24,000 for the first phase of this project.

Visit swvg.co.uk/grotto

A leading exponent of the bandoneon – a concertina-style musical instrument – will be performing at St Gabriel’s Church on 19 March as part of the Valentine Singers’ Misatango concert (7.30pm; £15).

“We are delighted South Woodford resident Julian Rowlands, who often plays on Strictly Come Dancing, will be part of our event. The concert is quite unusual. It will include a Mass written by an Argentine composer in a tango style. A fusion of words from the past with music of the present,” said a spokesperson.

Visit swvg.co.uk/vs

Woodford Historical Society has returned to in-person events.

“Following a period of online sessions, we are pleased to have secured the hall at All Saints’ Church in Woodford Green for our March and April meetings, and we welcome visitors,” said Sue Ralph, chair of the Society.

On 24 March, former police officer Peter Lawrence will be talking about his time working for Scotland Yard, and on 21 April there will be a talk on ‘The Mysterious Meridians of Highams Park’.

Events start at 2.30pm (visitors: £3).

Visit swvg.co.uk/history

To get involved, email Exco.52ndefs@Gmail.com

A new shooting range at the South Woodford Scout Hut is just one of many activities members of the 52nd Epping Forest South Scout Group can look forward to, says Stephanie Woodley in the first of two articles

Back in 2016, our Scout group nearly folded due to a lack of volunteers. This is, sadly, a common theme for many organisations that are reliant on individuals volunteering their spare time to help. However, following support from another local group and amazing efforts by our current Scout Leader, the group has been going from strength to strength in recent years.

We now have three sections running two evenings each week. Beavers (six- to eight-year-olds) meet on a Monday, followed by the Scouts (10-and-a-half- to 14-year-olds), with the Cubs (eight- to 10-and-a-half-year-olds) meeting on a Tuesday.

You may have seen us in South Woodford the Saturday before Remembrance Sunday in November 2021, supporting the Royal British Legion by helping with the Poppy Appeal. All our group were proud to support this worthy cause with Beavers, Cubs and Scouts (and parents) joining in for at least an hour; collecting by the bus stop on George Lane and the eastbound entrance to the Tube Station. We raised an amazing £870 from the local community, so many thanks to all those who donated. The group also donated £220 last year to Redbridge Foodbank (from funds raised at our fireworks night).

The group attend regular camps, camping at Gilwell Park last October and recently hiking to Fairmead Scout Camp (staying overnight in a wooden lodge). We are also looking forward to a camping trip in May to Brownsea Island in Dorset (the birthplace of the Scouting movement) and are raising funds to subsidise the transport costs for this exciting adventure, holding a fundraising bingo session on 25 March.

The executive committee is expanding the range of activities the group can enjoy and have recently invested in an air rifle shooting range. This is a facility we will be able to share with other scout groups in our district. We were really pleased that the Mayor of Redbridge officially opened the range for us on 3 March.

We are keen to expand the group but rely on volunteers so we can continue to run. Please do get in touch if you would like to get involved as there are many ways to help; leading groups, helping when sessions are running or administrative support, such as keeping the website up to date. We are also interested in getting involved with the community, so please let us know if there is something our group can do to help others.

We look forward to providing a further update on the official opening of the shooting range and amount raised at the bingo evening in the next edition, as well as providing an update on future activities planned for the group.

The 52nd Epping Forest South Scout Group meets in the Scout Hut behind South Woodford Library. For more information, email Exco.52ndefs@Gmail.com

Two Woodford residents who attended Woodbridge High School during the 1940s have been brought together by the South Woodford Village Gazette.

Gordon Valentine read an article about Robert Putt’s local wartime memories – which was part of a series in the magazine – and contacted the editor, who was able to help put the nonagenarians in touch.

“It was lovely to hear they could share experiences, even the not so nice ones, like hiding in the school basement during air raids,” said a school spokesperson.

Woodford Arts Group member Darren Evans tells the story behind his painting of Limehouse Reach, which was pre-selected for this year’s Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours annual exhibition

Throughout the year, most of my time spent painting is focused on creating artworks that have been commissioned through my website or other platforms. But over Christmas and the new year, I had a little more time to focus on more speculative artwork. Like most artists, I have a number of ideas for paintings that I never seem to have time to start, so this new year seemed like a great time to pick up my paintbrush.

Starting a new painting always causes me a crisis of confidence, and I will routinely procrastinate, finding anything to do to delay putting the first mark on paper, even if I have done preliminary sketches and know exactly what I want to create! This year, I decided to tackle a subject I consistently come back to: the River Thames.

The Thames has always held a fascination for me. It is inextricably linked with London’s very existence and its history. Nowhere is that link between the river and the past felt more strongly than down on the shoreline and, in particular, where the river flows east of Tower Bridge and around the Isle of Dogs.

This painting is called Limehouse Reach, which is the nautical name for this section of the Thames. I wanted to capture that feeling of history, of Dickensian London and otherworldliness that you experience when you walk onto the shore having stepped down the narrow stairs of Wapping and Limehouse. In this painting, I have incorporated some of the buildings that hang over the Thames and evoke feelings of adventure, travel, the early days of international commerce, piracy and, in the distance, the juxtaposition of the modern world shown by the towers of Canary Wharf. I have painted this in multiple layers of watercolour washes, which give the historic building a ghostly, dreamlike quality and are representative of this world heavily influenced by water.

I was very happy with this painting and decided to submit it to the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 210th annual exhibition. The institute was founded 190 years ago to encourage and educate painters in the fine art of watercolour, seeking the best artists to become members by giving them the opportunity to exhibit their work, a principle that still holds to this day. I am very pleased to say that Limehouse Reach has been shortlisted after the first round of the admission process and I will find out in early March if this will be part of the exhibition that will take place in mid-April at the Mall Galleries in central London.

To view more of Darren’s work, visit thesuburbanartist.co.uk. For more information on Woodford Arts Group, visit swvg.co.uk/wag

Redbridge Council has secured £557,610 from the Office for Zero-Emission Vehicles to install 310 electric vehicle charge points across the borough.

Redbridge currently provides 59 publicly available charge points, with the new lamp post sites to be in place by March 2023. Feedback from residents will determine the locations. “The installation of these charge points will provide easy access to people, where off-street parking is not an option for them,” said Councillor Jo Blackman, Cabinet Member for Environment and Civic Pride.

The North East London Local Group of the RSPB is returning to in-person events in South Woodford.

“On 8 March, we welcome Jonathan Forgham. He will be talking about the 874 species he recorded in his garden during lockdown. And on 12 April, our speaker will be Ann Scott, talking about the ‘pineapple peril’ for Palearctic migratory birds caused by disappearing forests in Kenya to grow fruit,” said a spokesperson. Presentations begin at 8pm at St Mary’s Church (£4.50; under-18s: free; visitors welcome).

Visit swvg.co.uk/rspb

Residents gathered on the Raven Road Industrial Estate in February to protest against City Plumbing Ltd’s plans to build 18 apartments adjacent to – and with access to – Crescent Road in South Woodford.

A petition has also gathered over 1,000 signatures, and Redbridge Council has received more than 100 objections to the proposal. “If the plan is approved, the trees and vegetation separating Crescent Road from the Raven Road Industrial Estate will be lost forever. The character of Crescent Road – a delightful no-through road with Victorian and early Edwardian terraces on one side – will be destroyed,” said a spokesperson for the Save Crescent Road Action Group, who have asked for the application to be referred to the council’s Planning Committee.

A decision is expected at the end of March.

For the latest, visit swvg.co.uk/crescentrd