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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

A table tennis table will be installed in Elmhurst Gardens this spring.

It follows a successful crowdfunding campaign, which raised £4,103, including £2,076 from Redbridge Council’s Community Crowdfunding Programme.

“We would like to say a huge thank you to all who supported this fundraiser and give a special mention to KidsOwn nursery, who generously donated £1,000. It feels like a real community effort to add a new resource to our park,” said a spokesperson for Elmhurst Playground Association.

An application to build a four-storey block of flats with access to Crescent Road in South Woodford has been withdrawn following confusion over ownership of part of the site.

A new application cannot be submitted until attempts are made to identify who owns the land.

Over 100 objections were made to the original planning application, and a campaign group of residents are hoping the applicants will now abandon their plans.

It has been a busy few months for the South Woodford Pathfinder Group as they continue to work towards producing a local design code. Pearl Arbenser-Simmonds reports

A design code is a collection of design principles to help local areas deliver beautiful and sustainable places. It enables the community to lead the way in shaping the design of their own neighbourhood. The document will provide guidance for development, covering the design of streets, public spaces and buildings, as well as spaces for nature. 

Thank you to everyone who participated in our survey, walking tours, focus groups and interviews. It was also great to meet you and hear your thoughts at our stall at the monthly South Woodford market. There were some very interesting outcomes. Our report is available to read in its entirety online, but the top three priorities identified by you were:

• Deficiency of (active) green space.
• Improvements to the quality of public space.
• A lack of key amenities.

Over the next few weeks, we will be engaging an architectural consultancy firm who will help us deliver a draft design code. We will present that for consultation, inviting comments and engagement before finalising it towards the end of March or April 2023. We will also have a stall at the George Lane market on 22 January (11am to 4pm), so do please stop by and have a chat.

We have spent some more time updating the South Woodford Design Code website to make it even more interactive and easier to use. Your input is crucial throughout this process! Let us know what you think about the various options and designs and have some fun identifying areas you think could be improved. We do hope you will enjoy the changes to the site. It will be constantly updated so you can keep track of progress, as well as contribute to the draft code.

Time will not permit us to run another survey, so the website will be our main consultation tool, and will allow the draft code to evolve quite rapidly in line with any comments and suggestions submitted.  

Thank you to everyone who took the time to participate, engage and support the work to ensure the design code truly represents the needs and vision of our community. A special thanks to Waitrose, who very generously donated gift vouchers for our interviewees as well as a cheque for £1,000 to help with the various regreening initiatives being carried out by the South Woodford Society. Thanks also to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities for their support and guidance, and to Tally Lucas Associates for offering their space to host our discussions.

To read the South Woodford Design Code consultation report, visit swvg.co.uk/dccr

For more information, visit swvg.co.uk/dc