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The new South Woodford community orchard is going to be one of the best Grow Zones in Redbridge, says Louise Burgess of the South Woodford Society. From apples to goji berries, and angelica to viper’s-bugloss, it’s a place to enjoy nature… and pick a few redcurrants . Photo by Geoff Wilkinson

Redbridge Council will be formally launching its Climate Change Action Plan this July, showing how they will reduce their carbon footprint by tackling emissions from council buildings and vehicles, as well as steps being taken to support communities across the borough tackle climate change. There have also been studies over lockdown which have found that getting out and seeing greenery is really helpful to your mental health, so we want to show you how this can be done in South Woodford. 

As part of this initiative, a number of Grow Zones have been adopted by community groups. One of these is an orchard, which has been created by the South Woodford Society on the piece of land at the junction of Primrose Road and Mulberry Way, with funding from Redbridge Council and planting and guidance from the Orchard Project.

Within the space of a few short months, this area has been transformed into an urban orchard. We are growing jostaberries, angelica and goji berries, as well as gooseberries, apples and cherries. While the trees will not bear fruit for a few years, the Jerusalem artichokes, redcurrants and other berries can be harvested this summer.

We also have many wild flowers and plants, such as cardoons – and even a grapevine! Wild flowers have been sown throughout the meadow and include cornflowers, poppies and viper’s-bugloss, which should be flowering soon, adding to the other blossom and flowers that the bees have been feeding on – hopefully, to make some local honey.

The wet April, combined with the warm start to June, has meant the grasses and wild flowers are growing at an unprecedented rate, but a path has recently been mown through the grass, and anyone can come and use the area for a place to enjoy nature. We are hoping for benches to be purchased and installed soon, so there will be somewhere to sit too!

We have created some habitats for insects from piles of wood and hope that these can be further developed into bug hotels for various invertebrates, who will use the wood for food and later to hibernate in for the winter. Look out for some news soon, as we hope to have an open day where you can learn more about the wildlife that may be visiting and how we can help and protect them.

We desperately need some ideas for local tools storage – have you any suggestions? We’d also love to have a ‘green roof’ established somewhere in the orchard, to show residents how it can be done and how wonderful they look. So, if you have any experience of this, or ideas for storage, please let us know.

Of course, anyone is welcome to visit the orchard, and even if you don’t have any gardening experience, please do get in touch and we can have a chat about how you can get involved.

For more information on the community orchard and the South Woodford Society, email e18society@gmail.com or visit swvg.co.uk/sws

A host of celebrities were scheduled to attend a summer party in South Woodford this July to raise awareness of eating disorder charities BEAT and SEED.

The event has since been postponed following the delay in lifting government restrictions, and residents are now invited to join the party on 15 September.

Big Brother’s Simon Gross will be hosting the night at The Gallery, alongside Paul Danan and Charlie Doherty. James Argent, S Club 7 and The Cheeky Girls are among others taking part (tickets: £25). Visit swvg.co.uk/beat

A petition has been launched calling for speeding controls and safer pavements on Hermon Hill.

“Hermon Hill is an accident waiting to happen. The situation is dangerous, creates a lot of anxiety, and is environmentally damaging,” said Lloyd Sampson.

In response, Councillor Jo Blackman said: “Hermon Hill is quite high on the list for safety improvements, but the council has a large number of roads requiring attention and limited resources. I will continue to make the case for this to be prioritised.”

Visit swvg.co.uk/hermonhill

Woodford Green Library is due to reopen this summer having undergone refurbishment, including the installation of a new gym.

“The project started with a clear out of the library and initial surveys being undertaken, but unfortunately, work was delayed due to COVID restrictions and contractor availability. The refurbished library will include a quiet study area, meeting space for group activities, new books and PCs and a children’s library. There will also be a new gym on the site,” said a library spokesperson.

Call 020 8708 9055

Judy Noble provides an update on the work of the South Woodford Community Gardeners and their ongoing efforts to keep the planters and flower beds watered and insect-friendly

We, your community gardeners, would love you to tip the water bottles you carefully filled from your tap in the morning over the lovely boxes of plants on the platform at South Woodford Station on your way home in the evening. It’s amazing how often we’ve still got water left in the evening. The plants get very thirsty and would thrive on what you would pour away.

For most of us, these planters, already full of plants, just appeared, but they are in fact a story of real initiative. One of the gardeners, Attiya, while on holiday in Canada, spotted an offer online from an organisation called Energy Gardens to provide these boxes on any station if a local person asked. Nothing ventured, nothing won; she went ahead and was back home in time for delivery, ready to plant them up with help from her family.

The hotter summers are bringing longer dry periods, which can lead to fiercer storms and high winds. The plants and insects have to deal with this as well as us. So, we’re planting more Mediterranean plants and grasses, as well as herbs that thrive in the dry heat and attract insects, such as rosemary and thyme. Of course, we have many other plants which attract the bees and butterflies, such as foxgloves, lavender, borage, buddleia, forget-me-nots and corncockle.

Many of our traditional cottage garden plants, once their root systems are established, also do well in this weather, and insects love them. You will see the orange marigolds and geraniums just coming out. Soon, the hollyhocks will shoot their long-stemmed flowers upwards and open their buds, pair by pair, to attract and feed all manner of insects until autumn.

As you know, we’ve done a lot of work on the Regency beds (in front of Regency Court on the High Road). There you will also see many meadow plants, such as ragwort, nipplewort, goat’s beard and viper’s grass – like its name, with long pointy leaves. Wonderful country names, and wonderful for the insects, too.

Insects’ natural habitats are under threat, and of course, we, and all farmers, especially fruit farmers, need them for pollination purposes. The fruit trees recently planted on a little corner of open land at the corner of Primrose Road and Mulberry Way will also contribute to the insect life. If you walk over the viaduct and look over the balustrade opposite the station, you can spot this pretty little development. All gardens help to keep the space open for the whole community, to keep the air cleaner, and help us all breathe a little deeper. 

For more information on the South Woodford Community Gardeners, email southwoodfordgardeners@gmail.com

Rev Abi Todd of Holy Trinity Church, South Woodford, encourages the community to ‘go gently’ as we continue with COVID-19 restrictions, and urges us to be mindful of those responding differently to the delay

Our “route out of lockdown” has had twists and turns once again, as now we hope to be released from restrictions on 19 July. I have to confess to feeling deflated once again, not about the restrictions per se, but more about the rollercoaster we have been on.

I wonder how you are feeling about the next phase for our nation? Perhaps you are hoping to see family abroad, go on holiday, or welcome friends from afar again. Perhaps you have secretly enjoyed lockdown – the quietness for you has brought with it a peace and a recalibration of a hectic life. Perhaps you have become more anxious in the past months. Perhaps you cannot wait to embrace all that a British summer has to offer – garden parties, Essex beaches, and being stuck on the Central Line at 6pm.

I want to encourage you to go gently with those who are responding differently to you about the changes that are coming. As an illustration, there is a period in biblical history (in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, in the Old Testament) where the people of Israel are returning to their land after a 70-year exile. The culmination of their return was the reinstatement of their worship. At this event, there was cheering and shouting for joy that could be heard for miles around. At the same time, many people were weeping and wailing aloud, remembering the pain of all that had been lost in exile. It is said in the Bible that “no one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping.” This great cacophony was an authentic reaction to the emotional complexity of the return.

As we embrace the summer, here are four things to hold in mind to remind you to go gently with others, and with yourself.

• Joy and pain are both legitimate reactions to the lifting of restrictions. It is not strange to feel fearful of things opening up again, and nor is it strange to feel relief.
• Joy and pain can exist in the same person at the same time, with no contradiction.
• There will always be ‘someone worse off’, but that doesn’t mean your pain is insignificant. We need to mourn our losses and be real about what we have faced.
• We have the chance to create a ‘new normal’ in South Woodford. I am so encouraged as I walk local streets and see shops open again and people meeting to chat. We have the chance to focus on our local community in this next season, loving where we live and creating a ‘new normal’ in which everyone is respected and accepted, and where we see our streets bursting with life again.

My prayer for you is that you go gently with yourself in this season, giving yourself time for joy and lightness and time to reflect and lament for all that has been lost.

To contact Reverend Abi Todd, email abi.todd@htsw.org.uk

Redbridge Council’s Community Crowdfunding programme will be hosting an online workshop on 14 July (4pm to 5pm).

“The second round will open soon for local community groups to bid for projects that vary in scale from under £1,000 for smaller projects, up to £20,000 for larger projects. If you have a project idea and are eager to find out how to get involved, please sign up for the next workshop,” said a spokesperson.

Visit swvg.co.uk/ccfund

Woodford Arts Group member Amanda Whittle reflects on their latest exhibition and explains her own sources of inspiration

As I write this, I am still buzzing from the excitement of our recent exhibition Through the Artists’ Eye, hosted by Packfords Hotel at the beginning of June. We had over 160 visitors who enjoyed our eclectic mix of styles and mediums. There was something for everyone to enjoy: sculpture, mosaic, photography, painting and original prints.

Held in the hotel’s light-filled conservatory, the weather – apart from one day – was gloriously sunny, giving our visitors an added bonus of enjoying refreshments in the shady garden. We were pleased to have the opportunity to show our work in such an enjoyable environment and chat to local visitors.

I have been making mosaics for over 20 years, and hopefully, improving my skills and developing my ideas. I work with traditional tiles and glass, as well as vintage china and found objects. I enjoy using vintage china in my mosaics but it is increasingly difficult to source, and once used it’s impossible to replace, so my mosaics are unique in that sense.

There are many artists (both past and present) who use broken china and found objects in their work. I have been lucky enough to visit Niki de Saint Phalle’s fantasy sculpture park, The Tarot Garden, in Tuscany, Italy as well as Antoni Gaudi’s Guell Park in Barcelona, Spain. Both are just amazing in their scale, detail and imaginative use of materials; both leaving a lasting impression and an experience I hope never to forget.

Whilst my work is often decorative, it also tells a story. Would you Adam and Eve it? (inset image) explores current issues around gender, our perceptions and expectations based on our own experiences, as well as our cultural heritage and education, while Hundertwasser is my Hero (main image) is a commission piece where the client wanted a second mosaic to complement an earlier one. I couldn’t copy the first piece but took elements from it in terms of design and materials used. My inspiration was Hundertwasser, a Viennese artist working from the 1950s to the 1990s, whose incredibly imaginative work I constantly return to.

The older I become, the more I realise I have to learn, and there are so many more incredible mosaic creations to encounter and enjoy.

For more information on Woodford Arts Group and its members’ work, visit woodfordartsgroup.org

A total of 18 new electric vehicle charging points have been installed across Wanstead and South Woodford, adding to the 13 already in place.

“The move is designed to encourage the wider use of electric vehicles to help reduce levels of air pollution in the capital and reduce the borough’s carbon footprint,” said a Redbridge Council spokesperson.

A community electric charging hub has also been installed in the Mulberry Way car park in South Woodford.

Visit swvg.co.uk/evcharge

The future of the former bowls club in Elmhurst Gardens has been decided after the initial tender process was reopened.

“This has been awarded to kGems Day Nursery and the pavilion will be a nursery, but they will also provide a kiosk café for park users and the local community,” said a spokesperson for Vision RCL.

The South Woodford Society will be holding its AGM on 28 July from 6.30pm.

“We are hoping to be able to hold the event face to face, restrictions pending, but please check our website for details after the next government announcement,” said a spokesperson for the community group, which was formed in 2015 and now consists of over 500 members.

One of the group’s aims is to create a local Neighbourhood Plan.

Visit swvg.co.uk/sws