Walthamstow Village in Bloom 2014
Contents 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 21 22 23 24 26
Introduction Walthamstow Village in Bloom and its Boundary Gardening Club Annual Spring Clean and Big Clean Up Village Square - Eden Road Project Adoption of Planters, Flowerbeds and Floral Displays Front Garden and Beautiful Premises Challenges Plant, Pot, Seed and Produce Swaps Children’s Sunflower Planting in Vestry Playground Tree-Pit Project Bulb Planting Our Green Spaces Our Diamond Jubilee Meadow Compost Day BEE17 Village Veg Crime Prevention and Civic Pride Outlook Care Home - Sustainable Garden Project Vestry House Community Garden Wingfield Park Recognition Fundraising and Awareness Sponsors and Credits
Introduction Walthamstow Village is an ancient nucleus of present day Walthamstow, located in north east London.The Domesday Book records that Walthamstow, at the time of the Norman Conquest, comprised four separate village settlements.The parish at the time was called Wilcumestou, probably Old English for the welcome place.
William Morris was born in Walthamstow in 1834 and the family lived locally and attended St Mary’s Church until 1856. The house is now the William Morris Gallery, winner of the Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2013, and it attracts thousands of visitors many of whom make their way to the Village to eat, shop, be entertained and enjoy the surroundings.
The Village was designated a conservation area by Waltham Forest Council in 1967. At its centre is St Mary’s Church which was consecrated 900 years ago and a 15th century timber-framed hall house known as The Ancient House.
The Village has a very distinct atmosphere with its quaint buildings, alleys and quirky streets, shops, pubs and restaurants and has a superb community spirit. Those living here have always considered themselves part of a very special area and it has surged in popularity over the past couple of years not partly owing to the ‘Bloom Effect’.
From the 18th century the church common was encroached upon with the erection of the workhouse (now Vestry House Museum), the Squires’ Almhouses and the National School and other notable buildings, many of which will be seen in our tour of Walthamstow Village in Bloom. The coming of the railway in 1869 generated a rapid population increase and the railway cutting created a physical barrier between the old village centre and the Victorian development. With the houses came the shops and by 1877 Orford and Beulah Roads had become the shopping centre of Walthamstow. The relocation of the town hall from Vestry House to Orford Road in 1876 confirmed its status as the centre of Walthamstow.
Walthamstow Village in Bloom includes the Walthamstow Village and the Orford Road Conservation Areas and surrounding streets. It encompasses areas of the Hoe Street and Wood Street wards of the London Borough of Waltham Forest.
The Village was saved from disfigurement by the opening of the station at the Central which drew commercial development away and the relocation of the town hall to a new building on Forest Road in 1941. In 2003 the WVRA successfully campaigned for Retail Parade Status to be re-granted to Orford Road and it is currently thriving with many new shops and restaurants opening.
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Walthamstow Village in Bloom and its Boundaries In 2003 Walthamstow Village Residents’ Association (WVRA) formed its Environment Committee in response to concerns voiced by residents at Open Meetings. The Village was in a terrible state so we organised the first of our annual spring cleans and started a monthly gardening club and have, over the years, adopted most public spaces and added more events to our calendar. We first entered London in Bloom in 2008 and were awarded London’s Best Urban Community for three years running. We were UK finalists in the national competition RHS Britain in Bloom in 2010 and 2011. In September 2012 Walthamstow Village in Bloom achieved a gold award and Best London Village, the Floral Display Award and Best Front Garden on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. Martin of Church Lane. We also won Best Community Christmas Lights and £50 of HTA vouchers. After these successes we made the decision in 2013 to stand back from the competition for one year, to rethink and regroup whilst still continuing our work and events at a local level.
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This year we have again entered the London Village category. Our theme, to celebrate 50 years of Britain in Bloom is Growing for Gold for Pollinators and we have based our events and planting activities around this. Our boundaries are informally increasing year-on-year with the surrounding areas being noticeably improved as the area is “gentrified” and residents further afield are inspired to adopt flowerbeds, public spaces, start Friends’ Groups and improve their front gardens. Being 100% volunteer-led, raising our own funds, taking advantage of freebies and propagating plants from division and seed we have been unaffected by the recession. Again this year we have been invaluably assisted and supported by Waltham Forest council. WF’s Contracts Monitoring Officer Paul Tickner and his colleagues work with us in partnership and, encouraged by our successes continue to initiate policies based on our ideas to improve the whole borough.
Gardening Club The Walthamstow Village Residents’ Association’s Gardening Club started in August 2004 to tend the garden on the corner of Eden and Orford Roads (later becoming the Village Square). We meet on the first Saturday of the month and, from May, more often and some weekday evenings. We have a year-round list of activities that includes weeding, planting and pruning, litter-picking, re-painting street furniture, clearing and cutting back vegetation from footpaths and tending the Community Meadow. We have a core group of fifteen or so stalwarts. Before each gardening day a reminder email is sent; some volunteers come along if they are available and if they want to participate in a certain project. Those who join in include families with children and people of all ages, abilities and from a variety of backgrounds. We separate gardening waste and have installed a compost bin on the Square. Volunteers bring their own tools and gloves and we are supplied with bags by Waltham Forest who collect the excess green waste after each meet. All other equipment and items are funded by WVRA. We enjoy ourselves hugely, have lots of laughs and lasting friendships have been forged.
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Annual Spring Clean and Big Clean Up
We launched Walthamstow Village in Bloom 2014 on 22 March with our 12th annual Spring Clean attended by 45 people of all ages, abilities and from a wide variety of backgrounds. We laid on a picnic lunch on Vestry Green for all volunteers. We joined Waltham Forest’s fourth Spring Clean which was started as a response to our success. Spring cleans took place across the borough involving 2,000 volunteers and 11 tonnes of waste were collected. It all started in 2003 when Walthamstow Village Residents’ Association’s (WVRA) Environment Committee ran its first spring clean after many complaints were received from residents at an Open Meeting, concerning the litter, graffiti and fly-tipping that had been accumulating in every nook and cranny, path and alley of the Village.
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In the fortnight before the clean we carry out a survey of the whole Village and compile a list of jobs. Spring cleaners form themselves into teams to tackle specific areas, clear rubbish, re-paint street furniture and garden communal areas and tree-pits while our younger volunteers litter-pick the local recreation grounds. The Spring Clean is a very satisfying and enjoyable event and has helped instil pride in the area; it gives everyone a chance to work together, meet their neighbours and improve the Village. In July we’ll hold a similar Big Clean Up to spruce up the area before judging. Today, if someone dumps something or graffiti appears it instantly stands out and we encourage people to report items to Waltham Forest Direct so that it is dealt with before it becomes a problem.
Village Square - Eden Road Project In 2004, fed up with the appalling state of the garden on the corner of Orford and Eden Roads, the WVRA Environment Committee ran a gardening day to weed and clean up the area. The benches were broken and often inhabited by street drinkers and the beds were full of weeds and rubbish and were being used as a toilet. In 2005 we were awarded a Living Spaces grant to install a bench, bin and a notice board. Residents and a local builder supplied all the labour. A second bench was donated by a family in memory of a resident. These activities led to the birth of the WVRA Gardening Club; we use the Square as our meeting point and start our day by weeding, sweeping and tidying it.
Since 2005 LB Waltham Forest has donated a Christmas tree and lights and the WVRA holds a carol singing, mulled wine and mince pie event that in 2013 attracted over 500 residents; we received £300 from WF’s street party fund. The notice board is well used by local groups and residents. The Square is used for craft events, the Plant and Seed Swaps and by the Safer Neighbourhood Team for their crime prevention stall. In 2010-11 we redesigned and replanted the Square with funding from the ward’s Community Council. The Village Square is one of the focal points of the Village and is a pleasant place in which residents and shoppers can meet or sit.
Before (2003)
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Adoption of Planters, Flowerbeds and Floral Displays Walthamstow is the birthplace of William Morris and, with this in mind, Graham Sherman of Outer Space Gardens has designed the planting of our many brick-built planters and flowerbeds. Plants chosen are hardy and drought-tolerant and we are able to collect seeds, divide the plants and take cuttings so that we can sustain and maintain them. We’ve added summer and spring bulbs to enhance the displays. The planters have been transformed from eyesores, with damaged brickwork, overgrown shrubs blocking sightlines, attracting litter, flytipping and providing cover for anti-social activity, to beautiful displays acting as gateways to the Village that give year-round interest in texture, movement and colour. In 2012 we won London in Bloom’s Best Floral Display Award. Since 2007, year by year we have adopted 22 planters and flowerbeds and work on many more. They are funded by the WVRA, Fullers Builders, the Village Spar and BEE17 with all maintenance carried out by the Gardening Club. Three planters in Maynard Road have been adopted by residents and filled with donated plants and vegetables. In 2013 residents clubbed together to buy plants in memory of their neighbour Gill Elvey. In early 2014 Becky Griffiths of locally based Mother’s Ruin Gin Palace donated blackcurrant plants for residents to harvest.
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In 2013 we edged the 12 tree-pits in Vestry Road and filled them with topsoil. They are planted with drought-tolerant plants and bulbs. Also in 2013 we created Lavender Corner by clearing a patch of wasteland on the corner of Vestry Road and Berryfield Close. In February 2014 the beds were mulched with the 15 tonnes of compost donated by North London Waste Authority. In April, to commemorate the centenary of the start of World War One we directly sowed thousands of Flanders poppy seeds - Papaver rhoeas. We have a year-round programme of pruning, dead-heading, seed-collecting and weeding and we use no herbicides or pesticides and only organic feed. We divide and take cuttings from established plants. In times of drought or after new planting, we put out a plea for residents to collect their “grey� water to use on them. Waltham Forest kindly supplies and maintains the lamppost baskets with summer and winter displays. Their contractor Urbaser and residents give us their surplus bedding plants that we use to brighten the communal gardens of our local-authority housing and sheltered housing complexes.
Before (January 2013)
Lavender Corner
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Front Garden & Beautiful Premises Challenges We launched the Front Garden & Beautiful Premises Challenges 2014 on 22 March and informed all businesses, schools, organisations, and religious and community groups within our Bloom boundary. Entries are due in by Friday 27 June. The Spring edition of The Village magazine contained an entry form, information and news, as well as our aims plus some encouragement and advice and ways in which businesses may wish to help by sponsoring a display or making a donation; another magazine will be delivered in June.
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Every entrant will receive a Certificate of Participation that will be presented at our awards Ceremony at the WVRA AGM on 20 October. In 2013 the Best Front Garden was won by Misters Ken Hood and Keith Grieve of Church Path. We presented a special award for Most Entertaining & Much-Loved Front Garden to a delighted Mr Alan Walters of Holmcroft House.
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Plant, Pot, Seed and Produce Swaps We held our first Plant and Seed Swap in 2009 to encourage residents to improve their front gardens, window boxes and planters, to grow fruit and vegetables and to raise the profile of our Bloom campaign. It was such a success that we now run Plant and Seed Swaps every spring and add a produce swap in autumn.
Packets of collected seeds are given out and people bring their surplus seeds, plants, pots, produce and gardening equipment to swap, aided by Teresa. Graham answers gardeners’ queries and identifies plants. Vegetable seeds and plants are swapped and we have made leaflets with foodgrowing advice. Any plants left over find homes in the Village planters.
At each swap we run themed children’s gardening workshops that have included meadow planting, making a giant bug hotel, making insect houses, making window boxes from reclaimed wood, growing vegetables and, in April 2014, planting sunflowers, as we Grow for Gold for Pollenators.
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Children’s Sunflower Planting in Vestry Playground
On 12 April at the Plant, Pot & Seed Swap we ran a free children’s workshop, Growing for Gold for Pollinators, to celebrate 50 years of Britain in Bloom using sunflower seeds donated by the RHS. Throughout the day we helped children and explained to them about growing plants from seeds. Many were old-hands, having attended our workshops before and were proud to show off their planting skills. The children took their pots of seeds home with instructions on how to nurture them.
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On 24 May the children returned with their seedlings and full watering cans to Vestry Road Playground to plant them in the serpentine flowerbed against the mesh fence. We grew lots of extra so that others who turned up were not disappointed. The flowers will cheer up the playground and give the children a sense of pride and ownership of their recreation area. They will attract bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects and their seed heads will feed the birds in autumn.
Tree-Pit Project Heartily fed up with trying to get things to grow in the scrubby, dry soil in the 12 tree-pits in Vestry Road we took matters into our own hands on Saturday 5 October 2013. Using WVRA funds, John and Martyn created planters by adding wooden edges around each tree-pit and filled them with good quality topsoil ready for bulb planting on 2 November. We were able to save many of the established drought-tolerant plants and have planted marigold seeds to supplement them.
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Bulb Planting Since 2003 we’ve held a planting event every year and tens of thousands of bulbs have been planted. The Village looks absolutely stunning in spring and gets better each year as the bulbs “clump-up” and increase. We get many messages from residents expressing delight and thanks. In autumn 2013 the WVRA funded 250 bulbs each of Crocus chrysanthus ‘Aubade’ (white), Narcissus triandrus ‘Hawera’ (pale yellow daffodil), Fritillaria meleagris (snake’s head fritillary) and 250 Muscari armeniacum (grape hyacinth). On 2 November, Gardening Club volunteers planted them in our newly built tree-pits in Vestry Road.
‘I’d just like to thank whoever does the flowers around the trees on Vestry Road. I had to stop the car to admire them. They’re lovely. Puts most front gardens to shame, including mine. Well done!’ – via Facebook
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Our Green Spaces Being an Urban Village every green space is important. The largest is St Mary’s Churchyard. The churchyard is spread over more than three acres in which there are about 1,300 monuments (the oldest dated 1710). There are over 26,000 burials, of which more than 16,000 from the mid-17th century, are recorded in the registers. The south churchyard is cared for by volunteers from Mencap, the area adjacent to the Monoux Almshouses by residents and the remainder by the grounds staff. The church has completed a programme of tree maintenance and has a longgrass policy for the north churchyard. Some areas are left uncultivated to encourage wildlife and they are a haven for birds, insects and small mammals. There is a composting area and bird and bat boxes in the many trees. We and the church do a lot of work to keep the adjacent Vinegar Alley clean and tidy but leave the native plants and wildflowers to encourage wildlife and to give the path a woodland feel. We have sown thousands of seeds and planted snowdrops, daffodils and primroses along the length. Our Diamond Jubilee Community Meadow attracts bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects. The deep railway cutting is home to much wildlife and we liaise with Network Rail to try and keep it as nice as a natural habitat. There is a small enclosed wildlife area in Vestry Road with a bug hotel made by local children, woodpiles and bird boxes. Vestry House Museum garden has a wonderful wildflower area.
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Our Diamond Jubilee Meadow In 2012, to commemorate The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Year of the Meadow, with help from local children we planted a summerflowering meadow on the corner of Orford Road and Church End. The seeds, donated by Waltham Forest, contained 70% grasses and 30% native wildflowers (10% of which were cornfield annuals). The first year it flowered beautifully in red, white and blue for the Jubilee and then gold for the Olympics. We were worried that in the second year (2013) the corner would look like a wasteland but the meadow was an absolute delight and, fenced off with bunting, flowered its socks off and was alive with beneficial insects including many butterflies and BEE17’s honeybees. Now, each September the Gardening Club will hand cuts the meadow, shake out the seeds and tie it into stooks. Last autumn Maggie used her machete that she brought on the bus and Steve gave a rendition of scything songs. In March the Gardening Club, on hands and knees, weeds out the more invasive plants. Throughout the summer we put up signs with photos identifying the plants in flower. We’ve received lots of fantastic feedback from residents and visitors alike and the writer and garden journalist Penelope Bennett contacted us for advice on growing “pocket meadows”. ‘Your gift to Walthamstow by establishing the meadow is fantastic. So effective, full of colour and life - and so resonant. Thank you for such a meaningful contribution to all of us who walk past (and who detour to walk past) that vibrant patch.’ - Shongolulu
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Compost Day (Muck-Spreading Saturday) On Saturday 1 February we laid the foundation for gardening success by spreading 15 tonnes of nutritious compost, kindly donated by North London Waste Authority, made from the contents of our brown bins. The mountain of steaming compost on the Village Square caused much hilarity and interest. Over one cold but thankfully sunny day, 33 volunteers loaded and wheeled barrows of compost and spread it on 22 beds and planters around the Village. It took over seven hours. Our kind residents and business owners regaled us all day with jokes, hot drinks, sandwiches and other goodies. It was back-breaking but satisfying work. Gardening volunteer Don Mapp kept morale at a high but did himself a mischief by working as two men. On Sunday the lovely people from Waltham Forest jet-washed the Square until all traces of compost had disappeared. The thick mulch is releasing its nutrients and improving the health of the soil, keeping our plants (and the weeds) in tip-top condition. The mulch retains moisture in the soil to reduce watering in the dry months ahead and it looks fantastic too.
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BEE17 BEE17 is a not-for-profit beekeeping project set up by Richard Smith and Helen Lerner in 2013 to support bees and plants and provide residents with an insight into the lives of honey bees and the role that beekeepers play. Our two hives are situated in a woodland garden at Helen’s house in Beulah Road. In September and December 2013 and May 2014 the BEE17 project held pop-up honey shops and a tearoom to sell the honey and homemade honey-related products. We completely sold out on each occasion covering the initial set up cost and maintenance of the hives and equipment. In May we harvested and sold 86 half-pound jars of blossom honey. At peak season each hive contains tens of thousands of honeybees so they need lots of suitable plants on which to forage. In The Village magazine, our BEE17 website and Facebook page we ask that everyone buys bulbs, seeds and plants with all pollinating insects in mind and direct people to the RHS Perfect for Pollinators plant lists. The Village’s many green spaces, meadow, trees and gardens and the long flowering season of its diverse plants gives our honey its characteristic complex taste. Residents reported that their fruit trees and bushes produced bumper crops in 2013.
At this time £400 has been donated to Walthamstow Village in Bloom to buy nectar and pollen-rich plants in the Village. This ties in perfectly with our Bloom launch theme: Growing for Gold for Pollinators.
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Village Veg
Many residents use their front gardens to grow food and they look great! We actively encourage residents to grow-their-own: Graham has produced vegetable-growing information leaflets, we provide seeds and put on planting workshops at the Plant & Seed Swaps, we pass on information about food-growing events and have planted herbs and edible plants within the public planters and flowerbeds for residents to help themselves. The Gardening Club helps the residents and staff of the Outlook Care home in Summit Road and we have two apiaries in the Village: BEE17 and at Adrian’s by the Queen’s Arms. This spring, Cultivate, Waltham Forest’s first urban food growing festival, put on over 50 events, including a conference, food-a-fair and a gardeners’ question time. The event aims to mark Waltham Forest as the garden of London, harnessing the knowledge, skills and enthusiasm of amateur and professional food growers. The Hornbeam Centre, just outside the Village, is a hub for local food and many of our residents are heavily involved with the centre – as well as the café, there’s a Saturday market stall and a box scheme selling organic and local sustainably grown produce. There’s also a community baking project, a fruit-picking project, and regular workshops and events. These activities are run in partnership with the Organiclea Community Growers, a workers’ cooperative which grows and distributes food and plants, and supports other people to grow their own food.
Many of our residents are involved in the Walthamstow Beer project and between us we have planted 120 Prima Donna hop rhizomes in our gardens that will be harvested and turned into beer by a local micro-brewery. In the spring and summer of 2013 Helen, Richard and Sue ran a gardening club at the Asian Centre’s Youth Club. The young people grew peppers, tomatoes, chillies, salad leaves and herbs in hanging baskets and containers.
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Crime Prevention and Civic Pride Walthamstow Village is a quaint area that has many paths and alleys and a large churchyard. On the advice of the Metropolitan Police the Gardening Club carries out work to “eliminate recesses, blind corners and hiding places” and remove graffiti. The Bloom Effect is evident as there has been a year-on-year reduction in anti-social behaviour and graffiti, muggings and robberies are now thankfully rare events. Our work includes: • reporting illicit satellite-dish installation in the conservation areas to WF Enforcement with proof from Google Street-View that they fall outside the four-year rule. • clearance of St Mary’s churchyard,Vinegar Alley sites and Beulah Path by the Community Payback Team and youth- offender groups. • clearance by Waltham Forest of the giant Leylandii from the green adjacent to The Ancient House. • removal of graffiti and fly-tipping and maintenance of verges in Vinegar Alley • removal and painting over of graffiti on walls, signs and street furniture. • reporting, and encouraging residents to report, lighting defects and street problems to Waltham Forest Direct. • reporting fly-tipping and graffiti on the railway embankments to Network Rail. • cutting back vegetation blocking sightlines and pathways. • running anti-dog fouling campaigns. • liaising with property companies to ensure signs are removed within two weeks of let or sale. • facilitating residents in swapping and sharing bins to reduce the number and size of wheelie-bins in front gardens.
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We also: • attend Ward Forum meetings to ensure residents’ voices are heard and make presentations to keep everyone up to date with our work. • consult with WF and attend their meetings re planning, transport, environment, rubbish collection, cleansing etc. • hold open meetings for residents to voice their concerns and feedback • attend council Street Watchers meetings. • liaise with and advise other community groups such as Cleveland Park RA.
Our PCSO, Russell Gillingham knows everybody, keeps an eye on elderly and vulnerable folk, deals with any problems, has moved on the street drinkers, encourages responsible dog-ownership and attends our events. Our friendly street cleansing operative Cecil works hard to keep Village streets and alleys spick and span.
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Outlook Care Home - Sustainable Garden Project Summit Road is a Registered Care service for people with learning and physical disabilities and with very high dependency needs. Rachel organizes regular community gardening days and on Saturday 17 May volunteers extended the vegetable growing area and built a raised bed for residents.
Rachel Frances the project leader writes: “The first day of spring on Saturday 1st March, brought not only sunshine but gardening volunteers to help with the home’s sustainable garden project. Funded by The Big Lottery scheme Awards For All and organized by the staff, we are creating a garden, around the framework of established planting, that will provide food and recreation for the residents, be easy to maintain, and involve the community. The WVRA Gardening Club worked alongside our own Permablitz volunteers. The team did an amazing job; first of all spreading compost to feed the soil, then helping to plant fruit trees and shrubs, as well as an array of flowering plants to create a welcoming entrance to the home. It’s amazing what you can achieve with enthusiastic volunteers: I was really inspired by the energy and joy that the WVRA brought to our planting day. The volunteers were a mix of ages and abilities, and did a great job, while making the work look easy. We couldn’t have done it without them.”
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Vestry House Community Garden The garden was created with investment from the Heritage Lottery Fund and is entirely maintained by volunteers. Garden layout and horticulture The planting is inspired by its history as a workhouse garden in the18th Century. There is an emphasis on useful plants including fruit, vegetables, culinary and medicinal herbs and dye plants. There is a woodland bed, gravel bed, wild meadow area and a bed designed to attract butterflies. • We aim to provide a mixture of aesthetic and educational interest year round. • For continuity of interest we grow plants with foliage such as kale and chard. • Our plants are chosen to offer a multi- sensory learning experience for visitors. • We maintain a balance of cultivated and wild areas to increase biodiversity and the learning potential of the garden. • Our dye plants are of particular horticultural interest. The volunteer team Our garden flourishes thanks to our fantastic garden volunteers. The team meets fortnightly with extra days with more experienced members coaching and mentoring new recruits. Thursdays are also a regular drop-in day. We are actively recruiting new members and welcome volunteers with all ranges of ability.
Interpretation and education • This year we are focusing on enhancing the interpretation of the garden. • A qualified herbalist volunteer is preparing a herb trail for children and conducts free tours around the garden during each season. • Another volunteer has redesigned our interpretation panels based on the results of the visitor research she conducted. • Our monthly family activity days are often influenced by the garden. Community use Visitor numbers to the Museum continue to rise due in part, no doubt, to the continuing popularity of the garden as a space for families, adults and school groups to enjoy. Last year we attracted over 23,000 visitors, a significant proportion of whom used the garden. The garden is a major factor for people choosing to use the Community Room for events such as parties, functions and wedding receptions. Events We host a number of events in the garden, including Apple Day, a highly popular celebration of everything and anything connected to apples, the Residents’ Association garden party and an exhibition of sculptures which were both designed and made by local families who took inspiration from our garden.
Sustainability We are committed to ensuring best practice in environmental sustainability by:
• Making our own compost • Using organic methods and avoiding the use of chemicals • Leaving areas untouched to encourage biodiversity • Planting to attract butterflies and other wildlife • Using produce from our garden, including vegetables and herbs
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Wingfield Park The Friends of Wingfield Park (FoWP) group was formed on 19 August 2010. Sarah Herbert, chair of FoWP writes: since it was formed, improvements to the park have included: • A fence around under-7s playground, • Cleaning up the area behind the hut, installing planting boxes and the dragon, which was funded by the Community Ward Forum, designed by London Play and made by chainsaw artist Will Lee. • Removal of the sycamore trees that had allowed children to climb up on to the neighbouring substation. • Removal of the fence and bushes between the dragon and under-7s area to improve access (Community First funding). • Replacing the spiky pyracantha near the orange swings (which had become a hiding place for bad behaviour) with plants that provide stimulus for blind and partially sighted visitors and a better habitat for insects. Community Payback did the backbreaking removal work. • Planting new trees: a silver birch to create shade for the playground, and Japanese privet to act as gateway to the dragon. • New play equipment, and improvements to the ground. Hoe Street ward councillors found us £50,000 funding to revamp the park, and after consultation with FoWP, supplied us with a new toddler ‘pirate ship’ slide, matting on areas prone to mud, the roof and little games around the big slide, astroturf on the big playground, new benches and freshly painted railings. One of the new trees (the Japanese privet) was part of this project. • The brilliant mural by Dave ‘Gnasher’ Nash, in freezing conditions. The Graffiti Team painted the background blue, and the hut a stylish red made possible by Community Ward funding.
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• Stag beetle loggery constructed by Conservation Volunteers now hosting some insects. • For the past two years the park has been part of Walthamstow’s Family Wassail in January, with children singing a blessing for the dragon they had written themselves. • Each year we organise, with the council, a spring clean, bulb planting, and this year we planted annual flowers too. • In the summer, the Woodcraft Folk are to paint a mural of their design on the side of the hut. • Plans for the future include perhaps flattening the grassy knoll and turning it into a ball games area, though ideas and suggestions always gratefully received. • We keep in touch with the members of our friends group via its Facebook group of 189 members, and an email group.
Recognition
“For services to Walthamstow”
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Fundraising and Awareness The WVRA has a year-round programme of events. The Annual Garden Party in the Museum garden in July 2013 attracted 1,500 people and is our main fundraiser. Instead of the garden party this year we are part of the organising committee of the revived Walthamstow Village Festival to be held in August. In November we hold our ever-popular Annual Curry Quiz. The 120 tickets were again sold out in 2013 and a home-cooked curry supper was served and a raffle held. The Asian Centre kindly lends us the hall free of charge for Open Meetings and the AGM. In October the annual Apple Day, held in the Vestry House gardens, was organised by WVRA, Organiclea and the Hornbeam Centre and attracted over 1,500 people.
Local businesses donate money, goods or vouchers for raffles or to use at events. Our main sponsors are Fullers Builders, The Village Spar and BEE17. Council contractor Urbaser, local garden centres and residents donate surplus plants and we take advantage of national offers of free seeds, bulbs and plants. We have been awarded a “Harvest Pack� of 105 trees by the Woodland Trust for our 2014/15 project in Berryfield Close. Four times a year WVRA produces a full-colour magazine edited by Daniel Barry and designed by Paul Gasson that is delivered door-to-door by volunteers to 2000 properties locally. It is kindly sponsored by local estate agents Estates 17.
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Our Bloom events are published in the boroughwide monthly E-List magazine, also sponsored by Estates 17. WVRA had an awareness stall at the E-List Live event in April. WVRA has an email list of over 800 residents and community groups who are sent details of what’s on. MP Stella Creasy advertises our events in her weekly e-newsletter. The notice board on the Village Square is kept up to date with posters and information. We have a Walthamstow Village Residents’ Association website and a Walthamstow Village in Bloom Facebook group.
We apply for grants via our Ward Forum and make presentations to residents detailing our work. This year Sarah Vincent received £600 to fund a short film showcasing the work of Walthamstow Village in Bloom for those who want to improve their area. We participate in free training and events run by Groundworks. In 2013 Helen and Teresa gained their HSE approved Emergency First Aid at Work certificates and Helen achieved the RSPH Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering. We have close links with, amongst other local organisations, WF Civic Society, WF Friends of the Earth, Walthamstow Historical Society, Organiclea, the Hornbeam Centre, E17 Art Trail and Friends of Wingfield Park.
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Sponsors and Credits •
The Vestry House Museum staff and the volunteer gardeners for their hard work and for the use of their wonderful premises for hosting judging day.
• Walthamstow Village Residents’ Association Committee – funding projects and support. • Estates 17 – sponsorship of quarterly Village Magazine & promotion via the E-List. • Fullers Builders – sponsorship of the planter on the junction of Beulah and Grosvenor • East London Sausage Company – donations Rise East. of products for events. • Spar Village Stores – sponsorship. • • •
• BEE17 - sponsorship. The staff and committee of the Asian Centre. John Chambers Plumbing & Building Services - sponsorship, labour, van, tools.
Eat 17, The Village Spar, La Ruga Trattoria, The Village Deli,Village Kitchen,Village Bakery, Orford Saloon Tapas bar, The Nag’s Head, The Castle, The Village, Mon Dragone Restaurant, Petals in Bloom, Village Toy Shop, Sean Pines, The Queen’s Arms, Penny Fielding’s Beautiful Interiors – for raffle prizes.
• Joshua Lerner – portfolio design. • • •
• Our apologies to all those who have helped or donated items that have been missed off Richard Smith, Don Mapp, Paul Gasson, the list above, or donated after the portfolio Teresa Deacon & Helen Lerner went to print. - photographs. Walthamstow Village in Bloom Committee: London Borough of Waltham Forest, Helen Lerner,Teresa Deacon, Graham Sherman, contractors Urbaser and WF Officer Paul John Chambers. Tickner – equipment, rubbish disposal and green waste composting, floral lamppost Monthly Gardening Club Stalwarts: baskets, extra cleaning etc. Helen,Teresa, Graham, Megan, Steve, Maggie, Jill, Richard, Joss, Daniel, Carole, Martyn, Don and Hilary. Hoe Street Ward Cllrs Saima Mahmud, Mark Rusling & Ahsan Khan and MP Stella Creasy And to all the good folk who volunteer their time, for support and promotion of events.
• Paul Gasson – poster design, publicity and website.
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supply us with refreshments and who live, work or play in Walthamstow Village, for their remarkable community spirit, encouragement, support and enthusiasm for Walthamstow Village Bloom.