Winter Solstice 2019 Walk

Join (for free) a walk on the day of the Winter Solstice, finishing at sunset, a ritual with pre-Christian associations reflected in today’s Leyton landscape. The route follows as closely as possible the ‘Walthamstow Slip’, a strip of land, about 100 yards wide, which was in Walthamstow, with Leyton each side of it. The Slip ran from Wanstead, at the edge of the Eagle Pond, to Hackney, at a crossing of the River Lea which is now Lea Bridge. Its direction is towards the setting sun at the Winter Solstice. Part of the route, along Capworth Street, is beside the route of a Roman road. The end of the route is a modern re-creation of a prehistoric henge monument in the Middlesex Filter Beds nature reserve. . It is thought that some prehistoric henge stones align with sunset at the Winter Solstice. The Princess of Wales pub is across the Lee Navigation with, for at least some of us, a welcome beer. If you would like to come, let David Boote david_boote@yahoo.com of Leyton & Leytonstone Historical Society know.
Winter Solstice this year is on Sunday 22nd December.
For a longish, but relaxed pace, walk, meet at the western end of the Eagle Pond, Snaresbrook Road E11 1SP, by the W12 bus stop opposite Rivenhall Gardens, at 1.30 pm.
You can join at Leyton Green (the bus garage on Leyton High Road) E10 6AE, from outside the Cottage cafe at 3.0 pm. (There is usually time for a warm drink for those who started at the Eagle Pond.)
Estimated finish at the Princess of Wales pub on the Lea Bridge Road will be about 4 pm.
Obviously you can leave the walk at any point.
There is now a campaign to create a ‘wild swimming’ site at the end of the walk.https://www.change.org/p/waltham-forest-council-create-a-place-for-wild-swimming-in-waltham-forest-now?use_react=false
The first part of the walk across Leyton Flats includes rough ground and soft mud. Towards the end the route uses a footbridge over Orient Way and a railway, though it is possible to use paths beside roads instead.