Different ways of publicising local history:
Sweet Harmony: Radio, Rave & Waltham Forest 1989 – 1994
Katherine Green and Lucy Harrison of Rendezvous Projects have published a booklet and map about a certain musical era, when pirate radio stations in Waltham Forest Council tower blocks broadcast dance music, a lot of it black caribbean. Rave dance events took place in the arches carrying the Lea Bridge Road over a railway line to Stratford, ‘Dungeons’.
The quotes from oral history interviews are superbly evocative. QR codes take you to example transmissions from the radio stations. This is history of the kind that usually disappears without trace, outside the law, but scrupulously researched, presented and archived.
http://www.rendezvousprojects.org.uk/
‘Leabridge Farm and the Black Marsh Silk: A first history’ – Claire Weiss
Claire Weiss’s fascinating article: ‘Leabridge Farm and the Black Marsh Silk: a first history’ is now available to read online. As part of the Waltham Forest, London Borough of Culture 2019 programme of activities, local historian Claire Weiss was funded to research and preserve the history of Leabridge Farm.
Claire Weiss provides the latest results in her ongoing research in this YouTube video of an online talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV8etUBqijQ
Sensing a new interest in the history of the regenerated Lea Bridge area,
Claire, as a local resident, resolved to trace the story of the Leabridge Farm
whose original footprint is now the site of the new ‘Motion’ estate near Lea
Bridge station, Lea Bridge Road, Leyton, London E10.
Although Leabridge Farm can be seen on this and other 1770s maps – some
of which show the presence of barns, stables, meadows and orchards – it
has been absent from local history until now. Having discovered that its
original name was ‘Black Marsh Farm’ Claire became more aware of an even
earlier history: the marshes once drained had provided fertile farmland
from the Saxon period onward……..continue reading Claire Weiss’s wonderful article: ‘Leabridge Farm and the Black Marsh Silk: a first history’.
Different ways of publicising local history:
The first Chingford Art & Heritage Trail – October 2019
The first Chingford Art & Heritage Trail was an opportunity that Chingford Historical Society had to grasp. Brave Elizabeth Salazar Guerra was willing to give the time, commitment and enthusiasm required to create such an event.
She arranged for a number of venues, mainly cafes, to provide wall space for art and photos to be displayed, for free. She got estate agents The Stow Brothers to sponsor printing of the Trail booklet. She secured funding from the Waltham Forest Borough of Culture programme. She knew many local artists.
The new Chair of Chingford Historical Society , Gary Stone, chose photos of Station Road when it really was a shopping centre for Helen’s Coffee on the Green, and photos by James Brimble for display at the same location, the Belgique cafe, where Brimble once ran a stationer’s and newsagent’s shop. Elizabeth was very supportive of our Society.
Taking to the Airwaves
Claire Weiss is an inspiration as a researcher of local history. She discovered she had raised a family in the house in which was born Zoe Hart Dyke, who created Britain’s first silk farm at the stunningly beautiful Lullingstone Castle. The outcome was the book ‘Unravelling the Yarn’, Zoë Hart Dyke née Bond: the Leyton Silk Road’.
The E17 Art Trail 2019
Lea Bridge Gardens historic photos linked to the allotment Sheds of today
There is a part of the E17 postal district which is in Leyton, and this includes the section of Hoe Street south of Boundary Road and a vegan coffee shop called Bodega 50. Here was one of the two hundred displays in the E17 Art Trail for 2019. Lucy Harrison, Waltham Forest History and Heritage Networker, photographed some of the many sheds people have erected on Waltham Forest allotments, a tribute to re-use of abandoned materials, and a celebration of the priceless result in individual homeliness and unforced companionship. She also created four large format prints of photos of larger shacks, in ‘Lea Bridge Gardens’ either side of the Lea Bridge Road by Lea Bridge Station. That informal development was perhaps begun from the displacement of poor families by the extension of the Great Eastern Railway from Bishopsgate to Liverpool Street, and it was probably swept away in the 1930s.
Lucy made high definition video interviews of allotment holders, available at https://vimeo.com/315633883 She designed a top quality printed booklet to accompany the display.
So why should this be a lesson for local history societies ? It shows the power of the visual arts to convey the cultural essence of the recent past, of echoed Afro-Caribbean rum shack culture, and of earlier London poor living and home-making without piped water, sewer connection, gas or electricity.
Those of us enthusiastic about local history want to share our fascination with the past, including a past of the ordinary and the everyday. We issue newsletters to society members, we publish booklets, we put text and images on a website, we ‘Tweet’ a bit, we post on Facebook. But we are not, perhaps, winning enough recognition and reaching enough people. We need to get access to the talent demonstrated throughout our local art trails, form alliances, and persuade the owners of cafes and other suitable locations that they will be enhanced by local history displays.
Bodega 50 has a relaxing feel despite the traffic outside, and sells excellent coffee and light meals.
David Boote
Video conveys meaning
Paul Greenleaf has made a remarkable video about the M11 Link Road (A12 Wanstead to Hackney Wick), which he screened upstairs in The Birds pub on Leytonstone High Road for the first weekend of the Leytonstone Arts Trail. It is full of visual ideas and a soundtrack that draws on the ‘Linked’ transmitters installed along the route (old website http://www.linkedm11.net/index2.html ). It is splendidly evocative of a controversial road building project and the desolation of the awkward unowned spaces created beside it. Some photos of Leyton & Leytonstone Historical Society’s Maureen Measure are also used. Further screenings are hoped for.
“The film marks 25 years since the A12, M11 link road protests ended and takes its name ‘I Will Become More Powerful Than You Can Possibly Imagine’ from the protestors’ slogan [borrowed from Star Wars’] on the last house to be demolished – 135 Fillebrook Road, Leytonstone” http://www.paulgreenleaf.co.uk
David Boote
Local history and the E17 Art Trail: Beryl Swain: The Need for Speed
The E17 Art Trail in 2019 must have had something for everyone, and it certainly had some things for the local history enthusiast. Kirstin Sibley researched the display ‘Beryl Swain: The Need for Speed’ with huge enthusiasm, and her long list of thank-yous includes Jo Parker and Carol Tertullien of Waltham Forest Archives at Vestry House Museum. The display at 1B Coppermill Lane had plenty of text, but not an excess of it, very comfortable to read as you stood at this shop window without a shop. There were biker leathers from an era when they weren’t a global women’s fashion, and a rather thin-looking helmet. A map located the two Walthamstow houses in which Beryl Swain lived. Of her time as a competitor in 50 cc motor bike racing, there were of course photos and magnifications of newspaper and magazine coverage. Rules for international motor bike racing were changed to exclude her as a woman.
Beryl’s marriage to Eddie Swain, the owner of a motorcycle repair business, ended in divorce, which may or may not be connected to Beryl ceasing to compete in UK bike races. I needed to go to her obituary in ‘The Times’ to find out that Beryl moved to Woodford and later Epping, and was a departmental manager in Sainsbury supermarkets around this part of the London suburbs. In her spare time she was a Women’s Institute branch secretary and an organiser of ‘meals on wheels’ for the elderly. Beryl Swain appears from this as unremarkable and as attractive as she does in her bike racing photos.
This E17 Art Trail display designed by Rachel Gomes was an example for local historians. It had an ideal venue. The clearly printed text black on white helped those of us with aging sight. Suspended panels gave just the right variation to back wall images. The available artefacts and information were sufficient to make clear what a trailblazer Beryl Swain was, and how unfair the discrimination against her.
David Boote
Local history and the E17 Art Trail: Low Hall at 90 + Multi-Cultural Toys
At the junction of Low Hall Lane and Markhouse Road, Walthamstow was a pioneer children’s nursery, and this inspired Waltham Forest History and Heritage Networker Katherine Green to create a display for the E17 Art Trail. She was able to use the railings along the entrance path to mount a panel succinctly summarising the historical significance of the nursery, and photos of its use from the opening in 1929. Another panel explained how anyone could hear extracts of oral history interviews by dialling a phone number, for which no charge is made. The audio was clear and the system very simple to use. It will however cease to work after 30 June 2019. The first recording, of Margaret Petchey, is an astonishing insight into life for a member of a large family with little money for anything other than necessities. Katherine describes herself as a social documentary photographer, despite her familiarity with historic document and photograph archives and her skill at oral history. http://www.katherinegreen.co.uk/low-hall-at-90/ The display survived some high wind and rain but could be seen in most daylight hours.
David Boote
Katherine’s contribution to the Art Trail linked well with that of another Waltham Forest History and Heritage Networker, Mary Clare Martin, who brought together some toys made decades ago around the world that reflect a range of cultures and also some of minimal national or religious culture. Mary Clare Martin is Head of the Centre for the Study of Play and Recreation at the University of Greenwich and Co-Founding Director of The Children’s History Society.
David Boote
Local history and the E17 Art Trail: Aftermath 1919 – Art and Revolution
For just a week the Artists’ Studios in Lloyd Park contained an exhibition which had history at its centre. A hundred years ago the Bolsheviks were defending the 1917 Revolution in Russia, and radical socialists were trying to bring about a similar revolution in Germany. For many of us these events have a weak hold on our understanding and emotions, despite their drama and significance. The artists who created ‘Aftermath 1919’ demonstrated stunning talent and an affinity for the revolutionaries that cut through hostile British culture and education.
David Boote
Volunteer Opportunities at The Pumphouse Museum
Fantastic volunteering opportunities have opened up at The Pumphouse Museum. Due to the proposed transformation of the museum’s site, the museum requires a number of Volunteers.
Volunteer Role: Front of House (4 positions available)
Schedule: Sundays 11.00am to 4.00pm (on a rota basis)
Duties include engaging with visitors and explaining about the historic building and the current collection on show.
Training will be given.
Other Volunteer Roles: General Volunteer (positions available)
How to Apply: Please email Mr Lindsay Collier MA l.collier418@btinternet.com
with a general overview of yourself, please. Thank You
Featured network partner: Dr. James Lewis
Dr James Lewis, far right, filming a piece on the roof of Alexandra Palace for BBC TV .
Photo Credit: East London and West Essex Guardian
This week we’re delighted to welcome Dr. James Lewis to our network.
An expert on the industrial history of the Lea Valley, Dr. Lewis is a prolific author who is also available to give lectures on his specialist subject. If you’re interested in booking him for a speaking engagement, just send us a message and we’ll put you in touch with him.
Dr. Lewis’s passion for the heritage of the Lea Valley has also fueled his involvement with the Lea Valley Heritage Alliance which he has helped to set up and launch in recent years.
Welcome to the network!
We’re delighted to welcome these wonderful people and organisations (below) who have joined our network in recent weeks:
Waltham Forest, Antigua & Barbuda and Dominica Twinning Asssociation
Waltham Forest History and Heritage Network 
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