East of England Plan Consultation - Click Here
The Society's Aims and Objectives:
Founded in 1943 to preserve the rural character of the countryside in and around Theydon Bois as an appropriate and natural complement to Epping Forest, the objectives of the society are:
- To resist all attempts of encroachment on the Green Belt.
- To preserve all public footpaths and right-of-way.
- To do such other things as may be incidental or conducive to the maintenance of local amenities.
Activities:
- Regular monitoring of Planning Applications (see our noticeboard on the wall beside the estate agents.)
- Organising walks from the Village Hall to explore the surrounding fields and forest.
- Two public meetings a year, in July (with AGM) and October, with illustrated talks on subjects of interest.
- A newsletter is published annually in May.
- Maintain an archive of photographs of historical interest.
- Create a photographic record of trees of interest in and around the village.
Officers of the Society for 2007 - 2008:
The following were elected at this years AGM to be the Officers of the Society for the coming year:
| President: | Mr. R.E. Weston |
| Vice President: | Mr. MR Chapman |
| Chairman: | Mr. PJ Newton |
| Vice Chairman: | Mr. M Boyle |
| Secretary: | Mr. E. Thurston |
| Treasurer: | Mr. G. Haslehurst |
| Meetings Secretary: | Mr. J. Watts |
Society Membership: About 1,700 (Annual Subscription : 50p per person or £1 per household)
Diary of Events: (In Village Hall)
| Wed. 9th Jan. 2008 | Committee Meeting. |
| Wed. 5th March 2008 | Committee Meeting. |
| Wed. 7th May 2008 | Committee Meeting. |
| Wed. 2nd July 2008 | AGM & Free talk by David Williams of CPREssex at this event. |
| Wed. 9th July 2008 | Committee Meeting. |
| Weds. 3rd Sept. 2008 | Committee Meeting. |
| Thurs 2nd Oct . 2008 | Free talk by Paul Sutton from EFDC on Listed Buildings. |
|
Weds. 12th Nov.
2008 |
Committee
Meeting. |
Foot Path Walks: The Society Organises a number of footpath walks each year to explore the fields and forest surrounding Theydon Bois. These are free and are on the 1st Sunday of April, May, June, July and September starting at 2pm from the Village Hall. Dogs are welcome must be on leads for times on some of the walks. Stout footware is advisable as the ground can be uneven and sometimes is muddy. Walks last from 2 to 21/2 hours and cover a distance of about 4 miles, the September walk is slightly longer but can be left at a number of convienient places.
| April 6th 2008 | Tracks – past and present.* |
| May 4th 2008 | Earthworks – ancient and modern. |
| June 1st 2008 | A country estate – then and now. |
| July 6th 2008 | Trees – old and new.* |
| Sept. 7th 2008 | Around the village boundary. |
| * These walks have stiles to be negotiated. |
Other Walking Links
Loughton & District Historical Society - For Epping Forest Walks go to the walks page)
Walking in Essex - John Harris's site of waks in Essex.
Threats to our Village and the Green Belt.
The Committee of the Society is alive to the threats faced by Theydon Bois from various plans for development in Essex. In addition to monitoring all the weekly Planning Applications for our village and the surrounding Green Belt we have responded to: -
1) The Essex County Council's "Shaping the future of Essex and Southend",
2) The Southeast Region Airports Study,
3) The Harlow Development Options Study and
4) The Stansted/M11 Corridor Development Options Study.
5) The East of England Plan.
6) The Stansted Airport Expansion.
In each case we have expressed, on behalf of the membership, our alarm at the possible despoliation of our rural setting; endeavoring to cite and object to those aspects that seem ill considered, or not considered at all, more particularly the lack of resources of water, health provision, transport infrastructure and the likely ending of oil resources by 2040 - as attested to by the UK Petroleum Industry Association.
We have stressed the need for preserving the Green Belt, especially between Epping Forest and the open country to the east, both north and south of Theydon Bois.The East of England Regional Assembly (EERA) Regional Spatial Strategy for the East of England (RSS14) otherwise known as the East of England Plan includes a sub-regional strategy for the London to Cambridge Corridor, which includes the Harlow and Lee Valley areas - and of course Theydon Bois. It takes into account all the above studies.
East of England Plan Response: The date for submissions onthe East of England Plan closed on the 16th March 2005 and The Enquiry in Public started in November 2005 and is ongoing. The enquiry will look at the area covering Theydon Bois on the 14th & 15th February 2006. Both the Rural Preservation Society and the Parish Council made detailed responses to the proposals in the plan, but are not being allowed to give evidence at the enquiry. The East of England Regional Assembley (EERA) had a hugh response and had recieved more than 26,000 replies by the closing date. They commented that "All responses will be studied and form part of the Assembly's final analysis of the public consultation." Well we hope they REALLY take onboard what people are saying. We spoke to many village residents who took time to comment on the proposals in the plan and none could find good words to say for the proposals to build 478,000 houses in the East of England and the 11,000 in Epping Forest District. The destruction of the Green Belt and the affects on our Quality of Life were major concerns for our villagers. The body text of the Theydon Bois & District Rural Preservation Society's Response is now on the Society's East of England Plan page. This was entered under the Plan's various chapter headings with summaries and conclusions added.
N.B. The East of England Regional Assembly covers the six counties of Essex, Hertfordshire,
Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Bedfordshire. It is unelected, but the Leader of Epping Forest District Council is one of its fifty members.
The Society is a member of The Campaign for the Protection of Rural Essex and have made contributions to edition of their journal, "The Essex Protector". We also belong to the The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England that deals with Country wide protection issues
Theydon Bois Millennium Memories
The Society has a video that runs for 35 minutes entitled "Theydon Bois Millennium Memories". This video was produced by Class 5W of Theydon Bois Primary School in a joint project with the Preservation Society. The project was funded by a Millennium Festival Awards for All Lottery Grant.
The video comprises extracts from over 5 hours of interviews with Jim Axon, Kate Coulson, Bob Day, Jeremy Dibble, Pam Dibble, Jean Elderton, Doug Gooch, Doreen Grimwald, Anthony Purkiss, Queenie Strickland, and Eric Thurston. The interviews were carried out by the pupils. The video is in nine sections: Schools, World War 2, Houses, Farming, Retreats, Shops, Police, Events and The Village.
We are grateful to the interviewees, staff of the School and members of the Society for their help in making the video.
The project was developed and coordinated by Hugh Meteyard, Head of Waltham Forest Schools Media Resources Unit.
The original production run of the video has sold out but further copies may be available from the Society at a cost of £7.00 plus postage & packing.
For further information about The Theydon Bois Village Preservation Society or its events: Telephone 01992 813708or E-mail: Jim Watts