THE PAST MONTH IN THEYDON BOIS
SEPTEMBER 2006
THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME OF THE EVENTS, NOT NECESSARILY IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, WHICH TOOK PLACE IN THE VILLAGE OF THEYDON BOIS DURING AUGUST 2006 AND WHICH WERE RECORDED BY TREVOR ROBERTS, THE THEYDON BOIS LOCAL HISTORY RECORDER.
02 09 06 Nostalgic memories of the sixties and seventies were revived for many when the familiar red public transport buses of those days were seen trundling around the Epping Forest District. The occasion was the Theydon Bois Transport Bazaar and Vintage Bus Running Day organised by the North London Transport Society (NLTS) and now held twice yearly in the TBVH. These mighty monarchs of the road were parked in the TBVH car park some awaiting to convey, at no charge, many passengers along now discontinued bus routes in the area. A favourite was the single deck RF Class bus plying the old 250 route from Epping Station to Passingford Bridge via Theydon Bois. Another route was from Aldgate in London to Romford, then to Passingford Bridge and on to the TBVH. Back nearer to home, the old 167/250 circular route from Abridge to Debden, Rolls Park Corner, Chigwell Row, Hainault Forest and Collier Row was also followed. The Bazaar inside the TBVH included stalls manned by the NLTS, Northern Heights Railway Society, Brian Dreamer, Michael Fereday Models, Electric Railway Society, Trevor Baker, Steve Wakerly and the British Trolley Bus Society. The event, once again, put Theydon Bois firmly on the road transport map if only for one day.
14 09 06 The first autumn meeting of Theydon Bois Music Society featured the young and gifted international violinist Miriam Kramer, accompanied by David Silkoff an equally well known and accomplished pianist. The large audience was treated to a feast of music for the violin from the pens of composers such as Leclair, Mozart, Dvorak, Beethoven, Elgar, Bloch and Sarasate. But in her final item, Manuel Da Falla’s Spanish Dance, Miriam brought out the to the full the fiery nature of the composer’s music, and perhaps her own temperament, in a performance which resulted in continuous and sustained applause. The combination of Kramer and Silkoff produced music of an outstanding nature and bodes well for their continuing success.
Dr Sydney Scott and Dr Margaret Scott, residents of Piercing Hill and neighbours to the Wansfell College site, reminded Villagers and others previously associated with this successful and longstanding College, now closed, of the pending three day public enquiry regarding the future development of the site. They pointed out that the Secretary of State had considered this development to be at a sufficiently high level to warrant this enquiry; the issue was an important one involving a major change in the environment of Theydon Bois caused by the development of 22 flats and the resulting increased road traffic hazards. Many organisations and individuals were intending to give their objections and good public support generally was hoped for. Wansfell College and its beautiful grounds, which are on Green Belt land, have been much treasured in the Village for many years.
Eleanor Dodman of Theydon Park Road returned early from a family holiday in the French Alps to find that her garden had been subjected to £2,000 worth of wanton damage. Plastic furniture had been burned, the greenhouse and wooden decking smashed, the garden shed windows broken and the water butt punctured; garden pots and ornaments had also been destroyed and the house pelted with rotten apples. Neighbours were reported to have seen children loitering in the garden and smashing the greenhouse but were worried about poking their nose into other people’s business. Eleanor said she was very disturbed, initially, about the incident until learning that children were responsible; it was a pathetic and mindless act. The police were investigating the incident, which was first discovered on the 24th of the previous August.
18 09 06 Thieves broke in overnight at the premises of Walker Blakely Kitchens in Coppice Row. A rock was used the break the front window and £500 of petty cash was stolen.
21 09 06 The Mediterranean type summer rolled on without any real sign of conventional autumn. The remains of Hurricane Gordon swept up the western seaboard of the UK, bringing with it a large mass of air from the African continent. Consequently the local temperatures reached 81 degrees F., with strong and hot dry winds, virtually unknown here in late September. Most people made the most of these conditions with outside activities including alfresco meals, at home or in bars and cafes. Major and local road traffic increased and breakdowns on the M11 and M25 Motorways resulted in road congestion, especially in nearby Epping. This weather was forecast to continue with yet another weak hurricane trundling up from the Atlantic to give what in the late twentieth century was termed an “Indian Summer”, but was now called global warming.
A field of 51 entries took part in the Theydon Bois Junior Under Fifteen Golf Tournament played over 18 holes at the Club’s course in the Village. Chelmsford Golf Club was the overall winner with its 13-year-old Siobhan Parameter, a scratch player taking first prize one point ahead of Woolston Manor Club's Joe Kelly. Emma Stratford, also a Chelmsford team member, won the overall girl’s championship. Chris Moore from Chingford, a West Essex Club junior, was the runner up in the handicap competition. Peter Rank, the Theydon Golf Club President, presented the prizes. The Theydon Club has a junior section which provides special coaching for youngsters over the age of ten and which organises competitions for junior golfers.
22 09 06 An appeal was launched for volunteers to become “First Responders” in the Epping District area. Responders operate, in conjunction with the East of England Ambulance Service, to attend Category A emergency calls when time can make a difference between life and death. Responders are based in particular localities and sent to an incident at the same time as an ambulance crew, and so can be first at the scene. Responder training takes a few days during several weeks and covers incident management, patient assessment, resuscitation techniques, and the use of oxygen equipment and automotive external defibrillators.
28 09 06 Eleanor Laing, MP for Epping Forest, urged the community to support the Woodland Trust when she visited its recently acquired 100 acres of land near the Parish Cemetery in Theydon Bois. The Trust plans to transform the site by planting some 35,000 saplings during the next five years as part of the Green Arc Project, which is intended to protect the countryside around London. Sites to the North and East of the metropolitan London, and across Essex and Hertfordshire, will also be involved to form a continuous area of woodland. When completed, the Trust’s site will also act as a buffer between the M11 motorway and any potential development in Theydon Bois, and will be a green asset in an area which already contains Hainault and Epping Forests.
The bi monthly meeting of the TBPC was held in the TBVH, which was preceded by a talk given by Jeff Ellis, General Manager of the London Underground Central Line, following which, he answered questions from both the TBPC members present and the audience. The business of the meeting then followed during which the following matters were raised and discussed:
The Action Group of the Epping Forest Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership had welcomed the offer from the TBPC to facilitate the installation of a broadband link from the Theydon Bois CCTV System to the Epping Police Station.
Nine planning applications had been received, since the last TBPC meeting, and the TBPC Planning Committee had objected to two, one of which related to a substantial garage which, if allowed, could lead to an application for conversion into a residential dwelling. The TBPC had made submissions to the Planning Inspectorate regarding the appeals at 55 Theydon Park Road and 64 Morgan Crescent. Appeal notices had been received for 2 Blackacre Road and for land at the rear of 21/23 Forest Drive.
The Theydon Bois and Abridge Action Group (TBAAG) were thanked for the time and effort spent on the Blunt’s Farm appeal scheduled for hearing by the Planning Inspectorate in early January 2007. It was stressed that residents concerned about the development should submit written evidence of their objections to the Inspectorate, particularly those regarding safety issues and access to the public footpath.
In conjunction with the ECC, the TBPC were seeking to implement parking restrictions in certain roads to facilitate traffic movement and restrict commuter parking. The following would be subject to one hour restrictive parking at different times: Barn Mead, Dukes Avenue (up to the bend by Purlieu Way), Forest Drive, Heath Drive, Orchard Drive, Morgan Crescent, Woodland Way, Thrifts Mead, The Green (excluding Chapel Road) and Avenue Road (part). Objections by residents would be adjudicated by the ECC Highways Department. The scheme would be introduced on a road-by-road basis to expedite implementation, as a full review of Village parking might not take place until 2010.
Three hour no return parking would also be introduced at the Coppice Row parking bay (by the butchers) and the bays in the Avenue, a one-hour restriction in Station Approach; other restrictions would be introduced at the junction of The Green, Poplar Road and Theydon Park Road.
John Brown, Regional Development Officer of the Woodland Trust, Eleanor Laing MP and Councillor Anthony Purkiss had met to discuss proposals, and the related fund raising, for the Trust’s new 100-acre site in the Abridge Road.
The Parish Council Cemetery needed more regular maintenance generally and improvements in the Garden of Remembrance; the relevant work would be put out to tender.
The Village Neighbourhood Watch Scheme had been relaunched with Caroline Law, once again, as its General Coordinator. She was seeking volunteers as Road Coordinators for Dukes Avenue (most sections), Morgan Crescent (high numbers), Slade End, Theydon Park Road (entire length), Woodland Way (low numbers) and Coppice Row.
29 09 06 Churchgoers of St Mary’s Church and their friends took part in the Macmillan Cancer Support World’s Biggest Coffee Morning held nationwide. A fair number of people popped in to St Mary’s for a cup of coffee and cake during the morning, which resulted in £350 being raised for the Macmillan charity.
A three-day public planning enquiry into the appeal by Mountcharm Ltd against the EFDC refusal to grant planning permission for the development of the Wansfell College buildings in Piercing Hill TB, was concluded. Mountcharm wished to convert the main building into 22 flats, demolish the former caretakers cottage to make provision for a replacement dwelling and provide on-site car parking. The EFDC, through its solicitor Richard Banwell, considered the project to be an inappropriate development in the green belt and saw no overriding need for the development. The Mountcharm solicitor, Thomas Hill, claimed that the proposal had many positive aspects despite, what was claimed to be, a concerted campaign from certain quarters waged against the proposal. Both parties agreed that there would be no overall increase in vehicle use and parking if the development went ahead. A decision on the enquiry was not expected to be made for several months.
30 09 06 During the months of August and September, the following entries was made on the registers of St Mary’s Church
Marriage:
03 09 06 Nick Hunt and Bettima Yousefzadeh
Baptisms
03 09 06 Sebastian Bridges
10 09 06 Jack Hughes
17 09 06 Kathleen Merrett and Felix Gregory
Funerals
21 08 06 James Rice
08 09 06 Queenie Love
22 09 06 Gunda Ball
Burial of Ashes
15 09 06 Jill Bayliss
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THE PAST MONTH IN THEYDON BOIS
AUGUST 2006
THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME OF THE EVENTS, NOT NECESSARILY IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, WHICH TOOK PLACE IN THE VILLAGE OF THEYDON BOIS DURING AUGUST 2006 AND WHICH WERE RECORDED BY TREVOR ROBERTS, THE THEYDON BOIS LOCAL HISTORY RECORDER.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS
A major event of the August Bank Holiday weekend was the St Mary's Church Festival of Flowers based on the theme “Places on the Way”. Church members and villagers prepared and displayed fifteen floral tableaux with various titles. Of particular interest were the tableaux “The Way” by Val Matthews and the Church Curate Rev Anthea Cannell, and also “The Upper Room” by Carole Risdon, Rosemary and Douglas Sweet. A Preview Reception was held in the Church on the Friday Evening and the Festival got fully underway the next day with the Church open all day for viewing the tableaux while the Church Hall car park was occupied by many stalls selling a variety of items; and the Church Ladies were busy providing snack meals in the Hall itself. Two special Church Services were held on Sunday together with a Festival of Music in the afternoon. Monday was a repeat of Saturday except that the stalls were augmented with a number of sideshows and other interesting games especially for children. The fine weather encouraged many to attend the event resulting in more than £4,000 being raised for the upkeep of the Church.
During the preceding July, the EFDC environmental service department had received more than 7,000 complaints regarding the fortnightly collection of domestic waste from those areas in the Epping District where householders had been issued with wheelie bins. Many bins had maggots and other undesirable infestations resulting in obnoxious odours exacerbated by the heat wave conditions. The EFDC subsequently agreed to establish weekly collections of domestic waste in these areas until the of September 2006. The leader writer in the Epping Forest Guardian claimed that this decision was a major “U turn” in EFDC policy. Di Collins the leader of the EFDC and Stephen Metcalfe, the EFDC portfolio holder both denied this and pointed out that the new EFDC administration run by the Conservatives and Independent coalition did not generally support the fortnightly waste collections forced on them (without proper consultation or evaluation of pilot schemes) by the previous administration. The new administration had listened to residents, stopped the threat of fines for non compliance with the new collections, allowed sacks to be placed on top of bins, introduced the collection of plastic waste and adopted a more flexible approach to bin sizes. A contributory comment came from A C Wheeler of Purlieu Way in the Village who thought that a new breed of Councillors was showing some intelligence on recycling. However, a petition signed by 200 households in Theydon Bois declared complete opposition to wheelie bins in the Village; they would be a blot on the Village landscape which gave much pleasure to visitors from many walks of life.
The Village Green featured prominently in a local newspaper article describing the attractive nature of Epping Forest, which stretched south from Leyton in Greater London and north to Epping in rural Essex. The Green is part of the Forest, as owned by the City of London, and has always been a popular location for picnics and recreation, even in the winter. Following a request by the Theydon Bois Parish Council (TBPC), the Forest Conservators now leave some sections un mown during the spring and early summer to encourage wild flowers and insect life to re-establish. Another attractive aspect appreciated by residents and visitors alike is the pond and the close proximity to the popular children’s playground, the latter being established, financed and maintained by volunteers of the Playground At Theydon (PAT) charity.
Police Sergeant Tony Walker criticised both the Blunts Farms Estates, and the Epping Forest District Council (EFDC) for their failure to stop children swimming in the deep water filled pits excavated on the site of the Parsonage Golf Course. An EFDC spokesman said that main responsibility for the enforcement of safeguards lay with the Health and Safety executive; the Executive confirmed that it was working with the developer to install fencing and signs in the area. A spokesman for Blunts Farm Estate claimed that guards were employed to monitor the site but the best solution was to have the holes filled in. The Theydon Bois and Abridge Action Group (TBAAG) wanted all parties concerned to put aside “self interests” and stop children swimming in the pits.
The change in postal charges to a new system based on a size and weight alone, as introduced by Royal Mail, caused some confusion both in the Village and elsewhere in the country. All mail was now categorised as Letters, Large Letters or Packets. Letters had to be a maximum of 240 X 165mm in size, 5mm in thickness and 100 gm in weight. Large Letters had to not exceed 353 X 250mm in size, 25mm in thickness and 750gm in weight. Packages were any postal item exceeding the parameters for Large Letters. Special gauges, or slots, conforming to these maximum dimensions, and through which a letter could be passed to gauge its size, were installed in most post offices. Alma Betty from Theydon Bois claimed that counter service was slower than usual due to few customers being aware precisely of when and how their mail would be affected. Ellen Buck, also from the Village, said she had been aware in advance of the changes and thought that that customers received a “fair deal” from Royal Mail.
In his Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB) column in the Epping Forest Guardian, Loughton CAB member and local resident Tony Ames wrote about the risk of taking a secured loan on one’s property. The main danger was that, if the repayments were not met, then the property could be repossessed. Other financing methods could be considered eg. unsecured loans or credit card facilities and the Financial Services Authority Website www.fsa.gov.uk could help in this respect. But care should be observed if taking a loan to consolidate unsecured debt because of possible difficulties in managing current repayments; if such financial difficulties existed, the problem would only be switched to elsewhere. He advised shopping around for the best loan option, avoid being pressurised and not signing anything until completely satisfied with an agreement.
Catherine Grosstephan, who was murdered in her Sidney Road home in Theydon Bois on 19 05 06, was remembered in a special way by a charity event. Her son, Roderick, started off in a four day “Pedal to Paris” ride from London to Paris which finished at the Arc de Triomphe and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. This event was held to raise funds for the Buckhurst Hill Branch of the Royal British Legion (RBL) and Roderick has taken part each year since its inception in 1996. Last year, he even cycled back to London to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the event. Some 230 cyclists would be taking part and Roderick has his own team called the Philo Flyers comprising his wife Melanie and friends, Nick, Paul and John Cherry. Catherine Grosstephan was a great supporter of the RBL Buckhurst Hill Branch being the President of its Women’s Section for some years. Roderick said that the event was a great opportunity to cycle in support of the RBL and in memory of his mother.
Details were revealed of the Village’s success in the Calor Best Kept Village Competition organised by the Rural Community Council of Essex (RCCE). Theydon Bois was one of 12 villages to earn a Merit Award, which placed it with the top 21 villages in Essex. Nick Shuttleworth of the RCCE commented that Theydon Bois, with other villages, had won many awards in the past. These were not just about aesthetics but a community working together as a whole; it was the work put in by people, year after year, that had been recognised in this way.
Ted Martin of Hornbeam Road conceived the idea of producing a book to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Great Eastern Railway (GER) reaching Loughton; three co-authors were involved i.e. Chris Pond, local councillor, historian and author, Ian Strugnell a local history researcher and Ted Martin a graphics designer. This branch of the GER was eventually extended through on to Chipping Ongar via Chigwell Lane, Theydon Bois, Epping, North Weald and Blake Hall; it is now the Central Line, part of the London Transport Underground system and terminates at Epping. Chris Pond commented that the publishing of this book commemorates the most significant event that changed the history of Loughton which was then a fashionable town with high class commuters paying between one and three shillings return to London; nowadays the cost for a yearly ticket would be about £1,600.
SNIPPETS
An holistic therapy centre and shop, Archangels, opened in the Village in Loughton Lane. The brain child of aunt and niece, Vicki Alano and Louise Lazarus, the Archangels centre offers a wide range of holistic therapies including Reiki, massage, medication, reflexology in addition to retailing books, candles, meditation CDs, crystals and gem stones.
The Three Valleys Water Company, which supplies water to the Village, thanked its customers for the reduction in consumption (6 – 14 %) since the hosepipe ban was introduced last April. But Managing Director Peter Darby warned, ”The ongoing drought was becoming more evident following the recently extremely hot weather.
At the St Mary’s Flower Festival, the Theydon Bois Rural Preservation Society staged an exhibition of past Village scenes, which included a special viewing of a film presented to the Society by Mr Tudor Ap Madoc from Michigan USA; the film had been made in the 1930s by his grandfather and featured many local scenes including Parsonage Farm.
HAPPINESS AND SADNESS
During the preceding June, July and in August, the following entries were made in the registers of St Mary’s Church.
Marriages
22 07 06 Benjamin Terry and Emily Cameron
Blessing of Marriage
09 07 06 Philip and Amanda Simmance
(married at Royston Methodist Church on 17 06 06)
Baptisms
25 06 06 Matthew Bambrook and Anna Bambrook
02 07 06 Harriet McIlwaine
16 07 06 Elizabeth Gooch
12 08 06 Madeleine Terri Steele
Funerals
14 07 06 Sylvia Blanks
08 08 06 Mabel Bedford
10 08 06 Ida Squires
Burial of Ashes
24 06 06 William Hunt
02 07 06 Bob Avery
12 07 06 David Surridge
17 07 06 Jack Osborne
09 08 06 Max Harrison
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THE PAST MONTH IN THEYDON BOIS
JULY 2006
THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME OF THE EVENTS, NOT NECESSARILY IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, WHICH TOOK PLACE IN THE VILLAGE OF THEYDON BOIS DURING JULY 2006 AND WHICH WERE RECORDED BY TREVOR ROBERTS, THE THEYDON BOIS LOCAL HISTORY RECORDER.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS
At the beginning of July, a World Cup Fun Day was held in the grounds of the Theydon Bois County Primary School to raise funds for support of the School and to provide the pupils with additional facilities, which they might not otherwise have. The main event was a Mini World Cup Tournament with equipment provided by the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. The matches were played by children of primary school age who, theoretically, represented the countries of England, Argentina, Brazil and France. The event was a great success with glorious sunshine, sideshows and a maximum attendance. However, it all ended on a sad note when the England team, which was playing Portugal in the quarter final of the real World Cup, lost through a penalty shootout, a repeat of what has happened before to England in other international matches.
The Village Green was the site for the finale of an unusual event, “Common or Garden” – an exploration of sheds and village greens. Devised by Sofie Layton, Common or Garden was the interactive “installation” of five basic 8x6 foot garden sheds on the greens of five villages in the Epping District, Roydon, Epping Green, Matching Green, Chipping Ongar and Theydon Bois. Those most outstanding sheds were Chipping Ongar’s “Pieces” which was enveloped with giant interlocking pieces of jigsaw puzzle, and the Theydon Bois “Bitter Sweet “, a fairy tale Hansel and Gretel structure on stilts.
The continuing hot weather of July resulted in the Meteorological Office issuing its first ever “Heat-Health Alert" at a level 3, being classified as a heat wave lasting for two or more days in at least one region of the British Isles. Satellite observations showed dangerous levels of air pollution, containing nitrogen dioxide, in urban areas especially in London and around motorways; one such area was the intersection of the M11 and M25 motorways a mile to the north of the Village. In the Village itself, the strength of the sun was also a concern for, despite careful irrigation of plants (by hand because of the hosepipe ban), many were failing. A mid afternoon temperature at Wisley near London reached 36.5 degrees C. (97.7 degrees F.). In many parts of the South of England schools closed, road surfaces melted and "road gritters", normally associated with snow and ice, were out cooling the surfaces with sprayed water. Peak time travellers on the London underground were virtually soaked in perspiration, especially when the packed trains were moving through the tunnel sections of the system. The national Trades Union Council (TUC) appealed for commonsense in the wearing of hot weather dress especially for men where some institutions still insisted on suits in the workplace. And women were advised that the flimsiest garments, often worn, not only afforded little protection against the sun but could also generate “undesirable interest” from men. The TUC also pointed out that use of suitable hot weather attire could make air conditioning unnecessary in some locations and so lower the rate of power consumption and help prevent power cuts being experienced. The Village experienced its first appreciable rainfall near the end of the month when heavy thundery showers struck the area during the early evening and effectively brought to a close the hottest period of July weather and related drought, on record in this country.
The heat wave ensured that the 19th Annual Donkey Derby organised by the Theydon Bois Scout Group was the usual great success. The main sponsors this year were David and Jack Sullivan, and many other sponsors and helpers were involved under the chairmanship of Phil Koczan. A total of seven races produced 79 runners with many interesting names eg. a topical Rose Tyler by Companion out of Tardis to an interesting World Cup by Willie out of Boxer Shorts. The steeds ran true to form by either throwing their riders or balking at the finishing line, which entailed some verbal stimulation from Race Commentator Philip Simmance. Sideshows and amusement were there in plenty including a magnificent and almost full size-spinning tugboat where adults had to be accompanied by a child; one parent whose offspring refused to ride was seen frantically trying to find a child who would accompany him so that he could savour the “exhilaration” of extreme fright!
Charles Bard, the Vicar of Epping Upland Church and who is also the Faith and Ethics Producer for the BBC Essex Radio, incurred the criticism of local residents by certain views he expressed in his weekly column in the Epping Forest Guardian. He was discussing marriage in today’s society and said that he was an enthusiast for the Institution; however, he was also a liberal who found no difficulty with the idea of a certain amount of heterosexual or even same sex experimentation. Local resident Alma Batty thought it better if the Reverend checked the meaning of the word “marriage” and showed some respect, support and encouragement for the ordinary men and women who followed Anglican teaching and did their best to uphold their marriage vows. Alan and Mary Hughes of Loughton Lane said that it was hard to see how his views on same sex marriage or sex experimentation fitted into either the Church of England wedding vows, which were between man and woman, or into the current guidance on these issues as given by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
A two year refurbishment of the Robert Daniels Court sheltered-housing home in Thrifts Meade, costing £2.5 m, was completed and celebrated with a special reception and a tree planting ceremony. Robert Daniels was the first Epping Forest District Council EFDC) home to be transferred to a housing association; it was built in the 1960s and was in need of extensive refurbishment. The work entailed the conversion to a new warden monitored complex comprising 35 one bedroom self-contained flats, some with easy access bathrooms and low level use kitchens, and a new communal lounge. The Commemorative Tree was conjointly planted by the EFDC Vice Chairman Caroline Pond, the EFDC housing portfolio holder David Stallan and Tracey Lee the managing director of Home South. Children from the choir of the Theydon Bois County Primary School sang during the opening ceremony.
A magnificent summer’s evening was the background for the Theydon Bois Singers 40th Anniversary Summer Concert. The twenty-eight strong choir, whose singing was comparable to that of professional singers, treated the packed audince in the Theydon Bois Village Hall (TBVH) to a feast of vocal renderings. The first half of the evening comprised excerpts from Jerome Kern’s musical Showboat followed by a choral version of Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The second half was even more stimulating with a concert performance of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Trial By Jury. The accompanist was Paul Chilvers and Janet Cass was the Conductor.
Jacqueline Dodman of the Theydon Bois and Abridge Action Group (TBAAG) announced that 713 signatures had now been entered on the e-mail petition against the possible resumption of soil dumping at the Parsonage Golf site. The petition and other letters of objection had now been passed to the Government Planning Inspectorate and she thanked all who had responded in this way.,
In an extensive letter to the local press, Nessa Evans of Piercing Hill took up the issue of the fortnightly collection of domestic waste in “wheelie bins”. She raised a number of very pertinent points including the basic human right of residents in the civilised world to the frequent removal of offensive smelling waste, especially in the summer months. In Spain, dustbins were emptied at least five times a week, and usually at night, so it was uncommon to see containers overflowing with rubbish. She also claimed to have evidence (claw marks) that rodents were attempting to enter the bins and therefore these should have some securing device. She also highlighted the overload on waste collections, generally, due to the large amount of “junk” mail received by residents and the extensive packaging used by manufacturers for their products.
More than 100 members and guests of the Theydon Bois Branch of the Epping Forest Conservative Association attended the Branch Summer Garden Party held at Thrift’s Farm by kind permission the owners Jean and Robin Llewellyn Jones. This lovely hilltop venue sited just outside the village with magnificent views across the Roding Valley was one of the coolest spots in the current heat wave. “Bucks fizz” was served on arrival followed by a gorgeous buffet laid out in the cool of the house and eaten in shade of small marquees in the gardens. Bob Glozier, the Branch Chairman and also Chairman of the Theydon Bois Parish Council (TBPC), spoke to convey the apologies of Eleanor Laing MP for her absence and (for himself) to personally thank all who had helped make the event, which had raised some £1,500 for the Branch funds, a great success.
Members of the Theydon Masonic Lodge and their guests held a summer social evening at the Club House of the Herts and Essex Flying Club at nearby Stapleford Airfield. The Clubhouse veranda facing the airfield, with a cooling breeze and an interesting view of many parked aircraft and a few late flights in the airfield circuit, was the popular location for consuming an appetising buffet supported by much liquid refreshment from the Club Bar. The Lambourne Navigational Beacon, which is part of the London Air Traffic Control System, is located at the airfield and so there was considerable commercial air traffic passing high overhead. Eric Thurston, who is a highly experienced commercial pilot associated with the Club since the 1950s, kindly gave an impromptu explanation of the aircraft movements and probable destinations together with a few aviation anecdotes, which set the seal on a very pleasant occasion.
In his Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB) column in the Epping Forest Guardian, Loughton CAB member and local resident Tony Ames wrote about the overpayment of tax credits to an individual and the subsequent request of the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for repayment. He gave detailed advice on what action to take and advised that further information could be obtained by a personal visit to the Loughton CAB.
SNIPPETS
Gregory Duff, 11, of Dukes Avenue and a pupil at the Theydon Bois Primary School was offered a place as a trombonist in the under twelve's section of the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain. Gregory’s brother, Jonathan, a trumpet player was now a member of the main orchestra, widely regarded as one of the world’s finest children’s orchestras.
Virginia Doe, 56, of Green Glade was one of the many runners to take part in the forthcoming fund raising charity event to be held at North Weald Airfield. Organised by the Cancer Research UK charity, the 5 km race was expected to raise a substantial amount to help beat the disease.
Newly weds Julia and Derek Hirst of Forest Drive gave each other an unusual wedding present – a Broadway Musical. Instead of an exotic honeymoon and wedding presents, the couple decided to stage their favourite hit show “She Loves Me”. Julia is an experienced musical theatre actress and Derek is also an accomplished actor and director.
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Copyright 2006/7. Trevor Roberts, Local History Recorder.
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