Walthamstow Village in Bloom Portfolio 2015

Walthamstow Village in Bloom 2015

Contents 1 2 3 4 6 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 22 24 26

Introduction and History Walthamstow Village in Bloom and its Boundaries Gardening Club Village Veg, Our Doorstep Allotment Adoption of Planters, Flowerbeds and Floral Displays Front Garden and Beautiful Premises Challenges Annual Spring Clean Plant, Seed and Produce Swaps Mini Holland Bulb Planting Our Green Spaces Our Community Meadow Outing to the Materials Recovery Facility BEE17 Berryfield Close: Berry Field Project Crime Prevention and Civic Pride Vestry House Community Garden Recognition Fundraising and Awareness Sponsors and Credits

Introduction and History 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.

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.

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.

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 renowned William Morris Gallery that attracts thousands of visitors many of whom make their way to the Village to eat, shop, be entertained and enjoy the surroundings.

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. On a Wednesday evening, the St Mary’s Church bell ringers can be heard practising. 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.

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 coming of the railway in 1869 generated a rapid population increase and the railway cutting created a physical barrier between the old village 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.

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 2012 and 2014 Walthamstow Village in Bloom achieved gold awards and Best London Village, and in 2012 and 2014 Mr and Mrs Martin of Church Lane were respectively winner and runner-up Best Front Garden.

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Being 100% volunteer-led, raising our own funds, taking advantage of freebies and propagating plants from division and seed we have all the funding we need. Again this year we have been invaluably assisted and supported by Waltham Forest council.

WF’s Neighbourhoods’ Officer Paul Tickner and his colleagues continue to work with us in partnership.

Great changes are afoot, not only with the ongoing gentrification of the area, the opening of new shops and works to create a Mini-Holland, but also plans to improve Vestry Road Playground. We have been heavily involved in the public realm and horticultural aspects of the consultations.

Overall it’s been a challenging year with much upheaval to our regular gardening activities and we heartily look forward to the completion of all work so we can settle into our new surroundings in our gem of a village.

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 maintain the adopted planters, flowerbeds, tree pits and any public spaces that require attention.

We have a core group of stalwarts who turn up every month, come rain or shine. Before each gardening day a reminder email is sent to the 850 people on the WVRA contact list; some of whom 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.

Some volunteers bring their own tools and gloves and others use those that we have amassed. Once a year we ask residents for unwanted tools and John Chambers repairs and sharpens them.

We are supplied with green waste bags by Waltham Forest that we are allowed to leave by any street bin for collection.

We were awarded £45 by WVRA for 30 new hi-viz jackets to supplement those we have and volunteers are given disposable gloves for hygiene reasons.

We meet on the first Saturday of every month until May when we add extra Saturday and evening meetings. 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.

It’s a daily pleasure to see the work of Villagers who give up their time and skills to plant and maintain little areas of beauty. Bearded irises, salvias, lavender whatever is in season lifts your spirit - Andrew,Wingfield Road

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Village Veg, Our Doorstep Allotment Our long-planned community Doorstep Allotment project outside Turning Point at 1 Beulah Road has at last come to fruition thanks to the organisation of Caroline Barton and Liz Evans, neighbours from Church Path.

Turning Point offers information, advice and support for anyone concerned about their own or somebody else’s drug or alcohol use and we thank their management for letting us use their two raised beds and allowing John to install an outside tap.

We also thank WVRA for funding the original clearance of the beds, North London Waste Authority for the free compost, Waltham Forest for delivering it and the volunteers who came to spread it, Fullers Builders for their generous sponsorship of plants and sundries, Petals in Bloom for plants and Darren Read for repairing the brickwork. The total worth of getting the project off the ground was just over £3,000.

On the late May Bank Holiday Monday, 20 volunteers planted out the beds with fruit, herbs and vegetables according to Caroline and Liz’s plans.

Caroline and Liz have coordinated a rota of seven Weekly Waterers; kind locals who have committed to tending and watering one day a week with the hose hidden in Colin Stinton’s courtyard opposite.

The idea is that everyone, including the clients who use Turning Point, will be able to help themselves to fresh produce. The veggies will be labelled when ready to harvest. The allotment is a big part of the streetscene; it’s educational and it’s looking good, too.

During

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Before

Over the years we have been encouraging residents to grow-their-own by producing information leaflets, providing seeds and holding planting workshops at the Plant & Seed Swaps. We join in events like Waltham Forest’s annual Cultivate festival and Apple Day held at Vestry House and have planted herbs and edible plants within the public planters and flowerbeds for residents to enjoy.

The Hornbeam Centre, just outside the Village, is a café and hub for local food and many of our residents are heavily involved with the 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 that grows and distributes food and plants, and supports other people to grow their own food.

The WVRA was instrumental in the starting of the weekly Farmers’ Market in the High Street.

Many of our residents are again involved in the Walthamstow Beer project and between us we have planted 142 Prima Donna hop rhizomes in our gardens that will be harvested and turned into beer by a local micro-brewery.

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Adoption of Planters, Flowerbeds and Floral Displays Since 2007, year by year we have adopted 24 planters and flowerbeds and work on many more.They are funded by the WVRA, Fullers Builders, the Village Spar, Eat 17 and BEE17 with all maintenance carried out by the Gardening Club.

Walthamstow is the birthplace of William Morris and, with this in mind, Graham Sherman designed the planting of our many brick-built planters and beds.

The planters have been transformed from eyesores, with damaged brickwork, overgrown shrubs blocking sightlines, attracting litter, fly-tipping 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.

Before

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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.

In 2014, via the quarterly Village magazine, we asked residents who were unable to attend Gardening Club days on Saturdays, if they would help out by “adopting” planters that they could maintain as and when able.

As a result we have a team of six kind residents who work independently. We give them a hi-viz jacket, bags, a map, instructions and our grateful thanks.

Looks like a picture postcard, lovely!

- Joyce Nunes, Facebook

We have a year-round programme of pruning, deadheading, 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.

In 2013/14 we edged the 12 tree-pits in Vestry Road, filled them with topsoil and planted them with drought-tolerant plants and bulbs.

In 2013 we created Lavender Corner by clearing a patch of wasteland on the corner of Vestry Road and Berryfield Close and this year WVRA awarded us £1,400 to employ contractors to clear the overgrown beds in the whole of Berryfield Close. In autumn we will plant them with 105 berry and nut-bearing plants that have been awarded to us by Woodland Trust.

Berry-field will soon be living up to its name!

The beds are fed and mulched by compost donated by North London Waste Authority.

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Front Garden and Beautiful Premises Challenges We launched the Front Garden & Beautiful Premises Challenges on 28 March and informed all businesses, schools, organisations, and religious and community groups within our Bloom boundary. There are categories for front gardens, balconies, window boxes and containers. Entries were due in by Friday 26 June.

Every entrant receives a Certificate of Participation that will be presented at our awards Ceremony at the WVRA AGM on 19 October.

The spring and summer editions of The Village magazine contained an entry form, information and encouragement plus an article supporting the RHS initiative to encourage residents to make the most of their front gardens, forecourts and windowsills to Green the Grey and improve the street scene and environment.

We also highlighted Waltham Forest Civic Society (WFCS) that is taking part in the Bring Fronts Back campaign to reinvigorate urban front gardens, reinstating a sense of pride, taming the impact of cars and rubbish bins, and seeing each front-of house as a participation in and contribution to the quality of our residential streets. We encouraged residents to answer their “garden check� questionnaire whereby gardens or streets can be scored.

WFCS is holding photographic exhibitions in four libraries in the borough showing photos of front gardens that are either a good or a bad example; aside from planting they want to show how well car parking and the storing of bins is handled and the quality of the paving and the boundary, such as hedges or low walls.

The 2014 Bloom year finished on a high with the presentation of Front Garden & Beautiful Premises Challenge certificates by Cllr Saima Mahmud at the WVRA AGM in October. Caroline Barton of 13 Church Path was awarded Best Front Garden and a hamper of BEE17 products, and Walthamstow & Chingford Almshouse Charity was awarded Best Premises for the residents of Monoux Hall & Squires Almshouses.

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Annual Spring Clean We launched Walthamstow Village in Bloom 2015 on 28 March with our 13th annual clean attended by around 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 fifth borough-wide Spring Clean which was started as a response to our success in the Village.

In 2003 the Walthamstow Village Residents’ Association’s (WVRA) newly formed Environment Committee ran the 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.

The children litter-picked both Wingfield and Vestry Road playgrounds.

Others cleared fly-tips and litter from the tops of the railway embankments.

John and his team drove around in the van removing dumped items from front gardens and alleys, and the bagged-up waste collected by the teams. This was unloaded on the Village Square where it was collected at the end of the day by council contractors Urbaser.

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 further improve the Village.

In July we’ll hold a similar Big Clean Up to spruce up the area before judging.

In the fortnight before the clean we carry out a survey and compile a list of jobs for teams to tackle. This year, owing to the work on the street scene in Orford Road, we concentrated our efforts around the church area, clearing the paths and raking the gravel drive.

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Plant, 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 each 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. We answer gardeners’ queries and identify plants.Vegetable seeds and plants are swapped and we give out leaflets with foodgrowing advice. Any plants left over find homes in the Village planters and excess produce sent to the local Eat or Heat food bank project.

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, planting sunflowers or hollyhocks.

In September BEE17 had a stall promoting plants Perfect for Pollinators and selling Village honey at £5 a jar - all profits from sales went to WVRA to fund our activities.

The autumn Plant, Seed and Produce Swap will be held in the Vestry House Museum Garden on Sunday 6 September.

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Mini Holland In 2014, Waltham Forest Council was awarded £27million by Transport for London for the Mini Holland Programme.

This three year funded programme will transform Walthamstow making it more cycle-friendly, and is planned to encourage people to take up cycling and walking by improving the borough’s roads and town centres and making them enjoyable places to live, work and travel through.

Our Mini Holland Programme includes: • The pedestrianisation of Orford Road.

• An orchard at the road closure in Grove Road.

• Pocket parks on the closures at Butterfields and on the East and West Avenue railway bridges.

• Improved street lighting.

• An extended and redesigned Village Square.

• Traffic calming throughout the Village area.

• An extensive programme of tree planting.

Work started in April 2015 and the scheme is due “go live” at the end of August 2015.

There are barriers, machines and workmen everywhere in Walthamstow Village just now, as work on the extensive changes to our roads and streets takes place. Undaunted by the disruption of gardening activities, residents carefully dug up most of the plants from the Village Square and have stored them safely until work is over.

- Jill Truman, Eden Road

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Bulb Planting Since 2003 we’ve held a planting event every year and many tens of thousands of bulbs have been planted.

The Village looks absolutely stunning in spring and gets better each year.

In autumn 2014 the WVRA awarded us £100 for bulbs/corms and Gardening Club volunteers planted them at the November meeting.

We planted 500 each of Crocus chrysanthus Blue Pearl and Fritillaria meleagris in the community meadow.

And 25 each of Narcissus triandrus Hawera (pale yellow daffodil), Fritillaria meleagris (snake’s head fritillary), Muscari armeniacum (grape hyacinth) and Crocus chrysanthus Aubade were planted in the newly opened tree-pit in Vestry Road to match the planting around the eleven other trees.

Many residents donated bulbs in autumn including dwarf irises, various daffodils and croci that they planted themselves in the communal beds.

In February the WVRA gave us another £50 and we planted 150 Hyacinthoides non-scripta, English bluebells in-the-green, in Vinegar Alley.

Vinegar Alley was full of snowdrops this year thanks to Megan Whitear and her family who have been donating them over the years.

And we’ve had great success with the re-flowering of tulips that like the well-drained, sunny brick-built planters.

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Our Green Spaces Being a London 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 long-grass 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 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, English bluebells and primroses along the length.

A swift nesting site under the eaves of Shirley Court facing Beulah Road was saved by John Chambers and Darren Read who reopened the fascia boards after building work to replace windows. The swifts have re-established their nests this summer.

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 we can.

As part of the Mini Holland works an area of Network Rail land at the top of the embankment is being opened up as a woodland walk.

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 wildflower and meadow areas.

We walked with the baby down Vinegar Alley yesterday, the snowdrops look beautiful as do the crocuses in the graveyard. I’ve spotted wrens and a green woodpecker there too recently so always a pleasant start to a walk.

- Beth Jones, Facebook

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Our Community Meadow We continue to manage the meadow on the corner of Orford Road and Church End planted in 2012 to commemorate The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Year of the Meadow.

In autumn we supplemented the planting with 500 Crocus chrysanthus Blue Pearl and 500 Fritillaria meleagris.

The perennial meadow contains around 70% grasses and 30% native wildflowers. In April the Gardening Club hand-weeded out the more invasive plants such as alkanet and dandelions and in the gaps sowed a mixture of cornfield annuals.

In September the Gardening Club hand cuts it, shakes out the seeds and ties it into stooks. Again Maggie used her machete that she brought back from the family farm in Ghana and got more done than those half her age Throughout the summer we put up signs with photos identifying the plants in flower. We get lots of fantastic feedback from residents and visitors, and the butterflies and other beneficial insects seem to like it too.

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Outing to the Materials Recovery Facility Residents often ask questions about where their recycling goes and to dispel the myth that all waste and recycling materials are collected together on 29 August 2014, Teresa, Ray and Helen were invited to tour the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), run by Biffa, based at Edmonton.

The contents from the green dry recycling bin are taken to the MRF which sorts the different materials ready to be sent for reprocessing. The contents of the brown bins which contain food and garden waste are also composted at this facility.

It was a fascinating and well-organised visit and we were impressed by the scale of the operation and especially by the number of operatives physically sorting the “product” and the care they take - 80 people including sorters, cleaners and overseers work an 11 hour shift with two 30 minute breaks - very hard physical work. There are three shifts of workers who work four days on and three off. The machinery is shut down for two hours early morning for cleaning.

91% of the material brought in is recycled; their target is 95%.

The MRF was very, very noisy and dusty but, surprisingly, didn’t smell too bad.

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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 2014 and June 2015 the BEE17 project held pop-up shops to sell the honey and homemade honey-related products. Teresa made scented bags to sell from the heads saved from pruning Lavender Corner. We completely sold out on each occasion and all the profit of £1,920 was donated to WVRA for Bloom projects in the Village.

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.

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Berryfield Close: Berry Field Project Berryfield Close is a cul-de-sac of mainly social housing just off Vestry Road that has long been in need of some tender loving care. It has plenty of green space and verges around its car parking areas although they were horribly overgrown and untidy and provided hiding places for anti-social behaviour and fly-tipping.

Before

We had already improved the bed at the front that is Lavender Corner, and we had long had the idea that we’d like Berryfield Close to really live up to its name.

After consulting with residents we bid for funding via the Ward Forum for the council contractor Riney to clear the car park. Coming in at nearly £3,000 + VAT this was considered too dear and was not awarded.

Undaunted, we asked a private contractor to quote and they came in at under half that price and so the WVRA kindly agreed to sponsor the project. After meeting with WF’s Paul Tickner and explaining our vision, he too kindly agreed to the council removing all the green waste after clearance.

The beds in Berryfield Close have now been cleared and tidied, ready to plant the 105 berry and nutbearing trees and shrubs from the Harvest Pack that we applied for from the Woodland Trust.

As the project was put back whilst we sought funding, the plants including elder, blackthorn (sloe), hazel, dog rose and crab apple have been planted up in tubs and are being cared for until autumn when we’ll be seeking volunteers to plant them. Sloe bushes have also been pledged by Becky Griffiths of the local Mother’s Ruin Gin Palace.

We are looking forward to Berryfield Close becoming a Berry Field once again!

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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, although we rarely have to do that now.

There has been a year-on-year reduction in anti-social behaviour and graffiti. Street drinkers are not often seen here now and muggings and robberies are rare events.

Our work includes: • forming a Public Spaces sub-committee to liaise with residents, architects and traffic planners regarding the Mini Holland works and larger building projects in the conservation areas.

• walking around the area with WF Conservation Officers and enforcement teams to point out problems.

• reporting illicit satellite-dish installation, uPV window replacement and other such unsuitable additions in the conservation areas to WF Conservation Officers using proof from Google StreetView that work falls outside the four-year rule.

• work to clean, improve and plant along the verges of Vinegar Alley.

• painting and cleaning 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 and liaising with Network Rail on their recent clearance of vegetation on the embankments.

• cutting back vegetation blocking sightlines and pathways.

• running anti-dog fouling campaigns and having “hot spot” signs stencilled on paths.

• liaising with property companies to ensure signs are removed within two weeks of let or sale.

• facilitating residents online to swap and share bins to reduce the number and size of wheeliebins 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.

• attend all Mini Holland consultations and feedback views.

• consult with WF and attend their meetings regarding planning, transport, environment, rubbish collection, cleansing, etc.

• hold open meetings for residents to voice their concerns and feedback to relevant parties.

• attend council Street Watchers meetings.

• liaise with and advise other community groups such as Cleveland Park Residents’ Association.

Our Hoe Street Safer Neighbourhood Team, Sergeant Nigel Williams, PC James Benge, PC Philip Antoniades & PCSO Husein Hassan keep us updated on crime at Ward Forums and hold Crime Prevention Workshops.

Brings a smile just walking around the Village - Dorothy, Facebook

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Vestry House Community Garden The garden at Vestry House Museum was created with investment from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This project transformed a bare space into a delightful community garden which takes its inspiration from the fact that the Museum was originally built as a workhouse in the 18th century. The aim is to complement the heritage of Vestry House and to create a space for relaxation, enjoyment and learning for visitors and members of our local community. The garden is entirely maintained by volunteers.

The Volunteer Team Our garden continues to flourish thanks to the help of our fantastic team of garden volunteers. The team is gathering momentum. In addition to monthly meetings the team now meets fortnightly to do extra gardening 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.

Garden Layout and Horticulture The planting of the garden is inspired by its history as a workhouse garden. There is an emphasis on useful plants including fruit, vegetables, culinary and medicinal herbs and dye plants. There is also a woodland bed, gravel bed, wild meadow area and a bed designed to attract insects.

• We aim to provide a mixture of aesthetic and educational interest year round.

• To ensure continuity of interest we grow plants with evergreen foliage such as curly kale and ruby chard. We maintain a balance of perennial plants and annuals in addition to vegetable varieties.

• Our plants and herbs are carefully chosen to offer a multi-sensory learning experience for visitors.

• We maintain a balance of cultivated and wild areas to increase the biodiversity and learning potential of the garden.

Sustainability We are committed to ensuring best practice in environmental sustainability. Some of the ways we ensure this are by: • Using organic methods and avoiding the use of chemicals.

• Leaving areas untouched to encourage biodiversity.

• Planting to attract wildlife.

• Using produce from our garden, including vegetables and herbs.

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Interpretation and Education This year we are starting to focus on enhancing the interpretation of the garden and the opportunities for learning that it presents.

• A volunteer who is a qualified herbalist is preparing a herb trail for children and conducts free tours around the garden during each season.

• We are currently re-designing our interpretation panels and plan to create a permanent historical trail around the garden.

• We provide monthly family activity days which are often influenced by our 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 almost 22,000 visitors, a significant proportion of whom used the garden. The garden is also a major factor for many people choosing to use the Community Room for events including parties, functions and weddings.

Events We host a number of successful events in the garden each year, working closely with local artists and businesses. Highlights include; Apple Day, a highly popular celebration of everything and anything connected to apples; A Summer Evening, exhibiting local musicians, poets and local caterers; and a Plant, Seed and Produce Swap, in partnership with the Residents’ Association. In addition we regularly host art exhibitions in the garden, particularly during the annual E17 Art Trail.

In September 2014, three years to the day that Tetley the nomadic Village cat died, 50 residents and business owners from Walthamstow Village gathered to remember him, unveil a plaque in his memory and officially open the Tetley Memorial Garden designed and executed in black and white plants by Teresa Deacon.

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Recognition At Annual Council on 21 May, our Hoe Street Ward Cllr Saima Mahmud was elected Mayor for the civic year 2015-16. Walthamstow born and bred, Cllr Mahmud has lived in Waltham Forest all her life and says: I am always delighted and honoured to show my support for the work of the Walthamstow Village Residents’ Association (WVRA). In particular, I really appreciate the tireless efforts of volunteers who are regularly out there, in the community, improving the environment and keeping it looking beautiful for all to enjoy. I am thrilled and grateful by the way in which this hard work has been recognised over the years by the London in Bloom judging committee.

The Village conservation area is a treasure of great historical significance and attracts large numbers of visitors from all walks of life.Whether you’re just out for a stroll or out with the family for the day – people consistently choose the Village to visit and to relax. An important part of the experience is being able to appreciate the beautiful scenery that surrounds you as you walk along the narrow Village roads and lanes.

What I appreciate most of all is how the WVRA encourages community participation in everything that they do – whether it’s helping out on spring cleaning days or bulb planting day. Spring clean always ends with a picnic on the green in front of Vestry House Museum – a reward for the hard work of tired volunteers.

A large number of residents in the Hoe Street ward are living on social housing estates and have never had a garden or planted a bulb, so living at such close proximity to the Village has a tremendous positive impact on their health and wellbeing.

It’s wonderful to see the colourful displays and feel the sense of pride and ownership that residents have of the conservation area.The work of the WVRA in promoting and celebrating community spirit as well as championing environmental issues is why it is held in such high regard by all – especially me.

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Fundraising and Awareness The WVRA has a year-round programme of events.

In August 2014 the revived Walthamstow Village Festival organised by The Asian Centre and supported

by WVRA attracted thousands of people; this year’s festival will be held on 19 September. It is sponsored to the tune of £22,000 by local businesses and residents, WF and Awards for All. In November we hold our ever-popular Annual Curry Quiz. The 120 tickets were again sold out in 2014 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 Organiclea, the Hornbeam Centre,Vestry House Volunteer Gardeners, Significant Seams and Eat or Heat and attracted over 1,500 people.

Local businesses donate money, goods or vouchers for raffles or to use at events. Our main sponsors are Estates 17, 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 were awarded a “Harvest Pack” of 105 trees by the Woodland Trust for our project in Berryfield Close.

The WVRA produces a full-colour quarterly magazine edited by Daniel Barry and designed by Paul Gasson that is delivered door-to-door 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 borough-wide monthly E-List magazine, also sponsored by Estates 17.

WVRA has an email list of over 850 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 will again be kept up to date with posters and information when the Mini Holland works are complete.

On 14 June on the final day of Art Trail 2015 we held a Village Jumble Trail championed by Carol Moloney with fliers sponsored by Marsh Street. 112 households signed up and held yard sales that attracted hundreds of buyers. It was such a success that we will hold another next year.

The E17 Art Trail 2015, held 30 May – 14 June, saw Walthamstow’s artists host 250 events and exhibitions in houses, studios, galleries, streets and local businesses. The residents of Wingfield and Randolph Roads, in keeping with the Art Trail theme of ‘Storytelling’ and to showcase their two Little Free Libraries, used their favourite books as the inspiration for their project -’Happily Ever After?’ and displayed multimedia art work in their front windows and gardens. They also staged a mini arts festival with music acts interspersed with residents reading passages from the books from which they made their art works.

We have a Walthamstow Village Residents’ Association website and a Walthamstow Village in Bloom Facebook group.

We apply for grants via our Ward Forum. Last year Sarah Vincent received £600 to fund a short film showcasing the work of Walthamstow Village in Bloom for anyone wanting to improve their area.

We have close links with, amongst others, 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, for use of their wonderful premises for hosting judging days and for organising and sharing the cost of the lunch provided.

• 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 Road and Grosvenor Rise East and the plants and sundries for the Village Veg allotment project.

• Spar Village Stores – sponsorship and refreshments.

• BEE17 – sponsorship and Garden Challenge prize.

• The staff and committee of the Asian Centre.

• John Chambers Plumbing & Building Services with Darren Read - sponsorship, labour, van, tools.

• Joshua Lerner– portfolio design.

• Richard Smith, Daniel Barry, Paul Gasson, Teresa Deacon, Caroline Barton, Jill Watkins, Penni Grodzicka & Helen Lerner – photographs.

• London Borough of Waltham Forest, Cllr Clyde Loakes, contractors Urbaser and WF Officer Paul Tickner – equipment, rubbish disposal and green waste composting, floral lamppost baskets, extra cleaning etc.

• North London Waste Authority – compost.

• Paul Gasson – design, publicity and website.

• Hoe Street Ward Cllrs Saima Mahmud (Mayor of Waltham Forest), Mark Rusling and Ahsan Khan and MP Stella Creasy - support and promotion of events.

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We fondly remember Alice from Cherry Close who passed away in February. Alice and Abby, the Yorkshire terrier, were always out and about in the Village and they enjoyed sitting in the Square where Abby would be petted by passers-by. Abby is now living with neighbour, Jerry.

Walthamstow Village in Bloom Committee Helen Lerner, Teresa Deacon, Caroline Barton, John Chambers.

Planter Gardeners Nick Springett, Jill Watkins, Andrew Blount, Don Mapp.

Village Veg Committee & Weekly Waterers Caroline Barton, Liz Evans with Sarah and Richard, Jeffa Thomlinson, Sally Devlin with Colm and Esther, Claire O’Shaughnessy, Laurie Thomson, Elaine Mir and Mireya Arellano.

Monthly Gardening Club Stalwarts Helen, Teresa, John, Colin Stinton, Steve Lowe, Maggie, Megan Whitear, Richard and Elly Smith, Jill Truman, Carole Sturdy, Frances Degenhardt,Yvonne Cross, Vanessa Darnborough and John Larking.

Sincere thanks to the many people who have brought us refreshments, volunteered or donated items and who have not been mentioned.