EPPING FORES T HERIT AGE TRUS T TRUST IN THE FOREST JULY ISSUE 2 SUMMER 2019 IN THIS ISSUE... 5 Years On 1 Dear Member 2 The Next Verderers Election 2 The Parish Reeve 3 Epping Forest Consultative Committee Meeting 4 © Gill Woods Photography Walk Reports 6 Green Infrastructure 8 FIVE YEARS ON - A CELEBRATION Volunteering in the Trust 9 Social Media 9 On April 5, 2014, the Friends of Epping Forest (now Epping Forest Heritage Trust) took on the operation of the Epping Forest Visitor Centre at High Beach due to threat of closure. Since then, more than 96,000 Children’s Activities 10 visitors (both local and international) have come to the Centre, seeking guidance on where to go, what ‘New’ Forest Leaflet 10 to do, and to discover more about our very special Epping Forest. Advance Notice AGM 10 On April 5, 2019, we were very pleased to be joined by local dignitaries including Dame Eleanor Laing Waltham Forest London MP, the Mayors of Epping, Loughton and Waltham Abbey and the Chairman of Epping Forest District Borough of Culture 10 Council along with the Chairman of the EF and Commons Committee, the Verderers, Committee members Hot off The Press... 10 and Staff of the City of London. A splendid opportunity for them to help us celebrate our achievements at Dates For Your Diary 11 the Centre and to look forward to the next five years and more! Annual Epping Forest The volunteer team have done a magnificent job. Operating as a gateway to the Forest from Thursday to Celebration Walk 12 Sundays and Bank Holidays (over 1,000 days), we have supported 96,500 visitors through our Join Us! 12 volunteer effort totalling 15,081 hours! Circa 20% of our visitors are first time visitors. Our Visitor Comment forms indicate a high level of satisfaction with their experience at the Visitor Centre. www.efht.org.uk My sincere thanks to the volunteer team, who have EppingForestHT met the challenges and changes with a very positive, EppingForestHT supportive and lively response. I’m deeply indebted to Views and opinions expressed in this them. And yes, we do have a laugh on occasions, and Newsletter are not necessarily those of the Epping Forest Heritage Trust. we have made new friends! My thanks to ‘our landlords’ and partner, the City of London, for their support and for believing we could do it! Judy Adams, Chair Epping Forest Heritage Trust. a © David Jackson Everything Epping Forest FOREST MATTERS THE NEXT THE PARISH REEVE EPPING FOREST HERITA GE TRUST VERDERERS ELECTIONS Epping Forest is managed by the Epping Forest and Commons Committee, Dear Member consisting, of 12 members of the City of London Court of Common Council You will have seen the picture of many of our volunteers on who have been elected by wards in the square mile of the City and four the front cover and some on later pages too! They enable Verderers. The four Verderers who must be resident in one of the ancient many of our current activities to take place and we are very Forest parishes are elected locally (and are not members of the Court of grateful for their support. Common Council). They have the same "powers, authorities, rights, and privileges as the members selected from the Court of Common Council on You will see much in this issue about the latest papers from the EF & Commons Committee. Verderers and members work in an entirely the Epping Forest Consultative Committee. It is providing a voluntary capacity and receive no remuneration for their time. good opportunity to comment on the latest developments. We would still be pleased to see the overall Strategic Business The elections for Verderers take place every seven years and the next Plan for Epping Forest, as it provides the context for the election is in 2020. Only registered Epping Forest commoners are eligible individual plans, the ISPs and PDNs, now coming forward to vote. Commoners are owners and occupiers of land comprising at least (see pages 4 and 5). Looking at the individual plans, you half an acre of old enclosure, not covered by buildings and capable of obtain some sense of the overall ‘drivers’ of the plans, receiving cattle within the ancient boundary of Epping Forest'. including an increased focus on local interests and heritage, If you are interested in standing as a Verderer, whilst working to achieve favourable conditions for all SSSIs please contact Jo Hurst, Epping Forest Business Manager at and the Special Area of Conservation. We have proposed that [email protected] a all such plans acknowledge/celebrate the area’s location within Epping Forest, often the key reason that the site still The office of parish reeve goes back to Anglo-Saxon times when the reeve The Epping Forest Act of 1878 provided that the right of the forest parishes exists today! was elected by the customary tenants of the parish. to nominate reeves should continue. In 1919 there were over 800 head of You will have seen much in the news of late about climate The original role of the parish reeve was much wider than ensuring that cattle on the forest in the summer months. change and the various campaigns to take it seriously and act cattle pastured on the Forest waste were marked with both the parish mark At the present time there are no commoners’ cattle on the forest, only those now! Certainly, these concerns identify the fundamental and the owner’s mark. He acted as the representative of the village owned by the Conservators themselves. However, two ‘honorary reeves’ threats to our environment, and we will be reviewing our community, was concerned with the management of open fields and have been appointed: Michael Davies for the parish of Waltham Holy Cross, operation during the coming year to see how we can commons and supervised the performance of labour. and more recently Richard Morris for the parish of Loughton. Both were contribute. With the establishment of local government in the second half of the former verderers who held the office for many years. - Richard Morris Green space too is now being acknowledged as of nineteenth century, the role of the vestry and the reeve were diminished. Editor’s note: Our congratulations to Richard Morris on becoming an considerable value to people in terms of health and well-being; However, it was still the job of the reeve to mark cattle on the Forest with ‘honorary reeve’, in recognition of his long service to the Forest. He something I suspect has been known by many of you for the parish mark. was presented with a branding iron by Stephen Murray, Loughton some time. We are hoping to increasingly engage with Under forest law the Reeves had to be sworn in at the Court of Attachments Town Mayor; as it shown in the photo above. families and new audiences, helping them to discover, enjoy and to be of good behaviour, and especially to prevent improper Welcome and thank you and learn about the Forest and become ‘friends’ of the Forest. commoning. In addition to the marking of cattle with a branding iron, the We are very are pleased to welcome Graeme Smith as the recently elected Hope to see you at our July walk at Swaines Green, that reeves collected the fees charged, and also supervised the collection of Chairman of the Epping Forest and Commons Committee. He lives in the should be alive with wildflowers and plenty of insects; or in pannage money for pigs on the forest in the months of September and Forest area and has joined us for several of the recent Epping Forest annual August in the Lower Forest and you could also take part of our October. ‘Celebration ‘ walks. We look forward to working with him over the next Annual Celebration walk! It was noted in 1851 that complaints had been made as to the Reeve of few years. Judy Adams a Loughton neglecting his duties of office, by allowing ‘unrung’ pigs at large Our thanks are due to Philip Woodhouse, who has now retired as Chairman. in the forest. (‘Unrung’ pigs without a ring did much more damage to the We are very pleased that he will be staying on the Committee and have turf of the forest and hence they were not permitted in the forest). It was been particularly grateful for his support during the merger and for our work decided that the Reeve should be put out of office if it occurred again. at the Epping Forest Visitor Centre at High Beach. a 2 EPPING FOREST HERITAGE TRUST www.efht.org.uk Tel: 020 8508 9061 3 FOREST MATTERS FOREST MATTERS EPPING FORES T HERIT AGE TRUS T park and garden, by opening historic views and managing the landscape in a FLY TIPPING manner that is sensitive to its historic past Fly tipping in the Forest costs circa £320,00 a year to manage. Under the • To identify a programme of conservation measures that will contribute recent Various Powers Act (March 2018), the City Corporation secured towards improving the conservation status of the SSSI in Highams Park, and increased powers to deal with this problem. Where there is a car dumped the woods on the Forest, they have the power to seize the vehicle used and crush it • To strengthen and clarify local working arrangements and increase as you see in the photo below. community involvement with the managements of the site The heading in the local Guardian is very apt- (May 9, 2019) – ‘truly a (note there is no mention of ‘working together with external stakeholders’ in crushing blow to fly-tip criminals’! this plan, unlike the plan for Theydon Bois) a Other ISPs proposed include Leyton Flats, Chingford Lanes (Organ and Mayes Lane), Wanstead Flats & Bush Wood, Loughton Greens, High Beach and the Chingford Hub.