Walthamstow Village in Bloom2016

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Introduction and History Walthamstow Village in Bloom and its BoundariesMini-HollandGardening ClubVillage Veg, Our Community AllotmentAdoption of Planters, Flowerbeds and Floral Displays New Planting ProjectsBulb PlantingBerryfield Close: A Berry Field Once More!Our Community MeadowOur Green SpacesBEE17Raymond Swingler (1933-2015)Front Garden and Beautiful Premises ChallengesAnnual Spring Clean and Big Clean UpPlant, Seed and Produce SwapsVestry House Community GardenCrime Prevention and Civic PrideRecognitionFundraising and Awareness EventsSponsors and Credits

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 are 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.

The coming of the railway in 1869 generated a rapid population increase and the railway cutting created a barrier between the old village centre 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 and the relocation of the town hall to a new building on Forest Road which drew commercial development away.

In 2003 the WVRA successfully campaigned for Retail Parade Status to be re-granted to Orford Road. In 2015 it became pedestrianised as part of the Mini-Holland scheme and is currently thriving with many independent shops, restaurants and a Saturday artisan market at the Community Hub.

In February the long-awaited refurbishment work on the St Mary’s church bells commenced. The bells and fixings were removed from the tower and loaded on to a lorry bound for Taylor’s foundry in Loughborough. This was a truly historic moment as it is the first time the bells have been outside London since they were cast and installed in 1778. They will be reinstated in the renovated tower in the summer and we look forward to the bells ringing out once more to accompany our community gardening evenings.

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. 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, due in part to the Bloom Effect.

Introduction and History

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Walthamstow Village in Bloom and its BoundariesIn 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 finalists in RHS Britain in Bloom in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, 2014 and 2015 Walthamstow Village in Bloom achieved gold awards and Best London Village, and last year we also won London’s inaugural award for Greening the Grey streets.

Being 100% volunteer-led, raising our own funds and sponsorship, taking advantage of freebies and propagating our own plants; it’s the volunteers that are vital to us.

2015/16 has seen great changes in the area and its surrounds;

the pedestrianisation of the retail areas in Orford and

Grove Roads and the road closure works to create a Mini-Holland have been challenging but presented many new planting opportunities, as have the improvements to Vestry Road Playground.

The ongoing gentrification has

brought building work and skips a-plenty but the area

is thriving and vibrant and the community spirit stronger than

ever. We’re all so proud of our gem of a Village.

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In 2014, Waltham Forest Council was one of three boroughs awarded £27million by Transport for London for the three year Mini-Holland Programme. It aims to transform the borough making it more cycle-friendly and to encourage people to cycle and walk.

Work started in the Village in April 2015 and the scheme went “live” five months later.

The programme is being rolled out throughout Walthamstow and is dividing opinions. Taking a ‘neutral’ stance, the WVRA set up a Public Spaces Committee and is working with Waltham Forest, in consultation with residents and businesses, to try to resolve problems and to set up a booking system for the new Village Square.

We are making the most of the new public spaces that Mini-Holland has created, using gardening and plants to heal some of the rifts and negative feelings that many have experienced over the past months.

Our Village Mini-Holland Programme included:• The pedestrianisation of Orford Road. • An orchard and mini-meadow at the road

closure in Grove Road.• ‘Pocket parks’ on the closures of the East and

West Avenue railway bridges and on the corner of St Mary and West Avenue Roads that are being maintained by newly formed residents’ gardening groups.

• Improved street lighting. • An extended and redesigned Village Square.• Traffic calming throughout the Village area.• Tree planting and the formation of new tree-pit

planters.

Following requests, a way-finding and signage trial is in progress; it includes on-street and digital maps and signage for people walking and cycling.

Future plans include:• 12 new flowering cherry trees and pits, seven of

which will be planted by the shops at the top end of Orford Road to match those already planted.

• White lights to be wrapped around the trunk and branches of the tree in the Square.

• Flower baskets and white Christmas lights on new lampposts in Orford Road.

• New benches for the Village Square

Mini-Holland

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Village Festival 2015

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 all the 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 around 1,000 people on the WVRA contact list. Some come along regularly, others when they are available or want to participate in a certain project. Others go out independently to do a spot of weeding or planting. Those who join in include families with children and people of all ages, abilities and from a variety of backgrounds.

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

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.

Gardening Club

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Our community allotment project in Beulah Road goes from strength-to-strength with vegetables and herbs being harvested throughout the year. In 2016 Vally Gesthuysen and Darryl Abelscroft have ably taken the veggie baton from original organiser Caroline Barton, who continues to advise and assist.

The project aims to educate and give people confidence to grow-their-own and everyone can help themselves to fresh produce. In particular, children and young people enjoy getting involved with the planting, labelling and learning about how vegetables grow.

We thank Lifeline, WF’s integrated drug and alcohol service, for letting us use their two raised beds and allowing us to install an outside tap. Their service-users are able to help themselves to the produce when they attend sessions and often help with the maintenance.

The allotment is planted by volunteers each quarter with seasonal vegetables around a framework of perennial herbs, fruit and vegetables. All the plants are name-labelled and then flagged when ready to harvest.

The total worth of getting the project started in 2015 was around £3,000 and was helped and funded by Fullers Builders, the WVRA, North London Waste Authority, Waltham Forest and many volunteers.

Fullers Builders have again generously funded the project this year.

Seven ‘Weekly Waterers’ have committed to tending and watering one day a week each. The hose is hidden in Colin Stinton’s courtyard opposite.

We join in Waltham Forest’s bi-annual Cultivate festival, the Apple Day held at Vestry House and many residents grow Prima Donna hops for the Walthamstow Beer project that are annually harvested and made into beer by a local micro-brewery. The Community Allotment is a big part of the street-scene and it looks good too!

Village Veg, Our Community Allotment

Before

Year by year, since 2007, 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, we design the planting of our many brick-built planters, tree-pits and beds.

The planters have been transformed from eyesores, with damaged brickwork, overgrown shrubs blocking sightlines which attracted litter, and provided cover for anti-social activity, to displays that act as gateways to the Village, giving year-round interest in texture, movement and colour. In 2012 we won London in Bloom’s Best Floral Display Award.

The perennial plants are hardy and drought-tolerant and we 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.

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Adoption of Planters, Flowerbeds and Floral Displays

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Six residents, who are unable to attend Gardening Club Saturdays, help out by “adopting” planters that they maintain as and when they can. We give them a hi-viz jacket, rubbish bags, a map, instructions and our grateful thanks.

We have a year-round programme of pruning, dead-heading, 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 local residents frequently give us their surplus bedding plants.

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

New Planting ProjectsChalmers House Orchard Project (CHOP)Following seven months of negotiation with East Thames Housing Association, project leader Jakob Hartmann received approval for an orchard of fruit trees and a flowerbed along the Orford Road railings. Jakob dug the flowerbed and improved the soil himself, fuelled by refreshments from residents. Waltham Forest Council removed 28 sacks of green-waste. The planting of apple, pear, plum and cherry trees creates a green corridor to the heart of the Village.

The CHOP project is improving community cohesion as we all enjoy gardening together, and has made a pleasant garden for the residents who will enjoy fruit in late summer.

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Thank you so much for all your hard work... It all looks great!

- Reverend Vanessa Conant, Facebook

Before

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Orford Road Tree-PitsTen new flowering cherry trees were planted in the newly pedestrianised Orford Road and we planted the pits with a variety of colourful perennials and lavender ‘Hidcote’. We also planted the new tree-pit at the junction of Grove and Pembroke Roads. Jakob has arranged for businesses and residents to water the pit nearest their property.

Village SquareThe Mini-Holland work almost doubled the size of the Village Square and added two new flower beds. The new CEDEC compacted gravel surface has inspired the formation of several petanque teams who play in the evenings. We devised a prairie-style planting scheme to make the square an attractive place to hang out, relax and meet neighbours.

To fund the three projects WVRA received just under £696.44 from the Hoe Street Community Ward Form, and Jakob set up an online crowd-funder that raised £2,100 from 57 residents and businesses. It funded not only the plants but van hire, compost to improve the soil, tree ties and stakes.

Biodiversity is at the top of our agenda and all the planting is pollinator-friendly and drought-tolerant. On 16 April more than 50 residents of all ages and abilities got together at our Big Dig event to plant over 500 perennials, shrubs and grasses.

It is amazing that this is East London...a testimony to the hard work you and others put in.

- Nicholas O’Brien, Facebook

Bulb Planting

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Since 2003 we’ve held a planting event every autumn and many tens of thousands of bulbs have been planted. The Village looks stunning throughout spring and we were thrilled to show it off to the judges and delegates when we hosted the London in Bloom seminar on 5 April.

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In autumn 2015 we were awarded bulbs by the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association in association with Taylors Bulbs of Spalding which included:

100 x N. Tete a Tete100 x N. Reggae250 x mixed dwarf iris250 x Allium sphaerocephalon 200 x mixed dwarf tulips100 x mixed garden hyacinths975 x mixed daffodils/narcissi.

The Gardening Club planted some in the grass verges and by the entrance of the Outlook Care Home in Summit Road. The mixed tulips were planted around the entrance to the Ravenswood Industrial Estate to echo the bright neon lights of God’s Own Junkyard.

BEE17 donated 100 Crocus tomansinianus ‘Ruby Giant’ (purple-violet) and 100 C. chrysanthus ‘Prins Claaus’ (white with purple blotch) to supplement the thousands of narcissi, grape hyacinth and allium bulbs we replanted in the remodeled Village Square.

In autumn 2016, we will be planting 5000 Crocus tomansinianus ordered from the Rotary/RHS initiative, Purple4Polio.

Thank you for everything you to do make our streets so much

better to live in. - Ally Branley, Facebook

Berryfield Close is a cul-de-sac of mainly social housing just off Vestry Road. The green spaces and verges around its car parking areas were overgrown and untidy and provided hiding places for anti-social behaviour, fly-tipping and drug-dealing.

In 2013 we cleared and planted the bed at the front that is now Lavender Corner, and we long had the idea, in consultation with its residents, that Berryfield Close should live up to its name.

In 2015 the WVRA sponsored the initial clearance of the beds at a cost of £1,440 and Waltham Forest kindly cleared all the green waste. This opened sight-lines and made the close look tidy and cared-for.

We applied for help from the Community Payback scheme and, over the first weekend of April, ten workers dug over the beds, cleared roots, improved the soil and planted 105 berry and nut-bearing trees and shrubs from the Harvest Pack donated by the Woodland Trust.

The plants include elder, blackthorn (sloe), hazel, dog rose, crab apple plus red, white and black-currants donated by WF and resident Yvonne Cross.

Berryfield Close is a Berry Field once more!

Berryfield Close: A Berry Field Once More!

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Our Community Meadow

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We continue to manage the perennial meadow at Church End that we planted in 2012 to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Year of the Meadow.

In spring the Gardening Club hand-weeded the invasive, self-sown nettles, alkanet, goose-grass and dandelions and, in the cleared earth, local children came to sow the meadow-mix seeds from the Grow Wild kits that we received.

In autumn we hand-cut the meadow, shake out the seeds and gather the grasses and plants into stooks.

In winter and early spring the meadow is cut and while short it reveals crocus and fritillary flowers planted in 2014.

Throughout the year we put up signs with photos identifying the plants in flower.

We email residents to encourage them to join the Friends of the Earth six-week-long Great British Bee Count.

This year, following advice by 2015 London in Bloom judge Louisa Allen, we cut and are maintaining a ‘pathway’ through the meadow so that people can walk through and enjoy it.

We get lots of fantastic feedback from residents and visitors, and the butterflies and other beneficial insects love it too.

Our Green Spaces

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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 area adjacent to the Monoux Almshouses is cared for 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. BEE17 has three hives situated in the north churchyard. 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.

Our Diamond Jubilee Community Meadow attracts bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects.

Many of the Mini-Holland road closure areas are planted with a perennial meadow mix.

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 will be opened up as a woodland walk. There is a small enclosed wildlife area in Vestry Road with a bug hotel made by local children plus woodpiles and bird boxes.

Vestry House Museum garden has wildflower and meadow areas.

BEE17

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BEE17 is a community beekeeping project set up by Richard Smith and Helen Lerner in 2013 to support bees and plants and provide an insight into the lives of honey bees and the role that beekeepers play. Residents can log onto the bee-cam on our website and watch the bees at work.

With the experience gained over the past three years, Richard has been able to expand BEE17 and he now has four apiary sites including three hives in St Mary’s churchyard.

The Walthamstow Wassailers sang to the bees and blessed the hives on 10 January so we should have a bumper honey harvest in 2016.

At peak season each hive contains tens of thousands of honeybees and they need lots of nectar and pollen-rich 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.

In mid-May & June we promoted Friends of the Earth’s Great British Bee Count.

BEE17 honey is stocked in the Vestry House Museum, William Morris Gallery and shops in Orford Road.

The two original BEE17 hives, situated in the woodland at the back of Helen’s garden, will remain not-for-profit. In 2015 we raised £1,720 from selling our honey at pop-up shops and stalls to benefit our Bloom projects. We held a craft session to make scented lavender bags to sell from the heads saved from pruning Lavender Corner.

The Village’s many green spaces, meadow, trees, gardens and the long flowering season of its diverse plants gives our honey its characteristic complex taste.

Ray had been a leading member of the WVRA since it was formed in the nineteen nineties. His impact on the life of the Village was immense, often working quietly behind the scenes to deliver real improvements in the quality of life in the Village. Much of the positive change we have seen over the years would simply not have happened without his commitment and persistence. His generosity and unfailing good humour are greatly missed.

In September 2015, Ray’s neighbour, Caroline Barton organised a beautiful memorial concert at St Mary’s church was held for Ray’s family and the community to celebrate Ray’s life and to raise funds for the renovation of the church bells, on what would have been his 82nd birthday. Local businesses, residents and musicians generously donated everything including all the wine and refreshments.

The WVRA Committee has honoured Ray’s memory by renovating the two broken heritage benches opposite the Ancient House in Church Lane.

Ray was passionate about the Village and we, and his widow June, feel that the repair of the benches would have met with his approval; a slat has been carved with a tribute to him.

Originally supplied by Broxap, the price for two new Rotherham benches, fixing and delivery would be around £2,000. Repair by Broxap would be even more expensive.

Committee member John Larking kindly took on and researched the whole project and, in May he had new Iroko slats machined, transported the benches to Blackhorse workshops and he and John, a colleague, have done the hard work themselves for £750.

Waltham Forest council re-asphalted the area under the benches ready for their reinstallation by the two Johns in June.

Raymond Swingler (1933-2015)

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Raymond Swingler, late President of WVRA

(8 October 1933 - 20 July 2015)

Front Garden and Beautiful Premises Challenges

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We launched the Front Garden & Beautiful Premises Challenges in April and informed all businesses, schools, organisations, religious and community groups within our Bloom boundary. There are categories for front gardens, balconies, window boxes and containers with a deadline for entries of Friday 24 June. Every entrant receives a Certificate of Participation that will be presented at the WVRA AGM in October.

The Village magazine contained an entry form, information and encouragement and 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) and their 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 the street-scene.

Results for 2015Andrew Blount and Rosemary Perrett of 35a Wingfield Road were awarded Best Front Garden 2015 for their beautiful basement garden and window boxes. Indeed the residents of Wingfield and Randolph Roads received an award for their terrific community effort using all the front gardens and windows for a Wingdolph Art Trail and the installation of two Little Libraries.

The residents of Cherry Close off Eden Road, led by Gerard Clegg, were awarded a certificate for their marvellous and ongoing improvements to the communal gardens. Walthamstow & Chingford Almshouse Charity was, for the second year running, awarded Best Premises for the residents of Monoux Hall & Squires’ Almshouses.

Annual Spring Clean and Big Clean Up

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We launched Walthamstow Village in Bloom 2016 on sunny 2 April with our 14th annual clean attended by 75 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 in the nationwide Clean for the Queen event and Waltham Forest council’s sixth 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.

In the fortnight before the clean we carry out a survey and compile a list of jobs for teams to tackle.

The annual clean ups are a great way to get families involved with jobs for all size hands! This year the children litter-picked both Wingfield and Vestry Road playgrounds.

John Chambers 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 by the garages in Maynard Road 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.

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Plant, Seed and Produce SwapsWe 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 Waltham Forest’s Vestry House Museum now hosts the Plant and Seed Swaps each spring and 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. Any plants left find homes in the Village beds.

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.

Other stalls at the Plant and Seed swaps include BEE17 honey, WF Friends of the Earth, a pop-up tea room, artisan food, drink and craft stalls, the William Morris Gallery stall with their range of Morris gardening accessories and plant stalls run by THUSO, Hornbeam and Museum volunteer gardeners.

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.

Garden Layout and HorticultureThe planting is inspired by its history as a workhouse garden. The emphasis is on useful plants including fruit, vegetables, culinary and medicinal herbs and dye plants. There is a woodland bed, wild meadow area, a bed planted to attract insects, and a white bed designed to complement the many weddings that take place at the museum.

• 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.

The Volunteer TeamOur garden flourishes thanks to our fantastic team of garden volunteers. In addition to monthly meetings the team meets fortnightly with more experienced members coaching and mentoring new recruits. Thursdays are also a regular drop-in day. We actively recruit new members and welcome volunteers with all ranges of ability. Members of our volunteer team also contribute artwork to our exhibitions and facilitate activities at our events. For their dedication our garden volunteers were named Runner-Up in the Best Team category at last year’s London Volunteers in Museums Awards.

SustainabilityWe 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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Vestry House Community Garden

2015 Judging Day

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

• We are creating a family trail for children, and interpretation leaflets that visitors will be able to take with them around the garden.

• We are re-designing our interpretation panels and to replace those relating to the history of the building, and the artefacts displayed in the garden.

• We provide monthly family activity days which are often influenced by our garden.

Community useVisitor 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 24,783 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.

EventsWe 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 Midsummer Evening, exhibiting local musicians, poets and local caterers; and Plant, Seed and Produce Swaps, in partnership with the Residents’ Association. We regularly host art exhibitions in the garden, particularly during the annual E17 Art Trail. We are expanding our events programme to include more late openings with activities taking place in the garden. These events have proved extremely popular and have been mentioned in The Londonist, and Time Out magazine, raising the citywide profile of the Museum and garden.

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Crime Prevention and Civic PrideWalthamstow 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.

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This year’s work by the WVRA and its subcommittees includes:

• liaising with Lifeline, WF’s integrated drug and alcohol service, situated in Beulah Road. Every day 50 high-dependency service users visit Lifeline and problems sometimes occur. WVRA liaises with the service’s managers to try and keep any disruption to a minimum while supporting service users.

• working with the newly established Orford Road Traders’ Association.

• sitting on the 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. Compiling snagging lists for WF.

• working with residents, WF’s Green Spaces and Eibe on the £50,000 improvements to Vestry Road Playground.

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

• reporting illicit satellite-dish installation, PVCu window replacement and other unsuitable additions in the conservation areas to WF Conservation Officers using Google Street-View to prove that work falls outside the four-year rule.

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

• painting and cleaning signs and street furniture.

• repairing the WF Community Hub’s wall and painting it with their Youth Club.

• reporting, and encouraging residents to report, any fly-tipping, 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 footpaths.

• liaising with property companies to ensure the removal of signs within two weeks of let/sale.

• attending Ward Forum meetings to ensure residents’ voices are heard.

• consulting with WF and attending meetings regarding planning, transport, environment, rubbish collection, cleansing etc.

• holding open meetings and an AGM for residents to voice any concerns and feedback to relevant parties.

• liaising with and advising other community groups such as Cleveland Perk, West Avenue RA & Folkestone Road RA. Giving small grants to help them get started.

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

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Recognition

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Fantastic, well done. You do such a fantastic job and

we are very lucky to have you all. - Bairbre Kelly

I walk through the Village several times a day on the school runs or en route elsewhere. This morning there was a

little toddler talking to the flowers and dancing about there. It was brilliant!

- Fiona Stevens Smith, Facebook

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The WVRA has a year-round programme of events.

Sarah Vincent and the Waltham Forest Video Workshop made a 15 minute film, with £600 funding from the Community Ward Forum, showcasing our work for Walthamstow Village in Bloom for anyone wanting to improve their area. The video is available to view at http://tinyurl.com/WViB-Video.

In August, our 2015 London in Bloom judge Louisa Allen from City of London kindly gave our Bloom gardeners a marvellous tour of some of the green spaces in the square mile. ·

In September the Walthamstow Village Festival organised by WF Community Hub attracted thousands of people. It was sponsored to the tune of £22,000 by local businesses and residents, WF and Awards for All.

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.

In December our annual carol concert around the Christmas tree on the Village Square attracted hundreds of people who were served mulled wine and mince pies. Singing was led by Phillip Creasy and accompanied by East London Brass band.

In March our ever-popular, sell-out, Annual Curry Quiz raised £1,000. 120 residents enjoyed the quiz written and presented by Rowan McIntyre with a Village-themed picture round compiled by Teresa Deacon, a home-cooked curry supper made by Shameem Mir and WVRA volunteers and a raffle with prizes donated by local businesses.

On 5 April we hosted the London in Bloom entrants’ and judges’ seminar thanks to the hospitality of the Vestry House Museum. Our volunteers led a mock judging around the Village and baked cakes and served refreshments on the day.

Fundraising and Awareness Events

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Also in April, Helen Lerner and Ros Kane talked to the Waltham Forest Civic Society about Greening the Grey and Bringing Fronts Back, the campaign to promote front gardens.

In June held our second Village Jumble Trail championed by local resident Carol Moloney with fliers sponsored by Marsh Street. 120 households signed up and held yard sales that attracted hundreds of buyers.

The WF Community Hub kindly lends us their hall for Open Meetings and the AGM and we support their work with older people and the youth club.

Local businesses kindly donate money, goods or vouchers for raffles and events. Our main sponsors are Estates 17, Fullers Builders, The Village Spar, Eat 17 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.

• The Vestry House Museum staff and the volunteer gardeners for their hard work, for use of their wonderful premises for hosting the 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 and Grosvenor Rise East and sponsorship of the Village Veg allotment project.

• Spar Village Store & Eat 17 – sponsorship and refreshments.

• BEE17 – sponsorship, plants and bulbs.

• The staff and committee of the WF Community Hub (previously the Asian Centre).

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

• Joshua Lerner– portfolio design.

• Richard Smith, Daniel Barry, Jakob Hartmann, Paul Gasson, Teresa Deacon, Caroline Barton, Penni Grodzicka, Bairbre Kelly, and Helen Lerner – photographs.

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

• Hoe Street Ward Cllrs Saima Mahmud (Mayor of Waltham Forest, 2015-16), Mark Rusling, Ahsan Khan and MP Stella Creasy - support and promotion of events.

Walthamstow Village in Bloom CommitteeHelen Lerner, Teresa Deacon, Caroline Barton, Jakob Hartmann, John Chambers.

Village Veg Plot & ‘Weekly Waterers’Vally Gesthuysen, Darryl Abelscroft, Caroline Barton, Jeffa Thomlinson, Elaine Mir, Mireya Arellano, Sarah Heath and Sally Devlin.

Gardening Club StalwartsHelen Lerner, Teresa Deacon, John Chambers, Caroline Barton, Jakob Hartmann, Daniel Barry, Colin Stinton, Steve Lowe, Maggie Humphries, Maggie Jules, Megan Whitear, Richard and Elly Smith, Jill Truman, Carole Sturdy, Daphne Wloch, Nicole Muris, Joss Thomas, Yvonne Cross, Vanessa Darnborough, John Larking, Cathy Macnaughton, Douglas Saltmarshe, Nick Springett, Jill Watkins, Andrew Blount, David Hughes, Alison Muldoon and Lucia.

Walthamstow Village Residents’ AssociationPaul Williams (Chair), Megan Whitear (Secretary), Helen Lerner, Barry White, John Larking, Shameem Mir, Sue Carter, Daniel Barry, Paul Gasson, David Baker, Ana Caton and Joga Kabra.

Sincere thanks to all the lovely people of Walthamstow Village who have brought us refreshments, volunteered and donated items and who aren’t mentioned above.

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Sponsors and Credits