The walk, amongst the chainsaw sculptures at Pages Wood, features Verity the water vole and her journey where she meets a number of other residents of the riverside. Once common in our wetland habitats there were around 8 million water vole at the start of the 1900s in the UK.
When I first moved to Upminster close to the River Ingrebourne almost 40 Years ago Hornchurch Country Park didn’t exist. It was a site of gravel extraction on the former RAF Hornchurch base and then used for landfill. Ingrebourne Hill with its trees, paths and mountain bike course was a
The Ingrebourne Valley between Upminster and Rainham is a natural flood plain and as a runner in my younger days it was an ideal route for clocking up the miles. As I have grown older, walking has replaced running and the slower pace has allowed me to observe and appreciate
28 July 1914-World War One started. The conflict lasted four years, three months and fourteen days, ending on 11 November 1918. The war began because of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. He was the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary and his death was the immediate cause
Timeline Preamble: The HLF Conservation management action plan of 2012 contained much historical information about the Gardens, and so we have gathered together and presented that information in chronological order to make a timeline, in order to make a clear and engaging resource. In 2017 Nigel Oxley asked a fantastic
I often meet my friend Theresa at the large Costa Coffee in Hornchurch, and on the other side of the road on the corner of North Street is an empty building that used to be a Starbucks coffee shop. I asked Theresa about the building, which has been empty since
I attended a drawing workshop in Havering Country Park on 4th August 2019 as part of The Land of The Fanns activity programme. The organiser, Jo Beal, invited us to draw something with which we had a personal connection, and I spotted a block of flats on the horizon which
My family often went to Harrow Lodge Park as it was a short fifteen-minute walk away. As a small child, I didn’t particularly like the walk and tried to take advantage of my pushchair for as long as possible. When I got a new bike in 1967 we took it
Grey Towers Avenue was the original driveway to Grey Towers House, a mock castle built by Henry Holmes in 1876, on land given to him by his father-in-law John Wagener who owned the Langtons estate. During his lifetime, Henry Holmes was a ship-builder, bank director, magistrate, join towner of the
Towers is a familiar name to the residents of Hornchurch. There’s Grey Towers Avenue opposite Abbs Cross Lane, Towers Infants and Junior schools, and, until 2017 when it was demolished, there was Towers Cinema. The huge stone Towers’ sign from the top of the cinema has been preserved as a
Thames Chase Trust, Pike Lane
Upminster, Essex RM14 3NS
01708 642970
landofthefanns@thameschase.org.uk
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