Mark
@flatshistory.bsky.social
Self-taught historian of east London, Epping Forest & open spaces. #COYS
Reposted by Mark
This man - who changed our mental picture of London's geography - was born 123 years ago today. His plaque in Leytonstone is one of only four to use a special font (the Johnston typeface, used across London's transport network)
What's Unusual About These Four Blue Plaques?
Harry Beck and Frank Pick among them.
londonist.com
June 4, 2025 at 10:00 AM
This man - who changed our mental picture of London's geography - was born 123 years ago today. His plaque in Leytonstone is one of only four to use a special font (the Johnston typeface, used across London's transport network)
Reposted by Mark
'Pink Fiat', Bethnal Green Road (2024) by Doreen Fletcher
doreenfletcherartist.com
👤: @doreenfletcher.bsky.social
doreenfletcherartist.com
👤: @doreenfletcher.bsky.social
April 25, 2025 at 12:51 PM
'Pink Fiat', Bethnal Green Road (2024) by Doreen Fletcher
doreenfletcherartist.com
👤: @doreenfletcher.bsky.social
doreenfletcherartist.com
👤: @doreenfletcher.bsky.social
Reposted by Mark
Epping Forest fuelled the bread ovens and thus the stomachs of London, and has long hidden its secrets and its dead: A pleasure to talk about pollard symbolism, class & May Day rowdyism muddying simplistic Nature Cures for Radio 4's Open Country, listen here:
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
April 24, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Epping Forest fuelled the bread ovens and thus the stomachs of London, and has long hidden its secrets and its dead: A pleasure to talk about pollard symbolism, class & May Day rowdyism muddying simplistic Nature Cures for Radio 4's Open Country, listen here:
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Reposted by Mark
'Changing the Face of the Forest' by @flatshistory.bsky.social, Peter Williams & Andrew Cole, featured by @wanstead.bsky.social. Available in our Searchroom, with thanks to Leyton & Leytonstone Historical Society for their gift of this recent publication. wansteadvillagedirectory.com/2025/02/15/f...
Forgotten work
Mark Gorman is co-author of a new book exploring the almost forgotten work of unemployed labourers who transformed the local landscape in the late 19th century
wansteadvillagedirectory.com
April 14, 2025 at 10:22 AM
'Changing the Face of the Forest' by @flatshistory.bsky.social, Peter Williams & Andrew Cole, featured by @wanstead.bsky.social. Available in our Searchroom, with thanks to Leyton & Leytonstone Historical Society for their gift of this recent publication. wansteadvillagedirectory.com/2025/02/15/f...
Reposted by Mark
The Wren practical work team - most of it, at least - after a hot session on Wanstead Flats managing our important area of heather. @wrenwildlife.bsky.social
March 20, 2025 at 12:36 PM
The Wren practical work team - most of it, at least - after a hot session on Wanstead Flats managing our important area of heather. @wrenwildlife.bsky.social
Reposted by Mark
Save our Skylarks fence renewal on Wanstead Flats
📅 27 February 2025
📍Meet 10 am Centre Road Car Park
Help renew the Skylark fencing and signs in preparation for the breeding season. Information will be available for #WansteadFlats locals and visitors.
www.facebook.com/events/12816...
📅 27 February 2025
📍Meet 10 am Centre Road Car Park
Help renew the Skylark fencing and signs in preparation for the breeding season. Information will be available for #WansteadFlats locals and visitors.
www.facebook.com/events/12816...
Skylark Fence Renewal
Event in London, United Kingdom by Wren Wildlife & Conservation Group on Thursday, February 27 2025
www.facebook.com
January 21, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Save our Skylarks fence renewal on Wanstead Flats
📅 27 February 2025
📍Meet 10 am Centre Road Car Park
Help renew the Skylark fencing and signs in preparation for the breeding season. Information will be available for #WansteadFlats locals and visitors.
www.facebook.com/events/12816...
📅 27 February 2025
📍Meet 10 am Centre Road Car Park
Help renew the Skylark fencing and signs in preparation for the breeding season. Information will be available for #WansteadFlats locals and visitors.
www.facebook.com/events/12816...
Reposted by Mark
Thank you all! Exciting times 🌼
Part of the 18-strong Wren Group practical work team which scythed, raked and prepared the ground for a wildflower meadow in Wanstead’s old sewage works this morning. @wrenwildlife.bsky.social
January 9, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Thank you all! Exciting times 🌼
Reposted by Mark
Meanwhile the 52% of Newham households with no car get
🚡 a cable car that costs £7/journey
🛗 foot tunnels with unreliable lifts
🚌 buses that don't run overnight
🚴♂️ a silly "cycle bus" finishing at 9pm & dumping you in a concrete jungle
😶🌫️ decades of pollution in the air we breathe
#SilvertownTunnel
🚡 a cable car that costs £7/journey
🛗 foot tunnels with unreliable lifts
🚌 buses that don't run overnight
🚴♂️ a silly "cycle bus" finishing at 9pm & dumping you in a concrete jungle
😶🌫️ decades of pollution in the air we breathe
#SilvertownTunnel
TfL has confirmed the opening date of the Silvertown Tunnel.
From 7 April 2025, the tunnel that connects Silvertown to the Greenwich Peninsula will provide Londoners with faster and more reliable journeys and enhanced public transport links.
From 7 April 2025, the tunnel that connects Silvertown to the Greenwich Peninsula will provide Londoners with faster and more reliable journeys and enhanced public transport links.
TfL has revealed the opening date of London’s new Silvertown Tunnel
The capital is getting its first new Thames road crossing in 30 years.
www.timeout.com
January 6, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Meanwhile the 52% of Newham households with no car get
🚡 a cable car that costs £7/journey
🛗 foot tunnels with unreliable lifts
🚌 buses that don't run overnight
🚴♂️ a silly "cycle bus" finishing at 9pm & dumping you in a concrete jungle
😶🌫️ decades of pollution in the air we breathe
#SilvertownTunnel
🚡 a cable car that costs £7/journey
🛗 foot tunnels with unreliable lifts
🚌 buses that don't run overnight
🚴♂️ a silly "cycle bus" finishing at 9pm & dumping you in a concrete jungle
😶🌫️ decades of pollution in the air we breathe
#SilvertownTunnel
Reposted by Mark
The Wren Winter Newsletter has arrived!
Look out for the Otter seen locally and a Nightjar - and much else besides in this bumper edition.
wrengroup.org.uk/wp-content/u...
Happy New Year! Wishing all our members, volunteers, supporters and partners a wonderful 2025.
Look out for the Otter seen locally and a Nightjar - and much else besides in this bumper edition.
wrengroup.org.uk/wp-content/u...
Happy New Year! Wishing all our members, volunteers, supporters and partners a wonderful 2025.
January 5, 2025 at 10:31 AM
The Wren Winter Newsletter has arrived!
Look out for the Otter seen locally and a Nightjar - and much else besides in this bumper edition.
wrengroup.org.uk/wp-content/u...
Happy New Year! Wishing all our members, volunteers, supporters and partners a wonderful 2025.
Look out for the Otter seen locally and a Nightjar - and much else besides in this bumper edition.
wrengroup.org.uk/wp-content/u...
Happy New Year! Wishing all our members, volunteers, supporters and partners a wonderful 2025.
Reposted by Mark
View from Whipps Cross towards Snaresbrook Road. Waltham Forest in Winter. 📷 Early 20th cent image from VHM photo collection, available in our Searchroom.
#leytonstone #walthamforest
#leytonstone #walthamforest
December 27, 2024 at 9:55 AM
View from Whipps Cross towards Snaresbrook Road. Waltham Forest in Winter. 📷 Early 20th cent image from VHM photo collection, available in our Searchroom.
#leytonstone #walthamforest
#leytonstone #walthamforest
Hundreds of unemployed workers, mainly from West Ham, helped create much of the landscape of southern Epping Forest that we know today. Pictured here - Arthur Hart, foreman of the works (the rotund gent on the left) & workers in Wanstead Park
A new book details how unemployed labourers transformed Wanstead Flats and Wanstead Park in the late 19th century
wansteadvillagedirectory.com/?p=12750
wansteadvillagedirectory.com/?p=12750
December 26, 2024 at 6:34 PM
Hundreds of unemployed workers, mainly from West Ham, helped create much of the landscape of southern Epping Forest that we know today. Pictured here - Arthur Hart, foreman of the works (the rotund gent on the left) & workers in Wanstead Park
Reposted by Mark
New post (1): @flatshistory.bsky.social continues his series on pre-industrial local agriculture, examining how two East Ham farms became the foundation of large-scale Crosse and Blackwell onion pickling production in the late 1880's: www.E7-NowandThen.org
December 19, 2024 at 9:19 AM
New post (1): @flatshistory.bsky.social continues his series on pre-industrial local agriculture, examining how two East Ham farms became the foundation of large-scale Crosse and Blackwell onion pickling production in the late 1880's: www.E7-NowandThen.org
Reposted by Mark
New post (2): @flatshistory.bsky.social examines women-led strikes at the birth of New Unionism (c1889) in East Ham (Crosse and Blackwell and Gutta Percha) - assisted by Eleanor Marx: www.E7-NowandThen.org
December 19, 2024 at 9:25 AM
New post (2): @flatshistory.bsky.social examines women-led strikes at the birth of New Unionism (c1889) in East Ham (Crosse and Blackwell and Gutta Percha) - assisted by Eleanor Marx: www.E7-NowandThen.org
#otd Theatre Royal Stratford East was opened 140 years ago by actor-manager Charles Dillon. He was related to the Fredericks family whose portable theatre or "fit-up" was regularly at Wanstead Flats fairs in the early 1880s. The Flats played a key role in the pre-history of the Theatre Royal.
December 17, 2024 at 10:19 AM
#otd Theatre Royal Stratford East was opened 140 years ago by actor-manager Charles Dillon. He was related to the Fredericks family whose portable theatre or "fit-up" was regularly at Wanstead Flats fairs in the early 1880s. The Flats played a key role in the pre-history of the Theatre Royal.
Reposted by Mark
2 majestic oaks in the SSSI #WansteadFlats #eppingforestwinter24 #trees @wrenwildlife.bsky.social @benjaminmurphyuk.bsky.social
December 13, 2024 at 4:17 PM
2 majestic oaks in the SSSI #WansteadFlats #eppingforestwinter24 #trees @wrenwildlife.bsky.social @benjaminmurphyuk.bsky.social
Reposted by Mark
Just arrived, great new pamphlet.
December 9, 2024 at 9:38 AM
Just arrived, great new pamphlet.
Out now! The story of how over 100 years ago unemployed workers made the landscape of the southern area of Epping Forest that we know today. Lavishly illustrated & only £6. Perfect Xmas gift for lovers of epping forest.
Available from @newhambookshop.bsky.social & www.facebook.com/Number8Fores...
Available from @newhambookshop.bsky.social & www.facebook.com/Number8Fores...
December 7, 2024 at 12:31 PM
Out now! The story of how over 100 years ago unemployed workers made the landscape of the southern area of Epping Forest that we know today. Lavishly illustrated & only £6. Perfect Xmas gift for lovers of epping forest.
Available from @newhambookshop.bsky.social & www.facebook.com/Number8Fores...
Available from @newhambookshop.bsky.social & www.facebook.com/Number8Fores...
Reposted by Mark
The Wren scything team out on Wanstead Flats this morning, helping to conserve Yellow Meadow Ant hills and conserve Skylark habitat. #grasslandhabitats
December 5, 2024 at 12:22 PM
The Wren scything team out on Wanstead Flats this morning, helping to conserve Yellow Meadow Ant hills and conserve Skylark habitat. #grasslandhabitats
How a query over a supposed "Chinese" grave in an East Ham cemetery became a journey into a little-known aspect of local history: the presence of seamen from Japan in Newham 120 years ago - & how a Scottish missionary looking after their welfare became known as "the mother of the Japanese navy".
New post: Early C20th memorials to Japanese seafarers in Newham cemeteries. A fascinating discovery and tale: www.E7-NowandThen.org
December 4, 2024 at 4:39 PM
How a query over a supposed "Chinese" grave in an East Ham cemetery became a journey into a little-known aspect of local history: the presence of seamen from Japan in Newham 120 years ago - & how a Scottish missionary looking after their welfare became known as "the mother of the Japanese navy".
Reposted by Mark
It’s a source of great joy to the Wren Wildlife & Conservation Group that we have otters in our urban recording area. Well done to @thecowboybirder.bsky.social for capturing such a great photo! #nature #wildlife
Very pleased to have photographed an Otter today along the River Roding at Wanstead. Even just a few years ago I thought it wouldn’t be possible to witness this on a London river!
November 30, 2024 at 4:18 PM
It’s a source of great joy to the Wren Wildlife & Conservation Group that we have otters in our urban recording area. Well done to @thecowboybirder.bsky.social for capturing such a great photo! #nature #wildlife
Reposted by Mark
Come and support your local bookshop on Monday 2 December 3-8pm
November 29, 2024 at 1:14 PM
Come and support your local bookshop on Monday 2 December 3-8pm
Good decision. Another excellent performance vs Man City. Get him on the coaching staff!
November 27, 2024 at 1:20 PM
Good decision. Another excellent performance vs Man City. Get him on the coaching staff!
Here's my recommendation... @newhambookshop.bsky.social
Books.
When buying books for gifts this holiday season, please don't buy from Amazon. Please shop at your local independent bookstore/bookseller. Ask for recommendations. If they don't have a particular book in stock, ask them to order it.
Support creatives, local businesses, and your community.
When buying books for gifts this holiday season, please don't buy from Amazon. Please shop at your local independent bookstore/bookseller. Ask for recommendations. If they don't have a particular book in stock, ask them to order it.
Support creatives, local businesses, and your community.
November 26, 2024 at 4:11 PM
Here's my recommendation... @newhambookshop.bsky.social
Reposted by Mark
www.E7-NowandThen.org is the Forest Gate local history blog. It has been running for over 11 years, features more than 270 articles and has had 2 million hits - currently running at more than 1,000 a day. It is easy to search, with articles featuring local: politics, music, personalities, sport m/f
November 24, 2024 at 3:49 PM
www.E7-NowandThen.org is the Forest Gate local history blog. It has been running for over 11 years, features more than 270 articles and has had 2 million hits - currently running at more than 1,000 a day. It is easy to search, with articles featuring local: politics, music, personalities, sport m/f
Reposted by Mark
ww.E7-NowandThen.org also features local: streets and estates, religions and their buildings, education, housing, industry, cinemas and pubs, Wanstead Flats, war at home & abroad, transport, charities, witchcraft, murders and frausters, monuments and migrant communities and farms! Pop over and look!
November 24, 2024 at 3:55 PM
ww.E7-NowandThen.org also features local: streets and estates, religions and their buildings, education, housing, industry, cinemas and pubs, Wanstead Flats, war at home & abroad, transport, charities, witchcraft, murders and frausters, monuments and migrant communities and farms! Pop over and look!