Every week Geoff Wilkinson treats us to one of his photographs. This week there’s a bumper crop, but Geoff didn’t take any of them. They were instead taken by participants on Geoff’s Wanstead Photo Walks which he held during the Wanstead Fringe. This is nearly all the competitors. A winner is about to be announced (Wansteadium has been asked to be the judge and is having a hard think…)
(Trevor)
(Sarie)
(Sam B)
(Jan B)
(Geraldine)
(Bruce)
(Andrea)
(Andrea)
(Andrea)
(Andrea)
I've often wondered about the significance of this sign at Wanstead station. Does RVP sponsor the car park? pic.twitter.com/VzK2Mu9uYQ
— Dave Filmer (@DaveFilmerMetro) October 1, 2013
And it can be yours for just – ooh, let’s say just about $3m? Actually they’re a pair – genuine article, the experts reckon. Made in the 1720s for that old Wanstead House – yeah, the one that got knocked down. Beautiful specimen they are. No, you can’t see them. They’re in New York, you see. Exported to Canada in the 1950s. Nah, they wouldn’t let things like this go overseas nowadays, that’s why they’re so valuable, see.
Details of the items are on the website of the extremely high class antiques dealer Carlton Hobbs, who wax very lyrically about the beauties of Wanstead. They say:
These magnificent chimneypieces can be confidently attributed to William Kent on the basis of sketches made by the architect William Chambers of a chimneypiece at Wanstead House, Essex (figure 1). 1 The splendour of Wanstead is difficult to overestimate. According to one contemporary observer, Mr Young, “Wanstead, upon the whole, is one of the noblest houses in England. The magnificence of having four state bed-chambers, with complete apartments to them, and the ball-room, are superior to anything of the kind in Houghton, Holkham, Blenhim and Wilton.â€
Well we knew that, didn’t we? And though Carlton Hobbs estimate the price of $2.8m for the pair, Wansteadium readers may remember how the Wanstead effect came into operation earlier this year when the 1610 manuscript of a play first performed at Wanstead House in the presence of Queen Elizabeth I was sold for nearly £60,000, having been valued at just £10,000.
*The campaign against the “academisation” of Snaresbrook Primary School – which has so far united parents and Redbridge councillors – has collected more than 400 signatures, and has also hit the Guardian. It reported on the issue here. The school had been placed in special measures after Ofsted criticised “weak” teaching and “inadequate” leadership. The Department for Education is proposing making it into an academy, but parents say its problems have been addressed with the appointment of Carel Buxton as head.
*The start of a campaign to raise enough money to buy the Evergreen Field – launched by the Wanstead Society – has been rebuffed by the spokesman for the owner of the field, who said: “My client will not sell said land and they are wasting their time even considering buying the land.”
* More than 3,000 people attended the Wanstead Festival, Redbridge Council has revealed.
*The winner of a cloud-pruned tree from the Pocket of Green display at Snarebrook tearoom Time for Tea, which was part of the Wanstead Fringe, was Patricia  Pieroni,from Upminster. The display is being extended until 19 October.
Geoff Wilkinson writes on Wanstead Daily Photo:  “I seem to be having a bit of a nocturnal week. A friend told me about this place, it looks a bit like Cape Canaveral preparing for a night launch but it’s not. It’s here in Wanstead, but where ? Leave me a message if you know.”
Baking a cherry pie at fair time is a relatively ancient Wanstead tradition, it’s thought. Â It was the memory of a particularly fine pie (or “pey”) which is believed by some to be the explanation of the inscription on the side of the George Inn.
Wansteadium thought this was a tradition worthy of reviving, and so encouraged people to bake cherry pies for the Wanstead Village Show, which took place two weekends ago.
The winner – to whom we had promised a degree of local celebrity – was Kathryn McKenna.
So we are very pleased to name her the first Cherry Pie Champion Baker of the modern era. We will be presenting her with her prize of half a guinea (53p, rounded up).
Kathryn’s own report on her pie is as follows: “I didn’t really follow a specific recipe as my practice one was a bit dull. I made a standard sweet pastry and filled it with canned cherries that I had stewed in sugar, blackcurrant cordial, maple syrup and cinnamon. You get a lot of leftover juice but it got poured on on a roasting leg of lamb the next day!”
