A team from Wanstead Cricket Club has been touring Kenya for the past couple of weeks, playing a number of games and also taking part in development projects.
Club member Scott Emmons has been helping with cricket coaching at a school in Nairobi, and is also helping raise money to refurbish the school library.
I promised I'd help refurb their library and they promised me they would find another home for the chicken hutches 😀
If anyone would like to help in any way please either comment on this post or message me directly.
There have been quite a few changes to the world we know of late, and for those of you buy your poppies on Wanstead High Street, there will from next year be some new faces.
For Jim Carroll, the Poppy Man, this will be his last year on guard outside the Oxfam shop. Jim is planning to retire to pastures new in 2023, after ten years collecting on the high street. He will miss everyone and the chats with his fans – there are some ladies who buy their poppies only from him – but time marches on.
We have also lost Marguerite Wimborne this year as a collector. Marguerite took a tumble earlier in the year and has had to relocate to a retirement home, so she too will be absent from her slot by the dry cleaners.
Poppy collections will still go on, never fear, there will be a new line up to ensure a smooth transfer and the Scouts will still be out doing their bit. Poppies will be available in various shops from 30th October, and the street collections will take place on Friday 11th and Saturday 12th November, with the Remembrance service taking place on Sunday 13th.
Wanstead will be denied the traditional Christmas Eve scene of people lined up at the Ginger Pig to take away turkeys after the butcher’s farm supplier was hit by avian influenza.
All turkeys, geese, ducks and chicken from the specialist farm – the Botterills – have been affected and the butcher will not be able to supply any of them this year. It’s believed that more than 800 turkeys were bought from the Wanstead shop last Christmas, so the financial impact will be significant.
Customers have been sent this message by the company which is hoping they will choose to opt for non-poultry Christmas dinners instead.
Redbridge is hosting a novel arts event on Saturday in Wanstead inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead festival.
The free event will include arty activities in the library from 1-5pm followed by a grand costume parade after 5pm. Organisers say: “All adults and children are encouraged to come dressed to party. Why not channel your inner Frida Kahlo, or James Bond from Spectre? Or how about dressing as a colourful skeleton inspired by the films Coco and The Book of Life? Add some lights or glow sticks and you’re ready to go! There will be prizes for the best dressed.”
It’s no country lane but a stalled tractor was just the latest hold-up on Wanstead High Street. An industrial agricultural set of jump leads deployed by the City of London’s Epping Forest team got things moving again.
You would never know it from the outside, but a house in Hereford Road has a full church organ in its front room, built lovingly by its owner who was for years a church organist in Wanstead.
Gordon Forster started building the organ in the late 70s, finished it in the 80s, and continued playing it until his death 10 years ago. His widow, Diana, is now downsizing which means the organ needs to find a new home.
Gordon’s son Joe, who grew up with his father making all sorts of musical instruments, is not optimistic that a new home will be found for the organ and suspects the best that can happen is the organ will be broken up and used for parts.
Gordon Forster pictured in 1980
Gordon was a radiographer by training who spent 60 years playing church organs. For many years he was the organist at the Congregational church – now the United Reformed Church – on Nightingale Lane and also played in other churches in the area.
The house on Hereford Rd. (Pic Peter Andrews.)
He built the organ after collecting parts from numerous dismantled organs in the area. Joe says: “Maybe there’s somebody around now who’s looking to do the same. It might be broken up for parts.”
Asked how his mother put up with his father taking over the front room, he says: “I don’t think you could have stopped him. He was very energetic. If he decided to do something – whoosh! – he’d be off. There was no stopping him.” He added: “She had her own interests too.”
The organ has 8ft pipes, pedals, a separate console (the keyboard), and a blower which Gordon built into the cellar.
In this video it is being played by Gordon’s friend, organist Eric Doig.
Joe would welcome contact from anyone wanting the organ – please get in touch via info@wansteadium.com. The house on Hereford Road is being sold through agents Peter Andrews – details can be seen here.
