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In 2012 various botanical surveys of Lea Marshes were compared. To view this comparison table click this link. | |||
| Walthamstow Marshes: Introduction |
INTRODUCTION
This revised edition of Walthamstow Marshes: Our Contryside Under Threat is produced with the kind permsision of John Nash, who was instrumental with others in saving Walthamstow Marshes for future generations by carrying out an extensive survey of the Marshes in order to influence the owners, Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, not to carry out their plans to extract gravel from the site.
Their work richly deserves preserving for posterity, and it is for this reason, and to give a wider audience access to their enormous achievement, that I have carried out this revision and made it available electronically. The text was written at the end of the 1970s - nearly 30 years ago - and reflects the situation at that time.
To all those involved in the Save The Marshes Campaign, I extend my grateful thanks for preserving a unique piece of countryside so close to the centre of London. With major constructional work to the Lower Lea Valley under way for the 2012 Olympic Games, this record is made more poignant still.
The text contains the original pleas for support and addresses for those to petition. These are no longer current .
Please note that scientific names followed by an asterisk (*) are queries, being the closest match I could find in the appropriate taxon dictionary of Recorder 2002.
Mike Trier. October 2007.
INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION
This publication is offered to the general public for one precise purpose: to save Walthamstow Marshes from destruction through gravel extraction by demonstrating its unique value to East London as an area of real countryside in the heart of the city, the last of the marshes along the River Lea miraculously preserved, with immense educational potential.
We deeply hope that, upon reading this publication, the members of the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, which owns the Marshes and which is applying for permission to dig it up to quarry gravel, will reconsider their plans and designate the area one of great natural interest, which should be preserved. Likewise we hope that their colleagues on the Greater London Council and the two London Boroughs of Hackney and Waltham Forest will support such a re-designation.
September 1979
"How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, whose action is no stronger than a flower?" Shakespeare, Sonnet LXV
INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION
This book is the main document of the Save the Marshes Campaign and it is reproduced here in the same form as before, with a few corrections. However, we are continually filling in the gaps in our knowledge. Further study has revealed communities of hybrid sedge (see the section Carex in the list of plant species). In addition, we have done research into the Common Land history of the Marshes. We know now that the Lammas rights on the Marshes were extinguished by an Act of Parliament in 1934. So the Marshes are no longer Common Land, as some of us had hoped. In 1956 a Bill was put through the House of Lords, despite fierce and bitter local opposition, to allow gravel-extraction from the Marshes. Although permission was granted it was never used and the clause was then added to the Walthamstow Corporation Act. This clause was inserted in its entirety into the Lee Valley Regional Park Act of 1966.
Thus the Marshes have been stolen systematically from the people. The basic aim of the Campaign is to preserve them for the people.
In February 1980 the Minerals Subcommittee of the Greater London Council refused permission for gravel extraction from the Marshes, a decision strongly recommended by the two neighbouring boroughs of Hackney and Waltham Forest. In August 1980 the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority appealed to the Department of the Environment. There will be a public enquiry in the Summer of 1981.
The Campaign has always taken a positive stance. We have suggested improvements to the Marshes; for example, clearing out the bomb crater pond. So far the Park Authority has not allowed this. What we enjoy today is a piece of countryside of extraordinary antiquity set right in the heart of the city. The ancient watermeadow has survived largely intact as if by a miracle. Its natural plant communities have flourished and diversified to produce the fenlike landscape we are trying to protect.
In the last century the Marshes survived the tide of industrialisation; what is needed today is for its new owners, the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, to recognise the unique value of Walthamstow Marshes - the fen in the city - and resolve to pass it on to future generations.
December 1980
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