SHORT HISTORY OF ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 21
stead Flats as allotment-grounds ; the proposal was dropped,
and the land, which had been used for allotment purposes through-
out the War, was ultimately restored to the open Forest.
Towards the end of 1921 a report spread that it was in-
tended to demolish the ancient Court House at Barking. Vigorous
attempts were made by the Club to prevent the demolition,
protests were made to the Barking Town Council and in the
County newspapers, and a special Meeting of Protest was held
in the Court House itself. But opposition proved to be in vain,
the Barking Town Council deliberately destroyed the ancient
building in the face of expressed public opinion.
In February, 1922, the greatly increased cost of printing and
of postage made it necessary for an increased subscription to
be required from future new members and for a small entrance
fee to be imposed.
In June, 1922, the Club co-operated actively in the work of
the "West Ham Education Week," organising free public lectures
at the Stratford Museum, a Special Exhibition in the Museum,
and nature-study rambles, open to the public, in Epping Forest.
At the Annual Meeting of 1923, Dr. (now Sir) Arthur Smith
Woodward, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., accepted the office of Presi-
dent of the Club.
In the summer of 1923 a grave-memorial was erected with the
aid of the "William Cole. Pension Fund" in St. Osyth Cemetery
to William Cole and his five brothers and sisters, and a Bronze
Plaque and framed portrait were set up in the Stratford Museum
in memory of its first Curator. After these had been provided
for, there remained a balance of approximately £200 in the
Fund, and on October 25, 1924, it was decided by the Council
to allocate this balance to a permanent fund to be known as the
"Forest Museum Maintenance Fund," the interest only of
which is to be applied exclusively to the upkeep of the Forest
Museum, the capital not to be trenched upon. An unexpected
donation of ten guineas from an old member of the Club was
added to the capital sum.
As a first-fruit of the fund thus established, a handbook de-
scriptive of Queen Elizabeth's Lodge and of its contained Museum
was drawn up by the present writer and placed on sale for the
use of visitors to the museum.
During 1925 the Club carried out excavations to determine