32
REPORTS OF MEETINGS
Epping Forest and the Lea Valley, 24th April, 1982
Eight of us went to the top of Pole Hill,
Chingford, where there was a good view across
the Thames Valley We stood on the 0 meridian,
looked across to Greenwich, then, moving west-
wards, towards St. Paul's, the Post Office
Tower and some of the Lea Valley reservoirs.
We walked along the forest ridge to Yardley
Hill noticing the old man's beard and ash trees
on the boulder clay and comparing the new
growth on the south of the hill with the high
hawthorn thicket to the north. Then up Gilwell
Lane on to footpaths across the golf course.
There, over 300' above sea level there were
views over the Thames, Lea and Roding Valleys
(on a really clear day you can see Brentwood -
we couldn't). There were many holes in the
ground along the highest path, where furry, ginger
mining bees (Andrena specie ?) were busy. Lunch
stop was "The Owl", and the journey back took
us via Woodman's Glade to compare the experimental
pollarding of twenty years ago with the high
forest of old, neglected pollards. Finally,
to Chingford Plain, which could today be covered
with railway and housing had it not been for the
1878 Epping Forest Act.
Irene Buchan
Old Hall Marshes, Tollesbury, 27th February, 1983
A fine sunny morning saw 22 Members at the
meeting place near to Old Hall Marshes. It was
during this short wait for Members to arrive that
a lesser spotted woodpecker and also a great
tit in full song were heard.