President's Page
Del Smith 12 Tring Gardens, Harold Hill, Romford, Essex RM3 9EP
Members will be aware that for about ten years now we have struggled to find a home
for our collections and library. At our last council meeting the council agreed to contribute
£25,000 by way of a secured loan towards an extension at Mark Hanson's house. The
extension will be used by the Field Club, but it will not be sufficient to house all of our
material. However it will go some way to keeping our most valuable items safe and
accessible. The container that they are currently housed in is far from ideal, making it
practically impossible to do any curation. Once moved to the new site Mark will be
working on the collections trying to get them into some sort of order, and members will
also be able to use the library for the first time in years.
This will not be a permanent home, and our search will continue - there are still some
distant possibilities to encourage us. However I have to say that the numerous false
dawns and disappointments of the past do not lead me to being overly optimistic.
I now move to some sad news, Mike Dennis, teacher and bird recorder, died suddenly
last week. Mike lived in Collier Row and worked in Havering. He did much of his bird
watching in Rainham and Hainault. It was at the former site that I first met him maybe
twenty years ago at the beginning of the campaign to save Rainham Marshes, where his
research was to prove invaluable. At the latter site I met him for the last time and spent
an hour or two with him at the Hainault Forest Centenary Weekend just a few weeks
ago. The cause of conservation in Essex has suffered a major loss and Mike will be
sadly missed by all who knew him.
Welcome to the Essex Field Club, registered charity, number 1113963
Yes, we really are a charity! After deciding to go for it over 3 years ago, and after 3 AGMs, we have
finally done it. All the Trustees, also known as Council members, received a letter in the middle of
May, with the registration date given as 28 April, 2006.
As a charity we will be eligible to accept Gift Aid on subscriptions and donations. This means that
we can recover income tax paid by the subscriber or donor at no extra cost to them. Members will
need to fill in a simple form which we will be organising in the coming months. It is hoped that as
many members as possible will join up leading to a substantial increase in our income. Individuals
will also be able to make larger donations and legacies free of inheritance tax. The avoidance of tax
is always very satisfying, so that is one more good reason to remember us in your will.
We may well be able to apply for grants to help in rehousing our homeless Collections and Library.
As a charity, we can attract grants previously unavailable to us.
All these things will take a bit of organising, and some of the changes may take some time, but we
are now on the road.
2 Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 51, September 2006