President's Page
Peter Harvey 32 Lodge Lane, Grays, Essex RM16 2YP
Unfortunately I have to report that Nigel Wood is leaving Essex and moving to the West country,
a gain for the West country but a great loss not only to the Club, but to Essex and Essex naturalists.
We thank Nigel very much indeed for his contribution to the Club and wish him well in his new
life.
On the plus side we can welcome our new Mollusc Recorder, Simon Taylor. Molluscs are an
important taxonomic group which have long been in need of an Essex county recorder, and
Simon will be able to fulfil this role admirably, with his experience, enthusiasm and both local
and national contacts. As you will read in Simon's article he will be working to involve you, our
members, in helping to improve our knowledge and coverage of Essex molluscs. It is fortuitous
that James Northfield also reports the interesting discovery of a previously unknown population
of Roman Snail in the Halstead area. Another exciting find reported in this issue includes Ray
Reeves' discovery of Fragrant Orchid at East Tilbury, pictured on our front cover, the first reliable
Essex record since 1972.
The ongoing process to obtain funding for a new centre continues, with the centre being included
in a larger overall project at Wat Tyler Country Park. Whilst progress is encouraging, we need to
be aware that even if the bid is successful the new centre will still be dependent on obtaining the
necessary planning permission etc, so we still have a long way to go.
Visitors to our website continue to increase, with a rate now of nearly 50,000 visits a year, from
all over the internet-capable world (but not surprisingly with the majority from the UK and
Europe). Not only is the Club providing a valuable resource to all these people, but this level of
usage provides valuable evidence to support funding applications that will help us towards
achieving a centre and providing access to our collections and library. The Club's Council is
currently working to make an application to HLF for a grant to enable digitisation of the Club's
publications dating back to 1880, and making these available on the website as a searchable
public resource, thereby unlocking the remarkable wealth of information on the natural history,
geology and lithic archaeology of Essex held in our literature. This will emphasise the Club's
proactive work to promote interest in the natural environment and make data and historical
material available to help in conservation, research, monitoring and education.
Bill George's hard work and enthusiasm is steadily increasing the numbers of noteworthy
naturalists covered in the Club's on-line database. Gerald Lucy has provided a very large input
into the project to provide a gazetteer of geological sites in Essex (described in Gerald's A
Mammoth in the High Street: a proposed gazetteer of geological sites in Essex in last year's
Essex Naturalist) and this on-line and downloadable resource now covers the London boroughs
of southwest Essex, Castle Point and Southend-on-Sea.
We have developed the Google checkout facility on our website to include the sale of publications
as well as subscriptions and donations. The web forum has not yet been well used, but hopefully
members and the general public will start to make more use of the facility. A regular group of
contributors would not only provide valuable help to other users, but raise the Club's public
profile. If you can possibly help, please spend a little time to make regular contributions.
2 Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 57, September 2008