President's Page
Peter Allen 13 Churchgate, Cheshunt, Waltham Cross, Herts. EN8 9NB.
Email: peter.allen6@virgin.net
Dear Members,
Once again I take over as President of the Field Club, almost with a sense of deja vu.
When I became President in 1998, I was immediately faced with the task of moving
the Field Club's collections from storage in Newham to a new location. This time, 12
years later, the collections are to be moved again and rehoused at the Wat Tyler Country
Park at Pitsea. Many people have been involved in these moves, but I must particularly
mention Ken Adams who masterminded the first move and worked like a Trojan (I do
not exaggerate), packing and moving the specimens, and Graham Ward who supervised
the transfer of the geological material. The interim premises were not ideal but for 15
years Martin Heywood has worked wonders in keeping the collections in as good a
condition as possible and in managing the library. Peter Harvey has led the move to
the Wat Tyler Country Park, with significant inputs from Ken Adams and the Council.
We should be up and running at Wat Tyler CP in a year's time. Please be very mindful
of the tremendous work these members have put in.
At the Wat Tyler Country Park we will have an office and a public display area, as well
as a home for our resources, giving us a very public presence in a much visited venue
in a heavily populated area. This will give us a great opportunity to increase our
membership and play a more important role both locally and in the county. Pitsea
railway station is close to the entrance to the Park and Chelmsford is half an hour's
drive away, Epping not much more. We will need to alter our thinking to take full
advantage of this.
Those of you who were able to attend the AGM on March 13 were very impressed by
Peter Harvey's Annual Report of the Field Club. He was very much a 'hands on'
President and he has taken us forward on many fronts. In connection with his work at
Wat Tyler CP, he has secured us money from the Heritage Lottery Fund to help us set
ourselves up physically, with a further bid in hand. We are also applying to OPAL
(Open Air Laboratories). One bid here narrowly failed and we are encouraged to
apply again. This time we will seek financial aid to produce posters, leaflets and
support material for the public and schools using our resources at the centre, reinforcing
our role as a major natural history society with much to offer the local community and
the county of Essex. We always have been outward-looking, putting our expertise at
the disposal of interested people, with a very full and varied diet of meetings, as well
as our Newsletter, the Essex Naturalist and our special publications. We will need to
adjust our thinking and also involve our collections and library, whilst safeguarding
their security. These are important resources to underpin our development and
involvement with the local and Essex community.
The digitisation project is nearing completion. All the Field Club's publications up to
1998 have been scanned and are now available and in searchable form, though this
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 62, May 2010 1