Report of the Essex Field Club for 2002-2003
later years. The paper by Ray Tabor on the Oxlip in Essex is particularly timely, as the decline in
woodland management, notably coppicing and the uncontrolled browsing by deer, are having a
devastating effect on the population. This detailed survey also complements that of the 1993
Cambridgeshire survey by Chris Preston, so that we now have a good baseline picture for the two main
county reservoirs of this fascinating plant against which to judge the success of future management.
The Essex Field Club website
The website has now been visited by in excess of 2500 people, ranging from twenty different countries.
Not surprisingly the majority were from the UK. All the old style Newsletters (1-29) are available for
download from the website as pdf files, together with the contents pages for Newsletters 30-41 and
Essex Naturalist (New Scries) 13 onwards.
As well as news and details of the Club's activities, programme details, publications and contacts, the
many current surveys with which the Club is involved are explained, and forms are available for the
submission of records for some readily recognizable species, either to the relevant County recorder or
survey instigator. Several very valuable records have come in from people who would otherwise have
been unlikely to submit their observations. It is interesting that the majority of records for the Woodlouse
spider have been sent from America!
Collections and library
As the Corporation of London is no longer interested in establishing a joint Museum to house the Field
Club's collections, Council now has to pursue an alternative venue for its headquarters and collections.
Furthermore, following the restoration of the Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge, the Corporation of
London has decided to dispose of the natural history clement of the former Essex Field Club collections
associated with the Hunting Lodge Museum, and these collections have now been offered back to the
Club. The lease on the store currently housing the Club's extensive collections, ably curated by Martin
Heywood, has been extended for a further three years pending resolution of the accommodation problem.
Membership and fnance
The phenomenal increase in membership reported last year has slowed down, but the membership is
still increasing and now totals around 350. We have some way to go, however, to match the c.730
membership of the Suffolk Natural History Society, and to this end joint pamphleting mail shots are
planned for Spring 2003, and approaches have also been made to the London Natural History Society
for a similar reciprocal exchange of pamphlets. Once again publication of the Essex Naturalist was
planned to coincide with the Annual Exhibition meeting and around 100 copies were distributed at the
meeting, a substantial saving in both post and packing.
Future focus
The priorities for the coming year will be to establish the Club as a charity (assuming support from the
membership at the 2003 AGM), and to make some progress towards the acquisition of a permanent,
financially sustainable headquarters and home for the Club's collections, a target that, as pointed out in
last year's report, could rapidly become a reality if the Club were to receive a further substantial
bequest. Council is also anxious to see the Club's Recorders play a central role in any new centralised
Biological Records Centre for Essex.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 20 (2003)
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