Go to TES home page
The Enfield Society
The Society ended the year with an increase of £20,961 in its total funds, including £20,000 added to the value of Jubilee Hall following a revaluation. We received generous legacies from Miss Joan White and Miss Mary Larrett, though this was offset by a fall in other income. Total expenditure for the year increased by £4,343 compared with 2009. We made donations to the Stagg Hill Footpath, the E A Bowles Society and Church appeals by All Saints Edmonton, St Andrew’s Enfield, St Mary Magdalene Enfield and Jesus Church Forty Hill, but there was a decrease in governance costs due to lower legal fees. The accounts in the Abbey National were closed as Abbey was unable to issue cheques.
The policy of the Society is to maintain unrestricted funds, which are the free reserves of the Charity, at a level which would allow the Society to contest actively any threat to its aims. The members of the Management Committee consider that the balance of the reserves, after deduction of the designated and restricted funds, is reasonable in view of the high legal costs that could be incurred in defending such threats.
There were some changes in the Management Committee this year. We were extremely sorry to accept the resignation of Tony Langston who as a past chairman and longstanding active member of the Society is greatly missed. We also regret that Peter Perryman, who could be relied upon for pertinent comments at meetings, also left the committee this year. We are grateful to them both for their work for the Society over the years. At the AGM, Graham Dalling and Janet McQueen, who had been co-opted in 2009, were formally appointed to the Committee, Colin Pointer stepped down as Chairman, after several years of outstanding service, and Janet McQueen was elected to the post, having been Vice-Chair for six months. Despite asking for new committee members in the Newsletter no-one was forthcoming, something we need to encourage in the next year. However we were delighted to elect Beryl Dorrington as a new Vice-President, especially as another – Stanley Smith – had sadly died during the year.
Another change of personnel during the year has been the caretaker of Jubilee Hall, our headquarters. Pauline Claydon had been caretaker there for many years but after a period of illness gave up the post in September. We have been very fortunate in finding a replacement in Emma Halstead but Pauline will be sadly missed and we would like to thank her for all the sterling work she has done over the years in keeping the Hall clean and well maintained, something from which the Society greatly benefits. Membership has continued at just below the 2000 mark. It is open to all and we hope the very low membership fee of £2.50 would not prevent anyone joining the Society. Currently we have no plans to increase this and continue to encourage new members to join by advertising the Society locally and at various festivals as well as via our very active social programme of walks and talks which are free of charge to all members.
We have continued to work closely with the Council, setting up meetings with the new leader after the election in May. This will prove to be increasingly important with the financial cuts threatened. One possible casualty of these which we are working to save are the two groups – Groundforce and the Enfield Conservation Volunteers – who for many years have worked tirelessly to keep footpaths, and other open spaces in good condition for all to use. We have continued to lobby for a better space for the Museum and Museum service, and have offered to help with matched funding if a Heritage Lottery Fund bid goes ahead.
Another concern has been a new threat to the Green Belt in the Fairview option for the land south of Enfield Road. We have met with local residents and the council and lobbied MPs, the press, the developer and the land owner to prevent any development of this green belt land, and currently things are quiet. However we will continue to be vigilant and to actively oppose all inappropriate development in land designated as Green Belt.
During the year we held a new members party, both to welcome them and to try to get new active members, and in 2011 we plan to liaise with other local and civic societies on areas of common interest and difficulty. We hope that this will make us more effective and efficient in our activities. Other plans for next year include pushing for the listing of the New River and working towards a celebration of its 400th anniversary, looking again at Associate membership, and encouraging more young and active members to join the Society.
Other Society matters in 2010 are covered in the following reports.
There have been few applications for new buildings this year; most applications have been renewals of existing permissions. We have looked at all applications and made comments and proposals when we thought it was required – with some success. As conservation statements are often inadequate we have lobbied the Council about these and hope that they will improve. We have worked with the Council on enforcement and this is now much more effective with over 100 hoardings being removed. Conservation
Following its examination in public and the Planning Inspector’s endorsement, Enfield Council has now formally adopted its Core Development Strategy. It is too early yet to assess the full impact of the numerous initiatives emanating from the Coalition Government which threaten to shake up the whole Town and Country Planning system. With the increasing number of conservation areas our conservation “brief” has likewise expanded and the number of significant planning proposals is again on the rise. Issues have arisen concerning planning applications granted before a conservation area was designated but not implemented, which subsequently require additional permissions. A case in point was the redevelopment of 110/112 Aldermans Hill, N13 – prematurely demolished – as a block of flats. The eventual outcome, rebuilding in facsimile, was probably as satisfactory a compromise as could be expected.
The Edmonton Group continued to concentrate on assisting with improvements to parks and open spaces and five mature trees were funded to shade the children's play area at Montagu Recreation Ground. The cost of fruit trees for the Florence Hayes Children's Playground has also been allocated. £1000 was donated to the All Saints Church Restoration Appeal. A Joint Meeting on the subject of the poet, John Keats, and his association with the Edmonton area was held in February. Commemorative plaques in the Edmonton area were checked and the one to Gladys Aylward replaced.
We continued to support Western Enfield Residents’ Association in their negotiations with the landowner and Enfield Council in respect of farmland paths between the Ridgeway and Trent Park. By autumn 2010 the final route had been agreed and working parties, consisting of Groundforce members, TES members and local residents had started. It is hoped an official opening will take place by mid- 2011. Regrettably Enfield Council is proposing to withdraw funding and employee involvement in the running of Groundforce after March 2011. TES has voiced its complete opposition to such a move. During 2010 the Group organised 53 walks and visits. Twenty-three took place on Saturdays, ten on Mondays and one each on Good Friday and a Sunday. Of these 12 were specifically morning or afternoon walks and many of the full day walks had an option to finish earlier than the intended route. Included in the programme were 22 walks and/or visits to interesting parts of Central and Outer London while other walks were local to Enfield. We also went into the Chilterns, Surrey, Kent, Hertfordshire, Essex and Cambridge.
We are very grateful to every leader, without whom we would not be able to compile a programme, but we do need more leaders. Unfortunately over the past couple of years nine leaders have felt unable to continue for a variety of reasons and we do need more of you to assist, otherwise the programme will reduce.
During the year there were illustrated talks to Society members and other local groups on Enfield’s industrial heritage, the Great Northern Railway extension, and historic buildings in Enfield and Edmonton, Winchmore Hill and Southgate. The Group had talks on the do’s and don’ts of architectural photography, Royal Residences in England and Historic Towns in South East England. These meetings also provided opportunities to discuss the need to preserve historic buildings in Enfield. TES News had articles on Arnos Grove, Southgate, the GNR extension, All Saints Church Edmonton, Christ Church Southgate, the St Mary Magdalene paintings restoration project, and Wrights Flour Mill, Ponders End.
In April there were guided tours round two of Enfield’s finest Gothic revival churches – St Mary Magdalene and Christ Church. In June we had an interesting tour round Georgian Islington and were introduced to some of the more famous residents, both factual and fictional.
We organised heritage walks around Enfield Cemetery, Edmonton and Southgate as well as supporting coach outings to Salisbury in June, and to the Kent and East Sussex (Heritage) Railway together with Bodiam Castle in September. The party for new members held in November attracted a good turnout. The twice monthly meetings at Jubilee Hall, offering a variety of topics, continued to draw strong support. Our stall at the New River Festival in June and at the Autumn Show in September attracted much attention. At both events we signed up a number of new members and achieved good sales of our publications. During the year we continued our columns in the Enfield Advertiser and the Enfield Echo. TES walks are now included in the Council’s quarterly brochure “Walk Enfield” which can be viewed and downloaded from the Council website. On its opening in May, the Council's Dugdale Centre at Thomas Hardy House offered our publications for sale, membership application forms and copies of TES News. The latter two items continued to be available from the Central Library. The Society commissioned a joint community notice board with the Western Enfield Residents' Association at Frogs Bottom, outside the Jolly Farmers pub and our own notice board, courtesy of First Capital Connect, in the waiting room on the up side platform at Enfield Chase station. Society information is also included and regularly updated in the community notice boards at Enfield Chase and Grange Park stations.
The Records and Research Group has been working to make a representative selection of its photographs available on the Society's Web site, and there are now over 350 pictures online, which can be browsed and searched by area and subject. During the year we have received several donations of material as well as a large quantity of books, papers and slides from the estate of the late Stanley Smith which is now being sorted and organised. Several enquiries were dealt with, when appropriate being referred to the Enfield Local History Library and Archives or distributed to our email discussion list, where other members were able to provide helpful responses.
Work has continued steadily on the Allotment/Tree Nursery. Donations of suitable saplings for growing on are still welcome. The emphasis is on native hedgerow trees and shrubs in particular. One of the aims of the Group was to be able to produce a database of protected trees within the borough and this has now become available via Mapping on Line on the Enfield Council website.
The financial review part of the annual report was circulated to members with the Summer 2011 issue of TES news.
| Last updated 2011-08-11 22:06 |
Go to TES home page
|