BLACKMORE HISTORY NEWS - March 2010

Welcome to this month’s round-up of local history and heritage in and around Blackmore, Essex.

Chelmsford Museums

A visit to Oaklands Park is highly recommended. There is a general museum charting the history of the Borough and the ‘Essex Regiment Museum’ tracing the County’s military connection. The photo was taken at the official opening weekend in January.

New Priest for Blackmore and Stondon Massey

On 18 February 2010, Revd. Toni Smith was inducted as Vicar of Blackmore, Rector of Stondon Massey and Rural Dean for the Ongar area.

Ongar Millennium History Society

The Society website is a technical wonder covering aspects of the history of Chipping Ongar. It includes video footage of Ongar Station in the days of steam, and the High Street in spring 1946 extracted from their best-selling DVD. Go to: http://omhs.org.uk/index.htm

Ongar Union Workhouse

The Workhouse was at Stanford Rivers. For more information visit: http://overyons.rm-projects.net/pi35.htm

Blackmore Area Local History

A record number of hits in a single week to http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/ was recorded during week ending 14 February. The partner website received 33 visitors. Week ending 21 February also was good, scoring 26 hits.

New Flicker Pictures

Doddinghurst Church, taken in the snow in January 2010: http://www.flickr.com/photos/norsl/4258689633/in/pool-brentwood
Fryerning Church, again taken in the snow, taken 19 December 2009: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pickled_newt/4371621425/
Norton Mandeville Church interior, uploaded 14 February 2010: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scribblescratchandco/4357546915/
Snowdrops at Stapleford Tawney, uploaded 17 February 2010: http://www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/4365882493/

Links

County Churches Trust, including ‘Friends of Essex Churches’: http://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/cct.html
Stanford Rivers News is a new website: http://stanfordriversnews.com/

For an extensive list of links to other sites go to: http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/externallinks.html

Ongar: Community Tree Strategy

The title of this work might sound off-putting but its content is certainly not. The ‘Ongar Community Tree Strategy’ was commissioned by Ongar Town Council and various local interest groups have made a significant contribution to this booklet. The work (32 pages, A4 size, in colour with photos and maps) gives an outline of the landscape history of the area before considering ‘special’ trees in Ongar, worthy of preservation, civic protection or simply enjoyment. With the declining use of timber for buildings during the twentieth century and pressure for more road building, airport expansion and housing, the Strategy concludes that safeguarding “an environment that supports a green landscape is crucial in the face of these challenges”. Locally, it is a “wake-up call to preserve not only the present tree stock, but perhaps more importantly, ensure that by community action in our own homes and gardens, we leave a healthy tree-filled legacy for future generations”.

The Ongar Millennium History Society organised a lecture (“The Marion Slade Lecture 2008”) given by Jon Stokes, Director of Rural Programmes for The Tree Council (28 March 2008 at Great Stony). The subject was “Our Heritage of Trees” in which he put forward a convincing case that important trees need to be listed in the same way that buildings receive such recognition. In the forward to this booklet, Pauline Buchanan-Black, Director of The Tree Council, says that "veteran trees should be regarded as Green Monuments in their own right".