February 2020

Contents
Features
Swan lakes 14–15
Mama’s back! 18
Kind words 22
Future for Whipps 26
How was that? 30
Voices from the past 34
The old East End 38–39
Stories great and small 42
Listen and learn 46
Assisted dying 52
Wild Wanstead 56–57
Old enough to 62
Time to go digital 66
Wanstead Night Shelter 70
Will it change? 74
Restoring Wanstead Park 78–79
Puzzles & competitions
Sudoku 16
Mind-bender puzzles 28
Crossword competition 48
Wanstead anagram 80
Every month
Local news 6–8, 10 & 12
Wanstead map 60–61
Community events 85–88, 90 & 92
Community groups 94
Useful numbers 96
Index of advertisers 98
Contact Us
020 8819 6645
editor@wnstd.com
wnstd.com
@wavidi
wavidi
Wanstead Village Directory
PO Box 2491, Ilford, IG1 8JT
Welcome...
To bake a swan, scald it,
take out the bones and
parboil it, then season it very
well with pepper, salt and ginger. Then
lard it and put it in a deep coffin of rye paste with a store of
butter. Close it and bake it very well, and when it is baked, fill up
the vent hole with melted butter, and so keep it; serve it as you
do the beef pie.
No, the Wanstead Village Directory does not endorse the baking
– or indeed any method of the cooking or eating – of swans. So,
forgive the inclusion of this Elizabethan recipe and do not try this
at home. It’s reproduced here solely to demonstrate our variable
relationship with animals. Swan meat was regarded as a luxury
food item in England during the reign of Elizabeth I, but under
Elizabeth II, the idea of killing a swan for food likely fills you
with revulsion – and likely the same revulsion that many of you
may feel at the thought of killing any animal for any reason, for
that matter.
Chicken, turkey – even goose – will be familiar sights on many
of our dinner plates, but you’ll be glad to know swans are now
protected as wild birds under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside
Act, and this makes it illegal to keep or kill them (although
it took until 1998 for the law to change so it was no longer
treasonous to eat a swan). And these days, our local, long-neck
friends have more than the law on their side to protect them
(see pages 14–15).
But putting the vegetarian and vegan debates to one side, I
think we can all agree the best way to enjoy the
swans of Wanstead is not to scald or parboil
them, but to watch them in all their grace
on Perch Pond. And if you must eat, try a
cheese sandwich from the tea hut.
Lee Marquis, Editor
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the March 2020 edition is 14 February 2020.
The Wanstead Village Directory is
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Wanstead, Snaresbrook and Aldersbrook.
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ISSN 2059-013X
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