Winchmore Hill follows up the summer’s fantastic N21 Festival with the St Nicholas Fair, to be held on the Green on 8 December. There will be stalls, music, children’s activities, merriment, horses, reindeer, St Nicholas and snow….Festive events start at 2pm.
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Born Melanie Ann Skinner, poet, short story writer and painter Melanie Ann Camp lived in Berkshire Gardens from 1957 until the early 80s when she moved to her grandmother’s house in Edmonton. Though she left the area completely when she married, she still has family connections with Palmers Green and is a regular visitor.
In her new book of poems, “A Penny in my Hand (Growing up in Suburbia)” Melanie captures happy memories of suburban life in Palmers Green during the 60s and 70s.
“The roads and avenues, then, were all lined with trees, shading the pavement from the sun on those long hot summers. Privet hedges and little walls surrounded each front garden and everyone had a gate,” she recalls.
The book is dedicated to Melanie’s father, Albert “Chick” Skinner (pictured), her mother and her grandparents.
Melanie has kindly allowed us to publish one of the poems in the book. Copies of A Penny in my hand are available at £5 plus £1.50 p&p. If you would like a copy, please email melanie.anne@ntlworld.com
Saturday Morning Shopping
Buying fresh bread at the local shops,
And talking to people in the street.
Watching vans deliver fish from the seas,
And meat from the farms,
Not so far away.
The newsagent and the sweet shop,
Full of children eager for a new comic,
Or a packet of sherbet.
Lazily walking back up the road,
Knocking on friends doors,
And going over to the park.
To feed the ducks.
Or just sit in the shade
Of the old Willow Tree
Beside the small lake
And in front of a beautiful old house.
Helium bread was one of the exciting delicacies offered at Goodall’s in Park Parade Palmers Green in the first years of the 1900s.
Leading medics of the day were testifying to its health benefits, including the King’s physician. And if you hadn’t tried it you were missing out, declared The Recorder in the housewives column of its first issue in November 1907.
I tried a four days’ old loaf the other day, and found it as moist as a few hours’ old household. There is no crust, merely a thin crisp coating. The shape of the loaf is such, that delightful pieces of toast can be made.
It was perfect for afternoon tea too, and look! no waste:
There is one thing about the bread: there never will be any waste; no odd crusts to throw to the birds.
Goodall’s version with added currants was, apparently, was particularly tasty.
Neither of Goodall’s loaves were the best thing since sliced bread however. That wasnt invented until 1912.
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The Recorder was published from 1907 to 1916. A searchable disc containing all 170 issues is now available from Southgate District Civic Trust
Broomfield Community Orchard’s Summer Picnic this year included a scarecrow, apple bobbing, local honey, a tug o’ war and country dancing.
Up for some home grown country style fun? The next Community Orchard event is Apple Day, 2-5 on 21 October. For more information about the orchard, visit http://friendsofbroomfieldpark.org/friendsofbroomfieldpark/orchard.html
The realisation of plans to create a new community café in Broomfield Park is one step closer.
Last week Enfield Council placed an advert in local press inviting expressions of interest for the provision of a ‘Community Facility’ in the park. Meanwhile an architects drawing of how the new café might look has been unveiled by the Palmers Greenery team.
Enfield’s advert paves the way for the Palmers Greenery group to make a formal application to open a new café in the park and is an important milestone in a community project initiated and led by local Palmers Green residents in association with the Friends of Broomfield Park.
Over the last year, the Palmers Greenery team has been working to develop a business plan, engage with local stakeholders, and establish a positive working relationship with London Borough of Enfield. Importantly, they have also been able to secure the ring fencing of £35,000 to cover start-up costs from the Enfield Residents Priority Fund.
The intention is that the Palmers Greenery will be child-friendly and serve affordable, healthy and, where possible, locally sourced food. All surplus generated by the Palmers Greenery will be re-invested directly back into Broomfield Park for park enhancing purposes.
“We welcome LBE’s willingness to embrace new ways of working collaboratively with the community”, says Sarah Cotton of the Palmers Greenery team.
“This project is a real opportunity for LBE to demonstrate that it is listening and responding to local people. We will be working very hard over the next few months to ensure our submission is as robust as possible.”
If you have any specific expertise that you think will be helpful to the Palmers Greenery team as they put the final tweaks to the business plan, please get in touch .
Could there at last be some good news on Pinkham Way?
In two separate decisions in the last few days, inspectors have found the North London Waste Plan (NLWP) legally unsound, and Haringey’s bid to redesignate Pinkham Way as an industrial site has failed.
On Friday, the NLWP inspector ruled that the submitted plans for Pinkham way were legally unsound because north London councils had failed to cooperate with their adjacent boroughs outside the capital, who receive a proportion of their waste. The NLWP, which fixes a waste strategy for the seven north London boroughs for the next 15 years, has been more than five years in the making.
Representations from local residents that the Pinkham Way site should not be redesignated as an industrial site were also supported, following a hearing in August.
While this is promising news, the battle is far from over and campaigning and fundraising activity must continue, says Bidesh Sarkar, chair of the Pinkham Way Alliance.
“The North London Waste Authority are very advanced on a huge procurement process that’s separate from the waste plan. With the Pinkham Way preparation already done, they’ll have nothing to lose by pushing on with the planning application if at all possible.”
The next Alliance fundraising event will be a performance by soprano Dame Emma Kirkby on Sunday 7 October Further details will be available on the Pinkham Way Alliance website shortly, or check our events listings for updates.