observations on landscape character and the relationship between people and place, between people with each other, in the environment they live in, through time....
Last day of July : Hackney Wicked event of a (Severn-type) coracle regatta at the Eton Mission Rowing Club The coracles are Severn-type and I remember the last Severn Coracle man Eustace Rogers - who's grndad had poachd the river. In my youth the Iron Bridge was still a working toll bridge with vehicle traffic. So getting a coracle across the river for your weekly shop in Ironbridge (town) was very handy. Given the social composition of those taking part in the regatta - and then that of the ETON Mission RC - it amuses me that they use a boat which only survived due to the Rogers family poaching business...
It is framed in an area bounded by Victoria Park, the River Lea, the A12 (fast road) and the Old Ford across the River Lea. And centred on Hackney Wick rail station.The south border is the Old Ford, the main river crossing from the Iron Age, Roman and medieval times afore queen Matilda almost drowned and had Bow Bridge built - to ease her route to Barking Abbey.
Oh and you might just have noticed the Olympics site on the opposite bank of the river (& cut)
Laura Oldfield Ford has a poster site at White Post Lane, her drawings are always stimulating for people interested in Landscapes and the world around them
AND, You can't get anything more appropriate than a Coracle Regatta for a festival on the site of the Iron Age river crossing on the main road between Camulodunum (Colchester) and Calleva (Calleda/Coed) Atrebatum (Silchester). Both were Pre-Roman towns and capitals of minor states. Even if the coracles start a we bit upstream of the crossing point.
