I was in Beckton yesterday [don't ask] on a quest to visit a well-hidden green oasis [actually, I confess, I spotted it by accident on a map at a bus stop]. The East Ham Nature Reserve is a ten acre churchyard [the largest churchyard in London, no less] ,tucked away beside the busy A13 in a location which must once have been idyllic [but now, where a giant flyover crosses a major sewer, I think not]. The church in question is St Mary Magdalene[the oldest parish church in London, allegedly], a 12th century jewel blessed with a Norman interior[not that I got to look inside, because there was a wedding on]. And the entrance to the nature reserve is round the back [past the fat bridesmaid and her chubby pushchair-bound daughter].
By the side gate Newham Council have built a visitors centre [it looked like a green portakabin to me] to welcome schoolkids and nature-seekers [it was barely welcoming, it was firmly locked and shuttered]. Go straight ahead and you'll spot two gravestones dedicated to victims of the Titanic[I never saw them, I only found out when I got home and Googled the place]. More interesting, however to turn left and head into the churchyard proper [why are you telling them this? they don't care, they'll never visit]. [and is that the best photo you could find, it's a bit dull, and not even slightly representative]
This was once a well-tended cemetery, but it's been a nature reserve since 1977 [irrelevant date, stop it] and since has been allowed to become semi-overgrown [the paths are kept clear and immaculate by invisible council operatives]. Watch out and you might spot owls, foxes and kestrels rustling through the foliage [I saw some birds, and a cat, and a squashed snail, that was all][even the foliage is a bit same-y, unless you have a thing for shrubby green leaves]. There's also a nature trail to follow, marked by metal doornumbers nailed into stumpy wooden posts [but without knowing what all the numbers stand for, it's all a bit pointless]. [really, you're wasting your time writing this, nobody's been, and nobody's in the least bit interested]
There's something melancholy about reading the inscriptions in an obsolete graveyard [yes, obviously]. Most of the remaining headstones are from the first half of the last century [so a lot of Mauds, Arthurs and Sidneys] and are etched with the names of the forgotten dead ["My dear husband Joseph"], many of them children ["Nenn, adored daughter"]. Inscribed underneath there's often a melodramatic verse ["A face is from our household gone, a voice we love is still"] or poignant phrase ["God thought it best"]. Many gravestones are now tilting, cracked or overgrown [yes, most old cemeteries are like this]. But just occasionally a flash of yellow and red up a side path reveals a grave still lovingly tended by relatives. [do try to write something relevant and original, won't you?]
On Saturday afternoon I had the entire nature reserve to myself [bar the jabbering wedding party on the opposite side of the hedge]. All the way round the central wilderness [if you're buried in there, nobody's coming to see you], past the flowering dogroses [I think they were dogroses, I'm not good on plants] and along the avenue of shady pines [it was so quiet and so private that I kept expecting to bump into a gang of teenage glue sniffers or an embarrassed couple shagging, but no, just me]. My secluded circuit was a pleasant way to spend quarter of an hour [but in a very unspecial ordinary way]. Where better to commune with nature than this environmental East Ham hideout? [lots of other places to be honest][it's worth a look if you're in the neighbourhood, which is unlikely][really, don't bother making a special effort to visit][see, my Saturdays are often quite dull]
By the side gate Newham Council have built a visitors centre [it looked like a green portakabin to me] to welcome schoolkids and nature-seekers [it was barely welcoming, it was firmly locked and shuttered]. Go straight ahead and you'll spot two gravestones dedicated to victims of the Titanic [I never saw them, I only found out when I got home and Googled the place]. More interesting, however to turn left and head into the churchyard proper [why are you telling them this? they don't care, they'll never visit]. [and is that the best photo you could find, it's a bit dull, and not even slightly representative]
