ITV’s Victoria featured mention of Brocket Hall within the first few minutes of the first episode.

Queen Victoria’s diaries reveal that she was asking her prime minister Lord Melbourne almost daily about his country home.

On the 13 Feb 1838 Victoria received at Buckingham Palace “a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Lord Melbourne from Brocket”. Was he aware that it was the eve of St Valentine’s Day?

In her diary, Victoria always referred to her prime minister’s country home as ‘Brocket’ rather than Brocket Hall or Brocket Park.

Later that month she wrote again: “Got a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Lord Melbourne from Brocket. How kind of him to think of sending me flowers! The Daphnes (my favourite flowers, for they do smell so exquisitely) are quite delicious.”

In August the Queen received Melbourne at Windsor and told him: “I do so hope to see Brocket some day.” Without promising anything, the premier replied “Oh! I hope you will”.

A few days later he sent her some peaches grown at Brocket Park.

When back in Buckingham Palace at the end of October, Victoria expressed a desire “to see Brocket one day” during Melbourne’s audience of the Queen.

“I should like very much to show it you,” he replied. “But I don’t know how to manage it.” –

“It must be managed,” replied the Queen who had been frustrated when passing Brocket Park without stopping on her way to Yorkshire. She noted that it was only three miles beyond Hatfield.

It was as a married woman that Victoria at last saw the house. She and Albert went for lunch on a summer day and stayed for two hours.

“I can’t say how pleased I was to see Brocket, the place belonging to my good, kind Ld Melbourn.” wrote Victoria afterwards. It was just a month before his defeat in Parliament and forced resignation by the Tories.

The Queen hated the Tories but contact with her preferred prime minister was quickly lost as the Queen began to rely on her husband for advice.

This Sunday on ITV at 9pm we should see how this story is portrayed in episode 3 which called Brocket Hall.

How much shall we see of Brocket Park which today is crossed by Stage 3 of the Lea Valley Walk?

The Stonehill Business Park N18 3QX is an odd slightly bleak stretch of Lea Valley Walk between the so-called Lea Valley Viaduct  (or North Circular) and the delightful Tottenham Marshes to the south.

it it best known for the Arriva bus depot.

Now the land on both sides of the river at the business park will be turned into housing. The development is to be called Meridian Water and even have its own railway station (replacing Angel Road).

Expect in  a decade to be able to walk on both banks just as you can at Tottenham Marshes.

The lone Leaside Cafe may have rivals in a decade.

Lea Bridge Station has reopened after a 31 year closure.

Transport Minister Claire Perry MP and Waltham Forest Council leader Chris Robbins arrived by train on Monday morning to declare the station open.

The station is about half a mile east of Lea Bridge and slightly nearer than Clapton Station to the west.

Clapton Station trains run into Liverpool Street Station whilst Lea Bridge Station trains run into Stratford Station. Both have trains running north to Tottenham Hale and Broxbourne.

To reach Lea Bridge Station from the Lea Valley Walk cross Lea Bridge, next to The Princess of Wales, and walk along Lea Bridge Road.

The first train stopped on Sunday evening prior to the official opening.

Good to see fashion designer Simone Rocha, who ‘dines in Mayfair’, likes the River Lea.

“It almost feels like you’re in the countryside'” she tells Tilly Macalister-Smith in ES Magazine.

Walking past the Olympic Park on the way to Bow you see over to the right the Bryant & May match factory.

The Lea Valley contains a lot English history and the match factory was the location of a landmark strike which became part of trade union history.

In 1888 the match girls who worked in very alarming conditions went on strike and won both public support and better workplace safeguards.

An oddly titled exhibition in London E1, The Match Women’s Strike 1988: Alison Marchant’s Wall Paper History, is a re-staging of a centenary show seen at Rochdale Art Gallery.

Included are original prints, photographs, etchings and collages inspired by archival imagery.
New exhibition

The exhibition is at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, 277 Bancroft Road, London E1 4DQ until Friday 6 May.

Open Tue 10am-5pm, Wed 9am-5pm, Thu 9am-8pm, First & third Sat of month 9am-5pm.

The River Lea track in Adele’s third album just released is already a proving to be a favourite.

Peter Bradshaw wrote in The Guardian on Saturday about Adele’s ‘River Roots’:

“There’s a new reason for getting excited about Adele’s new album 25. It has loads of vivid psycho-geography. One of the most striking tracks is River Lea, in which Adele finds the mystic source of her inspiration not just in the north London district of Tottenham, where she was born, but in the nearby River Lea itself, which flows from the Chiltern Hills through east and north London before joining the Thames.

“I’ve always found it wonderful: when our son was very little, we used to take him for bike rides by the Lea: it has an eerie rus in urbe feel. Here’s what Adele sings: ‘When I was a child I grew up by the River Lea / There was something in the water, now that something’s in me … But it’s in my roots, it’s in my veins / It’s in my blood.’

“Iain Sinclair is going to love Adele’s song. He is passionate about the Lea. Here’s how he wrote about it in 2002: ‘The earlier spelling … was Ley, which is even better. Lea as ley, it always had that feel. A route out. A river track that walked the walker, a wet road. The Lea fed our Hackney dreaming: a water margin.’ I think Adele should invite Sinclair up on stage to sing a special River Lea duet.”

The Matchbox Toys factory next to Marshgate Bridge has been replaced by Matchmakers Wharf.

It is interesting to see this change featured in An A-Z of Planning and Culture published today by the Mayor of London. The guide outlines the practical steps that can be taken to protect culture and support new activity.

At Matchmakers Wharf there are 49 purpose-built affordable artists’ studios in the building which has views of the River Lea and across Hackney Marsh.

Walkers intending to follow the tidal Lea from Three Mills to East india Dock should note that the handy Gasworks Bridge near the start is not open.

You should follow the alternative route, advised in a note on page 112 of the new guide, by walking up Three Mill Lane past Tesco. Go left up the main road past Bromley-by-Bow station and left into Twelvetrees Crescent. Keep ahead past the school (right).

From Bromley-by-Bow Station: Of course if you arrive at Bromley-by-Bow Station go left down the subway outside the station and under the road. On the far side turn right along the road and left into Twelvetrees Crescent.

The good news is that the other new feature here is open: the Cody Dock bridge.

At Last!

The lastest edition of The Lea Valley Walk guide is now available direct from the publisher post free.

This is the third edition with new photographs and new text featuring all the changes and improvements up and down the river which have followed on from the Olympic Games.

Thanks to The Line art trail and the reopening of Cody Dock there is the chance to follow the tidal River Lea to the most southerly tip of the valley’s regional park by the River Thames.

First stop on the walk is a moated pub open for breakfast. The last stop could be the View Tube cafe overlooking the Olympic Park. Perfect for this month’s Bank Holiday weekend.

The natural cycle of growth and pasture is maintained on Walthamstow Marshes.

Cattle are removed at Candlemas, 2 February. At Lammastide, starting on Lammas Day 1 August, the grass is cut or cattle brought back.

This weekend Lammas Day will be kept on Walthamstow Marshes with a series of events including a scything competition.

This evening Saturday 1 August, between 7pm and 8pm, visitors are invited to bring a picnic to hear an informal talk about the history of the land and commoning.

The idea to hold this and other events came from two local artists, Kathrin Böhm and Louis Buckley, who work in close collaboration with the Lee Valley Park rangers.