HUG at Ham Parade Market

Ham United Group (HUG) do a lot of good work in the area through a range of disparate projects and it was good to see them at Ham Parade Market being at the heart of the community and encouraging more people to get involved.

Orford Place

Thanks to a recent Ham United Group (HUG) Architecture Walk I was able to get into the grounds of Orford Place and to take this picture of the main building with the assistance of good sunlight and without the restriction of the front wall.

Also thanks to that walk, and out guide Richard Woolf, I learned a lot about the architecture of the site including how the older sash windows, those on the main building, are flush with the wall but the later ones, like those on the building on the right, are recessed. 

It was through clues like that that Richard was able to explain the history of the buildings though the evidence was not always clear and he pointed out a few examples where the sequence of the building was uncertain.

Watch this space

Hopefully this is a chance for me to capture some "before" pictures instead of waiting for something to change and trying to work out what it looked like before. 

Ham United Group is looking for Forgotten Spaces in Ham that can be easily improved to the benefit of all and Friends of Ham Lands is considering this space which is on the riverside directly opposite one of the main paths across Ham Lands.

As the picture above shows, it is currently swamped by vegetation and the access to it is not easy.

 

A closer look shows the concrete slab which we hope may be suitable for a simple bench.

The litter, and there was quite a lot of it there, tells its own story that while the site is pretty well hidden some people have managed to find it.

 

The proposed bench would be angled to look down the river, which is why we are interested in this spot.

There is quite a bit of work to do and the first step is to assess the tree to ensure that it is safe both for anyone using the bench and also for the people working to get it there.

Ham Fair 2014

There was good weather for Ham Fair this year which helped to make it a great day out. I went twice, once to look around and the second to help on the HUG stall. I also judged the children's photography competition for HAG on my first visit.

The layout was ever so slightly different this year but it was essentially the same as in precious years. Why change a successful formula?

The Ham community stalls were clustered together which I found worked well as there were a lot of connections between us.