Chigwell Tours

I have started working with a company in Chigwell called Chigwell Tours & Visits (www.chigwelltours.co.uk). Established in 2011, CT&V delivers guided tours and walks in the area of South West Essex. I am currently volunteering, and training to be a tour guide for the season which commences in April.

My voluntary role has involved all sorts of things so far. I've designed a banner stand, and had input into the website, new brochure, and a "sample tour" video. I've assisted with creating the marketing strategy, and have assumed responsibility for social media communications. All this plus a number of admin tasks in the office; quite an interesting range of experiences for me, and working for a tourism company puts a different spin on things.

Tour guiding will be very interesting. I will initially assume responsibility for 'Scenic' guided tours, one of three driving tours run by CT&V (the others being 'Historic' and 'Celebrity' tours). This will include Epping Forest, with a stop at the Queen Elizabeth Hunting Lodge, and also a walk through Hainault Forest. Other possible stops include Epping Forest Deer Sanctuary, Roding Valley Meadows, Fairlop Waters, and Lambourne Hall & Church; the tour explores ancient woodland, rare floodplain meadows, lakes and more! All accessed from a London Underground station, as the pick-up/drop-off point is at Theydon Bois tube station just 20 mins from Stratford.

I have already picked up a lot of very interesting information about the area which, even though I grew up here, I didn't previously know. Would you have thought that there was a Roman settlement in the Chigwell area known as 'Little London'? That Chigwell is London's closest village? Known that Epping Forest, London's largest open space, was known as 'the cockney playground' and 'the lungs of London' after the railway arrived there in the 1800s and allowed those in East London to easily escape the city for a day in the countryside (and the ale houses)? Or guessed that Hainault Forest was ten times its current size in Henry VIII's time, and bigger yet when it was once part of the great Forest of Essex? I am looking forward to starting with the Tours next month and sharing the open spaces in my area with others!

In other news, some of my nature and landscape Photography will be displayed very soon in Buckhurst Hill, in the Parish Council's new Community Gallery project. Read more about this on my Photography blog!