Chair's update: November

Tom Walker, Chair

The biggest Abney event of the year so far was the unveiling of the memorial to Margaret Graham, the Victorian pioneer balloonist, on 30th October. We launched the fundraising campaign in May and the memorial stone was put in place last Friday. On Sunday it was a real privilege to welcome her 90 year old great-great-granddaughter to the park, along with family members, author Sharon Wright (who has done so much to promote Margaret's story), donors and other members of the Abney Park community.

Mrs Graham's life is really remarkable and despite her heroic achievements she died poor and was buried in a paupers' grave. We are proud to have worked with local stone mason Charlotte Ruse to complete a beautiful and permanent memorial. We will be putting a full write-up on our website together with a selection of pictures from the event taken by local photographer Jannine Newman.

We are always interested in projects celebrating and marking the history of Abney Park and the lives commemorated there. Get in touch if you have ideas.

During October we also had a "thank you" drinks for all our volunteers and collaborators who help make Abney Park such a special place. It was a pleasure to meet at The Clarence on Church Street to make many acquaintances and put names to faces of people who have sometimes only met virtually over the last couple of years. We have so many talented and committed people connected to the park and our aim is for the Trust to be an organisation which can partner with people from all parts of the community with creative ideas about how to commemorate and celebrate this special place.

As well as all the creativity, autumn is when we have to file our annual report and accounts for the financial year April 2021 to March 2022. As a small charity these must be independently audited. The Board signed these off, and subject to formal approval at the Annual General Meeting at the end of the month, that task is complete when we file them with the Charity Commission and Companies House. We had a good year and are in a solid financial position and have managed to navigate Covid and the disruption of the restoration work over the last two years. Next year will be different again as the restoration project works edge forward. I would like to thank Alison our Treasurer for her work on managing our finances, and Haydn our long time Trust Coordinator who does so much to keep everything going.

Enjoy the autumn colour in the park and hopefully the Church St entrance will be open by next month's update.