Chair's update, July 2025

Tom Walker, Chair

The last few weeks have seen us do a range of events in line with our aims of animating Abney Park's history and ecology. These sit alongside fundraising events like summer theatre, which we are really pleased to have been able to do again this year.

The stand out occasions were two events commemorating the life of pioneering Victorian firefighter James Braidwood. He was killed in a terrible accident on 22nd June 1861 and we had two events to mark this. His great great great granddaughter Diana, who campaigns for more focus on his legacy, gave a brilliant talk in the Delph Room about his leadership and innovation. And the following Sunday we joined a commemoration led by Diana, the local fire brigade and senior leadership of London Fire and Rescue Service for a small ceremony. Marking and commemorating the lives of those buried in Abney Park is one of the unique roles we play.

As a Trust we are continuing our work to refresh our ways of working and we have been looking closely at the membership model. Over the recent years we have taken significant steps to improve this governance and transparency. It was really good to have the User Group leadership team to our June Board meeting to discuss the complementary roles we play. The Trust's founding objectives from the early 1990s hold true, even if expressed in old fashioned language. It is also true that the focus of the Trust's activities have changed over the years from campaigning for Abney's preservation, to a period of managing the park until 2015, working closely on the restoration and now today focusing on bringing Abney's heritage and ecology to life through events. We've been surveying the current membership lists and talking to current members, and will shortly set out a proposed way ahead which balances a range of considerations including sustainability, creativity, accountability, legitimacy and proportionality so that the arrangements are fit for purpose for a small volunteer led organisation. Thank you to everyone who continues to support our work and the impact we have.