Mayes Brook and Parsloes Park Walk

A small group of us - Trevor, Cathy, Richard, Madeleine and myself - went on a 2 hour walk through Mayesbrook Park and Parsloes Park in Dagenham on Sunday 26th July. The walk had been postponed from Saturday due to rain. It nearly got called off again as there was a shower about an hour before we were due to meet.

Mayesbrook Park is set back from Longbridge Road in Dagenham next door to St Thomas More Catholic Church. You could easily miss the park if you didn't know it was there. I have been there several times and my favourite spot in the park is brook called Mayes Brook. It is very clear and you can see to the bottom unless it has been raining and it is running much faster and churns up the mud, etc. Who would have thought there could be such beauty in Dagenham? The brook feeds into one of the lakes in the park when there's been a lot of rain and it starts to overflow. There are areas called swales that have been dug in the ground to take up extra rainwater to prevent flooding. I believe it is an area of SSSI. The route of the brook was changed a few years ago to stop flooding in the local area and also to create a marshy area. There is a North Lake and a South Lake, the North Lake being the larger of the two and which has some tree covered islands in it on which the geese and ducks nest. Sadly at the moment quite a bit of the lakes have green algae growing on them which is probably due to visitors feeding the birds with bread etc.

We walked around the right hand side of the South Lake as there are some very nice weeping willow trees at its edge, and we spotted a grey heron and a cormorant, which Cathy said looked rather like a periscope moving around in the water before it ducked down to catch fish. This part of the park is bordered by the C2C and District railway lines.

We left Mayesbrook Park at Lodge Avenue, crossed over the road and walk down Porters Avenue and entered Parsloes Park. This park was not as big, but had a small lake, a rose garden and several play areas for the children. We did a circular walk around the park - which covers quite a large area - and then returned to Mayesbrook Park and walked round the other side of that park, passing the sports centre, the velodrome which was used in 2012 Olympics, Dagenham Football Club and saw a cricket match going on just outside the cricket pavilion. We made a hasty retreat as there were very black clouds looming and chance of quite heavy rain! Trevor and I had both walked to the park and were keen to get home before the heavens opened! All in all it was a pleasant afternoon and so nice to get out and about again. Trevor checked on his smartphone for the distance we had covered and was surprised to find we had walked about 4.5 miles. Getting ourselves in training for when we can do our 6 or 7 miles or more walks with EFOG!

Ann W.  27th July 2020