Photos by: Sam Strickland

• Lammas - or "Loaf Mass" : first fruits festival at start of harvest
• Lammas Land : land that is common land between Lammas Day in August and Lady Day in March
• Lammas common rights first granted locally by King Alfred in 895. But probably the system had operated before then.

[Rosemary Johnson is Marsh Lane Fields Area Officer of the New Lammas Lands Defence Committee]

I speak, urging rejection of this application, for the New Lammas Lands Defence Committee, in the interests of all users this precious piece of our historic Lammas Lands, that once covered all the Lea Marshes.

Wednesday evening brought bad news for the London Development Agency whose bid to acquire land related to the Olympics was turned down by planners at Waltham Forest Town Hall. The LDA was applying for planning permission for allotments on Marsh Lane Fields where they want to relocate the existing Manor Gardens allotments, currently located within the proposed Olympic Park.

Rosemary Johnson addresses the 'small rabble'.

Article written by Anthony ILes

At noon on Sunday, 17th December, 2006 a small rabble made up of walkers, locals, journalists, two shire horses and TV crew met on Marsh Land Fields, E10, one of the remaining green spaces between Leyton and Hackney marshes. Whilst the numbers may be insignificant in terms of recent public protest (2 million at the largest Stop the War march in 2003), the meeting may turn out to be a historic event worth noting.[1]