Walthamstow Marshes

Walthamstow Marshes, located in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest. It was once an area of lammas land — common land used for growing crops and grazing cattle.

In 1909, the aero-designer Alliott Verdon Roe made the first all-British powered flight across the marsh in a Roe I Triplane (his earlier Roe I Biplane had been fitted with a French motorcycle engine). He went on to found the Avro Company, with his brother, in Manchester. A blue plaque records his achievement, on the railway arch in which he had his workshop.