Last week Country Life sensationally revealed a picture of William Shakespeare as a young man.

This week’s issue (May 27) contains an article by Mark Griffiths who claims to have found an unknown Shakespeare playlet.

Its only performance was in the the Lea Valley.

Mark Griffiths says that in May 1591 Queen Elizabeth I travelled from Greenwich via Hackney to Waltham Cross where she stayed for ten days at Theobalds.

She was the guest of her chief minister Lord Burghley but he did not greet her. That task was left to William Shakespeare.

The Queen arrived on Monday 10 May. The playlet, with a cast of three at most, was performed later in the week with Shakespeare playing the gardener and another actor the mole catcher. A non speaking part involved presenting Elizabeth with a box.

Elizabeth’s successor James I swopped Hatfield House for Theobalds and it was at the former that Griffiths found part of the script.

We learn that after breakfast on day of the Queen’s departure, Thursday 20 May, she knighted Burghley’s son Robert Cecil who was soon to succeed his father as secretary of state.

The play has an interesting reference to Sir Robert’s own home Pymmes Park which was to the south at Silver Street. Pymmes Brook, which runs through  the grounds, can be seen entering the River Lea at Tottenham.

The remains of the original Theobalds, Cedars Park, is near Theobalds Grove Station, or a short walk from the riverside White Water Centre.

Entrance to Cody Dock at South Crescent

The sculpture trail known as The Line has at last opened.

The first day was marred by lunchtime rain and the afternoon remained overcast.

But people did begin to make their way to Cody Dock and other sites between Three Mills and The O2 Arena.

The bridge at Cody Dock

The project has resulted in the bridge at Cody Dock opening and so allowing for more of the riverside path to be available to walkers.

The gate on the riverside path open at last

A further improvement is imminent upstream at Twelvetrees Crescent Bridge where it should be possible to pass more easily from the navigation towpath to the tidal path.

At Cody Dock not only is the long locked gate now open daily but on the grass there is  Damien Hirst’s Sensation first shown at Tate Britain in 2004.

Abigail Fallis’s shopping trolleys are by the tidal River Lea

Outside the Amazon building, on the promenade between Twelvetrees Bridge and Cody Dock, is Abigail Fallis’s DNA DL90 which consists of 22 shopping trolleys.

The The Line art trail, which has improved and liberated a stretch Lea valley Walk path, is open daily. Cody Dock, near Star Lane DLR Station, is open daylight hours.

Lord Brocket is looking to regaining control of his family seat Brocket Hall a little earlier than expected.

This follows the surprise news that the hotel company leasing the mansion has gone into administration.

The peer had to leave his home after being jailed in 1996 for fraud. The house was due to revert to the family in 2056 but Lord Brocket has said that he is now  interested in buying it back.

The Broadwater, the great feature of Brocket Park on the Lea valley Walk, is fed by the River Lea.

Cody Wilds has not won the Grow Wild Flagship competition.

Congratulations to Liverpool and Manchester.

But £5,000 will go towards assisting with the further development of Cody Wilds alongside Cody Dock and help towards securing alternative funding.

The full story is on the website.

The Queen and her sister Princess Margaret once worshipped at St John’s Church at Letty Green.

This was in the 1930s when the two princesses stayed with their grandparents Lord and lady Strathmore. Their home was Woolmer’s Park where the grounds ran down to the River Lea.

The Victorian church is now up for sale having been converted into a house.

Letty Green hamlet with its former church is to the south of The Cowper Arms at Cole Green on the Lea Valley Walk.

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David Bailey and Boris Johnson are backing a bid to green a stretch of the Lea Valley Walk near Bow.

The area to be known as Cody Wilds is alongside the tidal River Lea at forgotten Cody Dock downstream of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

The Wharf has a full report.

You can vote for the Cody Wilds scheme here .

Today, Tuesday 14 October 2014, is the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 which is being marked at Waltham Abbey by a search for the body of defeated King Harold.

He is outside the east end of the town’s abbey church in an area which was once within the building.

The annual wreath-laying took place at the grave only last Saturday. However, some believe that the Saxon King did not die at the Battle of Hastings as depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry but lived on.

The team which found Richard III in a Leicester a car park two years ago are on site to look for a much older man.

Until now it has been thought that Harold was buried at Waltham Abbey after the battle since he had stopped there to pray on his way south to stop the Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror landing.

The Lea Valley Walk passes lovely Luton Church which is highlighted in The Daily Telegraph today by Christopher Howse.

With the new edition of Pevsner’s Buildings of England Bedfordshire in hand he has attempted see the church’s very unusual baptistry dating from about 1340.

There are many other interesting features in the very large building including a chapel built by Mr Speaker Wenlock who died in the Wars of the Roses. More recent is the seat used by our present Queen earlier in her reign when paying an annual visit during her wedding anniversary weekends at Luton Hoo.

To see this remarkable church you walk to the far south end of the shopping centre where a huge window frames the church.

Christopher Howse laments that he found the church locked. Until a few years ago is was always open on weekdays. Keeping the doors, given by Cardinal  Wolsey, locked fails both Luton’s tourism push and Christian mission. Locals should be able to visit their own church.

Megan Piper, curator of The Line, has indicated that the sculpture trail which will unlock the Cody Dock crossing will be open by the autumn.

Tonight’s Evening Standard has a preview of the artworks which will make this possible.

The pedestrian Bridge across Cody Dock will mean that after years false starts by a quango it will be possible thanks to crowd funding to walk the last few miles of the tidal River Lea.

The Evening Standard carries news of the locally much discussed plan to create a wetlands centre in the Lea Valley.

The boundaries will embrace are Tottenham Marshes in the north and Walthamstow Marshes in the south as well as the reservoirs alongside.

The Lea Valley Walk runs north-south through the middle of the zone.

Access is to be free with the main entrance opposite the Ferry Boat pub at Tottenham. Funding comes from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Thames Water.

Planning permission is expected to be granted by Waltham Forest Council shortly.