At the start of the winter works season, we walked around the Common with Enable’s biodiversity officer, Mick, who explained what he was planning for the next few months. This is the time of year to root out invasive, non-native species like bracken, laurel, rhododendron and sycamore; for rotational thinning of bramble; opening up glades; coppicing etc. An amazing amount of work goes on to maintain the Common, often unnoticed

We have several volunteers who like to be involved in this sort of thing and Enable have started a regular monthly (third Tuesday of the month - the next is Dec 20th) volunteering session to satisfy demand.

We inaugurated the sessions in the pouring rain, raking grass clippings from the eco-grassland in St. Mary’s cemetery and pruning some of the whips in St Marks triangle which were shooting skywards.

November also brings National Tree Week and the start of the planting season. The first nine of this year’s 150th anniversary trees were planted at the top of Northside, including interesting specimens like disease resistant elm, weeping wych elm and the wild service tree. Having dug holes ourselves to take whips, we can only marvel at the abilities of Graham and Grant who can dig a hole and plant a tree in the space of 10 minutes. Astonishing to watch.

Although it’s a fairly quiet time of year for birds, Nick Rutter hosted another of his popular bird walks, which was rewarded with a good sighting of a buzzard.

We also had two more excellent Heritage talks. The first, by local historian Dr Sue Demont, one of our book editors, who described the impact of the railways on Wandsworth Common, starting in the 1830s. To close the month Philip Boys returned with more fascinating stories of the huge variety of sports played on the Common, including hopping, pedestrianism, velocipede racing, hare and hound running, trotting races along Trinity Road, even a stag hunt. More to come next year!!