March round-up: New glade on the Scope

We marked World Recycling Day with a talk by Alice Stevens, Education Officer for Wandsworth Riverside Waste Authority (WRWA) at Smugglers Way. Loads of questions from a very keen audience about what should and shouldn’t be in our recycling sacks (see the A to Z on their website). We also talked about recycling on the Common. We’re hoping the new Groundworks contract, awarded to Krinkels, will introduce more appropriate, better looking and better located bins on the Common as part of their new contract. But make no mistake, our recycling is handled properly and sent to reprocessing sites all over the UK and Europe. By contrast, general waste is shipped down the river for incineration, meaning a lot of recyclable material is lost.

Our regular Monday morning litter picks separate out recyclables - mainly cans and bottles. About half is recyclable but around half the total waste is single use coffee cups which, despite what they say, are neither compostable nor recyclable, except in special facilities. So Alice’s clear advice was always to use a keep-cup. You get a discount at Skylark if you do!!

Our volunteers were busy again, implementing an Enable project to create a new glade in the middle of the Scope, in an area where two large trees have been substantially reduced. The debris was cleared and the new clearing protected by a dead hedge and habitat piles. Look out for what flora and fauna are attracted to the new habitat. Several bat boxes have been erected which we’ll be keeping an eye on.

Another month, another bird walk, identifying 31 species including a pochard duck, a gaggle of mandarins and the first brood of Egyptian goslings. Get your binos out to spot the incoming spring migrants. It’s even more important at this time of the year to keep your dogs on a lead and out of the water with the nesting season in full swing.

We reprised the RVPB film shown during our tour of the RVPB in January. If you missed it, as we now have a copy, we hope to be able to put on more showings in the future.

February round-up: Walk, Talk, Volunteering and a Quiz

Despite the weather, February was busy both outdoors and in. We began the month with the second of Julia Bott’s talks on exercise, encouraging people to act on their New Year resolutions and get out on the Common to exercise. Julia’s talk, the Myths & Magic of Movement & Mobility, can be found, as with all our talks, in the News & Events section of the website.

We headed outdoors for the first tree walk of the year, led by Enable’s Liam Hutton. We began by the three newly planted black poplars – 2 from Barnes Common and one from a cutting from our own pure (non-hybrid) black poplar. Black poplars are amongst the rarest of our native trees and we’re trying to replace the ones that have been lost in recent storms. Then we heard about the fastigiate oak, the invasive turkey oak, ash dieback – fortunately not a major problem for Wandsworth Common - the alder and its habit of taking over small ponds, and many others. As well as admiring the trees, it’s always good for our members to be introduced to the people who look after our trees.

The longer days bring more wildlife activity and we ran two of our regular bird walks with Nick Rutter and Barbara Littlechild. We also completed our final woodland litter clear up of the season, before the birds and invertebrates start nesting. Enable also organised a clean out of the Three-Island Pond for our volunteers – always a popular job – hard work but great fun.

Last but not least we put on a very successful quiz at the Althorp pub. Around 50 people turned out and really entered into the spirit of our Wandsworth Common themed quiz. A great success, to be repeated next year.

January round-up: New Year Events

The year began with our usual ‘Walk off the Wine’ event led by Trevor Morris. But this year’s was different, taking us to the new Springfield Park, just a stone’s throw from the Common. A record turnout of people were impressed by the extensive space, its landscaping and tree scape and facilities still to come, notably the outdoor events auditorium and the cafe.

Another first was a tour and film show at the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building, led by the owner of Le Gothique restaurant Mark Justin. Mark was able to show us parts of the building not usually open to the public, such as the great hall which displays shields commemorating the original donors to the Patriotic Fund in 1857. Mark was an excellent and entertaining guide and also provided a delicious lunch in the restaurant, followed by a showing of a film of the RVPB’s history made by Simon McNeill-Ritchie. The event was one of our most popular yet and we hope to repeat it later in the year.

Events were a major topic of discussion in January after Enable submitted an application to hold bigger and more frequent events on the Common. The proposal met with a huge public outcry and has now been dropped.

Finally, Enable’s habitat management volunteer sessions resumed with a team pruning, weedling and mulching the hedges and shrubs planted in recent years on St Marks triangle and St Mary’s cemetery. they are looking very healthy and proving to be a great source of new habitat to encourage biodiversity. These monthly sessions offer something for everyone who likes to get their hands dirty outdoors.

December round-up: Three black poplars & a Water Rail

Festive outdoor activities included another volunteer session planting trees and shrubs around the edges of the area between the cinder track and the railway. This will improve biodiversity by creating habitat and connectivity to other areas of the Common. We now know this works as bat sightings have increased above areas that have been planted on the Bolingbroke side of the Common. Two more black poplars were planted in the same area making three in total for these rarest of our native trees. These latest specimens were grown by Enable’s tree team from cuttings of a pure (genetically tested) black poplar in the Skylark playground. You’ll see the saplings protected behind picket fencing. 

Nick Rutter’s last birdwalk of the year identified over 40 species and brought Nick’s annual tally close to a record for the Common. His tally increased just before Christmas as he spotted a rare Water Rail skulking at the edge of the lake by the stone bridge. That brings his annual total to 86 – equalling the Common’s record. Barbara Littlechild meanwhile has spotted a rare firecrest.  

The Heritage group raised over £1,000 from the sale of donated prints from Ron Elam’s collection, part of which we now own. This will help finance the cost of digitisation and cataloguing in 2025. Members of the Lost Houses project team presented their findings about the houses that once stood on the edge of the Common near where Burntwood Grange and Collamore roads are now.  

October round-up: Craig telescope

The Craig telescope was built on the Common in 1852 ahead of the Great Exhibition. Unfortunately it never met the aspirations of its designer and engineer and worked imperfectly for only a short period. Nothing is left of it today except the name, given to the so-called ‘Scope’ area of the Common (see our heritage trail) where it stood. Greg Smye-Rumsby gave one of our first ever talks after the launch of the Friends in 2018. He has an encyclopaedic website about the telescope and we welcomed him back to speak to some old and some new faces. You can read more on his website and there’s a section devoted to the telescope in our book. Our film of his talk is in the usual place on our website.

It’s the time of year when you never know what bird you’ll find on the Common as the winter migrants start arriving or just passing through. Barbara Littlechild hosted another of her popular birdwalks and found more species on the Common (30) than in her subsequent walk in Richmond Park. We must be doing something right. Birds spotted included nuthatch, coal tit, jay, mistle thrush, woodpecker and of course, after the walk had ended, a goldcrest, little grebe and buzzard. Barbara also spotted a rare firecrest recently. As a member of the Friends you get exclusive invites to all our walks which are not advertised more widely because of our large membership. 

It’s been a busy month for meetings, with not only a routine Friends committee but also meetings with the Council about the new contracts for managing the Common and also the future of the Neals Lodge complex in the middle of the Common above Skylark cafe. Watch this space. 

June round-up: Trees & Mindfulness

Some new and some more familiar events this month.

We began with a walk on ‘trees and ecology’ by Greg Packman, from the Royal Parks arboriculture section, explaining the habitat provided by trees for invertebrates - dead wood provides its own special habitat. One surprise, as we looked at the affectionately named boundary oak at the edge of Bellevue Field, was Greg’s estimate that this tree is at least 250 years old - which makes it much the oldest on the Common.

Walks on the Common are always very relaxing and Anja Myrsep, a professional physiotherapist and mindfulness coach, explained the meaning of ‘mindfulness’ and how the Common is an excellent place to experience the calming effects of nature. You can enjoy her talk, alongside all our past talks here.

Local historian Sue Demont repeated her walk in St Mary’s cemetery explaining ‘The Victorian Way of Dying’. Indeed, it was so popular that she will repeat it later in July. Meanwhile, Roy Vickery ran another of his ever popular wildflower walks, this time on the Prison Banks which always surprises people as a hotspot of biodiversity.

The MAC (Management Advisory Committee) held its Annual Public Meeting - an opportunity to quiz the mangers of the Common and the Parks Police. Proceedings of the meeting are available here

April round-up: Lots happening on the Common

April saw our outdoor events spring into life with a new walk on ‘geology and landscape’, a look at some spring wildflowers and the first of this year’s heritage walks. Talks included one about our local moths and a heritage talk about the Five Lost Houses of Bolingbroke Grove. Our bat and hedgehog monitoring projects, with Enable, also took off, with several new bat species identified (six in all) and signs of hedgehog activity for the second year in a row.

Dr Iain Boulton led a fascinating walk about the Common’s geology and how what’s underground affects what you see on the surface. There’s a huge 50m thick slab of London Clay just 5m down, under the gravel, with only a very thin layer of topsoil at the surface. That’s what makes the Common so wet - it’s always been like that - and why gravel pits, now made into our lovely lake - were dug.

It also determines the trees and flowers we see above ground as shown by Roy Vickery’s popular spring wildflower walk. Our heritage trail explained how bits of the Common, which because of the poor soil were no good for agriculture, came to be sold off and how efforts to ‘Save the Common’ culminated in Buckmaster’s campaign and the Wandsworth Common Act in 1871. Read about it in ‘The Wandsworth Common Story’ or buy our self guided walk at Skylark.

Les Evans-Hill of Butterfly Conservation and Richard Tillett, the Common’s moth recorder, explained what moths can be seen on the Common, some in the day time but some only with the help of a moth trap which is lit overnight and then opened in the morning. Look out for one of our ‘Moth Mornings’ later in the year.

Our heritage group have been hard at work and summarised their research into the Five Lost Houses of Bolingbroke Grove - where exactly they were, who lived in them and what they looked like. Very few signs remain but the three speakers brought these magnificent lost houses to life again. All our talks are recorded and can be watched on our website

Last but not least, our social bowls sessions began at the end of the month. It was too wet to play but over 20 people turned up for our opening reception and demo thanks to some of our keener, more regular players. Come and give it a go on Sunday afternoons - 3-5pm. First session free - £5 thereafter. No experience required and all equipment provided (flat soled shoes only please)

March round-up: Making space for nature

This month’s talk was entitled ‘Wild Spaces - making space for nature’, given by Simon Saville of Butterfly Conservation also a London National Park City Ranger. He explained what many organisations are trying to do to encourage people to plant for wildlife by leaving parts of their gardens less manicured but more floriferous and therefore more attractive to pollinators. Not paving over gardens is also helpful in preserving habitat and preventing water runoff, flooding and pollution. Gardens and window boxes can make a huge contribution to making space for nature.

On the Common, our volunteers are helping Enable with two citizen science projects: one to monitor the Common’s bat population and another to identify any hedgehog activity. 

Our birders have noticed several new species on the Common. This is the time of year when spring migrants start to arrive, and some very uncommon visitors have been recorded, including Cetti’s warbler and the wheatear. The month ended with another of our regular bird walks, recording almost 40 species , including sparrowhawk. 

The tree planting season has come to an end with 51 new trees on the Common, five of them funded by the Friends. Attention will now turn to watering them.

February round-up: Spring into action

Early in the month a very well attended talk by Philip Boys heard stories from the memoirs of war poet Edward Thomas and his wife Helen, who both lived near the Common, about their life on and around the Common at the end of the 19th century. 

Later in the month a few of our Heritage group were treated to a view of the nursery rhyme tiled friezes in the former Bolingbroke Hospital childrens’ ward (now the ARK Bolingbroke Academy library). It’s amazing how easily the words to Humpty Dumpty and Jack and Jill still trip off the tongue!

Exciting news from the Common itself - a newt has been spotted, the first for a long time. It was very timely therefore that this month’s Tuesday volunteer session built a dead hedge around the amphibian pool to create and improve habitat. Looking forward to more sightings as spring gets under way.

We ended the month with a spring in our steps after a talk by physio Julia Bott on the Myths and Magic of Movement and Mobility. This taught us why exercise is so important for us and why it’s never too late to start. The more the better. A definite must see. By popular request there will be a follow up talk on how best to exercise. Julia was instrumental in encouraging the Over 60s Fitness classes on the Common run by Open Air Fit that are so popular. 

All are talks are filmed and can be watched at the News and Events section of our website

September round-up: From Summer to Autumn

As summer turned to autumn we enjoyed some of our final summer events of the year. Roy Vickery led our third wildflower walk, uncovering another startling array of species on the Common. Iain Boulton led our most successful bat walk ever, with a huge number of sightings brought out by the mild, calm evening. Meanwhile, we held our last social bowls gathering of the year, before the green is closed for its annual renovation, more necessary this year due to the challenges brought by the drought.

The month ended with the annual Great Big Green week, which we marked with a stall at Saint Mary’s, Balham, pictured, alongside a plethora of other green focussed organisations. Good to meet so many like minded people and to hear from some of our newly elected councillors about their plans. A final highlight of the month was a lively and hugely enjoyable talk hosted by local author and environmentalist Isabel Losada who described, in her unique way, all the ways we can enjoy leading a greener lifestyle. Lots of food for thought for everyone, even the most ardent environmentalists, and brisk sales of Isabel’s book ‘’The Joyful Environmentalist’

As testament to all those who work hard to maintain and improve it, Wandsworth Common received a gold award in the annual London in Bloom competition for green spaces. Congratulations and thanks go to Enable, Continental Landscapes, Wandsworth Council and all our volunteers for their many and varied efforts.

August round-up: Tree watering

Pictured are Grant and Graham, the two men tasked with watering all Wandsworth’s newly planted trees, including those on the Common. Watering frequency and amounts were increased during the drought and we joined one of the watering shifts one morning to see how it was done. It’s a very efficient operation but one which relies on people reporting trees in distress, particularly those older than a year which aren’t routinely watered.

Our summer program of walks and talks concluded with three bird walks and a wildflower walk. Highlights included some fabulous sightings of the sparrow hawk family and also a pied flycatcher and the first ever Cetties warbler. Thanks as ever to our regular walk leaders Nick and Barbara

Weekly Monday little pics continue, led by Cathy and Nick, and our Sunday afternoon social bowls sessions have been a feature of the season.

April round-up: Encouraging biodiversity

We’re doing our bit to encourage biodiversity on the Common. The tree planting season concluded with volunteers planting 90 oak whips to form a hedge around the area between Skylark and the playground. Earlier in the month the flower bed was planted with wildflower turf, which is already starting to flower. The idea is to make this a more natural looking area in keeping with the Common and to encourage pollinators. Meanwhile, the MAC fielded a team of volunteers in the Scope to continue the work to repair damage caused by last year’s increased footfall, with a focus on reducing informal paths (desire lines), which disrupt wildlife corridors. We also resumed our small group bird walks with Nick Rutter and Barbara Littlechild.

Appetite whetters for the 150th anniversary and forthcoming book continued with two virtual talks. The first, ‘Down with the Fences’ by Philip Boys, took its title from the rallying cry of the campaigners for the 1871 Wandsworth Common Act, and told the story of the fight to save the Common from further encroachment. The second, by Ros Page ‘Read all about it’ uncovered some of the literary characters described in our new book ‘The Wandsworth Common Story’ available to buy in May. All our recorded talks can be watched here  

March round-up: 150th anniversary build-up

Our anniversary year is gearing up with a number of heritage talks and other events. Philip Boys’ ‘Waterworld’ talk explained why the Common has always been a boggy place - even more so than now! Who knew geology could be so fascinating? Then at the end of the month Dr Sue Demont led a virtual walk along Bolingbroke Grove ‘from the cradle to the grave’ stopping off at several of its many heritage sites.

All our talks are available on our website under news and events/videos

Enable LC’s Pat Langley and Annabel Osborn held a Q&A about our anniversary tree planting project. This marked the completion of planting 50 substantial 7-year old saplings throughout the Common, as well as the 100 m² mini forest on Bolingbroke Field. Meanwhile, planting of the triangle area in front of Neal’s Lodge with wildflower turf is a start to the rewilding of that area, to be completed in time for the July unveiling of the plaque to John Buckmaster, who fought for the July 1871 Wandsworth Common Act. 

Valerie Selby, Enable’s Head of Parks Development and Biodiversity, displayed her energy and enthusiasm describing Wandsworth’s new biodiversity strategy as it applies to all our local green spaces and what we can all do to help. 

In anticipation of the easing of COVID restrictions, a joint Friends/MAC working group on litter and recycling began discussing, alongside Enable, strategies to address the likely increase in litter.

February round-up: Woodland spring clean

We haven’t been able to run group litter picks during lock down. But our litter pickers have been keen to remain active, so we distributed our kit to individuals so they could pick from home whenever they liked. With 19 sets of equipment that adds up to at least 76 bags collected a month, even if people pick just one bag a week. Many do much more than that. It makes a real difference and people thank us all the time.

From March 1st, when the bird nesting season officially starts (we’re not sure who tells the birds!) we’re no longer allowed to pick in heavily wooded areas so as not to disturb the wildlife. So last Sunday (Feb 28) our individual pickers all did a last woodland spring clean – the Scope in particular, the woodland between Trinity Road and Bellevue Field, and parts of Westside and Northside. Although we could see each other now and again we remained socially distanced so as to keep within Covid guidelines.

28 of us collected almost 70 bags of litter, 40% of it recyclable. Some people went out on Saturday as well and collected around 7 bags each day. Stunning! We take the recycling home in the absence of recycling on the Common (we’re working to change that). And because bottles and cans can weigh quite a lot, we’ve invested in a trolley (pictured) which relieves some of the burden of carrying weighty bags of rubbish around. The octogenarians in our gang are particularly pleased about that! Star finds included a frying pan (in the frying pan area of course), a pair of handle bars and a clown’s hat.

We’ll reinstate our regular weekly picks as soon as the guidance allows but for the time being it remains pick as you please, but not in the woodland.

January round-up: What a Carve up!

We kicked off the Common’s 150th anniversary year with a virtual talk by local historian Philip Boys about the ‘carve up’ of Wandsworth Common that gathered speed in the 1800s and protests about which eventually triggered the Wandsworth Common Act in 1871.

To begin with it was just nibbling at the edges, but then roads and then railways and then a rash of state and charitable institutions around and on the Common. By 1871 the Common had shrunk from over 350 acres to less than half that. Philip’s talk is available here. There will be others to follow.

Very excitingly, in the middle of January we received a 1st proof of the book we’re writing about ‘The Wandsworth Common Story’ - expected to be on sale from mid-May. This will tell the history of the Common from the very early days until now, focussing on 150 people, places and objects which together make its history so fascinating and colourful.

Ahead of the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, local birder Nick Rutter gave another of his excellent talks, explaining what we were likely to see in the garden and on the Common at this time of year. Catch it here.

December round-up: Tree planting begins

Our 150th anniversary tree planting scheme got off to a flying start with 5 semi-mature trees planted on Westside. Thanks to a very generous donation from the Westside Residents Association who came along to wield a shovel or two, together with Pat Langley, Head of Enable’s tree team, and the planting gang of course, led by Grant. We’ll be planting trees on every part of the Common in the coming year and a whole new mini-forest on Bolingbroke Field. You can still contribute to the scheme by visiting our donation page and read full details.

Planting hedges is another way of helping address climate and biodiversity challenges. In what we hope will be a pilot for other parts of the Common, work has begun on planting a hedge around St Marks’ triangle to screen the area from traffic noise and pollution and also to provide a wildlife corridor to St Mary’s cemetery and the Common proper to the south. December saw several volunteers plant a host of wildflowers to attract pollinators while the hedge itself will be planted in January.

November round-up: Climate Summit and Tree Planting Launch

Mid-month your co-chairs, Julia and Richard, took part in the Council’s Climate Summit, in the session on greenspaces. We were asked to show examples of how climate change was affecting the Common and what was being done about it. With amazing help from one of our members – Rosa Navas - we shot a lovely short film of us in conversation with Annabel Osborn, Parks Biodiversity officer at Enable. You can watch it here.

That led very nicely into National Tree Week at the end of the month and the launch of our 150th Anniversary Tree Planting scheme, where we’re aiming to raise £5,000 to plant individual trees and an area of mini-forest on the Common, doing our bit for both climate change and biodiversity support. To read more about it, to donate and to get involved, click here.

The oak, pictured thanks to another of our members, is the so called ‘boundary oak’, sitting on the border between the former parishes of Battersea and Wandsworth. You can see the iron boundary markers crossing the Common in a line N-S. We’ll be highlighting more of these heritage items as we build up to the 150th Anniversary of the Wandsworth Common Act in July 2021.

October round-up: Tree Trail launched

We’ve long been asked for a tree trail leaflet, to accompany the virtual trail we’ve offered for some time. Well now we have one, thanks to Sarah Webley who made it her lock down project. 40 trees linked by an easy walk round the Common, though it does take around two hours. We launched it with no fewer than seven small group tree walks led by a variety of guides. All were pretty much fully booked – a great success and a perfect time of year given the great autumn colours. The idea is that you can easily do it yourself so if you’d like a leaflet to try it out let us know. They’re free to Friends or £2 on sale at Skylark. A perfect lockdown pursuit.

October was a busy month for walks. Not only the tree walks but two more plant walks, a bird walk and a fungi walk. Many thanks to all our walk leaders who’ve willingly put on more walks to give more of our members the opportunity given current constraints on numbers.  

There was a stakeholder meeting earlier in the month to discuss the future of Neal’s Lodge – the buildings in the middle of the Common that have been empty for over a decade. There’ll be a bigger public consultation soon when everyone can have a say.  

September round-up: Small group walks

Our highly popular nature-focussed walks and talks were a casualty of lock down, but with the help of our walk leaders we’re gradually bringing them back. Limited to groups of six of course, which means they quickly book up and we have a wait list. But we hope to satisfy demand over time. Nick Rutter was first with his bird walks in August and September. Roy Vickery of the South London Botanical Institute added a plant walk in September. Both will lead another walk in October when we’ll also be resurrecting our tree walks – watch this space.

The MAC held its APM over zoom, hearing from Enable, the Parks Police and the Council about issues in the management of the Common. Jo Shearer announced the imminent completion of the toilet refurb and the arrival of two drinking fountains, which we’ve been pushing for since we launched. The minutes of the meeting are here.

The Wandsworth Greenspaces Forum, which brings together Friends groups and MACs across the borough to share ideas and engage with Enable and the Council, held its regular meeting, with a special focus on the upcoming tree planting season. More on that in a future newsletter.

Finally, we were happy to talk to the judge assessing Wandsworth Common’s bid for a green flag. Awarded to well-managed greenspaces, Battersea Park has flown a green flag for many years and Wandsworth Park was awarded one last year. One of the key criteria is to have a Management Plan, and with ours published last year, we’re hopeful we’ll be flying our own green flag soon.  

August round-up: Virtual AGM

No party or birthday cake this year! We delayed our AGM till the last possible date in the hope we could gather as a group. But it wasn’t to be. So we met over Zoom instead – very successfully. 44 people including our guest speaker, Ian Mitchell, MD of EnableLC who took on a new year 5-year management contract for Wandsworth greenspaces just after lockdown!! We’re all familiar by now with the increased footfall on the Common and the problems it’s brought. Fortunately Ian had more positive news too: he confirmed that recycling is on the way, drinking fountains too to help reduce single use plastic, better regulation of sports bookings and personal trainers, improvements to biodiversity and greater engagement with Friends groups (which we’ve seen already).

In our chairs’ report we highlighted the growth in members -  80 this year with the total around 475. Joint working with our sister organisation, the MAC, as well as Enable and WBC had allowed us to achieve a tremendous amount during lockdown, notably on litter and signage policies, while our outreach through walks and talks, now done virtually, has continued. A key focus in the coming year will be the 150th anniversary of the Wandsworth Common Act, which saved the Common as we know it. More of that soon. We bid farewell to two committee members but elected a new one, Gabriela Ducat, who will be working on IT and social media.

We’ve resumed small group socially-distanced bird walks. Our first, kindly led by Nick Rutter, spotted chiff chaff, blackcap and willow warblers. Finally, a few volunteers teamed up with Enable to start repairing some of the damage done to the Scope by increased footfall during lockdown – more and wider desire lines and a huge increase in den building. Both are detrimental to biodiversity due to habitat destruction so the dens have been dismantled and the wood used to create habitat for the Common’s wildlife. Fingers crossed we’ve acted in time.