November round-up: Trees, fungi & bats

November is always busy on the Common as it marks the start of the tree planting season and lots of other ‘winter work’. We held one of our regular tree walks to catch the peak of autumn colour. Although many of the Common’s native trees don’t have spectacular colours, many non natives do including Norway maple, red oaks, gingkos, liquidambar and the smoke tree. Around the bowling green is a particular hot spot. We also held a family friendly tree walk around the pond which was a lot of fun for kids and adults alike. 

Fungi are appearing in profusion and our walks, led by Enable’s biodiversity specialists, are always very popular. This year we arranged 3 to satisfy demand. Species identified included jelly ears, common stinkhorn, dead man’s finger and a rarity – the scarlet wax cap – only found on acidic unimproved soil. That was unexpected but a good sign. 

Bats are starting to hibernate but not our bat experts. They presented the results of the Citizen Science project our volunteers carried out over spring/summer. We knew there were at least 4 bat species on the Common but they found another 3 – Nathusius’ pipistrelle, Daubenton’s and the very rare Serotine. Our two areas of mini forest were key hotspots which demonstrates the importance of habitat. And to encourage the bats to spread to areas where they’re less evident, the volunteer planting team, under the expert watch of Mick from Enable, have already done a huge planting session - 400 tree and shrub whips in a dozen areas on the grassy area between the railway line and the cinder triak, easily identifiable by the mulched areas. More to come in December [e-mail: parksvolunteers@enablelc.org] 

As the foliage starts to die back we are able to send our litterati volunteers deeper into the woodland without risk of disturbing nesting birds and invertebrates. We’ll hold another in the New Year.  

Finally, our Heritage group remain busy, marking Armistice day with a talk on the wartime use of the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building as a hospital for war wounded soldiers. We also showed our ‘Common Memories’ film at a local care home. And the third reprint of our book ‘The Wandsworth Common Story’ was delivered in time for Christmas. When that’s fully sold our sales will have topped 3,000!! Amazing. You can pick up a copy at Skylark, Neals Nurseries or on our website.

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. 

September round-up: Dog Show/Sustainable September

We can’t quite believe it but we organised our first, and hugely successful, DOG SHOW at the beginning of the month. We’d been thinking about doing this for a while, prompted by the huge increase in dog ownership since the pandemic and the need to engage with owners. We’ve been very fortunate to meet Rebecca Byrne of SuperDog London who has provided huge canine expertise and know how based on her successful local training business. We also couldn’t have done it without the massive support from Enable’s Events team who did a lot of the heavy lifting. Then we must thank all our sponsors, for their fabulous prizes, our judges, exhibitors – including two vets and the Council’s Animal Welfare Team - and last but not least our volunteers.  

We had over 200 entries in 10 different classes and were really pleased with the enthusiasm, excitement and pure joy of the many owners and spectators who took part. Indeed, so successful was the event that we’re going to have to do it again next year!!  

We hosted a number of events under the Council’s ‘Sustainable September’ banner including a talk on sustainability from Mike Burton, a member and local expert in sustainable finance; our first insect walk, led by Connor Butler of the Chelsea Physic Garden; and our last bat walk of the year, led by Iain Boulton – all very well attended and much enjoyed. We tried to make the dog show as sustainable as possible too, with the vets informing owners of the problem caused by over use of anti flea treatments, which if they get into ponds, lakes and water courses have a devastating effect on insect life. Watch this video clip from BBC Spring Watch and a guide from a local vet on how to respond

The bowls season came to a close with our final event - a birthday bowls bash with almost 20 of us on the green. The season has been the most successful ever with over 400 players at various time for a total of almost 40 sessions. As well as showing that the green is well used, it has generated a revenue stream which will help fund the upkeep of the green and hopefully a bit of investment for next season too.   

The month ended with a well-attended talk by Sue Demont about the history of the Bolingbroke Hospital – formerly one of the Five houses of Bolingbroke Grove and now Bolingbroke Academy. You can catch it, along with all our previous talks, here. 

We, the MAC and our fellow greenspace groups elsewhere in the borough have spent a lot of time trying to understand the implications of the Council’s decision to transfer various service from Enable ‘in house’. These include the entire tree team, the monitoring of the ground maintenance contract (currently held by Continental Landscapes)  and biodiversity strategy. We’re now in discussions with the Council to make sure that the proactive, responsive and ultimately hugely effective Parks team are able to continue working with us as the Enable contract is revised and extended.  

August round-up: Summer Party

Every year we thank our amazing volunteers for their efforts by throwing a party. Last year, we started opening the party to everyone on a ticketed basis so we have an opportunity to get to know as many of our members as possible. Over 80 came along this year in what is becoming an enjoyable annual fixture.

Elsewhere we had Big Butterfly Count events and were pleased to have sightings of the hairstreaks we’re trying to encourage to the Common with dedicated habitat management And at the end of the month our bird walk leaders Nick and Barbara hosted not one but three bird walks, including one aimed at families. Booked out as usual and enjoyed by all who attended. Thank you to them

July round-up: Green flag award

The weather finally improved enough to run our first butterfly walk of the year. Not such a prolific count as last year but 10 species nonetheless including the less commonly observed green veined white and large and small skippers. Thanks to the Tillets for organising it and the moth mornings, which are welcome additions to the Common’s wildlife monitoring. The new bat transects are also proving popular with volunteers.

Sue Demont repeated her walk around St Mary’s cemetery with another full house. The ‘Victorian Way of Dying’ proves ever popular as this is the third of these walks for us.

Another of our local historians, Cathy Rowntree, former archivist of Honeywell school, described Honeywell Schools in the 1930s including fascinating memories of evacuation. Air raid wardens' reports and eye witness accounts also told the story of the V1 bomb disaster in June 1944 and its repercussions. 

Finally, we’re pleased to announce that Wandsworth Common has received the Green Flag award for another year, a great tribute to all those that help look after it. 

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

May round-up: Bowls season opens & AGM

The opening of the bowls season has been a key focus in May. We host ‘social bowls’ sessions on Fridays at 5.30 - 7.30pm and Sundays at 3-5pm. They’re open to anyone - singles or groups - and there’s no need to book. No experience required as we have informal tutoring on hand, followed by friendly games to practice your technique. Your first session is free, thereafter £5 per session. Tea & biscuits & wine/beer & nibbles are on offer for a small donation. All very sociable. Attendance is encouraging with 10-15 people per session.

A lot of effort has been put into getting the green in better shape this year and it’s looking great, thanks to Enable and Continental Landscapes, urged on by Lewis from the MAC. Help us keep the last remaining public bowling green in Wandsworth by coming along and playing.  You’ll enjoy it!!

Our AGM took place mid month, our annual opportunity to meet and report to our members what we’ve been up to. We held a hybrid session this year which worked faultlessly thanks to our A/V expert John Crossland. 40 attended in person, another dozen on line and almost 20 more have watched the recording, which you can see here. 

Our first bat walk of the year was as popular as ever and was informed by data from the monthly bat transect walks our volunteers are now involved in. 

Sarah Webley hosted a very popular family tree walk which conveyed lots of fascinating facts in just an hour, including with a session of Tree Top Trumps. Great fun.

As part of this year’s Wandsworth Heritage Festival, local historian Philip Boys related stories from the Surrey Pauper Lunatic Asylum, the site of the former Springfield Hospital. Most of the original patients were women but in some cases all the records that remain are photographs, including some very famous and poignant ones. Philip also very cleverly showed how the marketing material for the recently built luxury flats highlights some of the original architectural features which have been retained.

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

January round-up: Bird and train spotters

The year began with our usual ‘walk off the wine’ tour of all 12 parts of the Common. It was wet this year, but ten of us stepped out undeterred, including some new members and non members. 

Birds featured highly in January, with the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch inspiring two events led by local birder Barbara Littlechild. A bird talk to describe what we might find, and then two walks to do the bird count itself - 16 species identified (out of 70 regularly encountered). We organise regular bird walks throughout the year.

Staying with nature, for its first meeting of the year the Management Advisory Committee (MAC) - our sister organisation - heard from Enable about plans for citizen science projects in the borough and how decisions are made to deliver and improve woodland areas in Wandsworth’s greenspaces, including streets and hedgerows. As if to prove the point, a new mini forest was planted at the end of January - funded and planted by private individuals who also did much of the planting, under supervision from Enable. 

The month’s climax was a very popular talk by Sue Demont about the history of the railways on the Common. ‘What a Carve Up’ explained how the Common came to be intersected by two railway lines and narrowly averted having a third. A fascinating backdrop was provided by David Cooper’s Wandle Valley model steam railway which entertained the audience before and during the talk. Ed Potter brought along two of the original signs he rescued from Wandsworth Common station many years ago.

A film of this talk and the talks to the MAC are available here

December round-up: Lost houses

Our ‘lost houses’ talk was one of our most popular events ever, with over 60 gathering into the Nature Study Centre to hear members of our Heritage group describe their research into ‘The Lost Houses of Wandsworth Common’ - large, characterful buildings that surrounded the Common in the 18th &19th centuries & the people who lived in them, including.....

Bolingbroke House - one of the 'Five Houses' on what became Bolingbroke Grove
Stanton House and Wilby Lodge - two houses that straddled the Falcon Brook on Nightingale Lane
Fernside - whose gardens once stretched between today’s Ravenslea and Endlesham Roads
Burntwood House - which occupied the area now covered by Lyford, Multon & Loxley Roads
Bramblebury House - once the southernmost house on Westside and in use as a school in the late 18th century
Mulberry Cottage - which later became divided into two houses known as ‘The Gables’ on Northside

Watch the talk here. We’ll do another talk in the New Year to update on progress and how we will present the project to a wider audience.

Our two pre Christmas bird walks identified over 35 species including winter visitors like siskin and fieldfare, as well as a gold crest and great spotted woodpecker. Look out for our bird talk and walk in January as the Big Garden Birdwatch approaches.

November round-up: Autumn fungi, foliage & Fido

Our annual fungi walk, led by Ling from Enable, was it's usual huge success with two back-to-back walks this year to satisfy demand. Species observed included milking bonnet, parachute mushroom, dead lady’s fingers, gem studded puffball, shaggy parasol, dead man's fingers, stinkhorn, jelly ears and fly agaric (pictured) 

To catch the autumn colour our tree walk had two groups covering different areas of the Common. One took in the six different oaks within a stone’s throw of Skylark and then ventured over the bridge to the elms in the mini forest. Another walked south to see two autumn stunners - the swamp cyprus by the pond and the raythorn ash on Saint James’ Triangle.

A new walk we started this month is a nature walk for dog owners, exploring the trees and biodiversity on the Common with dogs joining in and tips on dog behaviour and training from Rebecca at Super Dog Trainers. Adults and canines were all left wanting more. Meanwhile,  it wouldn’t be autumn without a birdwalk to spot incoming migrants like redwing and red polls. 

Our final event of the month was a popular tree talk by the Enable tree team to mark National Tree Week. Sam, Liam and Catie explained their different roles, how trees are monitored, assessed, planted and protected and what we can all do to help. You’ll see several new trees appearing on the Common in coming months.

October round-up: Pioneers of photography

October saw two talks about the pioneers of photography on and around Wandsworth Common.

The first focussed on the mid 19th century and included Geoffrey Bevington, who took a famous picture of the telescope that used to stand on the Scope.

The second focussed on Paul Martin and Harry Dorrett who worked together from a studio at 16, Bellevue Road. Martin pioneered the technique of ‘shapshots’, taken with a hidden camera, and images taken with very long exposures at night.

Meanwhile, Nick Rutter ran another early morning bird walk, this time to catch early incoming migrants such as the red wing. Nick is also a great photographer and his work will feature in his upcoming leaflet about the Birds of Wandsworth Common.

September round-up: Bats, bowls & wildflowers

Monthly volunteering sessions organised by Enable resumed in September. These are an opportunity to roll up your sleeves and do some outdoor work under expert supervision. All abilities catered for. This month the focus was on fencing off and pruning parts of the blackthorn thicket on the Frying Pan area where brown hairstreak butterflies have been seen laying eggs. The eggs will now be protected from autumn mowing and will hopefully hatch in the spring. Volunteer sessions take place on the third Tuesday of every month - 9.30am to noon. 

Roy Vickery held the third of his very popular wildflower walks, this time focusing on the lake area. A previous walk he did formed the basis of our wildflower leaflet, available from Skylark.

We held a second screening of our highly acclaimed ‘Common Memories’ film. The film is also on our website, to view at your leisure. 

September saw the last bat and bowls events of the season. 

Our two previous bat walks have been cancelled due to rail strikes and bad weather so this one had a bumper turnout of over 30. Iain Boulton did a short talk beforehand which adults and children alike found fascinating. The bats were also out in force.

We closed the bowls season with a well attended social session ending with ‘beer and bubbles’. Maintenance to get the green ready for next Easter’s opening now begins

August round-up: New bird, butterfly & moth sightings

Our Heritage Group organised two  fascinating tours to local institutions - the museum at Wandsworth prison and the buildings and grounds of Emanuel school. Thanks to Stephen Midlane for organising these events and to the two venues for being so welcoming and informative.

Our ornithologist and lepidopterist members are always on the lookout for rare visitors and species new to the Common and have had some major successes recently. Bird sightings included a spotted flycatcher, whitethroat, meadow pipit, green woodpecker and a fleeting sighting of a kingfisher. In the middle of the Big Butterfly Count a brown hairstreak butterfly was spotted laying eggs on new blackthorn shoots. That was the first confirmation of their presence, encouraged by rewilding. And at the latest monthly moth count, a Webb’s Wainscot - more familiar to wetland areas - was recorded.

We said farewell to Enable‘s Parks Operations Manager, Annabel Osborn, who we had so enjoyed working with. She is replaced by former tree officer Sam Morgan, who we wish well in his new role. Completing the new line up is Owen Dodgson - who brings a very useful interest in bats and bowls!!

July round-up: Summer party

In mid-July we hosted our first summer party open to all members. In the past, we’ve had parties to coincide with our AGM and last year we had a party to thank all our volunteers. But this is the first time we’ve felt able to invite all our 700+ members. Space constraints meant it had to be ticketed; nevertheless everyone who wanted to come could enjoy the hospitality of Skylark and the Friends committee. A good time was had by all!!

Earlier in the month, Sue Delafons and Stephen Midlane together put on a fantastic talk about local author PY Betts and her childhood spent around the Common during WWI.  Sue and Stephen were character acts and even surprised us by revealing a mystery guest. Well worth watching on catch up.

Another Heritage event at the end of the month was a tour of St. Mary’s cemetery Battersea by Sue Demont which, despite the torrential rain, attracted 25 keen participants, eager to find out about the history of the churchyard and learn something about ‘The Victorian way of dying’.

Summer brings the Big Butterfly Count, and Richard and Laila Tillett organised our first butterfly walk of the season, highlights of which included several skippers and a marbled white. We also hosted our second ‘moth breakfast’ with the help of Les Evans-Hill. In the Naturescope garden we saw a hummingbird hawk moth and a Jersey tiger moth (the rarer yellow variety - lutescens). The moth trap itself attracted several unusual species including a rare Webb’s Wainscott. We were pleased that our audience included a number of very engaged teenagers. Photos of both events are on our Instagram feed @wwcommon.

The month also saw another Barbara Littlechild bird walk, and the start of the Dog Focus Group organised by Enable, which aims to gather views from the Common’s dog owners. Finally, we launched our new Tree Trail leaflet with a walk around three different areas of the Common led by the three contributors Anne, Richard and Sarah.  25 people learned about some of the Common’s notable native and non-native trees and how they are managed. The Treetrail and our butterfly leaflet are available to buy from Skylark café for £3. Something for the summer holidays.

June round-up: Film premiere

An unforgettable highlight was the long-awaited premiere of our Oral History Project film ‘Common Memories’. 120 people gathered in the Fiennes theatre at Emanuel school to watch this beautiful hour long film, distilled from 20 hours of interviews with lifelong residents of Wandsworth Common. The film was enthusiastically received and a great testament to our volunteers, Ros Page and her team of interviewers, Rosa Navas, member and professional film maker, who sensitively edited the footage into such a wonderful film, and of course to the interviewees themselves, many of whom were in the audience. The film is available on our website and is also available to buy on DVD on request.

Another heritage event was a hugely popular tour of the Fitzhugh estate, led by Sharon O’Neill, as part of the Wandsworth Heritage Festival. This reprieved a virtual walk Sharon had given during lockdown and which is available to view on our website. The tour was so popular that additional sessions had to be arranged. 

Last but not least, a second reprint of our book The Wandsworth Common Story arrived and continues to sell well in Neals nurseries, Skylark café, and on our website.

As part of the Great Big Green Week we invited Jackie from SW15 Hedgehogs to give a talk about how to attract hedgehogs to our back gardens and to the Common. This was prompted by the first sighting of a hedgehog on the Common in many years and other recent sightings in neighbouring streets. We hope this is due to the new planting for habitat creation we have been doing over the past couple of years. If you see a hedgehog locally let us know.

Another innovation was a moth ‘breakfast’ which inaugurated formal monitoring of moths on the Common. Led by volunteer Richard Tillett and supported by Butterfly Conservation and Enable, there will be a monthly exercise to trap moths overnight and record the species found in the morning prior to releasing them (we don’t eat them!!). Watch out for future moth ‘breakfasts’ we can invite members to.

One of our committee, Sarah Webley, led a highly popular tree walk for parents and children of Belleville school, which we are happy to repeat for other school groups. Let us know if you’re interested. Other walks during the month were a tree walk, led by Enable tree officer Liam, highlighting some of the more unusual trees on the Common; a wildflower walk led by Roy Vickery on the prison banks which, as usual, identified a plethora of species; and another of Nick Rutter’s ever popular bird walks.

Another busy month

May round-up: Walks, talks, assemblies, volunteering - and a film

So many highlights this month. 

The enthusiasm of the volunteers from Killick & Co on Northcote Rd, who joined our regular volunteers, added some welcome muscle and was amazing to see. Under the watchful eye of Enable’s Mick and Ling, they had great fun donning waders and wellies to clear leaves and branches from the edge of Three Island  pond, then using forks and wheelbarrows to stack the debris to dry out before collection. This helps reduce the concentration of nutrients in the water and will improve oxygen levels and the overall health of the pond, hopefully reducing the risk of duck weed and other problems. 

A second team helped weed the burgeoning hedge in the St Mark’s area, where a hedgehog was recently spotted. After its winter prune the hedges are growing fantastically.  

Two school visits - first to ARK Bolingbroke Academy Y10 to explain how the Common was saved in 1871 and how volunteers are helping carry on that work today. Then to Finton House Y5 who retold the story of the saving of the Common in a captivating play with brilliant costumes. What a delight!

A walk and two talks. Roy Vickery revealed the proliferation of wildflowers just a few steps from Wandsworth Common station. Emma Anthony gave an insight into how the Common features in the various collections held by the Wandsworth Heritage Service. And our first contribution to this year’s Wandsworth Heritage Festival was a talk by Sue Demont about Lady Allen, at the forefront of the adventure playground movement, including our very own off Chivalry Rd. 

We were delighted to introduce Rebecca and Miranda of local SuperDogTrainers who explained more about ‘A Dog’s Life’ and how owners can help their pets better navigate the modern world. Some interesting and surprising insights, even for non owners. We hope to work closely with the team going forward and members are offered a 10% discount on courses

All our talks are videoed so you can catch them at your leisure. 

Finally, the preview of our new film ‘Common Memories’ - for all those who feature in it. About 20 long time residents interviewed, filmed & edited into a beautiful short film about their memories & tales of life around the Common. More on that next month after the SOLD OUT première on June 6. 

April round-up: Flygirl returns

A lovely Easter Sunday bird walk with Nick to spot the inward migrants that arrive at this time of year. Later in the month an experimental bee walk with Ben to see the emergence of the ashy mining bee. We did see them, by the cinder track, and a host of other pollinators on the nearby wild cherry in beautiful blossom. Follow Ben @benjyhere

We were pleased to have a stall at the ARK Bolingbroke spring fair for the first time. Meeting those who use the Common for sport, learning and play is important, and we now have links with half a dozen nearby schools.

Flygirl, aka Dr Erica McAlister, returned to talk about - flies!! She first talked to us in 2019 about the creatures she is passionate about. As Senior Curator for diptera at the Natural History Museum, Erica is an expert and a vocal advocate for these often misunderstood pollinators and waste disposers. Her talk was just as awesome and inspiring this time, and you can watch it at our ‘news and events’ tab.