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)