February round-up: Spring bird sound

Enable LC, the charitable company that manages the Common on
behalf of Wandsworth Council, has been awarded a new five year contract after
beating three other bidders. The MAC and Friends, together with greenspace groups
across Wandsworth, held detailed conversations with Council officers over
several months about the contract specification and lobbied successfully for increased
weight to be given to quality over price and to increase Enable’s community engagement
and educational outreach, amongst others. The new contract runs from April 1st
and is renewable for a further five years.

The Heritage group met to finalise its input to this year’s
Wandsworth Heritage Festival, which runs from May 23 to June 7. Last year we
contributed one event about the Craig telescope. This year we have three events
under the general theme of Houses and Homes. Details on our website calendar and
in a future newsletter. We also began planning how to celebrate next July’s 150th anniversary of the Wandsworth Common Act, which ended creeping encroachment and preserved the shape of the
Common pretty much as we see it today. More details later in the year.

Nick Rutter gave a fascinating talk about the birds to
expect on the Common this spring and how to recognise them, by both appearance
and sound. Put your skills into practice on Nick’s first bird walk of the year
on Sun Mar 15 (8.30am Wandsworth Common station). Peter White and Nick reported
a record 81 species on the Common last year, including several new ones.
The picture shows another new one this year – the lesser spotted woodpecker.

January round-up: A packed start to the New Year

We began the New Year with what is becoming a tradition –
Trevor’s New Year’s Day walk around the Common to see all 12 disparate sections,
and clocking up 10,000 steps in the process. A good way to kick-start that NY resolution
to get more active. The MAC and Friends committees both met (minutes are posted
on the website) and our regular events continued, including the increasingly
popular Heritage group. The month’s nature-focussed event was a talk about the
Common’s swans by long-standing local volunteer for the Swan Sanctuary – Ann Aitken
Davies – which was both informative and entertaining and gave us a better
understanding of the various hazards to our swans and wildfowl. We wish them
good luck in the breeding season!  We closed the month with a thankyou party for our volunteers – swan and duck food baggers, litter pickers, community gardeners, walk and talk organisers and
people interested to find out more about volunteering. Do get in touch if you have
some time to spare and would like to get more involved.

December round-up: A spate of owl sightings

An exciting climax to the year, with the reported sighting of a tawny owl on the Common, just before Christmas, and then two little owls in the same NW corner of the Common in the New Year. Local birder Nick Rutter saw them first and then Peter White went along to confirm the ID - not an easy task given that the owls only appear at dusk, making positive ID very challenging. There are definitely little owls around (see picture) and this is not the first time they’ve been reported. The tawny owl, however, is not confirmed and it may be that this was actually a little owl. We’ll only know if it returns, in which case it would be the first tawny owl sighting in over 60 years.

Earlier in December a few sturdy Friends helped the Common’s
contractors - idverde - clear brambles from areas of the Scope, to enhance the
meadow areas and encourage wild flowers and butterflies to thrive. This involved some of us receiving a lesson in scything - not something many of us have cause to do in the garden! We’re
pleased to have done our bit to help and hope there will be more volunteering
opportunities this year.

Two other bits of news. First, the Jaggard Way planning application, against which the MAC and Friends had objected because of its impact on the Common, was rejected again. Second, the Council are to upgrade the toilet facilities behind the bowling green, to include full accessibility, after prompting by the MAC/Friends. A small group of us met the project lead on a site visit and look forward to work commencing soon.

Happy 2020 everyone

November round-up: Tree planting season

National Tree Week at the end of November marks the start of the annual tree planting season. We were pleased to participate in three events to mark the occasion.  Jess Stocks, Enable’s tree officer for Wandsworth Common, led one of her ever-popular tree walks, enjoying this year’s spectacular autumn colour and hunting out some of our rarer trees, such as the pagoda tree (sophora japonica) as well as old favourites like the lime, ash and silver birch. There were two tree planting events; one in early December, attended by Honeywell School’s eco committee, who helped plant a Scots pine and an alder, both suited to the boggy conditions near the 3-island pond. We were also proud to receive a gift from the Council of a field maple (acer campestre) ‘in recognition of the dedication and commitment shown by the volunteers who are part of the MAC and Friends groups’. Go take a look at ‘our tree’ next to Skylark (pictured) and keep an eye on it.

Later that day, at the MAC’s bi-monthly meeting, retiring chairman George Meakin, received a gift (pictured) in appreciation of his three year leadership which has seen the formation of the Friends, the publication of the first Management Plan in 40 years, and the setting up of the Neal’s Lodge Community Project, to help find a use for the building that has been empty for over a decade. George remains MAC vice chair and treasurer of the Friends.

At the end of the month our Heritage group heard an interesting talk from Janet Smith of the Tooting History Group about the lessons learned from implementing heritage projects under their Heritage Lottery Fund grant. Janet’s entertaining and useful talk will come in very useful as we get closer to applying for some serious grant funding next year.  

October round-up: Mapping the Common's History

October saw a capacity audience in Naturescope for a talk by local historian Philip Boys who treated us to a captivating evening of historical anecdotes illustrated by a series of maps. The earliest to feature Wandsworth Common was the one in the picture, by Rocque, dated 1746. Subsequent maps show the impact of the sale of parcels of land by Earl Spencer in the 1850s and the increased amounts of housing at the edges of the Common, including a row of prefabs along Bolingbroke and Bellevue Roads after the war. This was the first event organised by our heritage group which has met monthly since January. Our most recent meetings have been buzzing with ideas, including an environmental and botanical history of the Common, interpretation boards to illustrate key moments in the Common’s history, an oral history project to capture the memories of long-standing residents, and even a History of Wandsworth Common book. Get in touch if you’re interested in joining in any of this fascinating research.  

Earlier in the month we marked UK Fungus Day with a fascinating walk around the Common with Fabrice Boltho of the South London Botanical Institute. He enthused our band of foragers by finding fungi of all colours, shapes and sizes, and made us realise just how much biodiversity there is on the Common if only you have eyes to see.

Now that the new Management Plan for the Common has been published, work has started on some early priorities, with meetings of the joint WBC/Enable/MAC/Friends steering groups on interpretation/education and installing a drinking fountain to cut down the use of plastic bottles. We’re also pleased to announce that All Star tennis have installed recycling facilities by the tennis courts, a similar system to the long-standing scheme operated by Skylark. This marks a small but important step to getting more recycling on the Common. The Friends committee continued its discussion of the year ahead and heard that over half its members had attended at least one of the many events we’ve organised since our May 2018 launch. Increasing educational outreach is a key objective going forward. Let us know any ideas you have for future events.   

September round-up: The secret life of flies!!

September was packed full of varied events, but we never expected to attract 30 people to hear about flies. That speaks a lot to the pulling power of Dr Erica McAlister, Head of diptera at the Natural History Museum. It really was a fascinating introduction to flies and why they, like every other living creature, are vital to biodiversity and the survival of the species. For one, we learned that flies are essential to the pollination of cocoa!! And without them, what would happen to all that organic waste that’s lying around?? The crowd were buzzing with questions and Erica’s book flew of the shelf. We’ll get her back next year for sure.

Charles Walton repeated his ever-popular history walk earlier in the month, with well-researched stories and anecdotes about the Common’s heritage. We’re hoping to do a lot more of this kind of thing going forward as people are fascinated by how the Common used to look and to share their memories.

We had another bat walk (where would they be without flies to eat??) thanks again to Iain Boulton of the London Bat Group, and a bumper swan and duck food bagging session where we filled over 1,000 bags – a record. Thanks to all our volunteers.

Our stall at the Bellevue Road Fair was a great success – helped by glorious weather and highly efficient organisation by Rachel. Thanks to all our volunteers who fielded questions, signed up 14 new members and sold our maps, leaflets and duck food to huge numbers of passers by.

The MAC held its regular meeting on Sep 16 – minutes are here.

New Management Plan published

In mid September, after two years hard work by independent consultants LUC (Land Use Consultants), other experts, and substantial input from the Wandsworth Common Management Advisory Committee (the MAC) and also the Friends, and after a major user consultation, a new Management and Maintenance Plan for the Common was published – the first in 40 years!!   

It’s a long and detailed document (plus a 2nd volume of supporting data), with a huge number of fascinating facts on the Common’s history, ecology, trees, hydrology, governance etc, not to mention a list of over 100 actions. It’s well worth dipping into.  

You can read the official press release and the report itself by following this link
It's also available on our website here

The MMP is a blueprint for the Common’s managers for the next 10 years. It is also a key reference document for the MAC, whose Constitution gives it prime responsibility for advising on its implementation. Although a lot of the Plan represents 'business as usual' there will also be many new projects. A joint WBC/Enable/MAC/Friends oversight group has been created to agree priorities and monitor implementation of key projects.

Not everything can be done at once, so the first priorities include:

• Drinking fountains/bottle-fillers, to reduce single use plastic (supporting Wandsworth's new environmental strategy)

• Interpretation schemes (information boards, apps and educational materials) with nature and heritage content

• Educational events and schools outreach

• More active management of the Scope (woodland at the SW corner of the Common) as an ecological area

• Renovating and making accessible the toilet facilities on the Common

• Exploration of options and feasibility of renovating Neal’s Lodge and Neal’s Cottage and establishing it as a multi-use facility for the benefit of the local community

WATCH THIS SPACE!!

August round-up: Lepidoptera

August is when the ‘Big Butterfly Count’ is held and for the second year in a row the Friends took part by sending groups of people to the parts of the Common favoured by butterflies – the scope, the frying pan and the prison banks (find them on our map). The groups were led by Ian Cunningham, the Common’s butterfly recorder; Simon Saville, Chair of SW London Butterfly Conservation; and May Webber of Big City Butterflies who is hoping to launch a project on the Common next year. Our sightings are pooled centrally and are an invaluable resource for tracking this key indicator species for biodiversity. We also produced a butterfly leaflet, with help from Ian   and Sarah Halonen, which you can download here.

‘Moths matter’ too so we held two ‘moth breakfasts’ where we identified the moths that had been attracted overnight to a moth trap provided by May. Simon and May were there to identify them and there was a lot of early morning excitement as all manner of moths – at least twenty different species - were released back into the Naturescope garden.

The Friends committee met in August (alternate months) for a strategy discussion - what to do more of and what to do less of. Our successful ‘walks and talks’ will continue (see what’s on) as well as our monthly swan and duck food bagging and litter picks. A future priority is engaging with schools where we are working closely with Naturescope. Minutes of our latest meeting are posted here.  

July round-up: London becomes a National Park City

On July 22nd, London became the world’s 1st National Park City. Your Friends co-chairs, Julia and Richard, were honoured to be at the launch and to sign the charter on behalf of FoWC. You can read more about what this means and sign the charter yourself here.

To mark the occasion we organised a number of events: a summer butterfly talk, following on from our spring talk and once again hosted by Simon Saville of Butterfly Conservation. We also launched our summer butterfly leaflet, all set for the Big Butterfly Count on the Common on August 3rd.  We were also pleased to have Roy Vickery, a local wildflower expert, who helped us identify some of the 30 or so wildflowers to be found on the Common in the areas being managed specifically for that purpose. We’re designing a new leaflet based on some of the flowers we saw.

The climax of the celebrations was an inspirational talk by Daniel Raven-Ellison, the man whose idea National Park City was, attended by over 90 people from all over the borough, including councillors, council officials, Enable, borough wide Friends groups and other local organisations. Coming the week after Wandsworth announced its ambition of becoming the greenest of inner London boroughs, we’re very pleased to have introduced our local decision makers to Dan to learn from his experience and knowledge base.

June round-up: Telescopes to trees

At the beginning of the month we were privileged to host Greg Smye-Rumsby during Wandsworth Heritage Fortnight who gave a fascinating talk about the Craig telescope - built on ‘the Scope’ area of Wandsworth Common in the 1850s but sadly never working as intended.

The month ended with another of Jess Stocks’ (Enable LC) popular tree walks, this time looking at some non natives such as the tulip and strawberry tree. Meanwhile, Trevor took some keen walkers further afield to Battersea Park. 

The Friends committee met for the first time since the AGM and our sister organisation, the MAC, held its APM in the middle of the month. Minutes of both meetings are on the website.  

Friends and MAC reps also met with the Council/Enable to start discussions on how to monitor implementation of the forthcoming MMP. 

Last but not least we held another litter pick and also resumed swan and duck food bagging as the Skylark cafe reopened in time for the Summer.

May round-up: Birds and bees

As well as our very successful AGM and 1st birthday party, May saw two fascinating first time talks.

Nick Rutter, a Friend and local birder, explained what birds we could expect to see on the Common at different times of year and in their different habitats. Among many other things we learned that skylarks used to nest on the Common and there was also once a tawny owl. No more, alas, but we’ve gained stock doves, Egyptian geese, the sparrow hawk and, of course, parakeets. Over 100 different species have been observed at various times over the past several years.

Later in the month we heard about bumble bees, solitary bees and honey bees from Michelle of The Little Honey Bee company. Amazing to learn there are approximately 270 different types of bee in the UK, but only one is the honey bee. We’ve been watching them closely ever since.

Thanks to both our speakers.

AGM & 1st Birthday Party - a roaring success

We’re very pleased with how the evening went. We estimate 114 attended, including 70 members, 14 non-member guests - several local councillors, the senior Enable team and many others - and 30 people we’d never met before, half of whom joined the Friends.

Our guests seemed to enjoy themselves – food, drink, music by Lyons & Linton jazz duo. The business included the Chair’s presentation and film on our first year and confirmation of our Committee of nine. Supportive words from guest speaker Cllr. Steffi Sutters, Wandsworth Council Lead for Community Services and Open Spaces, were followed by her  cutting the birthday cake (thanks to Skylark) and opening the party.

Cllr Sutters made public commitments on a Friends forum, a biodiversity action plan and funding, so we’re very pleased with that. 

Thanks to the County Arms for providing a great venue, our two financial sponsors – John D Wood and FLM Wealth Management – and last but not least all our volunteers for helping make the evening such a great success. We’ll all now get our heads down to make our second year equally successful.

April round-up: Walks & talks a-plenty

We were pleased to welcome Simon Saville, a Friend and Chairman of the SW London branch of Butterfly Conservation, to give our first butterfly talk. We were also grateful for the knowledge of the Common’s butterfly recorder - Ian Cunningham - and the skills of Sarah Halonen - our biodiversity lead – who jointly created a beautiful spring butterfly leaflet. At the talk we were very excited to hear May Webber, of #BigCityButterflies, announce that Wandsworth Common has been selected as a flagship site for this project. We’ll have more to say by the time of our Moth Breakfast and Big Butterfly Count in July.

We did two litterpicks for the #GB Springclean, one partnering with year 4 at Honeywell school. Pupils, teachers & parents all felt it was a great afternoon out. We’re keen to outreach to schools and are trying to help Naturescope attract school science classes to explore the Common and its biodiversity.

Charles Walton repeated his very popular history walk around the Common. Indeed, we had to turn away almost as many people again, so we’re keen to persuade Charles to repeat it. The warmer weather meanwhile brought out the bats for Iain Boulton’s bat walk. Then a few of us were privileged to walk the Common with Wandsworth’s biodiversity officer - Valerie Selby - with the aim of training us to do our own biodiversity walks. Watch this space

The month ended with the start of the season’s bowls sessions. Rachel, one of our committee, has been helping the Bolingbroke Bowling Club upgrade its communications in its centenary year. In a bid to increase its membership, we hosted a Friends bowls match with the BBC providing tuition to 12 novices. A great afternoon was had by all. We hope to make these a regular event.

March round-up: Trees 'n things

Those of you that braved the weather will know our spring tree walk was blown off course somewhat by high winds, as we had to give the trees a wide berth. Fortunately, Enable’s tree officer for the Common, Jessica Stocks, very kindly gave up more of her time and rescheduled the walk for a nice, tranquil, sunny evening. We learned how she assesses trees for pests, diseases and damage, and were shown a number of examples on St James’s Triangle. We’re very appreciative of Jess’s efforts, supported by Enable, to keep us informed of arboriculture issues.

We met with Enable to help them draw up guidelines for working with the increasing number of Friends groups in the borough. Meanwhile, both the MAC and Friends committees held their regular meetings (minutes of both are on the website). Both organisations have given final comments on the long-awaited Management and Maintenance Plan, now being finalised. The MAC discussed the February meeting with Paul Martin, Council chief executive, about Neal’s Lodge. The Friends committee focussed on planning its AGM and 1st birthday party on May 10th.

Last but not least, the photo shows your co-chairs, Julia and Richard, receiving their BATCA (Balham & Tooting Community Association) award nomination for their work setting up the Friends. We didn’t win, but it was enough to be nominated, alongside so many other deserving causes. Thanks for all your help to create a community focussed on protecting and enhancing the Common.

February round-up: A month of outreach

Your co-chairs, Julia and Richard, gave a talk to the Wandsworth Society on Valentine’s Day about the background to the Friends’ launch, what we’d achieved in our first year and what our vision was for the Friends going forward. There might have been better ways of spending Valentine’s Day (!) but it was a useful exercise to go through and reminded us what a busy year it’s been and what a long way we’ve come with the help of our members, volunteers and committee. You can read the talk here.

We’ve also had more meetings with the Council. We were invited, along with selected other community groups, to meet Council leader Ravi Govindia to talk about general issues affecting our groups, how the Council might help and communicate better with us. We also had a joint meeting, organised by the MAC, with Paul Martin, Chief Executive of the Council, to start exploring a way forward for Neal’s Lodge - the building in the middle of the Common which has been empty for more than a decade. That will be a big issue for this year. We ended the month on Wandsworth Radio’s ‘People and Places’ programme. You can hear the interview here

Budding artists herald spring

It was a bit too early for the hoped-for cherry blossom, but undeterred, a group of eager novices gathered to learn the rudiments of watercolour use from the talented Amanda Rogerson. The atmosphere was very relaxed and welcoming and all had a fabulous afternoon. All went home clutching their own masterpieces.

If you couldn’t make it, but fancy trying, Amanda runs the Wandsworth Common Drawing Group out of Naturescope every Thursday morning. Great fun!

January round-up: A busy start to the New Year

Almost 30 people turned up for our New Year's Day walk to kick start the NY resolutions and explore all 12 areas of the Common. Our pool of swan and duck food baggers met again, filling an astonishing 850 bags to keep us going into February - the ducks need fuel especially in the winter months so come and join in. We held our first Heritage group meeting, to establish what historical material already exists about the Common and to plan a programme for the year; we have heritage walks/talks planned for April & June - watch this space. A joint Friends/MAC delegation met the Council officers drawing up the new contract for re-tendering the Common’s maintenance contract, teaming up with our colleagues from Tooting Common and Battersea and Wandsworth Parks. A growing band of litter pickers, ranging from 5-year olds to octagenarians, picked up another 20 or so bags of litter - half of it recyclable - including the proverbial kitchen sink (see picture). Local birder and Friend Nick Rutter helped us host the Big Garden Birdwatch on the Common, spotting 23 species from blue tits to an amazing 50 black-headed gulls. The month ended with your committee meeting to plan the year ahead, including our first AGM in May. There’s a lot going on and if you’d like to help in any way we’d be very pleased to hear from you.

Joint MAC/Friends objection to Jaggard Way development

The Management Advisory Committee and the Friends of Wandsworth Common have submitted a joint objection to the proposed Jaggard Way development described in an earlier news story. You can read the letter here. The associated planning committee meeting will be on February 27th at 7.30pm and objections can be submitted up to that time. However, to ensure they are taken account of you are advised to get your views in by mid-February.

Christmas Festivities

Thanks to all our helpers who made the Friends’ two Christmas events on Dec 8th such a great occasion. 

 A lot goes on behind the scenes to make these events a success. The singers leading the carols at Skylark had taken the trouble to rehearse and the main organisers, ‘Conductor’ Nikki Marsh and carols lead, Penny Clark, also put in additional time to select and schedule the carols, as well as to agree which version to use. Lisa Villaseca worked her IT magic making the songbooks so attractive. 

Thanks also to Skylark for finding space for everyone when the weather turned inclement and for donating proceeds from the mulled wine and mince pies to the Friends. Very Christmas spirited.

Meanwhile, our stunningly effective Christmas tree decorating team – Sarah, Lisa and Rachel – produced some really beautiful, natural decorations, mostly crafted from leaves, twigs and seeds found on the Common. Our Christmas tree was a real stunner. You can see it at St. Mary Magdalene Church on Trinity Road until Twelfth Night, as part of the Wandsworth Christmas Tree Festival. It’s worth a visit, with our tree voted (unofficially) joint ‘first’ in the whole Festival. Not bad for first timers!

Neal's Lodge - letter to the Council

A previous news item explained the complex legal case about the use of this prominent building in the centre of Wandsworth Common, which has now been empty for over 12 years. With the Council’s appeal having been rejected over six months ago, Wandsworth Common MAC, supported by the Friends of Wandsworth Common, and in conjunction with the Wandsworth Society, has written to Paul Martin, Chief Executive of Wandsworth Borough Council, offering to play a role in assisting the Council in devising and implementing a plan for the building ‘within the spirit of the judgement and in compliance with the Long Act’.

George Meakin, Chair of the MAC, says that ‘We firmly believe that a good proposal presented by these parties in conjunction with the Council, would enjoy strong support’.

‘Now would be a good time to draw a line under the past legal conflicts and make a positive and visible effort to achieve a satisfactory outcome on the use of Neal's Lodge in the best interests of the whole of the Wandsworth Common community and its stakeholders.’ You can read the full letter here

We would welcome feedback on what type of inclusive community use people feel the buildings should be used for, comprising the first floor above the Skylark Café and the adjacent cottage.