July round-up: 150th Anniversary events

July was the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Wandsworth Common Act, and several events were held to mark the occasion. The anniversary of the signing on July 31 saw us leading a walk to celebrate the wide range of biodiversity on the Common and what was being done to protect and enhance it. The previous day saw a heritage walk taking in several heritage landmarks – the RVPB, the windmill, the site of the Black Sea under Spencer Park, the Fitzugh Estate and the Scope – all of them featuring in our book ‘The Wandsworth Common Story’.

The heritage walk started from the Wandsworth Council green plaque to John Charles Buckmaster, the man who led the campaign to save the Common which culminated in 1871 with the Act itself. The plaque was unveiled by the Mayor on July 12 with the ceremony bringing together JCB’s ancestors – his great-great grandson Viscount Adrian Buckmaster and other relatives – and people and organisations who have played a part or currently work to keep the Common looking wonderful. The remarks made by Viscount Buckmaster and Richard Fox, co-chair of the Friends, and a short video of the unveiling are posted in our history blog. After a toast to John Buckmaster, a 150th birthday cake baked by the Skylark café was cut by the Mayor.  

Before the ceremony, the Mayor and Viscount Buckmaster were presented with a lovely booklet prepared by children from Dolphin School Year 4, following a visit to Dolphin by one of our Heritage Group to talk about the book and the anniversary. It marked the first fruits of our efforts this year to engage with local schools. As term ended, another outreach event was two days of volunteering activities for Emanuel School Year 10, organised and overseen by the Friends, including butterfly recording, mapping of desire lines on the Scope, litter picking and a footfall survey.

Earlier in the month Stephen Midlane repeated his popular ‘Twixt the Taverns’ heritage walk between the Hope and the County Arms. After three of the walks we still have people on the wait list.  

June round-up: Love Parks - not litter!

We were proud to kick off the Love Parks events season again with Enable. Like last year we focussed on raising litter and recycling awareness and were pleased to hear Cllr Sutters announce the imminent start of a recycling pilot scheme on the Common. More than half the items discarded on the Common are recyclable and, apart from the recycling we collect on our regular litter picks, are incinerated. We look forward to the day when everything that can be is recycled. 

 We were joined by volunteers from Connected Planet Foundation (formerly Plogolution) who helped us sort and count the litter:  glass bottles - 374; plastic bottles - 361; cans - 674; 3 bags of cardboard. 

Our Saturday bowls sessions (3-5) are proving so popular we’ve decided to add a weekday session on Tuesdays (5-7). The Saturday sessions include a tea break and the Tuesday sessions may well end up in the pub!! Non members can ‘pay & play’ for half price - £3.50/hour. It’s encouraging to see so many youngsters now playing. 

The MAC held its Annual Public Meeting to report on the management of the Common over the last year. Sessions included one on the byelaws - why they’re needed and what they’re trying to achieve. Minutes available here.  

Our small group bird walks continue. And Sharon O’Neil, picture editor for our book, reprised her popular heritage talk on the Fitzhugh Estate. 

Last but not least, the Battersea Society unveiled a blue plaque at Clapham Junction station in honour of John C Buckmaster - the man who saved Wandsworth Common in 1871. He used to live in a house on the edge of the Common which is now under one of the platforms!! More on this next month.

May round-up: Book launch & much more

On May 16 we launched our new book ‘The Wandsworth Common Story’ with a virtual talk by the editors of the book’s five main chapters - nature, buildings, society, culture, politics. Watch here if you missed it. The book is selling well through our website and at Skylark and Neals nursery. Details how to buy here.

We scheduled several heritage talks and walks to showcase the book and the Common’s rich heritage. Philip Boys concluded his ‘Down with the Fences’ about the fight to save the Common in 1871. Sue Demont repeated her Eastside story walk along Bolingbroke Grove, but this time with a real rather than virtual audience. And as one of our contributions to the Wandsworth Heritage Festival, Stephen Midlane walked ‘Twixt the Taverns’ skirting the Common along Bellevue Road, Lyford Road and Alma Terrace, explaining the history behind some of the buildings to be found there. Julia Bott and Anne Lambert talked to the London Gardens Trust about Wandsworth Common‘s heritage and present day features which make it such an unforgettable place. That also marked the Friends’ 3rd birthday. 

May saw the launch of the All Star Bowls club in collaboration with FoWC. Following the closure of the Bolingbroke Bowls Club after its centenary last year we’re keen to ensure the bowling green remains well used for what it was intended. 20 founder members of the club have since been playing on Saturday afternoons, 3-5pm. We will also schedule a weekday club day on a date to be advised. Get in touch if you’d like to have a go. 

Another noteworthy event was the opening of the refurbished public toilets behind the bowling green which are now fully accessible - a very welcome improvement.

Our more traditional walks were able to resume and included several wildflower, bird, tree, and a bat walk. A woodland management session continued work to restore damage to the Scope area to support biodiversity.

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.        

July round-up: Butterfly & litter awareness

To mark Butterfly Conservation’s annual Big Butterfly Count we were delighted to host Simon Saville of their SW London branch to talk (virtually) about what species to expect on the Common and where. Inspired by his talk we went to the Scope and found lots we hadn’t seen before - ringlets, skippers, green-veined whites and the comma - more here than on Box Hill a few days earlier. Get out there and start counting.

At the end of the month we were very pleased to open Wandsworth’s ‘Love Parks’ month - celebrating our lovely greenspaces that we’ve all come to appreciate better during lockdown. We know we’re a Common, not a park, but we decided to stretch a point for the opportunity to pile 140 bags of litter - mostly recyclable - in front of the huge pink ‘Love Parks’ letters. We were delighted to have Plogolution with us. Together we had around 50 people litter picking, adding to the haul we’d collected over a couple of previous events. The idea was to show how many recyclables can be collected across the whole Common in a single day. A drop in the ocean of course compared to what the professionals from idverde collect on a daily basis.

A total of 8 local councillors came along to help, including Cllr Sutters who has Cabinet responsibility for open spaces and litter. We had terrific organisational support from Enable and idverde which we’re very grateful for. THANKYOU to all the volunteers who came along to help make the day such a success.

Earlier in the month we were delighted to start weekly litter picks - Thursdays 10-11 - with a biodiversity focus. We provide the volunteers and equipment while Enable provide Annabel to organise. This means we can mount more regular picks, not constrained by our personal availability. We’re very grateful to Enable for listening to our needs. If you’d like to join one e-mail: litterati@wandsworthcommon.org

June round-up: Drowning in Litter

We continue to be astonished, not to say dismayed, by the mountains of litter left on the Common particularly at weekends. We’ve been doing our bit, mounting our biggest ever litter pick with 18 people collecting 70 bags one Sunday morning. Lots more people do this every day and of course our efforts pale into insignificance compared to the amounts collected by Michael, the Common’s sole dedicated litter picker, with a bit of help at the weekend. At least two-thirds of the litter is recyclable and we’re pleased to say that more recycling is on the way. We’ve been working behind the scenes alongside the MAC with the Council, Enable, local residents and businesses, tying to make a difference. We attended a ‘litter summit’ at the end of the month to brainstorm different ideas, some of which are being rolled out. Collections have increased and more bins deployed. Bigger bins have been put in strategic locations. Anti-litter signs have gone up and new ones are coming to try and change behaviour, which is the hardest part of the equation. Ideally we want people to take their litter home. There have been talks with local businesses to encourage them to play a part in solving the problem. A deposit return scheme is something we’d like to see introduced. No-one has yet been fined for littering and we’d like that to change. Despite all these efforts we fear that increased litter is here to say for the summer – unless we see a change in behaviour. It’s a nationwide problem

May round-up: The Common takes a battering

Increased footfall combined with drought
are giving the Common a battering. Litter has become a huge problem. We’re
pleased so many people have discovered the Common for their health and
wellbeing. But we do wish more would take their litter home. Three times as
much litter is being collected than at the height of a normal summer. Over 12
tonnes last weekend alone. The Common’s managers have put out bigger bins and
increased collections, but it’s been a struggle. The Common has just one dedicated
litter picker – Michael. More and more people are doing their own litter picks
to clear up the mess. That’s great, but it does hide the scale of the problem
and doesn’t get the message across to the culprits. When the Friends litter
pick we do it in hi-viz jackets to raise awareness and also separate litter into recyclables and
other. Most of it is recyclable, which is another issue. Drop us an e-mail if you’d
like to help.

As a Grade I site of Importance for Nature Conservation that
recently welcomed its first pair of kestrels, the borough's biodiversity
team are concerned by the increased wear and tear we’re seeing. Paths or
'desire lines' have increased, soil compaction has worsened and there's been a
proliferation of den building. New paths interrupt wildlife corridors and
confine animals to smaller and smaller areas, reducing their habitat. Soil
compaction reduces the number of worms, reducing soil quality and food sources.
Fallen dead wood and its surroundings are habitat for many invertebrates that
are an essential part of the wild food chain. Dens can play an educational role
but there's always a balance to strike, and the Scope isn't big enough to
sustain its biodiversity with so many dens now uprooting wildlife and food
sources.

Enable’s Head of Biodiversity has penned a very
timely article about the pressures she’s seeing. Please read it and spread the
word

April round-up: Biodiversity matters

We’re all learning how to zoom, which means we can continue
to operate during lockdown in some fashion. Both the Friends committee and the
Heritage sub-group have met by zoom and the MAC will have a go in May.

At the end of the month we interviewed the Common’s
biodiversity officer – Annabel Osborn, pictured left – via zoom to get an update on plans for
a new biodiversity strategy and how it will impact the Common: the new meadow
and wildflower areas you’ll start to see over the summer; the importance
of preserving and enhancing the remaining areas of acid grassland; issues with
the lake including water quality (mostly good), fish and finally - what
everyone wants to know about – the terrapins and parakeets. Listen to Annabel’s
interview here (it lasts about 50 minutes). More zoom events coming in May.

Sadly Annabel was furloughed the day after our interview, along with several other Enable staff. The lockdown has had a major impact on their ability to operate so they won’t be able to respond as quickly or effectively to problems as usual. We look forward to when Enable are back to full strength.

March round-up: Coronavirus

What a month! It started well, but now normal activity is
suspended for the foreseeable future to minimise the spread of coronavirus.
Notices appeared on the Common stressing the importance of 2 metre social
distancing, the closure of playgrounds, fitness equipment, toilets etc –
everywhere where the virus could potentially be transmitted. A new rule states that
dogs must be on leads at all times, to prevent their owners getting too close
to each another. Follow the links to the relevant Council advice.

Before the lockdown, we held a swan and duck food bagging
session to get us up to Easter. Jess Stocks, who sadly has now left Enable to
work for another London borough, kindly led a spring tree walk. A small group
of volunteers helped rake over some of the newly cleared patches of the Scope to
encourage the spread of meadow habitat with native wildflowers – perfect for
butterflies. And Nick Rutter’s first official bird walk for Enable attracted about
30 people. Nick has subsequently reported that kestrels are nesting on the
Common, in the large box in the black poplar on the path by the railway track
running north from the Hope Tavern. The Heritage group held a successful virtual
meeting. Sadly that’s what we’re confined to for the time being.

Keep well everyone and follow the social distancing rules
when you’re on the Common. We look forward to meeting up again when we’re allowed.

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