February round-up: Biodiversity in abundance

Biodiversity in abundance

A flying start to the month with a talk by Annabel Osborn, Enable’s Parks Operations manager and formerly biodiversity lead, with a brilliant overview of Wandsworth’s biodiversity and what is being done to improve it. The talk coincided with a refreshing of the Council’s biodiversity strategy which aims to make what habitats there are better, bigger and more connected. This is what the new planting on Wandsworth Common has been focussed on and the now well-established volunteer sessions (third Tuesday of the month). This month saw volunteers complete bramble clearance and other maintenance of one of the glades on the Scope which, as the year progresses, will become a haven for wildflowers, butterflies and other pollinators. 

Nick Rutter’s bird walk caught sight of the Common’s newest inhabitant - a little owl - as well as a raven. Barbara Littlechild also spotted a number of rare species for the Common, including a tree creeper and green woodpecker. 

We ended the month with a talk from amateur naturalist Ben Smith about wild bees, the sort you can find in your back garden as well as on the Common. There are 10 times more species of wild bees than honey bees and it’s amazing what you see when you look. Ben’s talk also gave tips on what to plant in order to attract bees like the hairy footed flower bee, common carder etc. We hope Ben will lead a walk on the Common soon to spot the emergence of the ashy mining bee. 

As the nesting season approaches we held our final woodland litter pick of the year, clearing the wooded areas of remaining litter exposed by receding vegetation. Once the nesting season begins we confine our litter picking to the more open areas of the Common to avoid wildlife disturbance.

On the heritage front Sharon O’Neill reprised her talk about the Fitzhugh estate, this time face-to-face and with added material, including stories of some of the residents.  And on the final day of the month Ros and Stephen from our heritage group visited two local schools to showcase ‘The Wandsworth Common Story’ for World Book Day. We hope this will excite interest amongst the youngsters for things on their doorstep

January round-up: A walk, a talk & a woodland spring clean

We began the year, as we always do, with Trevor‘s ever popular ‘Walk off the Wine’ walk. This year we were blessed with good weather, which guarantees a good turnout, and also the first sight of our new Heritage Trail, which will be formally launched with a walk on March 25th. All 12 sections of the Common were visited in a brisk two hour walk - 10,000 steps guaranteed. A great way to start the New Year.

Philip Boys’ return for part II of his ‘Turf Wars’ was no less vigorous given the amount of information Philip always has to draw on. Catch up on this and all our talks on our events page. 

To close the month, we held the first of our annual woodland litter pics to spring clean the Common’s wooded areas before the nesting season begins. 20 of us fanned out over all areas of the Common, but concentrating on the woodland areas, to reach the litter in those parts we haven’t been able to reach when the undergrowth and leaf cover is thicker. Always very satisfying and to be repeated on February 26 at 1pm. 

If you would like to join our regular litter pics on Mondays at 10, e-mail litterati@wandsworthcommon.org

December round-up: Climax to a big planting year

Late November/early December brings National Tree Week, the traditional start of the tree planting season. Donations towards tree planting on the Common have exceeded £12,000 since our 150th anniversary campaign began two years ago, and this season will see the climax to our planting efforts. 

Following on from the nine standard trees planted at the end of November, we put in a mixture of smaller, native whips, including blackthorn, buckthorn, hawthorn, guelda rose etc as well as several gorse plants to re-establish a species that was once widespread on the Common.

This season’s planting is concentrated at the very north end of the Common - Northside - alongside the South circular, both to create habitat and to act as an anti pollution ‘green screen’, and also in the south-west corner of the Common near the Bellevue/Trinity Road junction. We also infilled the hedging planted in the St Mark’s area last season, where some species, particular grey willow, were not successful.  

Enable’s biodiversity officer, Mick, astonished us by telling us that over the past year we’ve planted around 3,000 whips in these areas, alongside the 100 standard saplings financed by donations - a major achievement and no small thanks to our many donors and volunteers.

We look forward to monitoring the trees’ progress over the coming year  and hope that the weather will not be as challenging for them as last year. 

November round-up: Winter works, walks & talks

At the start of the winter works season, we walked around the Common with Enable’s biodiversity officer, Mick, who explained what he was planning for the next few months. This is the time of year to root out invasive, non-native species like bracken, laurel, rhododendron and sycamore; for rotational thinning of bramble; opening up glades; coppicing etc. An amazing amount of work goes on to maintain the Common, often unnoticed

We have several volunteers who like to be involved in this sort of thing and Enable have started a regular monthly (third Tuesday of the month - the next is Dec 20th) volunteering session to satisfy demand.

We inaugurated the sessions in the pouring rain, raking grass clippings from the eco-grassland in St. Mary’s cemetery and pruning some of the whips in St Marks triangle which were shooting skywards.

November also brings National Tree Week and the start of the planting season. The first nine of this year’s 150th anniversary trees were planted at the top of Northside, including interesting specimens like disease resistant elm, weeping wych elm and the wild service tree. Having dug holes ourselves to take whips, we can only marvel at the abilities of Graham and Grant who can dig a hole and plant a tree in the space of 10 minutes. Astonishing to watch.

Although it’s a fairly quiet time of year for birds, Nick Rutter hosted another of his popular bird walks, which was rewarded with a good sighting of a buzzard.

We also had two more excellent Heritage talks. The first, by local historian Dr Sue Demont, one of our book editors, who described the impact of the railways on Wandsworth Common, starting in the 1830s. To close the month Philip Boys returned with more fascinating stories of the huge variety of sports played on the Common, including hopping, pedestrianism, velocipede racing, hare and hound running, trotting races along Trinity Road, even a stag hunt. More to come next year!!

October round-up: Comprehensive recycling on the Common - ACHIEVED!!

Since the Friends launch in May 2018 we’ve campaigned for the introduction of comprehensive recycling on the Common. First, we set up our own weekly litter picks to measure the scale of the problem, asking our ‘litterati’ to separate recyclables from general rubbish. It soon became clear that over half the rubbish collected was recyclable, but destined for incineration alongside general rubbish, unless practices changed. We saved all the recycling until we had enough to make a splash, and then took the opportunity of the 2020 ‘Love Parks’ event to amass it all in front of the huge pink letters, with volunteers and Councillors helping to sort it into plastic, glass, paper and cans.

Dedicated recycling bins followed a year later in July 2021 - not the prettiest bins but a start. The emphasis then moved to educating the public to put their rubbish in the correct bins - we’re still pressing for better signage - and for the official litter pickers to separate recyclables too. After all, they collect far more than we do in our brief Monday morning sessions. We were delighted therefore to hear it announced this month that the official litter pickers - that’s Michael for Wandsworth Common - would from now on separate out recyclables, and not just on Wandsworth Common but in all Wandsworth’s major greenspaces.

We would like to thank Enable for their willingness to engage with us, Continental Landscapes and their litter pickers for their flexibility, our own litterati group for their tireless help, and the Council for getting to YES.

This month’s heritage talk by Philip Boys featured the Black Sea, a beautiful ornamental lake in front of a private estate, sadly filled in by Earl Spencer to provide land for the development of Spencer Park. The windmill was built to feed the lake after its water supply was cut off by the new railway cutting. You can read more about it in our book ‘The Wandsworth Common Story’ and elsewhere on our website.

Finally, it’s the season for fungi spotting and we were delighted to host Ling from Enable who demonstrated her expertise in spotting and identifying all manner of specimens: bonnet and cup fungus, deceivers, stinkhorns and more. Fascinating fungi.

September round-up: From Summer to Autumn

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

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

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

August round-up: Tree watering

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

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

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

July round-up: Walks in a heatwave

For a second year we organised two days of end of term activities for year 10 pupils from Emanuel school. These included a follow-up of last year’s dog survey; a talk on the plastic problem by Connected Planet, followed by a litter pic; our first moth breakfast since the pandemic; and a mapping of the desire lines on the Scope. All these exercises are useful for the managers of the Common.

Richard and Laila Tillet organised the moth breakfast, where moths that fly into a moth trap overnight are identified, recorded and released. They also led a second popular butterfly walk.

Roy Vickery led two wildflower walks, on the least known area of the Common - Prison Banks - the narrow strip between Trinity Road and the prison. This unprepossessing strip of land has over 50 species of wild flower and is also a butterfly haven.

Mick Green, Enable’s biodiversity officer, led a walk on the Scope on the hottest day of the year, starting early in the morning and sticking to the shade!! We learned how that area of woodland is being managed to encourage biodiversity - creating glades, more relaxed mowing, preventing excessive tree and bramble encroachment, allowing dead wood to go undisturbed and discouraging desire lines.

Our stall at the Northcote Road fair was a busy and successful venture, allowing us to engage with local residents about our objectives and activities and sell our book and leaflets. Thanks to all our volunteers who helped out.

On the Heritage side, Sue Demont repeated her very popular ‘East Side Story’ walk along Bolingbroke Grove. Meanwhile, our Oral History Project moves on apace. About 20 individuals who have lived near the Common most of their lives have been selected for interview, starting in September. The interviews will be recorded and filmed and then edited down into a film and booklet for wider dissemination. Transcribing the interviews will be time-consuming and we are interested to hear from any volunteers who are prepared to help.

Last but not least, in this hot, dry spell, much attention has been devoted to making sure the Common’s new plantings are watered regularly. Watering frequency and amounts have been increased. You can help by reporting any struggling tree to trees@enablelc.org

June round-up: Meeting the Council's new Environment team

Our contribution to the Wandsworth Heritage Festival concluded with a walk led by Stephen Midlane between the three local bowling greens, starting with Wandsworth’s only surviving public green - on Wandsworth Common - and finishing at the South London club where the walkers tried their hands at a game.

Richard and Laila Tillett, who have just started walking a new butterfly recording transect, conducted their first butterfly walk, which serendipitously coincided with the arrival of the season’s first painted ladies. Other species seen included comma, red admiral, peacock etc. A better than expected count.

Liam Hutton, one of Enable’s Tree Officers, led a tree walk across the Common to include a number of interesting specimens including the largest sycamore in Wandsworth, the tulip tree - just flowering (pictured) - a pure black poplar, identified by gene testing, the manna ash and others.

Friends of Wandsworth Common hosted a friendly bowls match to meet and introduce the Council’s new Environment team - Cllr. Judi Gasser, Cabinet lead, and Cllr. Claire Gilbert, chair of the Environment scrutiny committee - to several of those responsible for managing the Common, including Enable’s MD, Head of Parks, biodiversity officer and tree team. Members of the MAC and some of the policing team were also there, as well as representatives from the Wandsworth Society and All Star Tennis.

The MAC held its Annual Public Meeting and heard reports from Enable’s Parks management team, their main contractor, Continental Landscapes, and Parks Police. Watch out for the minutes.

The month ended with volunteers, led by Mick Green, Enable’s biodiversity officer, mulching the whips we planted back in February, to help their establishment through the drier summer months.

May round-up: Thanks to all our volunteers

The bowling season opened on the Wandsworth Common Green, the only public green remaining in the borough. The Friends are hosting bowls social sessions on Sunday afternoons, 3-5 pm. No experience required and tuition is provided. Pay £5 at the tennis hut next to the green for an agreeable and leisurely 2-hour session with whoever turns up.

The Friends took part in a policing event which brought together all the people involved in Keeping Wandsworth Common Safe - the Met’s Safer Neighbourhood Team, Parks Police, the Council’s Community Safety team, and the MAC who, working with Enable, have been instrumental in bringing all these teams together.

We threw a great party for all our volunteers to thank them for their sterling efforts to making the Friends work. Swan and duck food baggers, litter pickers, walk and talk leads, planting teams, wildlife recorders, writers and transcribers, stall and event helpers, leafleteers etc. If you’d like to volunteer for any of these activities or have other help you can offer, just get in touch.

The party also coincided with our 4th birthday!!

Regular walks to showcase the Common’s flora and fawna continue with our first bat walk of the season, thanks to Iain Boulton, and more bird walks, thanks to Barbara Littlechild.

Despite Barbara’s generosity with her time, we never have enough space to satisfy everyone and so we have to operate a waiting list.

April round-up: Trees, spring clean & maps

To mark the successful planting of another 30 trees for our 150th anniversary celebrations, and the completion of the annual Wandsworth wide planting plan, Enable tree officers Liam and Sam gave a highly engaging and entertaining talk about the issues they face monitoring and caring for Wandsworth’s trees.

We took part again in the annual nationwide GB Spring Clean. Our periodic weekend litter picks are in addition to our regular weekly Monday picks and attract those with more time to spare at weekends. We aim to raise awareness of the litter problem and the importance of recycling, with a view to getting more people to use reusable items, to take their litter and recycling home, or use the bins

Philip Boys reprised his popular talk about the History of Wandsworth Common through Maps. Our book ‘The Wandsworth Common Story’ features six maps in its central section to illustrate how the Common has changed over time. Philip showed us several more and embellished the information on them with fascinating stories and anecdotes.

All our talks are now filmed and can be viewed in the news and events section of the website

March round-up: Spring watch

Signs of spring are well and truly emerging with newly planted trees coming into leaf, blackthorn and cherry blossom appearing and the first butterflies emerging. We recently walked the Common with official butterfly recorder Ian Cunningham, who has designed a second transect for a new recorder to observe and record butterflies. Of the 28 species found on the Common, commas are amongst the first to emerge.

Our birders Barbara and Nick led two walks as the nesting season begins. Among the many highlights were the nuthatch nest, a kestrel and a red kite flying over. 15 volunteers are meanwhile helping type up Peter White’s 300 page hand written book manuscript to be published later this year. This will be a huge addition to the information about the Common’s birds, gathered from Peter’s lifetime of observations.

One of our regular Monday litter picks focussed on clearing the new butterfly transect. And we’ve been supporting the MAC’s campaign to improve compliance with dog related bylaws - especially dogs on leads around the lake at this critical time for new hatchlings.

Our heritage group continues to be busy and Ros Page hosted a packed session about author and poet Thomas Hardy who lived by the Common in 1878-1881. There’s a heritage themed event every month. Take a look at our calendar.

February round-up: Storm of 2022

The Common took quite a battering this month with several days of storm force winds. Two large and rare black poplars were the saddest losses, the two at the corner of Dorlcote Rd and the cinder track. They tend to lean naturally anyway and they took the full brunt of the westerly winds whistling across the cricket pitch. Some of the fallen logs will be left in situ for habitat creation, the rest moved elsewhere.

Wandsworth wide about 70 trees blew over or had to be felled, making it a busy few days for the borough’s tree team and contractors.

These natural losses emphasise the importance of continual new planting and we’ve done a lot of that recently. We planted another 15 anniversary trees, bringing this season’s total to 35. See how many you can find. They all have blue flashes at the top of their stakes. Some of the planting was witnessed by pupils of Hornsby House school.

Meanwhile, a joint MAC/Friends project has involved numerous volunteers planting around 2,000 whips over 3 weekends in 3 locations - the triangle bed by the playground near Skylark, St Mark’s triangle and the corner of Trinity and Bellevue Roads.

The planting is a mix of dog rose, purging buckthorn, alder buckthorn, spindleberry, holly, gorse, hawthorn, guelder rose, grey willow and hazel. The aim is to provide habitat for pollinators and other animals and also to provide screening from traffic pollution. The gorse is particularly exciting as it will help restore a plant which used to be the predominant one on the Common in the 1800s before clearance began.

Our second big woodland litter pick took place just before the official start of the bird nesting season. And Nick Rutter kindly organised a bird call walk for a visually impaired member. That involved a lot of sitting and listening rather than looking through binoculars and was a new challenge for all of those taking part.

January round-up: New Year walking, talking & planting

The New Year began as it always does with Trevor‘s ‘Walk off the Wine’ circumnavigation of all 12 areas of the Common. The event was cancelled a year ago so it was nice to get together again. 

Another seasonal event is the big woodland litter picks.  These allow us to clean up the woodland areas before the nesting season begins, after which wildlife is left undisturbed. There will be a second pick on February 12th.

Our birdwalk leads Nick and Barbara each led small groups for the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. Highlights included gold crest, little grebe and, flying over, two great black backed gulls and a red kite.

Heritage events kicked off with a fascinating ‘Magical History Tour’ by Philip Boys, starting from Wandsworth Common, exploring as far as darkest Africa with Stanley and Dr Livingstone, and back again. So many intricate connections with articles in our book.

The planting season is in full swing. Several of our 150th anniversary tree donors turned out to watch 15 trees planted on the west side of the Common. At the end of the month a team of volunteers got together under the supervision of Mick, Enable’s new biodiversity officer, to start a major hedge and shrub planting project, sponsored by the MAC. This  will see three areas of the Common planted with a mixed hedge of hawthorn, hazel, grey willow, dog rose and spindle. We are also looking to introduce more gorse to the Common. Readers of our book will know this was once the primary form of vegetation on the Common, but only a few patches now remain. It’s perfect for pollinators, while all the new planting aims to increase biodiversity and in some cases act as a ‘green screen’ against pollution. More planting in February if you’d like to take part.

December round-up: Trees and swans

The month began with two events to mark National Tree Week, the traditional start of tree planting. Anne Lambert and Richard Fox led a tree walk to catch the last of the autumn colour while Enable tree officers Sam Morgan and Liam Hutton gave a superb talk on ‘Wandsworth’s Trees’ to some of our tree donors. Around 100 donors have given over £12k for tree planting over the last year. Look out for the white painted spots on the Common where this year’s new trees will be planted in coming months.

 We sponsored a tree for the St Mary Magdalene Christmas tree festival again, using the occasion to highlight the litter problem as all the decorations were made from items found on the Common. Look closely at our (g)litter tree to see the star made from nitrous oxide canisters, baubles made from wine and beer bottle caps, garlands of discarded hair bands, festive coffee cups and plastic line markers left by sports groups. Hopefully it made people think.

 We raised a second Green flag over the Common at a ceremony attended by members of the Council, Enable, Friends and the MAC. This is the second successive year the Common has won the award, an international standard denoting a well-managed green space. The green flags fly next to the new Friends noticeboard which was delivered on Christmas Eve.

Another Christmas present was the arrival of two new swans. Indeed, having got used to no swans for too long, we had four for several days in December. Two adults took up residence in early December, but just before Christmas two more adults arrived, much to the annoyance of the residents. Swans can be aggressive and the two incumbents defended their territory tenaciously. At one point they kept the two new arrivals on land, which is very dangerous for them as they are then more vulnerable to unleashed dogs (the byelaws state that dogs must be on a lead near the lake and certainly shouldn't go in the lake). Local wildlife rescuer Ann Davies decided that urgent action was needed and courageously captured and re-homed the new arrivals. We wish both pairs a happy life together, especially our new pair.

November round-up: Civic Award caps a busy month

Friends co-chairs Julia Bott and Richard Fox were honoured to receive a Civic Award from the Mayor of Wandsworth for their work running the Friends of Wandsworth Common. This annual ceremony pays tribute to the many volunteers in Wandsworth who do incredible work behind-the-scenes. “It was very humbling to hear about the amazing work of the 50 nominees and eight award winners represented at the event”.

The award was for FoWC’s work supporting the local environment of Wandsworth Common - regular litter pics; highlighting the need for recycling facilities and drinking fountains, now actioned with the installation of recycling bins and two drinking fountains; the provision of eco-friendly swan and duck food; the raising of environmental awareness through regular nature-focussed walks and talks for our over 600 members; and working with Enable to improve the Common’s biodiversity, including the planting of over 50 trees and a mini-forest this year.

Not surprisingly, FoWC played a major part in the Council’s Climate Change Festival, including a zoom talk by Sally Uren, CEO of Forum for the Future, entitled ‘Time to Act: What we can all do’ available here. We also had a stall at the main festival event, one of many we’ve had in the run-up to Christmas.

These stalls, as well as selling our book and promoting our mission, also continue our outreach efforts, particularly to local schools. A member of our Heritage group spoke at a second school assembly (Finton House) about our work.

The month also saw our AGM. Annabel Osborn gave a Q&A about her new role as Parks Operations Manager at Enable, Julia and Richard gave their review of the year and our committee was refreshed with a mixture of old and new faces. You’ll see a picture in next month’s round up. If you missed the AGM there’s a recording here.

We wish all our members and followers a Merry Christmas if we don’t see you before then.

October round-up: Fabulous fungus foray

We were delighted to welcome back mycologist Fabrice Boltho from SLBI who entertained us with a marathon fungus foray. You might have noticed there seems much more fungus around this year - a result of the damp summer. Fabrice’s enthusiasm held the attention of over a dozen people for 3 hours and uncovered over 30 different fabulous species.

His walk marked the final piece of the jigsaw as we’ve built back our nature walks programme - birds, butterflies, flowers and trees. This month’s bird walks identified almost 40 different species including a kestrel, green woodpecker, coal tit and the first autumn migrants - redwing and siskin.

Our weekly litter picks continue (Mondays 10-11am), with some useful new kit - two types of long handled litter pickers, great for picking litter out of the lake. The recycling pilot scheme is also going well with 7.5 tonnes of recyclables collected in just six weeks

After the phenomenal success of our book (almost 1,200 copies sold), the Heritage group has been formally constituted as a subgroup of FoWC with Stephen Midlane as chair and Sue Demont secretary. New projects will include an expanded walks and talks programme, more information on the Common itself about its heritage, and an oral history project to ensure peoples’ memories of the Common are not lost. Get in touch if you’re interested in helping deliver any of these.

September round-up: Eco happenings

We took part in three green events this month. The first - St Mary Magdalene’s Eco-day - was also a chance to see the famous parish cope, with its lavish scenes of the Common, which features on page 133 of ‘The Wandsworth Common Story’. At the end of the month our stall at St Mary‘s Balham eco-day was the culmination of the Great Big Green Week - bringing together numerous local eco organisations. There was a real buzz networking with other community groups involved in environmental and ecological issues. We also hosted a litter pick by Planet Patrol, an environmental group specialising in litter picking on rivers by paddleboard and with a unique twist of beginning with a yoga session.

We held three walks -a bird walk by Nick Rutter, a walk round all 12 sections of the Common led by Trevor Morris, and a bat walk hosted by Iain Boulton of the London Bat group. Another ecological highlight was the discovery by recorder Ian Cunningham of a rare white hairstreak butterfly on the Scope, the first ever for the Common. They’re becoming more common in London and one of our objectives is, together with Enable, to increase habitat for hairstreak butterflies to encourage more. This is a good start.

The highlight of the month was the installation of the Common’s first water fountains in many decades. There used to be seven fountains but these gradually fell into disuse. We’ve been encouraging the Council to install new drinking fountains for over three years, so we’re very pleased this has finally happened. At the centre of the Common by Skylark café and by the Three Island Pond, both hotspots for sporting activity, this will be an important contribution to reducing single use plastic. Together with the introduction of recycling bins last month, the Common is becoming greener.

August round-up: Tree walks & works

The month began with a street party for the 150th anniversary, organised by residents of Bolingbroke Grove North, opposite St Mary‘s cemetery. This narrow strip of Common was handed back to the conservators in 1871 when the Wandsworth Common Act was signed. The anniversary was a catalyst for a celebratory get together as restrictions eased over the summer. We were pleased to hear that the residents were enjoying the three new trees planted as part of the anniversary and were looking forward to more being planted this season.

Some of the oldest trees on the Common - about 140 years - are those edging the cricket pitch and are starting to show their age. Two fell over unexpectedly over the summer, prompting Enable to mount a thorough inspection. One of Enable‘s tree officers organised a walk for us to explain the problem.

The two trees that fell over were suffering from advanced root rot. The inspection revealed two other trees that were also unstable and had to be felled. In order to preserve the life of the remainder, extensive pollarding and crown reduction work was undertaken in August, to reduce the risk of further falls in the autumn gales. Although the immediate result is not very attractive, the aim is to preserve the trees for as long as possible. It also emphasises the need for continual new planting to preserve and increase our tree canopy. We are in discussion with Enable about next season’s planting.

We’ll be organising more tree walks in the autumn. These are very popular and book out to members very quickly, so we only advertise them to members. The same is true of all our walks, including the three bird walks we organised in August.

The green flag that Wandsworth Common was awarded in 2020 was finally unfurled in front of Neil’s lodge/Skylark, where the plaque to John Buckmaster was unveiled by the Mayor in July. A fitting end to our 150th anniversary celebrations.

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.