March round-up: Info boards inauguration

At long last we inaugurated the four new Heritage information boards with a walk joining all four, led by Anne Lambert, who led the project alongside Enable. We started on Northside, near the edge of the former Black Sea lake, then moved to Skylark, the site of the old Neals Farm buildings, then over to the Three Island pond, the oldest surviving heritage feature on the Common, and ended back on the Scope, where the former Craig telescope once stood. We will hold further walks based on the boards later in the year.

Later in the month we held our annual FoWC quiz night, hosted again by local comedian, author and broadcaster Jason Hazeley. This year we broadened the theme to include all of Wandsworth. The Althorp was packed. Feedback suggested some of the questions were quite challenging but everyone enjoyed it, with the Bat Soc team carrying off the prize hamper. We’ve already started compiling next year’s questions.

Just a few days earlier we held a small reception in the Althorp to mark the unveiling of a Wandsworth green plaque to Doreen Evans - a local racing driver based at the Bellevue Garage, just the other side of Althorp Road. Thanks to Emma from the Heritage service, the Deputy Mayor, Stephen Midlane, chair of the FoWC Heritage group and other guest speakers. The plaque was part of Wandsworth’s offering for Borough of Culture.

With better weather and longer days, and chicks to feed, we held another group bagging session to bag up 56kg of swan and duck food for sale in candy stripe bags in Skylark. This is a very social as well as a worthwhile event and if you want to receive notice of the next one, drop us a line.

We also held more bird walks, aiming to spot the spring migrants. Participants were rewarded with sightings of scores of species including woodpecker, jay, thrushes tits and the elusive firecrest.

February round-up: Trains, rivers & loggeries

Sue Demont gave another of her painstakingly researched and enjoyable talks, this time on the history of Clapham Junction station and its connections to Wandsworth Common. It didn’t start out as a station at all - just a jumble of lines, a junction even. There were also battles over what to call it, with up and coming Clapham favoured over the at the time more down at heel Battersea. The talk was a sell out. Catch the recording in our film section HERE

Later in the month Philip Boys gave a repeat of his talk similarly sold out talk on the Falcon Brook river - one of our most popular ever.

Meanwhile, with the weather improving, Enable’s volunteer sessions have resumed with a very productive morning building two more stag beetle loggeries, using logs from tree work on St James’s Triangle. That brings to four the number of loggeries on the Common. A fifth will be built in the Naturescope garden in March, where renovations are in full swing to make it a welcoming space for nature education. To join these volunteer sessions register with biodiversity@enablelc.org and/or projectmanager@naturescope.co.uk

January round-up: All systems GO for 2026

We kicked off the new Year with our usual ‘Walk off the Wine’ led by Trevor, who takes us to see all 12 section of the Common and points out changes over the past year. This year there were the 4 new interpretation boards to see, and the new scrub and tree planting in various parts. Always a popular start to the New Year.

Another early January tradition is our Big Garden BIrdwatch walks led by Barbara Littlechild, which are part of the largest citizen science project in the world. This year Barbara counted 21 species, including 5 redwings here for the winter..

With thoughts turning to spring and the better weather, Ben Smith gave us his tips on Gardening for Nature. Ben’s back garden is pretty average size for this part of the world but what he’s attracted to it is quite remarkable. Huge numbers of frogs and frogspawn, damselflies, rare butterflies like the brown hairstreak, even a grass snake. All down to judicious planting and habitat creation. Birds of prey regularly visit and he also gets swifts in his swift boxes. You can watch the film on catch up HERE

January is also when we start our weekend woodland litter picks, when the vegetation is dying back and birds and invertebrates haven’t yet begun nesting, so are not in danger of being disturbed. We were pleased to introduce Lou as our new weekend litter pick organiser.

Last but not least, Philip Boys entertained us with another of his fascinating talks about local history, this time about the hidden Falcon Brook river which snakes its way from Tooting, parallels Bolingbroke Grove, under Northcote Road, before flowing under Clapham Junction to the Thames. This talk has proved so popular that we’ve had to schedule a second showing in late February which is already booked solid. But you can catch all our talks on catch up.

December round-up: Two Collared doves..

The year ended quietly with another showing of the film of the history of the RVPB, another volunteer session to plant more scrub patches between the Cat’s Back bridge and the Dorlcote Road entrance to the Common and another of Barbara Littlechild’s bird walks. This identified 29 species, including a goldcrest, but not the elusive firecrest which very few have seen or heard. But very fitting for Christmas, Nick Rutter spied two collared doves on the Scope - a first for the Common.

Happy Christmas and New Year everyone

November round-up: Connecting the Commons

November saw the launch of our latest project - Connecting the Commons - a collaboration between Friends of Wandsworth Common and Beautify Balham, with support and funding from a Wandsworth Climate Action Microgrant. Most of the recent habitat planting on Wandsworth Common has been designed to help create plant and wildlife corridors between different parts of the Common. This new project has the more ambitious aim of improving connectivity between our three major local commons - Wandsworth, Clapham and Tooting.

Our project is a pilot, to try and establish the best way of engaging with local residents with the aim of greening up private front and back gardens, which together form a huge part of the total greenspace in London. We’ve leafleted selected streets ‘between the Commons’, sometimes adding a packet of wildflower seeds, and contacted others by Whatsapp group. You can read more about the project HERE and you can contact us HERE if you have ideas or want to be involved.

November is the traditional times for fungi walks which are so popular we offer two and still have to operate a wait list due to a cap on numbers. The walk leader is Enable’s Ling Moran and we thank her hugely for giving up her time for our members. They’re always VERY appreciative.

November is also the month we mark National Tree Week - the traditional start of the tree planting season. This year we asked Liam Hutton from the Council’s tree team to lead a walk which revealed some lesser known rarities on the Common including Persian Maple, strawberry tree, and cork oak. You can read more on our Instagram feed @wandsworthcommon.

We also held another of our newly resumed group duck food bagging sessions when a group of a dozen enthusiastic volunteers filled over 800 bags. That will keep us supplied over Christmas/New Year.

Our heritage team have been busy, unveiling a Council green plaque to photographer Paul Martin at 16, Bellevue Road. and we also repeated the very popular tour of the RVPB, led by Mark Justin, at the end of the month.

October round-up: A 'walkie-talkie'

Philip Boys, our local expert on anything and everything to do with Wandsworth Common heritage matters, had been wanting to do a ‘walkie-talkie’ - a heritage stroll around different parts of the Common, with time to tell stories and relate things of interest - for some time. So we were very pleased we were finally able to host him to do a walk around the main lake.

He began with a history of the lake; it’s beginnings as a rather unprepossessing gravel pit; the campaign for its clean up and extension as a place for strolling, though not without opposition; the addition of features like the rustic bridge, eventually replaced with the current stone bridge; what people did there - not all of it good!! - completing his tour with a moving story behind the two memorial benches which overlook the lake near the railway fence, and the families they commemorate. What is startling is how much more attractive the lake is today compared to the rather bleak, concrete-banked lake depicted on old postcards. We’re looking forward to Philip’s next walkie-talkie.

Autumn is the time for ‘winter works’ and the start of a new season of Enable organised volunteering sessions. Owen and Max, the new Parks Officer, hosted about a dozen volunteers to prune the hedges around St Marks Triangle, planted several years back now and going from strength to strength. In the wild, hedges like this would be nibbled by animals, but without sheep, cows or deer on the Common, humans have to do the job of keeping them healthy. Despite the rain the job was pretty much completed in a couple of hours.

If you’d like to join futures sessions, e-mail biodiversity@enablelc.org

September round-up: Sustainable September

Many of our events this month were badged under the Council’s ‘Sustainable September’ theme, which highlights the various eco/green initiatives taking place around the borough.

We began with one of our regular ‘Moth Mornings’ where Richard and Laila Tillet identify and record the moths that have been attracted into our moth trap overnight, before releasing them back into the wild. You can see Richard explaining the process on our Instagram feed @wwcommon.

Our hugely successful second Dog Show attracted over 300 entrants and also contained a sustainability message. Two of the local vets involved collaborated on a leaflet to educate dog owners about the hazards of dog flea treatment to other wildlife and what owners can do in response. You can read more about this and the show, including images from the day, on the dog section of our website.

The ‘heavy horses’ finally came to Wandsworth Common, to mow the grass, bale the hay and spread wildflower seeds. This more traditional form of habitat management was introduced elsewhere in the borough a few years ago and Enable, with strong encouragement from FoWC, brought them to the Common on two occasions, attracting lots of interested onlookers and volunteers to help with the baling. You can watch a video clip here.

Vicky Smith, who runs a local sustainable travel agency, gave an interesting and energising talk with many examples of tourism which gives back to local communities and nature. Definitely worth a view on the ‘videos’ section of our website.

Greg  Packman returned for another of his fascinating tree walks on the Common, while we ended the month with our most popular ever bat walk with 30 people enjoying the aerial display at dusk before the bats start to hibernate. We also concluded another very successful bowls season with some very well attended sessions at the end of the month. Can’t wait to see you at Easter!!   

August round-up: Group bagging and a party

We were very pleased to hold our first group duck food bagging session in five years!! These used to be a monthly occurrence, and very enjoyable, but we had to stop them when Covid struck. Instead we moved to home bagging, with individuals or small groups doing bagging at home. Now we will do both. We held this group session now because we needed to build up a stock to cope with fluctuating demand. Everyone was very clear we should make them a regular feature, so we will probably do them quarterly. Get in touch if you’d like to be involved - just a couple of hours of easy work, accompanied by chat and a coffee break. What’s not to like?!

We held our annual summer party in the courtyard of Le Gothique this year. A surprising number of people have never been inside the gigantic Victorian building - the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building- in the middle of the Common.  With a delicious BBQ and accompanying jazz band as well, a very good time was had by all. The annual party started as a thank you to our volunteers but is now extended to all our members.

Nick Rutter’s latest bird walk was timed at the beginning of the autumn migration when, as Nick says, you never know what might turn up. This walk clocked 30 species, including a willow warbler and green woodpecker, not to mention a young toad.

July round-up: Boundary Oak loses a limb

One of the oldest trees on the Common - the so-called ‘boundary oak’ because of its position on the border of Battersea and Wandsworth parishes - and at least 250 years old, became a victim of ‘sudden branch drop’. The prolonged dry weather will have weakened the tree and then the sudden deluge caused water to rise up the trunk very quickly, increasing the weight on the weakened branch. Very sad, as it was such a distinctive and popular tree. Fortunately, the tree team have pronounced the rest of the tree safe and after some judicious pruning and the application of a large amount of mulch, the tree is still there to be enjoyed, hopefully for many more years to come (image courtesy of Lewis MoF).

We tried a couple of new-style events in July.

Nick Rutter, one of our birding experts and walk leader, decided that given that summer is a fairly quiet time for birds, he’d do a more general nature ramble instead, adding bugs, butterflies, dragonflies and wildflowers to his usual offering. Popular as always so we’ll look to repeat it next year.

And we put on a storytelling for children as part of the London Borough of Culture events, hosted by Karima Mohideen. Some lovely stories about dancing trees, the first tree huggers, a cross pumpkin to name but a few. The audience of children and adults were very happy so we’ll look to repeat that too.

We also repeated two of our most popular Heritage events: Sue Delafons and Stephen Midlane’s tour de force telling of the story of PY Betts, whose novel ‘ People Who Say Goodbye’ wrote about life around the Common during WWI; and Sue Demont’s tour of St Mary’s cemetery to examine ‘The Victorian Way of Dying’.

June round-up: Information Boards launch

We launched our information boards project with three Heritage themed boards: one near Skylark, one near the Three-Island pond and one on Northside. A fourth on the Scope will be ready later in the year. A collaboration with Enable, with the original idea going back over a decade. You can read more about the project HERE

Elsewhere, the Wandsworth Heritage Festival opened including three contributions from FoWC: a talk & film and a also a tour of the listed Fitzhugh Estate complex on the edge of the Common and another showing of our film Common Memories. Both of these can be watched in the video section of our website.

Finally, Roy Vickery returned to the Prison Banks for another of his wonderful wildflower talks. The area is a hotspot for flowers and butterflies and shouldn’t be missed.

May round-up: Bats about the AGM

May is the month we mark our birthday – our 7th this year – and hold our AGM – an opportunity to review what we’ve achieved and look forward to the coming year’s activities.

We maximise participation of our 850 members by holding a hybrid meeting which is also recorded. So you can watch a recording HERE and see the slides HERE.

In the past year we held our usual full programme of walks and talks on nature and heritage themes. We had great success with our social bowls sessions, which saw on average a dozen people play at each session. We’re also pleased to have helped bring pilates and yoga back to Naturescope and introduce outdoor Qi Gong classes to the Common. Another highlight of the year was our first ever dog show in September, which we’ll be repeating this year. We also held a successful quiz night themed on Wandsworth Common.

The Heritage group remain very active and is gathering more and more material on the Lost Houses of Wandsworth Common. Another enterprise is the acquisition of a collection of over 900 old postcards of Wandsworth Common and its surrounds, which we aim to display digitally in the coming year.

So there‘s a lot going on and we welcome anyone who’s willing to help us fulfil our mission to engage users in the protection and preservation of Wandsworth Common. To that end we also had a useful Q&A about the proposed changes to the Council’s events policy which attracted considerable interest.

May also sees the annual Beating of the Bounds of Battersea, organised by the Battersea Society and supported by FoWC. We gather for refreshments and stories under the ancient boundary oak on the border of Battersea and Wandsworth parishes which runs through Wandsworth Common.

May also sees our first bat walk of the year which this year confirmed last year’s sighting of the quite rare Serotine bat – making it the 7th bat species found on the Common. Our citizen scientists continue to monitor our bats on a regular basis if you’d like to join them at twilight.

April round up: Bowls season opens

The bowling season opened with our first social bowls session of the year. These are open to all abilities where new players can just give it a go and more seasoned players can have a game. Complete beginners receive basic tuition from our friendly hosts. Sessions continue throughout the season until September: Fridays 5.30 - 7.30 with drinks and nibbles available for a small donation; Sundays 3.30-5.30 with tea/biscuits/drinks. No need to book. GIVE IT A GO.

Our Heritage group continued its series of talks presenting its research into the Lost House and Gardens of Wandsworth Common. This latest session covered Nightingale Lane: Wilby Lodge, Stanton House, Ravenslea and Fernside. We’re considering how to make our findings more widely available.

Our regular monthly bird walks continue with some unusual spring migrants being spotted, including warblers and whitethroats. and the delightful blackcaps and chaffinches. Our summer programme has also started up again with a wildflower walk with Roy Vickery and the first moth trapping mornings hosted by Richard and Laila Tillett.

March round-up: New glade on the Scope

We marked World Recycling Day with a talk by Alice Stevens, Education Officer for Wandsworth Riverside Waste Authority (WRWA) at Smugglers Way. Loads of questions from a very keen audience about what should and shouldn’t be in our recycling sacks (see the A to Z on their website). We also talked about recycling on the Common. We’re hoping the new Groundworks contract, awarded to Krinkels, will introduce more appropriate, better looking and better located bins on the Common as part of their new contract. But make no mistake, our recycling is handled properly and sent to reprocessing sites all over the UK and Europe. By contrast, general waste is shipped down the river for incineration, meaning a lot of recyclable material is lost.

Our regular Monday morning litter picks separate out recyclables - mainly cans and bottles. About half is recyclable but around half the total waste is single use coffee cups which, despite what they say, are neither compostable nor recyclable, except in special facilities. So Alice’s clear advice was always to use a keep-cup. You get a discount at Skylark if you do!!

Our volunteers were busy again, implementing an Enable project to create a new glade in the middle of the Scope, in an area where two large trees have been substantially reduced. The debris was cleared and the new clearing protected by a dead hedge and habitat piles. Look out for what flora and fauna are attracted to the new habitat. Several bat boxes have been erected which we’ll be keeping an eye on.

Another month, another bird walk, identifying 31 species including a pochard duck, a gaggle of mandarins and the first brood of Egyptian goslings. Get your binos out to spot the incoming spring migrants. It’s even more important at this time of the year to keep your dogs on a lead and out of the water with the nesting season in full swing.

We reprised the RVPB film shown during our tour of the RVPB in January. If you missed it, as we now have a copy, we hope to be able to put on more showings in the future.

February round-up: Walk, Talk, Volunteering and a Quiz

Despite the weather, February was busy both outdoors and in. We began the month with the second of Julia Bott’s talks on exercise, encouraging people to act on their New Year resolutions and get out on the Common to exercise. Julia’s talk, the Myths & Magic of Movement & Mobility, can be found, as with all our talks, in the News & Events section of the website.

We headed outdoors for the first tree walk of the year, led by Enable’s Liam Hutton. We began by the three newly planted black poplars – 2 from Barnes Common and one from a cutting from our own pure (non-hybrid) black poplar. Black poplars are amongst the rarest of our native trees and we’re trying to replace the ones that have been lost in recent storms. Then we heard about the fastigiate oak, the invasive turkey oak, ash dieback – fortunately not a major problem for Wandsworth Common - the alder and its habit of taking over small ponds, and many others. As well as admiring the trees, it’s always good for our members to be introduced to the people who look after our trees.

The longer days bring more wildlife activity and we ran two of our regular bird walks with Nick Rutter and Barbara Littlechild. We also completed our final woodland litter clear up of the season, before the birds and invertebrates start nesting. Enable also organised a clean out of the Three-Island Pond for our volunteers – always a popular job – hard work but great fun.

Last but not least we put on a very successful quiz at the Althorp pub. Around 50 people turned out and really entered into the spirit of our Wandsworth Common themed quiz. A great success, to be repeated next year.

January round-up: New Year Events

The year began with our usual ‘Walk off the Wine’ event led by Trevor Morris. But this year’s was different, taking us to the new Springfield Park, just a stone’s throw from the Common. A record turnout of people were impressed by the extensive space, its landscaping and tree scape and facilities still to come, notably the outdoor events auditorium and the cafe.

Another first was a tour and film show at the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building, led by the owner of Le Gothique restaurant Mark Justin. Mark was able to show us parts of the building not usually open to the public, such as the great hall which displays shields commemorating the original donors to the Patriotic Fund in 1857. Mark was an excellent and entertaining guide and also provided a delicious lunch in the restaurant, followed by a showing of a film of the RVPB’s history made by Simon McNeill-Ritchie. The event was one of our most popular yet and we hope to repeat it later in the year.

Events were a major topic of discussion in January after Enable submitted an application to hold bigger and more frequent events on the Common. The proposal met with a huge public outcry and has now been dropped.

Finally, Enable’s habitat management volunteer sessions resumed with a team pruning, weedling and mulching the hedges and shrubs planted in recent years on St Marks triangle and St Mary’s cemetery. they are looking very healthy and proving to be a great source of new habitat to encourage biodiversity. These monthly sessions offer something for everyone who likes to get their hands dirty outdoors.

December round-up: Three black poplars & a Water Rail

Festive outdoor activities included another volunteer session planting trees and shrubs around the edges of the area between the cinder track and the railway. This will improve biodiversity by creating habitat and connectivity to other areas of the Common. We now know this works as bat sightings have increased above areas that have been planted on the Bolingbroke side of the Common. Two more black poplars were planted in the same area making three in total for these rarest of our native trees. These latest specimens were grown by Enable’s tree team from cuttings of a pure (genetically tested) black poplar in the Skylark playground. You’ll see the saplings protected behind picket fencing. 

Nick Rutter’s last birdwalk of the year identified over 40 species and brought Nick’s annual tally close to a record for the Common. His tally increased just before Christmas as he spotted a rare Water Rail skulking at the edge of the lake by the stone bridge. That brings his annual total to 86 – equalling the Common’s record. Barbara Littlechild meanwhile has spotted a rare firecrest.  

The Heritage group raised over £1,000 from the sale of donated prints from Ron Elam’s collection, part of which we now own. This will help finance the cost of digitisation and cataloguing in 2025. Members of the Lost Houses project team presented their findings about the houses that once stood on the edge of the Common near where Burntwood Grange and Collamore roads are now.  

November round-up: Trees, fungi & bats

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

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

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

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

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

October round-up: Craig telescope

The Craig telescope was built on the Common in 1852 ahead of the Great Exhibition. Unfortunately it never met the aspirations of its designer and engineer and worked imperfectly for only a short period. Nothing is left of it today except the name, given to the so-called ‘Scope’ area of the Common (see our heritage trail) where it stood. Greg Smye-Rumsby gave one of our first ever talks after the launch of the Friends in 2018. He has an encyclopaedic website about the telescope and we welcomed him back to speak to some old and some new faces. You can read more on his website and there’s a section devoted to the telescope in our book. Our film of his talk is in the usual place on our website.

It’s the time of year when you never know what bird you’ll find on the Common as the winter migrants start arriving or just passing through. Barbara Littlechild hosted another of her popular birdwalks and found more species on the Common (30) than in her subsequent walk in Richmond Park. We must be doing something right. Birds spotted included nuthatch, coal tit, jay, mistle thrush, woodpecker and of course, after the walk had ended, a goldcrest, little grebe and buzzard. Barbara also spotted a rare firecrest recently. As a member of the Friends you get exclusive invites to all our walks which are not advertised more widely because of our large membership. 

It’s been a busy month for meetings, with not only a routine Friends committee but also meetings with the Council about the new contracts for managing the Common and also the future of the Neals Lodge complex in the middle of the Common above Skylark cafe. Watch this space. 

September round-up: Dog Show/Sustainable September

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

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

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

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

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

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

August round-up: Summer Party

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

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