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.  

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.