wild south london
DESCRIPTION
The first issue of London Wildlife Trust's new South London Region newsletterTRANSCRIPT
WILD SOUTH LONDON
Issue 1, Spring 2014
Protecting London’s
wildlife for the future
Welcome
Welcome to Wild South London, the new seasonal
newsletter from London Wildlife Trust’s South London
team. We hope enjoy reading about all the work
ongoing in the area as much as we have enjoyed doing it.
Contents
The Centre for Wildlife Gardening 3
Growing Out 5
Potted History 6
South London Reserves 7
Sydenham Hill Wood 9
Wild About Thamesmead 10
Wandle Estates Community 11
Outreach Project
London Wildlife Trust protects the capital’s wildlife and wild spaces, whilst engaging
London’s communities through access to our nature reserves, campaigning,
volunteering, and education.
We rely on the support of thousands of people to continue our work. Membership costs
just £2.50 a month - and makes a real difference to our work. We also have lots of
volunteering opportunities. For more information, see www.wildlondon.org.uk.
Front cover image: John Walsh
The Centre for
Wildlife Gardening
Originally an old council depot, the Trust’s Centre for Wildlife Gardening in
Peckham is now a favourite spot for local families, gardeners, and wildlife
watchers. Home to an award-winning visitors’ centre, CWG provides a base for
a range of school visits, events, and volunteering opportunities, with its
demonstration wildlife garden and range of mini habitats providing an inspirational
garden environment.
Practical work
We have tackled some fairly hefty tasks so far this year at CWG. The large pond has been
completely relined, during the wettest winter on record, having been left untouched for around fifteen
years. Since the relining and thinning out of the remaining trees, the pond is thriving; it is full of newts,
toads, tadpoles, pond snails, and pond skaters. We have even had a visit from a pair of mallards!
Additionally, thanks to the Pat O’Reilly Trust and volunteers from Southwark Council, led by Maurice
Soden, we have built a bird screen and deadwood bird perch in the meadow using a sycamore tree that
fell victim to this winter’s storms. Again thanks to the Pat O’Reilly Trust, we are turning our entrance walls
‘green’ with vegetation. After being painted white by Growing Out volunteers, the walls are now ‘mute
gold’, thanks to some of our regular volunteers, and the drive has been planted out with some young native
climbers which, as they grow, will create a natural green entrance to the Centre.
Upcoming tasks we are hoping to undertake
over the next few months include creating a
dune habitat near the sandpit, replacing and
adding to the signage around the site, creating a
new stag beetle stumpery and clearing the
gravel beds to allow access to the woodland
area behind the pond. We will also be planting
out the CWG example bed, and replanting and
reinvigorating the container garden.
School visits
The Centre for Wildlife Gardening runs a formal
curriculum-linked learning programme for
primary schools and also undertakes visits to
local schools. Since the beginning of March, we
have had school visits booked in almost every
Tuesday and Thursday. Schools have been
turning up despite the recent rain to hunt for
minibeasts and catch newts in the pond. One
school loved their visit so much that a group of
Year 4 children came back to volunteer at the
Centre, helping with weeding, sweeping,
cleaning bug pots, and tidying the minibeast
area. Schools bookings are coming in fast, and
we are looking forward to a busy summer term.
3
Family learning
The Centre for Wildlife Gardening also helps to provide
informal and fun learning opportunities for adults and
their children, run on behalf of the Southwark Adult Learning
Service.
Six one-day courses have taken place so far this academic year, growing more and
more popular each time. Some have been run in partnership with the Southwark Day
Centre for Asylum Seekers (SDCAS) and we plan to experiment with longer courses later
in the year.
Public events
On 16th April, we had a very successful Frog Day at the Centre. The children loved
getting their faces painted, listening to stories under the willow bower, and playing
amphibian-themed games. The adults picked up some useful tips on attracting
amphibians into their gardens, and on wildlife gardening more generally.
Upcoming events
- Marsden Road Play Out Day, 4th July, 4pm-7pm, Marsden Road and the Centre for Wildlife Gardening.
Join us at a special evening opening and discover more about the Centre’s fantastic wildlife. All ages
welcome!
- Nature’s Film Maker’s, 6th July, 9am-5pm, Centre for Wildlife Gardening
- The Centre for Wildlife Gardening’s Big Summer
Event, 10th August, 10.30am-4.30pm, Centre for
Wildlife Gardening. Join us for a spectacular summer
event, great for all the family, with activities, a
beekeeper, and a fancy dress competition!
Education and family learning contact details
and volunteer information
Sylvia Myers, Volunteer and Education Session Leader
Phone: 020 7252 9186
Email: [email protected]
Practical volunteering times at the Centre for Wildlife
Gardening are Wednesday afternoons (1.00-4.30pm)
and Sunday (10.30am-4.30pm), with occasional extra
days for larger tasks. We welcome all levels of
experience, but volunteers should be able to work fairly
independently, as hands-on staff supervision is not
available at all times. Volunteers for formal and
informal education activities and other family events
should ideally have some previous experience of
working with children and some basic wildlife
knowledge.
For more details about volunteering at the Centre for
Wildlife Gardening or about any of our upcoming
events, please contact Sylvia! 4
Growing Out
Project overview
Growing Out is an exciting project that works with adults with mild
learning disabilities. Each week we work with groups of around ten young
adults to build their skills in gardening and practical conservation work. On
the project, participants learn about wildlife and food growing, and pick up
practical gardening and conservation skills. The project offers participants a
chance to work outdoors, make new friends, and discover London’s green spaces,
whilst gaining valuable skills they can transfer to other volunteering and work
opportunities, both within the London Wildlife Trust and beyond.
Based at the Centre for Wildlife Gardening every Monday, the East Reservoir
Community Garden on Wednesdays, and Camley Street Natural Park on Thursdays,
Growing Out hosts up to twelve participants, each selected and referred to us by partners including
City and Islington College, The National Autistic Society, Lambeth College, and Southwark Council.
Growing Out is funded for three years by the Big Lottery Fund. During this time we hope to engage with
over 100 participants, who will each work with us for over 200 hours!
Recent news
This winter, Growing Out was busy getting the Centre for Wildlife Gardening ready for the spring,
repainting walls, cleaning tools, re-making woven willow edging round the site, digging in green manures
into food growing beds, and harvesting our parsnips to make a delicious parsnip and leek soup. We
managed to pull a staggering 50cm long parsnip!
As the months have got warmer, Growing Out
has turned its attention to the compost heaps,
digging over, chopping up, and sieving over four
tonnes of compost. If you live locally, please
drop by and, in return for a donation, you can
pick up a bag of south London’s finest compost
to use in your own garden!
One of our participants has also been busy
researching and planning the creation of a
butterfly garden at the Centre for Wildlife
Gardening, which we hope will be ready for the
summer.
Growing Out contact details and
volunteer information
Jeannine Moros Noujaim, Project Officer
Phone: 020 7252 9186
Email: [email protected]
For more information about the project and its
work, please contact Jeannine.
5
Potted History
Project overview
Potted History is a gardening and reminiscence project for older
people in Lambeth, Lewisham, and Southwark. It is particularly aimed at those
experiencing isolation, the early stages of dementia, and other conditions which may
benefit from light exercise, regular social contact, and being outside in nature.
Recent news
Our programme of gardening and reminiscence groups held at residential care homes and
day centres across the area continues, including recent work at Time and Talents,
Rotherhithe, Sternhall Lane Surgery, Peckham, and Windmill Lodge Care Home,
Brixton. We also hold a weekly group at the Centre for Wildlife Gardening, and always
welcome new members. Recent participants have enjoyed their experiences, telling us
how much they have enjoyed meeting new people, making friends, and spending time outdoors.
On Sunday 4th May, we held an Older People’s Open Day at the Centre for Wildlife Gardening - all age
groups were welcome! People left us their memories of gardens they had known and loved, planted seeds,
explored the garden, and joined in a fantastic felt-making workshop run by local artist Carol Grantham.
Visitors were also treated to homemade biscuits, lemonade, and beautiful sunshine all day!
Upcoming events
Future Older People’s Open Days are being held
at the Centre for Wildlife Gardening on
Wednesday 27th July, 12pm-4pm, and on Sunday
5th October, 11am-3.30pm. All are welcome;
please contact us in advance if you would like to
bring a group.
Potted History contact details and
volunteer information
Joanna Ecclestone, Potted History Project Officer
Phone: 020 7252 9186 / 07891 004 154
Email: [email protected]
Volunteers can get involved in all aspects of this
project! We do not require any specific experience,
but a cheerful, empathetic, and patient approach
and an interest in nature are ideal. Please contact
us if you are interested in joining the project.
We are always looking for venues for future
groups, so if you know of anywhere that might be
interested in hosting Potted History (for example, a
community centre, place of worship, or residential
care come), please let us know! Likewise, if you
are interested in referring yourself or someone you
know to the project, please contact us.
6
Sydenham Hill
Wood
Project overview
The Trust’s work at Sydenham Hill Wood involves practical habitat management
of Sydenham Hill Wood and Cox’s Walk, improving public access to the site,
working with volunteers, and engaging with the local community.
Recent news
Spring has seen Sydenham Hill Wood burst into life. A bat roost survey in April
discovered a possible maternity roost, and a cuckoo was heard at the beginning of May -
cuckoos had not been heard in the wood for four years. Jackdaws have been spotted building a nest on the
Dulwich Wood boundary, the first evidence of the species breeding in the Dulwich Wood complex for over
seventy years, and chiffchaffs, blackcaps, firecrests, buzzards, and numerous species of butterfly have also
been seen.
Main tasks for volunteers have included path edging, cutting back vegetation along main paths, carrying out
butterfly transects, stockpiling timber, and conducting pond surveys, following the completion of the
Ambrook and Dewy pond project in March. The new pond dipping platform will be open for school groups
and public events during the summer. Volunteers were also involved in hedge planting on Burbage Road in
Dulwich Village this spring. Over twenty metres of hedgerow were planted, thanks to funds from the
Dulwich Society, and responses have been very positive, with residents praising the volunteers’ “fantastic
efforts” in transforming the site “from an unloved
area to something of value”.
Recent events have included a highly successful
Dawn Chorus Walk in early May, which drew in a
considerable number of attendees and a pleasing
level of donations, and four education sessions
have taken place so far this year, including 150
school children! Funding for the site has been
confirmed until April 2016.
Upcoming events
- Bat, moth, and owl prowl, Friday 4th July, 9pm
We regularly run walks around the wood - look out
for further information or contact Daniel, as below.
Sydenham Hill Wood contact details and
volunteer information
Daniel Greenwood, Conservation Project Officer
Phone: 020 7252 9186 / 07734 599 728
Email: [email protected]
7
South London
Reserves
Overview
The Trust manages 18 different reserves across south London, in various locations
including Croydon, Bromley, Bexley, and Lewisham. We undertake a range of practical
conservation work and liaise and work with graziers and local London Wildlife Trust groups.
Braeburn Park
At our latest nature reserve in Braeburn, a huge task has been to remove the dense
scrub along a deep sand bank. Cutting was completed by volunteers in early March,
working with a contractor part of the time. This involved everyone getting drenched during many
hours of extremely wet and inhospitable weather. Invertebrate surveys have started and will continue
across the site this summer. Clearance of dense bramble and other vegetation along paths has been
underway in preparation for a footpath and other access improvements around Braeburn. Volunteers are
helping construct new paths and steps to make the site more accessible. Security fencing is due to be
installed at the south-west entrance, partly to help restrict access by intruding quad bikes, which damage
the ground.
Bramley Bank Pond
As part of Phase 2 of the pond restoration, large
numbers of native aquatic plants were successfully
planted during a corporate day on 13th May, in
spite of heavy showers, mud, and outbreaks of
thunder. The pond is already starting to look vibrant
but there are still more plants to put in; the
dragonflies should start arriving very soon… A
temporary fence has now been partly installed to
reduce footfall - and dogs! - in the planted-up area,
with posters explaining the temporary exclusion
area to the public.
Bramley Bank Heathland
A new interpretation sign has now been installed
following the extensive ground scrape (using a
contractor’s digger), major scrub clearance, tree
work, and heath laying during last November/
December. Heather was cut and harvested from
nearby Addington Hills, taken by our vehicle to
Bramley Bank, and laid over the scrape by many
hard-working volunteers, who worked in all
weathers to bring Phase 2 of this restoration project
to a close. In time, heather should start recolonizing
this remnant of South London heathland.
8
Hutchinson’s Bank
Damaged steps have been rebuilt at various points in the
reserve, but a lot of work still remains to be done when time
allows - all are invited (perhaps on a Sunday workday) to help
with this. The views across the shallow valley are great. Working
with a local group, volunteers helped clear large areas of dense,
mature scrub and trees on Great Shepherd’s Field as part of the
ongoing chalk grassland restoration last winter - sheep were brought in to
graze the slopes afterwards. Volunteers have cleared many metres of
dogwood and other species along the top footpath, making it easier to access
different parts of the reserve. Small blue butterflies are now appearing here during
regular transect walks, along with grizzled skippers and other species known to
Hutchinson’s over the years. Small scrapes using a digger have been carried out .
Timber benches are being made with the help of volunteers and will be installed at
vantage points on the reserve, as well as at nearby Chapel Bank.
Further news
At New Cross Gate Cuttings, steps have been rebuilt at the north end over a period of months, along with
revetment repairs where a length of path was subsiding down a bank. Some work still needs to be
completed. Meanwhile at Riddlesdown, work continued until February to open up two clearings which have
been choked by scrub for several years. Dense hawthorn and several large trees have been felled here to
create one open clearing. Mature hazel stands will, it is hoped, be coppiced on rotation in future. At Saltbox
Hill, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Dartmoor ponies are now in one of the two paddocks, to be
followed by some goats, to help keep down scrub regrowth. We are working in partnership with the
Downlands Countryside Management Project. At Threecorner Grove, volunteers repaired a long stretch of
public bridleway after it was washed away during heavy storms. The old, crumbling steps at the Centre for
Wildlife Gardening have also been replaced.
Upcoming events
- Hutchinson’s Bank Open Day, Sunday 20th July.
In partnership with Downlands Countryside
Management Project, with moth exhibits, butterfly
walks, ‘meet the sheep’, talks, and information.
South London reserves contact details and
volunteer information
Shaun Marriott, Reserves Officer (South)
Phone: 07710 194 268
Email: [email protected]
Workdays are generally on Tuesdays, Thursdays,
and Fridays, with some Wednesdays and Sundays.
Volunteers usually meet at CWG, where the
vehicle leaves for the site. Pick-ups can be
arranged at certain points en route if this is more
convenient. It is always good to check before
going, as this helps plan the work and keep
everyone busy/happy. Many reserves can also be
accessed using public transport.
9
Wild About
Thamesmead
Overview
London Wildlife Trust first managed Tump 53 in Central Thamesmead in Greenwich back in
November 1985, and now we have funding from the People’s Millions to reopen this wildlife
gem, an area important for wildlife and for those who live and work nearby. The site is a
mosaic of open water, reedbeds, woodland dominated by hawthorn and elder, and a
meadow. Historically, Tump 53 was used as part of the old Woolwich Arsenal, the central
large banks enclosing a storage building surrounded by a brick wall (now listed) and
moat to help confine blast and fire in the event of an explosion.
Recent news
Our first open day was held on 12th April. 233 people attended and numerous volunteers signed up, so the
day was a great start to the project. 80 pre-school children visited the site during two visits in early May
from the local Acorn & Arnott Pre-School, taking part in a life-cycle and scavenger hunt. Children from
other pre-schools have also visited for pond dipping, a special school has visited from neighbouring Kent,
and several primary schools are booked in for the coming weeks. Wildlife sightings so far include fox cubs,
common blue butterflies, ghost carp, and red-eyed damselflies.
Work on the site is ongoing, with workdays on
Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and some
Saturdays. New volunteers continue to sign up, and
volunteers have worked hard to edge woodland
paths with logs, clear algae off the pond’s surface,
and undertake general maintenance work. We have
started a butterfly survey, and hope that, in the near
future, the site will be open for public access three
days a week - there is lots to explore and discover
at Tump 53.
Wild About Thamesmead contact details
and volunteer information
Jane Clarke, Project Officer
Phone: 07837 576 786
Email: [email protected]
The main volunteering workdays are on Fridays,
10am-4pm. The site is half an hour from North
Greenwich tube (Zone 3, Jubilee line) by bus 472
(Stop A). Please contact Jane is you are interested
in volunteering or would like to know more about
the site.
10 Photos: Trust Thamesmead
Project overview
This project is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of the Living Wandle
Landscape Partnership Scheme. We aim to revitalise the Wandle as an identifiable, high
-quality asset to south London residents through engagement with social housing
communities near the river and to ensure that they are involved in and benefit from activities.
Recent news
We are aiming to promote awareness of the Wandle and the Living Wandle Landscape Partnership scheme
amongst local social housing communities through a range of engagement events and activities for both
landlords and residents on four target estates. By identifying and supporting numerous ambassadors from
local social housing landlords and resident communities, we will be able to gauge and strengthen
awareness of, attitudes towards, and use of the river by local communities in order to establish a baseline
for wider engagement activity. Identifying what the Wandle does, did, and could mean to these communities
ensures that these issues are well-matched with other Living Wandle activities, and by designing and
delivering training for ambassadors, we will ensure that they feel confident and able to represent their
communities and engage in future developments. Our
knowledge of the river has continued to increase.
London Wildlife Trust staff along with the Living
Wandle team and a number of key environment
agency staff have walked substantial stretches of the
Wandle and staff have been in touch with other Living
Wandle partners, working to promote our social
history and film project. Registered social landlords
adjacent to the Wandle have been contacted to
organise meetings with key staff and arrange visits
and so forth.
Project contact details and volunteer
information
Andy Willmore, Community Outreach Officer (Wandle
Estates)
Phone: 07891 004 098
Email: [email protected]
For more information or to get involved, please
contact Andy.
11
Wandle Estates
Community
Outreach Project
Protecting London’s
wildlife for the future
www.wildlondon.org.uk
Get in touch with us:
London Wildlife Trust
Dean Bradley House, 52 Horseferry Road,
Westminster, London, SW1P 2AF
Phone: 020 7261 0447
Email: [email protected]
Registered charity number: 283895