Reg. Charity No. 1091000

The one with an astonishing 14 shopping trolleys!

It was a remarkably mild day on the second Sunday in January, so much so that 43 volunteers decided to shake off the indulgences of the festive season and help clean up another 50m stretch upstream of Lydden Road.

All sorts of detritus emerged from the water which we could have sworn we’d left rubbish-free 11 months before. Road cones, bike frames and shoes were passed to volunteers on the bank who wheeled the rubbish to the dumpsite.

It wasn’t long before the first of 14 shopping trolleys was identified, dug out and hauled from the water.  All were deeply sunk in the river bed, so they’d clearly been there for years, and it took a lot of hard work with crow bars and shovels to release them from the silty depths:

Before we knew it, it was time to take a break and Sally produced a piping hot leek soup and two kinds of cake which everyone enjoyed. Suitably energised, we returned to get to grips with even more shopping trolleys, an oil drum, and the remains of a 1980s hi-fi:

Meanwhile two of our youngest volunteers, Callum and Leo, teamed up and did some litter picking in the undergrowth and had no trouble filling Callum’s own wheelbarrow which he’d brought along especially:

All too soon, Terry and his truck appeared and, having clapped eyes on the huge pile of rubbish,decided we should load up the shopping trolleys first and then put all the rubbish on the top of them.  (Thanks to Sharon and Michael of Wandsworth Council’s Waste Management Team who organised the pick up!)

As we were loading up the rubbish two rather surprised eels wriggled out from underneath the pile and were returned, with some difficulty, to the river by Rob and Roger.

Another of our young volunteers, Isabelle, is working her way towards a Duke of Edinburgh Award, and has chosen to come to cleanups as her volunteering activity. She was both in the river and on the bank helping to add to the rubbish pile and wanted her photograph taken on the rubbish truck before it departed.  So of course we were happy to oblige!

Thanks to all our volunteers:  Abi, Adrian, Andy B, Andy T, Ann, Anne, Barbara, Callum, Charles, Diana, Doug, Erica, Gearoid, Helen, Henry, Isabelle, Jane, Jayne, Jason, Jill, John N, John P, John S, Justin, Kate, Keith, Ken, Leo, Mark, Michael, Phil, Robert M, Robert W,  Roger, Sally, Simon, Stephen, Steve, Sue, Theo, Tim, Toby and Tom.

… who removed:

1 coconut (of course!), 1 pair of loppers, 1 car clamp, 1 metal sheet, 1 oil drum, 1 Hi Fi, 1 office water bottle, 1 large metal screen, 1 plastic Christmas tree, 1 office chair, 1 briefcase, 1 road sign, 1 boiler cover, 1 dustbin, 1 wheelbarrow, 1 garden hose, 2 bike frames, 2 buckets, 2 plastic sheets, 2 pushchairs, 2 garden chairs, 2 wallets, 3 traffic cones, 3 carpets, 4 metal bars, 14 shopping trolleys, 15 tyres and another 2 tonnes of unidentified rubbish.

Eel tally: 2

Update: this story has now been picked up and reported by the South London Guardian newspaper group!

Great news to start 2012!  Trout have recently been seen spawning in the restored Carshalton arm of the river near Butter Hill.  The newly notched weir has allowed fish to migrate upstream and utilise the gravels that were introduced as part of our river restoration works in the summer and autumn.

A trout creating a redd (trout egg nest) by flapping its tail to clean away silt, dig a hole in the gravel, and cover the eggs with more dislodged stones:

Trout eggs require good flows with well oxygenated, cool water for successful maturation and hatching.  The combination of the improved access for fish to the new gravels and faster flows from the narrowing and flow deflectors have created ideal habitats for the spawning fish with some fine redds being formed.

As you can see from the photo below, one redd was cut in the faster flow provided at the end of the wooden flow deflector (location of  this deflector and other features were suggested by our good friend Paul Gaskell at the Wild Trout Trust – cheers Paul!) The redd can be seen as a cleaner patch of gravel which contrasts with the siltier gravel around it:

The redd will allow eggs to hatch (in approx. 2 months) and emerging tiny fish (alevins) to shelter in the gaps between the pebbles below the surface of the gravel bed.

It is important that the redds are not disturbed until they hatch in a couple of months.

Many thanks to all who have contributed to the restoration work over the past year: our many enthusiastic volunteers alone have given over 500 hours of hard work to the project. Big thanks too to the Wild Trout Trust for their advice and support throughout. We can already see that the fish are appreciating it!

Update: this exciting news has now been picked up by Total Flyfisher, and Angling Times is also running a Wandle story: click the links to read more.  

Meanwhile, Sutton Guardian’s version implies that the pollution incident in 2007 damaged the river as far upstream as Carshalton: this isn’t correct, since the spill entered the river near Goat Bridge, but it’s certainly true to say that Thames Water’s settlement helped us to fund this work as part of the Living Wandle project, which is vitally important to make the whole Wandle catchment healthier and more resilient for the future.  And, as a result, we certainly hope that the winter of 2011-12 will be the river’s most successful trout spawning season for more than 80 years!

The one with Christmas wishes from Down Under

For this year’s Christmas cleanup, the weather forecast was threatening rain, so we arrived at Plough Lane well prepared with 2 gazebos to keep the refreshments and 50 volunteers’ belongings dry.  Luckily the rain held off, but there were some strong winds howling round the edges of the new apartment blocks…

We hadn’t been to this stretch of the Wandle since March 2009 and a few things had changed in the interim.  Amy, Steve, Tony and William, amongst others, spent some time extracting a shopping trolley from a willow tree, because in the intervening couple of years the branch had grown through the trolley!

Heavy duty items required teamwork to move…

… whether in the river or up on the bank:

The sopping piles of rubbish kept on coming, and it wasn’t the first time we’ve been convinced that this is the only stretch of chalkstream in Britain to feature a fully-fitted shag pile riverbed!

Youngest volunteer, Jack, who had been litter picking on the bank with his father, was very pleased with the motorbike helmet he’d found as he took it to the dump site:

Sally served up delicious tomato and basil soup with hunks of bread at lunchtime, followed by mince pies and brandy butter, and Rob’s homemade panettone…

Even though she was Down Under (and to the right a bit) at the time, Jo sent a Christmas cake – which doubled up as Theo’s birthday cake –  some decorations to make the gazebo festive, and a photograph of herself in reindeer antlers in the heat of a New Zealand summer!

At quarter to three, Merton Council arrived to pick up the rubbish, but quickly agreed that a grab lorry would be more appropriate than the truck they sent. One or two phone calls later, it was arranged that our regular operator, Stan, would be despatched the following day to pick up the pile.  Our thanks to him and to Tony for arranging collection.

Then it was back to work for the final fifteen minutes and a few more items of rubbish, before we packed up and wended our chilly ways homeward and pubward for well-earned birthday drinks…

Thanks to all our volunteers:  Abi, Amy, Adrian, Andy, Ann, Bart, Bella, Bethany, Charles, Con, Debbie, Doug, Emer, Erica, Fatou, Gearóid, Gideon, Graham, Helen, Henry, Hugh, Jack, James, John N, John P, Jo, Jon, Leonie, Meryn, Mike, Neil, Nick, Oliver, Paul, Peter, Robert M, Robert W, Roger, Ruby, Sally, Sally Ann, Simon, Stephen, Steve, Steven, Theo, Toby, Tony, Wayne and William

… who removed…

 1 wheelbarrow, 1 motorbike helmet, 1 picture of Ganesh, 1 roll of chicken wire, 1 mop, 1 knife, 1 bicycle, 1 skateboard, 1 loo seat, 1 iron girder, 1 kettle, 1 roasting tin, 1 metal sheet, 2 motorbike frames, 2 road signs, 2 pushchairs, 2 cable covers, 2 suitcases, 2 plastic boxes, 2 duvets, 2 wooden boards, 2 bins, 2 shopping trolleys, 3 chairs, 3 pieces of plastic netting, 3 vacuum cleaners, 4 mattresses, 5 metal pipes, 5 corrugated sheets, 15 carpets, 19 traffic cones, 23 tyres and 2 tonnes of other unidentified rubbish. 

 Oh yes, and of course there’s always a coconut!

Eel tally: 2                                                                    

All photographs: thanks to Sally Ann Symis

The one with a record 11 motorbikes… and therefore collective backache!

We had a sneaking suspicion that Earlsfield’s notorious fly-tipping spot at the end of Trewint Street would be a crowd puller and we weren’t disappointed.  With the autumn sunshine shining down on Remembrance Sunday, 68 volunteers turned up to do battle with all the rubbish, and we needed every pair of hands!

Suitably attired in waders, volunteer and photographer Sally Ann Symis captured all the day’s activity and as pictures paint a thousand words…

After refreshments, tea, coffee and delicious sultana cake and shortbread biscuits produced by Sally and Jo, we worked our way upstream to the now infamous ‘motorbike pool’. 

An astonishing 11 mopeds, scooters and motorbikes were hauled up the bank by our volunteers with new volunteer DeNica getting well and truly stuck in, shouting instructions to heave in a loud, clear voice! 

We also found a go-kart in the pool, and one or two of our volunteers enjoyed being pushed along the trail to the dump site!

Trustee and local illustrator Jane Porter brought the newly painted ‘Wedding Wheelbarrow’, now emblazoned with the happy couple’s names on each side, and it wasn’t long before it was duly pressed into service.  Jane’s posters of the Wandle Alphabet and this year’s Christmas cards were on sale, with all proceeds going towards the work of the Wandle Trust.

By the time we were just pushing the last two motor scooters to the dump site, Terry from Wandsworth Council’s Waste Management Team arrived with his truck and we helped him load up.  Our thanks to him, and to Joanna and Michael who arranged collection of all the rubbish.

Thanks to all our volunteers: Abi, Amy, Andy B, Andy D, Andy P, Ann, Ann-Marie, Barry, Barbara, Bart, Caroline, Charles, Dave, Debbie, DeNica, Doug, Emer, Erica, Gearoid, Gideon, Helen, Henry, Hugh, Ilaria, Irene, Isabel, James, James Y, Jan, Jane, Jason, Jen, Jill, Jo H, Jo S, Joanna, John B, John N, John P, Kate, Kathleen, Keith, Ken, Leo, Mallahi, Marek, Mel, Michael, Mike, Nuria, Paul, Rachel, Robert, Ruby, Sally, Sally Ann, Sarah P, Sarah W,  Steve D, Steve K, Theo, Tim, Toby, Tom, Tony, Ursula, Wayne and William.

… who removed…

1 DVD player, 1 road sign, 1 barbecue, 1 table, 1 window pane, 1 wheelbarrow, 1 go kart, 1 kitchen sink, 1 postman’s trolley, 1 golf cart, 1 Wickes trolley, 2 gas boilers, 2 fire extinguishers, 2 toy ‘Tiggers’, 2 carpets, 2 safes, 2 road barriers, 2 pallets, 2 fences, 2 shopping trolleys, 3 Christmas trees, 3 bicycles, 5 pushchairs, 5 tyres, 6 traffic cones, 11 motorbikes,  and an assortment of household items including hairdryers, clothes, shoes, light bulbs, paint pots, brushes, tinsel and nappies.  There was also another 2 tonnes or so of unidentified junk.

Yes, it’s that time of year again…

Our charity Christmas card design for 2011: Hackbridge in the snow

 … when we announce the design of this season’s new Wandle Trust charity Christmas cards, and encourage all our friends and supporters to send as many as they can to their own friends and relations!

This year’s A5-sized cards show Hackbridge in the snow… with a tag of strategically-placed graffiti as a festive greeting.

Printed locally on FSC-certified paper, the cards are A5 landscape in format, and are available in packs of 8 cards for £10. All profits will go directly to help the vital work of the Wandle Trust.

You can buy your cards at our November and December cleanups, where limited numbers of previous years’ cards will also be available. Alternatively, you can buy them online via this website and your Paypal account, and have them sent to you.  Here’s how:

Check the price of the number of packs you want, plus Royal Mail 1^st class postage and packaging, from the table below:

• 1 pack of 8 cards (268g) plus 1^st class P&P: £3.25
• 2 packs of 8 cards (536g) plus 1^st class P&P: £3.80
• 3 packs of 8 cards (704g) plus 1^st class P&P: £3.95
• 4 packs of 8 cards (1072g) plus 1^st class P&P: £5.75
• 5 packs of 8 cards (1338g) plus 1^st class P&P: £6.50
• 6 packs of 8 cards (1606g) plus 1^st class P&P: £7.25
• 7 packs of 8 cards (1876g) plus 1^st class P&P: £8.00
• 8 packs of 8 cards (2140g) plus 1^st class P&P: £9.80

Then make your payment via the Paypal link on the left hand side of this page, and email us at sales@wandletrust.org confirming your Paypal payment, the number of packs you want, and (most importantly) your postal address.  We’ll aim to send your cards within 2 working days of receiving your order.

If you’d prefer to buy cards in any of our previous designs (below), please email us first with the details and quantities you’d like, and we’ll see if we still have them in stock.

Christmas 2010: Wandle alphabet

Christmas 2009: Earlsfield railway bridge

Christmas 2008: Butter Hill bridge

Christmas 2007: Grove Park, Carshalton

If you don’t want to buy online, you can also send us a cheque for the number of packs of cards you’d like, plus the appropriate amount for postage and packaging, according to the table. Please make your cheque payable to The Wandle Trust, and send it to: 75 Mill Lane, Carshalton,Surrey SM5 2JS.

Happy Christmas shopping – and thank you for your support!

Since 1870, when John Ruskin wrote his notorious eulogy for the Wandle, complaining about the “slow stealing of neglect over the delicate sweetness of that English scene” and even the “insolent defiling” of the headwater springs at Carshalton, it’s safe to say that the river has endured many ups and downs.

On the other hand, the work that he complained “is never given, nor I suppose ever will be… for evermore about those wells of English waters”… well, we know it’s certainly being given now.

So last Thursday evening saw more than 120 Wandle volunteers, river restoration professionals and local dignitaries, including the Leader of Sutton Council and the Mayor of Merton, gathering in the Civic Suite of Wandsworth Town Hall, to celebrate the launch of the Wandle Trust’s new Supporters’ Scheme…

… and raise a glass to the Environment Agency’s announcement in September that the Wandle is one of the UK’s 10 most improved rivers in the last 20 years.

Taking the podium for his keynote address, our local MP Tom Brake revealed that the Wandle Trust’s work has featured in several of his speeches to the House of Commons (hint: check Hansard!)

… and told us how his experiences of finding handguns and police ID badges in the Wandle, whilst volunteering at several of our river cleanups and habitat improvement events, have provided him with startling sidelights on his role as Co-Chair of the Backbench Committee on Home Affairs, Justice and Equalities!

Following these revelations, familiar figures from the Wandle Trust recalled how dramatically the river has recovered since the 1850s (with quotes from Ruskin), outlined our plans for the coming year, and introduced our Supporters’ Scheme…

… before we all joined in a final round of applause for our project partners and dedicated volunteers…

… and continued celebrating into the night with canapés provided by Jo and Arabella, and a firkin of Wandle Ale very generously donated by our good friends at Sambrooks Brewery.

Many thanks to all our volunteers, both on Thursday night and at all our other events, and here’s to another 10, 20 or 150 years’ success for the Wandle!

To help our vital work on the Wandle or find out more about our new Supporters’ Scheme, please click here.

October 29 & 30

After  a few weeks’ break we were itching do some more restoration work and so a nice mild October weekend saw our volunteers back in the river downstream of Butter Hill Weir.

People were soon hard at work digging out rubble and raking back the substrate:

A mid channel island soon began to take shape:

A deeper channel was created linking the weir pool and the fish pass flows, creating more attractant flow for the fish pass.  The deeper water will also benefit fish which that are resting before ascending the pass.

Seven tonnes of flint gravels were then introduced over the two days to provide a more natural chalk stream habitat.  The gravel will become home to bug life and may even be used by fish for spawning sites.  The improved flow should also help keep the gravels free of silt along the fish pass wall.

A group of volunteers filled buckets with gravel…

… while others carried them to the river and over the fence…

… to be carefully lowered into the river and then spread on the river bed:

An audience soon gathered and a number of them were inspired to help shovelling too!

Break times were always welcome, cheese scones …hmmm!

Jo and her delicious cakes (the way to a volunteer’s heart is always through their stomach!)

After finishing the work we all stood and admired the work and saw a  grey wagtail fly in and bob along the new gravel bar.  Wagtails have nested at this site previously and the new gravel bar will be ideal habitat for them.  We plan to introduce  a bird box designed for wagtails at this site in the near future.

The finished work.  Over time the gravel colour will tone down, water plants will grow in the river and the gravel bar will be vegetated with aquatic plants to provide more habitat diversity.

Many thanks to all our volunteers: Abi, Alan, Anne E, Ann W, Chris, Emma, Erica, Georgina, Helen, Jez, Jo, John N, John P, Paul, Rob and Toby.

The one with the picnic and the raptor’s skeleton

Whether it was the prospect of a clean up on an unusually mild October day, or the promise of a delicious picnic to follow, 61 volunteers turned up to tackle several hundred metres of picturesque river alongside Poulter Park:

First up was a sawn off shotgun and a pair of safes (regrettably empty!) …

… followed by lots of scrap metal including fences, scaffolding poles and wheel hubs:

Mike found a skeleton of what we thought might have been a small bird of prey…

 … whilst Charles checked a tyre for eels which love to hide inside them – but they weren’t at home this time:

… and Sarah retrieved a brace of traffic cones:

Further upstream we found a bath and handbasin: as Doug and others wrestled with the first of four carpets, we wondered if someone had consigned the entire contents of a house to the water!

 Just before we broke for lunch, Andy and the boys discovered a mass of tangled rubbish which required a lot of team heaving to extract from the river bed:

Then it was time for an hour’s relaxation whilst we enjoyed a delicious picnic catered, as usual, by Sally and Jo:

Our sincere thanks to them for pasta and rice salad, cold chicken, veggie pie, three kinds of cake and Chantillycream.  Mmmmmm!

Thanks too to all our volunteers:  Abi, Amy, Andy B, Andy D, Andy P, Ann, Antoine, Barry, Bella, Bruce, Charles L, Charles W-S, Chris, Diana, Doug, Erica, Ertugrul, Fatou, Gearóid, Giles, Helen, Hugh, Ilaria, James, Jan, Jane,  Jez, Jo H, Jo S, John, Joolz, Kate, Leon, Leonie, Lindsey, Lizzie, Lucy, Matthew, Mauro, Max, Melisa, Michael, Mike, Neil, Nico, Patrick, Rob, Roger, Sally, Sarah, Saskia, Steve D, Steve K, Sue B, Sue V, Theo, Tom, Tony, Valerie, Wayne and William

 … who removed…

 1 toy Muppet, 1 vacuum cleaner, 1 sawn off shotgun, 1 keeper’s net, 1 pushchair, 1 lampshade, 1 exhaust pipe, 1 fence, 2 go karts, 1 computer, 1 car bonnet, 1 garden chair, 1 scooter, 1 toilet, 1 hand basin, 1 bath, 1 CD player, 1 bird’s skeleton, 2 wooden pallets, 2 bicycles, 2 bicycle frames, 2 suitcases, 2 safes, 2 office chairs, 4 bicycles,  6 traffic cones,  8 metal poles, 14 tyres, lots of rubber tubing, huge numbers of pieces of chipboard and another 1.5 tonnes of unidentified rubbish.

Our thanks as ever to Sutton Council for removing the rubbish for us afterwards, and especially to David Yendell for organising the pick-up from Poulter Park.  We understand that the wonderful Sandra Brown has moved to a new job within the Council, and send her our best wishes and thanks for all her help in supporting us during cleanups in Sutton over the past 3 years!

October 1 & 2

An unusually hot October weekend saw our intrepid volunteers back on the river at Carshalton, installing a second ‘dragon’s tooth’ berm in the river alongside Wilderness Island.  The ground was hard and required a lot of effort and adaptation of techniques to install the rebar rods.

John got stuck in while Chris took a breather (we were glad of the tree cover in the heat!)

The picture below shows the finished dragon’s tooth berm, with the one installed previously in the background.  We now await the winter rains to raise water levels and fill the berm with silt.

While the dragon’s tooth was being formed, a second team were busy removing rubbish from the river all the way up from Wilderness island to Grove Park.

Sunday involved the installation of the last few structures including a few more cover logs…

..and a number of brash bundles to provide additional cover and habitat:

Below Butter Hill weir and fish pass, another team of volunteers was hard at work resculpting the bed.  This involved moving some of the large amount of rubble and brick to one side to provide a deeper channel with more flow and a berm ready to be gravelled at a later date.  The deeper water will provide better habitat and cover for fish and the berm can be planted to provide more habitat.

Gearoid got stuck in!

…and the rubble began to pile up on the right hand bank:

The stretch is now ready for gravel to be introduced at our next volunteer event.

John, Steve, Gearoid and the rubbish pile!

Many thanks to all our enthusiastic volunteers: Anne, Chris, Gearoid, Gideon, Jez, John N, John P, Sally, Stephen, Steve and Theo.

(Image: the Environment Agency)

As some of you may have heard, since about 1am this morning there’s been a major fire at a tyre-shredding plant at Fiveways Corner on the Purley Way. At least 10 fire engines are still involved in putting it out, and foam and fire-water are running into the Wandle via the surface water drainage system. Five Ways Corner may be shut for up to 24 hours while the incident is fully brought under control.

Our local Environment Agency fisheries team is on site near the point of discharge above Beddington Park with booms and aerators, but we’ve just had a call from their office to ask if we can ask any of our supporters to check the river for:

• how far the foam extends downstream
• any signs of distressed fish or other wildlife

Any urgent details should be fed through to the EA’s incident hotline 0800 80 70 60: please also post them as a comment below this blog post so we can track them too.

Clearly this is in the middle of a working day, but any information would be very greatly appreciated!