Tag Archives: Trewint Street

Fly-tipping at Trewint Street

The Trewint Street bridge in Earlsfield is a fly-tipping blackspot which has caused concern for local people and conservationists for many years.

At the end of 2017, a significant pile of rubbish had started to accumulate again at this site in the river under the bridge, pictured below.

Today, the rubbish pile is enormous, almost to the level of the Wandle Trail itself, and there is also extensive fly-tipping and littering along the trail and pavement.

The Wandle Trust and the Wandle Valley Regional Park Trust received large numbers of emails and Tweets reporting this issue, which we have duly reported to the Environment Agency and to LB Wandsworth, dating back a good four months.

Located at a key access point for the Wandle Trail and the Wandle Valley Regional Park, this indiscriminate fly-tipping at Trewint Street is unsightly, undermines the current investment work being undertaken by the Wandle Valley Regional Park Trust, in partnership with Wandsworth Council, and is a major source of pollution for the River Wandle.

The improvement work to the Wandle Trail, along with recent interventions by the Wandle Trust to create better river habitats, aims to regenerate, enhance and make the Wandle Trail more accessible for the benefit of local people.

The Wandle Trust organises frequent community clean-ups along the full length of the River Wandle including work at Trewint Street, usually twice a year, to remove rubbish from the river and its banks, which Wandsworth Council have supported by disposing of the collected waste.

Unfortunately, the magnitude of the rubbish that is regularly being dumped at Trewint Street is far beyond the scope of community volunteer events, and we at the Wandle Trust believe that clearance here requires professional expertise organised by the landowner.

What next?

In the first instance, there is an urgent need to coordinate the removal of the rubbish from the river as this could be polluting the water and is only encouraging further fly-tipping.

Secondly, and of equal importance, is the need to take serious steps to deter fly-tipping at this site in the future.

The Wandle Trust strongly believes that further action needs to be taken by the landowner, Wandsworth Council, at this site. We will liaise with them and work with them to the best of our ability – but we do not believe we are in a position to solve this problem for them.

Wandle Cleanup: June 2017: Wandsworth

Leave a reply

The one with my favorite find…

For our Wandle cleanup this month, we answered local pleas to revisit Trewint Street in Earlsfield and clear some recent fly-tipping that had shocked the local neighbours.

On a sunny Sunday, 59 volunteers joined us at Trewint Street, including 1^st Homefield Cub Scouts and the rugby players from Bec Old Boys Club; all ready to get stuck in.

Within what felt like two seconds of finishing the Health & Safety briefing, there was already a washing machine being pulled up the concrete bank. It took some considerable muscle and cooperation, but it was safely pulled up and used to start our rubbish pile.

After the washing machine, rubbish came flooding in, faster than I could keep track of.

We found several children’s bikes..

…an airplane which is perhaps my favourite find since starting to run cleanups in 2014!

A motorbike (with another 2 to follow!)

Before it was even lunchtime, the rubbish pile was piled high!

But before I could get everyone out of the river, our waders found themselves a challenge to deal with – a piece of railway (or maybe half a castle door?)

This wooden structure weighed a considerable amount and walking it upstream under the bridge was a challenge enough, let alone pulling in up the concrete bank. But with sheer dedication and muscle, we prevailed.

A couple more finds before lunch included a Santander bike by the Homefield Cubs!

and half of another washing machine.

By lunchtime, we were all exhausted and ready for some cake. However, not all of us could resist trying out some of the toys we had found…

Having achieved so much in the morning, we decided the afternoon would be shorter. One small team followed the Homefield cubs down the Wandle Trail to a motorbike they had discovered earlier in the morning.

Meanwhile, the wading team did one final check of the area around the bridge and found me a dinosaur which is now pride of place in the bathroom:

Before everyone collapsed with exhaustion, we called it a day. If you looked at the pile though, you would have assumed we had been working for more than just 3 hours!

So what did we find? 1 rubber dingy and oars, 1 airplane with wheels, 1 radiator, 1 Santander bike, 1 fan, 1 Thomas the tank engine, 1 dinosaur (now rehomed in Polly’s dinosaur-themed flat), 1 railway structure, 1 washing basket, 1 bunny, 1 wheel clamp, 1.5 washing machines, 2 blankets, 2 mattresses, 2 traffic cones, 2 tyres, 3 motorbikes, 4 children scooters, 5 children’s bikes, 6 buckets, planks and planks of wood (fencing, furniture and more) and bags and bags and bags and bags of rubbish! We also pulled a fair amount of Himalayan balsam – as if we hadn’t worked hard enough!

Huge thanks to everyone who helped unpack and pack up the van during the event, Rosie for supervising the Event Tent and for helping me back at the garage, Big Yellow Wandsworth for providing free storage space for our equipment and the Waste Team at Wandsworth Council for organising collection of all the rubbish the next day.

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming: Aaron, Abigail, Adrien, Alan, Andrea, Andrew D, Andrew R, Andy, Brody, Carter, Charles, Charlotte, Chris, Claire, Dave, David, Ed B, Ed H, Ed S, Geoff, Guy, Harry, Howard, Ivan, Jason, Joanna, Lisa, Liz, Luca, Lucile, Luke, Lynda, Martina, Maxwell, Michael, Miles, Nick, Nicola, Oliver, Per, Pete, Phil, Richard, Rory, Rose, Sally, Sam, Sarah, Sheila, Stephanie, Steve B, Steve M, Theo, Wally, Will and William.

So what did I learn from this month’s cleanup? Chinese mitten crabs are living in the Wandle at Trewint Street!

Fish Passage Restored!

1 Reply

Last year we were working on a fish passage project on the Wandle at Trewint Street, Earlsfield.

Although there are many weirs on the Wandle which impede the migration of fish Trewint Street is one of the largest, with two weirs either side of a large concrete channel. With funding from the Environment Agency, Thames Water and Defra’s Catchment Partnership Action Fund (CPAF), we have restored passage for fish and eels, allowing movement to upstream habitats.

So how did we achieve this?

A bespoke fish pass was designed by Fishtek and installed on the weir by local contractors Amenity Water Management (AWM).

At the top of the right hand weir, a series of recycled plastic baffles were fixed onto the weir. These deepen and slow the flow of water and as you can see from the picture below, the baffles are arranged with a diagonal gap up to the top. This is the path the fish use to swim up the weir.

The baffles had to be fixed to the weir in dry conditions, and so sandbags were used to divert the water down the left hand weir, leaving the right hand side high and dry while our contractors worked. Watch the timelapse footage of AWM installing the baffles.

The second part of the fish pass were three large wooden pre-barrages at the bottom end of the island which were designed to slow the water down and reduce the drop in water level between the channel and the baffles.

Each barrage was notched to create a path for migrating fish.

To makes sure the pass works in low flows a huge piece of wood (7m long!) was placed at the top of the left hand weir to divert water at low flow down the right hand side and the fish pass. This ensures the pass works over a large range of flows.

Bristles were fixed to each of the barrages to allow eel passage. Eel tiles were then fixed alongside the baffles on the concrete wall making the weir passable to both fish and European Eels.

A big thanks to our contractors AWM, landowner Mr Lammas and Thames Water, Defra and the Environment Agency for their funding.

Wandle cleanup: January 2016: Wandsworth

Leave a reply

The one where we worked so hard we finished early..

Firstly, a Happy New Year to everyone!

For the first cleanup of 2016, we returned to Trewint Street in Earlsfield following reports of fly-tipping in the river. However little did we know that the day before brought a huge downpour of rain, so when we arrived at 10am on Sunday morning, all the rubbish had been washed further downstream. Oh well, off we go!

To start off 2016, I decided to summarise what we had achieved as a group in 2015. In total, we had spent 2241 hours clearing the Wandle covering 6.6 km of the river with 595 volunteers pulling out 33 tonnes of rubbish. Amazing. Below you can see some of the highlights.

After the inspirational talk, it was time to get started. A team of brave waders climbed over the fence into the Wandle and headed downstream under the Trewint Street bridge. A mattress had been spotted a short wade away and everyone’s sights had been set on dragging this back up the river and hauling it out over the concrete bank. A great warm up, we all thought..

Pulling the mattress may look simple enough but it actually took 6 of us hauling on the grapples and holding the mattress in the air while it drained away some of the water it had soaked up. Getting in on a wheelbarrow and to the rubbish pile was a whole new kettle of fish.

Meanwhile, litter pickers had discovered the large pile of fly-tipping further down the Wandle Trail. This pile has been kindly re-stocked for every cleanup to date, but a team got stuck in and shifted all sorts to the rubbish pile including water barrels, flooring, fencing, garden furniture and a TV.

As the day continued, the rubbish pile got bigger and bigger. Theo cleared the newly installed fish pass which had caught some branches in the recent high flows on the river. Without getting wet, he managed to remove the branches using the grappling hook, much like one of those grabber arcade games except there was no adorable cuddly toy prize at the end, before clambering down the ladder to dislodge the biggest branches by hand.

We stopped slightly early for lunch as we were all pretty cold and in need of a cup of tea. Sally Ann, Jackie and Ann had made some delicious cakes for us all which disappeared in no time. Before we got started again, we had a mini team meeting to work out what to do. The waders had cleared downstream of the bridge leaving only the upstream route which was known to be full of silt. Bravely, the waders got back in and headed towards Plough Lane.

Within 20 m, they were out again! The river was too deep and waders only reach so far up. So instead we all walked along the Wandle Trail looking for motorbikes from the banks. For once, we couldn’t see any!

Having already removed a huge pile of rubbish we decided to finish slightly early. We packed up the van and all headed home for a much needed warm shower.

Next month our cleanup falls on Valentine’s Day – so why not bring along a date! Who wants flowers and chocolates when you can wade in the Wandle and find yourself the perfect gift…

So what did we find? 1 sodden mattress, 1 desk chair, 1 folding chair, 1 lounger, 1 kitchen chair, 1 picnic table, 1 TV, 1 dustbin, 1 gas canister, 1 push chair, 1 thermos, 1 rusty old air rifle, 1 clothes dryer, 1 heater, 3 traffic cones, 3 water barrels, 4 bicycles, lots and lots of fencing and miscellaneous flooring and bags and bags of other rubbish.

Huge thanks to Thames Water for funding the event, everyone who helped unpack and pack up the van during the event, Ann, Jackie and Sally Ann for catering for our volunteers, Wally & Theo for supervising with me and Rosie for supervising the Event Tent, and the Waste Management Team at Wandsworth Council for organising collection of all the rubbish the next day.

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming: Aaron, Abi, Alex, Andrea, Andy, Ann, Barry, Charles, Chris, Dave J, Dave W, Derek, Ed, George E, George N, Guy, Hamish, Hugo, Ian, Jackie, James, Jane B, Jane P, Jason, Joe, John, Karoline, Louise, Margie, Marina, Mark, Mike, Penny, Phil, Rianne, Rose, Sally Ann, Simon, Stephen, Subiratha, Sue, Theo, Tom H, Tom K, Victor, Wally, Xilona and Zoe

So what did I learn from this month’s cleanup? That there is a very good reason why I bring the bag of spare clothes every month…

Wandle cleanup: October 2015: Earlsfield

Leave a reply

The one with the TV crew, bacon sandwiches and my new hoody…

Our October cleanup this year was pretty special, but where to start?!

Let’s go with location. So for October we were back to the infamous Trewint Street in Earlsfield, and by 11 o’clock I had been joined by a staggering 72 people! No pressure…

Seymour Green Estate Agents who were supporting the event joined us with their local team as well as South West London TV who had come to film our event and see what we get up to on the second Sunday of every month.

On top of this, we were joined by Mancinism Design who had made organic cotton bags and branded jumpers especially for the event. Mine was so comfy I wore it all day, and into the office on Monday!

So even before we had started, it was already a special cleanup.

To get the event started, I introduced the day’s plan which was to divide into two wading groups. One to head upstream in the hunt of motorbikes (a classic find at Trewint Street unfortunately) and one to head downstream for all sorts of other rubbish.

Everyone else would support from the bank and litter pick on the Wandle Trail.

So off we went.

Pretty quickly, the wading team were finding plenty of rubbish in the river. However the added challenge of Trewint Street is that the trugs of rubbish have to be hauled up the concrete wall – not logistically easy.

Our motorbike hunting team were off to a slow start, but just as we thought there weren’t any, we found two! The first came up relatively easy, being a small moped. But the second took 15 people on a rope to heave up. The students from Richmond International University all grabbed the ropes and dragged the bike all the way back to the rubbish pile – we were very glad they all came along!

Downstream of the bridge, our wading team were finding some large items which they then had to drag back up the river (against the flow) for us to haul up. They found a toddler’s cot..

A BBQ..

And a motorbike which was too heavy to bring back so we hauled it out onto the bank to be collected during our next cleanup downstream at Ravensbury Terrace.

Meanwhile, cleanup guru Jane and Winston (Macinism Design) had found something lurking in the silt of the Wandle, but the identity of the mystery object remained unknown all morning as they struggled to move it on their own. Luckily after lunch we sent more helpers and the object was found to be an old fireplace.

Speaking of lunch – what a treat! Ben’s Canteen supplied us all with bacon rolls! These quickly disappeared among the hungry volunteers. And Bean & Hop sent us some other snacks to share around. So a big thank you to them!

After lunch, everyone was back in the river. One of the last finds was a carpet – not an easy things to pull out of the river, let alone drag back up the channel, haul over the concrete wall and then ferry it to the rubbish pile. But it made it!

So it was a hugely successful day! Thank you to all the volunteers who came along to our event, we hope to see you all at the next one on November 8^th at Plough Lane!

So what did we find? 1 fireplace, 1 radiator, 1 BBQ, 1 toddler playpen, 1 Woody doll (who had seen better days), 1 mattress wire, 1 strimmer, 1 vacuum cleaner, 1 number plate, 1 CD player (old school), 1 bicycle tyre, 1 Avengers Assemble football, 1 generic football, 1 bench, 1 carpet, 2 trolleys, 2 motorbikes, 4 tyres, several random pieces of metal and 40 bags of other rubbish.

Huge thanks to everyone who helped pack up van after the event and Rose for supervising the Event Tent; Wally, Theo & Chris for helping supervise everyone on the day, Mancinism Design for our jumpers and bags, South West London TV for coming along and Ben’s Canteen for the bacon sandwiches and the Waste Management Team at Merton Council for organising collection of all the rubbish the next day.

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming: Aaron, Abigail, Adam, Andrew W, Ann W, Brandi, Breuno, Brigid, Charles WS, Chris E, Chris R, Claire, Colin, Colin M, Curtis, Daniel, Dave J, Dave P, David W, Derek, Ed, Faisal, Geroid, Giacometi, Giulla, Hannah, Henry, Ida, Jack, Jane P, Jason, Jess, Jessica, Joanna, John N, Jonathan, Kimberly, Linus M, Lois, Louise, Luca, Maggie, Michael, Michael R, Nick, Nikola, Noah, Oliver, Olivia, Paul R, Penny, Phil, Rachel, Rob, Rose, Rosemary, Russell, Sally, Sara M, Sarah, Shannon, Simon, Tate, Theo, Tom, Vic, Wafiya, Wally, Wayne, William, Winston and Zoe.

So what did I learn from this month’s cleanup? There is nothing better than a bacon sandwich after a morning of Wandle work.

Check out South West London TV’s Video of the Cleanup here!