Despite the unpromising rainy start, the general feeling was that this was one of our best cleanups ever: plenty of very welcome new faces, lots of people in the river; a well-organised chain gang on the bank; two truck loads of rubbish and as a result a clearer, cleaner looking stretch of river. 

 We gained access to the river from the small industrial estate just off Ravensbury Terrace in Earlsfield, just downstream from the heavily fly-tipped area around Trewint Street.  As we’d not been in this stretch before there was plenty of rubbish to be found, which included a couple of large metal boxes which required serious teamwork to remove, a washing machine, shopping trolleys (or course), around 80 tyres, and various other indeterminate objects!

Thanks very much to local residents Richard and Tricia who very kindly provided tea and coffee for the well earned break.

We had time to pose for a few photos and celebrate our achievement before the refuse trucks arrived.

 Twizzle immediately realised we needed a second vehicle which duly appeared driven by our other favourite refuse collector from Wandsworth Council and Billie Connolly look alike!  

 The two vehicles were eventually filled, with some of us managing to get wetter and dirtier than others!  We then retired to the Leather Bottle on Garrett Lane to get cleaned and warmed up with a drink or two.

Thanks to all our volunteers: Adrian C, Adrian G-H, Alan, Alex T, Andy B, Andy C, Andy P,  Brian J, Brian P, Charles, Chris, Colin, Diana, Duncan, Erica, Freya, Gideon, Gill, Ion, Jane, Joanna, John, J Knapton, Keith, Mark, Mike, Neil, Nick M, Nick S, Nigel, Niki, Pat, Paul C, Paul M, Peter, P Delaney, Richard, Rigby, Sally, Sue, S Villet, Theo, Toby, and staff and students from Richmond University: Alexandra, Bobby, Brendan, Curtis, Donauld, Kat, Jordan, Lauren, Miriam, Nadeen, Nicole, Omar, Saugat, Taylor, Tristan, Tyler  and Captain Planet.