The one with the toy car, the koi carp and Superwoman…

It’s not quite as bad as Trewint Street, but in its own way the bridge from King George’s Park over the Wandle to the Henry Prince Estate is just as much of a fly-tipping target (and like Ravensbury Terrace it’s downstream of Trewint Street too)…

… so when Erica spotted the appearance of a washing machine in the river, we designated it as the site of this August’s cleanup.

On this stretch of the Wandle, the river and its bankside nature reserves are separated from the park by a high fence (although we hope this will change in the foreseeable future).

As a result, getting the rubbish to our collection point involved much teamwork and heavy lifting…

… followed by a mercifully short push across the bridge to the back of the estate…

… where a couple of our younger volunteers started to exercise their entrepreneurial muscle by separating out the scrap metal for recycling!

Wandsworth Council‘s Principal Parks Officer Val Selby had asked us to blitz a large patch of invasive Himalayan balsam at the same time as our work in the river, and Jez was happy with the results:

As usual, we had to evict at least one eel (this one from the plumbing of an old bathroom sink)…

… whilst hanging over the bridge at coffee time, some osprey-eyed Wandle Piscators spotted a pair of large koi carp, finning sedately up and downstream in their new, cleaner environment. 

In fact, by the time Wandsworth Council’s cage lorry arrived we’d dredged up an almost unbelievable variety of rubbish…

25 tyres (including 2 lorry tyres), at least 15 bicycles, more than 10 plastic drainpipes, 9 traffic cones, 7 wooden boards, 5 carpets, 4 shopping trolleys, 4 computers, 3 kids’ scooters, 3 road barriers, 2 buckets, 2 mattresses, 2 duvets, 2 crutches, 1 wheelchair, 1 suitcase, 1 hoover, 1 picnic table, 1 freestanding BBQ, 1 security box, 1 car door, 1 television, 1 golf club, 1 large metal box, 1 washing machine, the eel’s old sink and enough unwanted toys to open a shop:

And as Terry finally drove his cage lorry away down the converging sightlines of the Henry Prince Estate with our thanks and more than 2 tonnes of rubbish, many of us headed in the opposite direction for a drink at the Jolly Gardeners!

Thanks to all our volunteers: Abi, Amelia, Andy B, Andy P, April, Ann, Arud, Bart, Billy, Carol, Charles, Dave, Debs, Doug, Erica, Gideon, Hannah, Helen, Henry, Jack, James, Jane, Jez, Jim, Jo H, Jo S, John, Joolz, J Evans, Keith, Leonie, Lindsey, Lisa, Louis, Matthew, Michael F, Michael S, Mike, Nick, Peter, Rob, Robert L, Robert W, Roger, Rosie, Sally Ann, Steve, Susan, S Thomas, Theo, Toby and Tom