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!