Ye who have a spark in your veins of cockney spirit, smile or mourn acccording as you take things well or ill;— Bold Britons, we are now on Shooter's Hill!
Hannah, the Education Officer at Woodlands Farm sent details of their October half term events for children:
October Half Term Children’s Events
Wednesday 30th October
Tremendous Trees
1pm-3pm
Free!
Join us in our woodland as we discover all about trees and the wildlife associated with them. We will also be collecting some seeds for our tree nursery. Come down any time between 1-3pm to join our afternoon of tree discovery.
Thursday 31st October
Horrible Halloween
6pm-8pm
£2.50 per child.
Come along to a spooky evening at Woodlands Farm. Wear fancy dress and make a lantern before we go on a night walk, looking for nocturnal wildlife as well as hearing a Halloween story or two. Booking is essential for this event, to book call 020 8319 8900.
Friday 1st November
Super scarecrows
1pm-3pm
£2 per child
Come along to Woodlands Farm to join us in some super scarecrow fun. Help us make a new scarecrow for our yard or make your own mini scarecrow to take home with you. Drop in anytime between 1-3pm to join the fun!
For more information, see our website or contact Hannah Forshaw on education@thewoodlandsfarmtrust.org
Work on the new education building at the farm is progressing rapidly; the building itself was already in place when I wandered down to the farm yesterday. I wonder if it will be open in time for the half term events?
Suzanna Fitzpatrick, who used to look after publicity for Woodlands Farm, wrote with details of an evening of poetry on Thursday 24th October organised by The Greenwich Poetry Workshop:
Greenwich Poetry Workshop presents:
Poetry at the Treehouse
Thursday 24 October 2013, 7pm for 7.30pm
The Treehouse (top floor), The Greenwich Tavern, 1 King William Walk, Greenwich, SE10 9JH
Nearest stations: Cutty Sark DLR or Greenwich DLR/mainline
FREE ENTRY, no booking required.
Open Mic
Pamphlets for Sale
Suzanna will be reading some of her own poetry at the event. She is an accomplished poet – she wrote the Poetry London commended Lamb 001 inspired by her lambing experience at Woodlands Farm – and her poetry has been published in magazines such as South Bank Poetry, The Frogmore Papers, Brittle Star and The North.
If you write poetry and would like to read any poems on Thursday then put your name down for the open mic when you arrive.
Autumn is a fruitful foraging season, and Woodlands Farm is a fruitful place to forage for sloe berries and wild damsons. They will be foraging on Saturday, and using some of the fruit they gather to make Sloe Gin. Barry Gray from the farm wrote with details:
I attach a flyer for our autumn forage for sloes and wild damsons, with an opportunity to make sloe gin. This is a chance to see Woodlands Farm in autumn, hunt for wild fruit in the hedgerows and learn to make delicious country liqueurs in time for Christmas. Every participant leaves with a bottle of delicious hooch!
HEDGEROW LIQUEURS
Saturday 19th October 2013
1.00—5.00 pm
Price £8 (£5 members)
18+ years only
Join us for a tramp and forage around the hedgerows, followed by sloe gin making.
Bring your own gin or spirit of choice together with at least a one litre, wide neck (>2.5cm) container. Alternatively, Kilner type jars, 1.5 litre, will be available at cost price. Sugar, sloes and wild damsons will be provided by Woodlands Farm.
Book early via the Farm Office, numbers limited
Please dress appropriately for outdoor activities
You can contact the farm to book a place by phone on 020 8319 8900 or by e-mail on woodlandsft@aol.com
The Friends of Shrewsbury Park are holding their Annual General Meeting this Saturday, 12th October starting at 11.00am. Kathy from the Friends wrote with details:
We will be holding our Annual General Meeting on Saturday 12 October 2013, at 11am. We will meet at the bottom of the path that leads down from the car park, and joins Dothill. If you are unsure where this is, please get in touch.
We will start with the business side (reports, elections), and then go on to finish the path through the old Nature Reserve – we hope you will be able to help us with this. If you are able/willing to do so, then please bring along secateurs, loppers and stout gloves. There will be a hot drink and biscuits for volunteers.
We welcome members joining the Management Committee, so if you have some spare time and would like to join the small, friendly team, then please get in touch with me and I will give you more information.
This will also be an opportunity to admire some of the Friends’ achievements over recent months, such as the new drainage system and re-surfaced path on Dot Hill pictured above. This part of the Dothill path was susceptible to flooding, as can be seen in the picture with an earlier post about the improvements, so the changes will make a big difference. Further down the path the Friends have erected a new set of wheel-chair friendly gates and a hand-carved notice board at the Garland Road entrance to the park.
New notice board at Garland Road entrance to Shrewsbury Park
If you are skilled in web site maintenance you may be able to help the Friends with their excellent website. They are looking for a volunteer to take over the technical aspects of updating their site as the web designer who has looked after it for the last five years has had to step down due to work commitments. Potential web masters can contact Kathy by e-mail on fspdog@hotmail.com or come along and see her at the AGM.
The Friends are currently raising funds for a water fountain for the park, and have produced a 2014 Calendar which will be sold to help raise money. It includes art work by local children and photographs showing the park at different times of the year. The wintry January photograph is included below. The calendar costs £5.00 and will be available at the AGM or via the Friends.
The January Picture in the Friends of Shrewsbury Park 2014 Calendar
The nights are drawing in, the trees are starting to change to their autumn colours and, that definitive harbinger of the season of mist and mellow fruitfulness, Woodlands Farm is holding its annual Apple Day. Maureen from the farm wrote:
Join us for a celebration of British apples on Sunday 13 October 2013, from 11am to 4pm. This is an opportunity to discover and buy many different types of traditional British apples. There will be a variety of activities including traditional crafts such as making corn dollies, a treasure hunt, archery, apple pressing to make delicious juice, stalls selling local produce, including our own honey and home-made jams, cakes and try some Kentish Cider. A great day out for all the family. Entry is free, but donations are welcome and go towards the running of the Farm.
bptw partnership and whiteroom architecture Proposed Scheme for 38 Wellington Street
The Woolwich Grand Theatre will be demolished and replaced with a six storey block of flats with room for a café at the front if current proposals are implemented. There will be 46 one- and two-bedroom flats of which 20% will be “affordable” according to the consultants from bptw partnership and whiteroom architecture at the consultation event last week.
Their original plan was for a seven storey building, but this was reduced to six following discussion with council planners. The design of the proposed red-brick building aims to harmonise with the adjacent Town Hall, with strong verticals and horizontal lines which continue the Town Hall’s. The flat’s are arranged around a central courtyard which also mirrors a space in the Town Hall.
The consultants said that the “commercial space” at the front of the building could be used as a café, and that it could be let to the Grand’s impresario Adrian at favourable rates to continue as a cultural space. They also said that it is larger than the current Red Room café at the Grand, and that it could be arranged to show films to people sitting at café-style tables. This seemed to be stretching things to me, and there is no getting round the huge reduction in space available for performance compared to the Woolwich Grand as it is now.
The developers had wanted to hold the consultation event at the Town Hall but were refused permission, and their time at Gunnery House was limited. There had not been a huge number of visitors, and I was the only person there with the consultants when I dropped in. They sent out a pdf containing the consultation displays today, and indicated that I could communicate them to people who could not attend. The two images in this post are taken from their pdf.
Planning permission will be applied for in a few weeks; we’ll get another chance to say what we think then.
Lower Ground Floor Plan for 38 Wellington Street from bptw partnership and whiteroom architecture
The Friends of Eaglesfield Park are holding their final pond tidy session of the year on Sunday, 29th September, at 11.00am and would welcome any help. They are also concerned about the safety and health risks to children bathing in the pond, particularly the risk of Weil’s Disease, which can cause a range of nasty sysmptoms and even death. Madeleine from the Friends wrote:
A quick note to keep you up to date! Our Tidy Up Session on the 18th August was very successful. As most people will know, the meadow was very dense with the various grasses. This is probably due to the fact that top soil was used when the pond/meadow was reconstructed (wildflowers tend to prefer impoverished soil). However grasses are good for wildlife habitats, but we will need to control them and encourage the wildflowers.
During the tidy up we found dozens of “froglets” and many newts, water boatmen, pond skaters and spotted several large dragonflies. We were of course sad that our two “resident ducks” had been attacked by a fox and we are looking at the possibility of providing a “duck house”. However we need to research the negative effects this might have on the water quality of the pond.
We intend to plant more wildflower seeds (hopefully at the end of October) and also plug plants in October and March (weather permitting). The wildflowers plugs will include Feverfew, Globe Thistle, Tansy, Red Campion, Yellow Loosestrife, Yellow Rattle, Grim the Collier and Hedge Woundwort.
We are very concerned that some visitors to the pond area have been encouraging their dogs to use the pond, but more disturbingly adults have been seen actually lifting children over the fence so that they may swim in the pond. This may seem a good way to cool down, but it should be noted that ponds and rivers may contain Leptospirosis (Weil’s disease). Weil’s is a bacterial infection spread by animal urine. Many think Weil’s is spread only by rat’s urine but it can also come from fox, rabbit, cat and even hedgehog urine. It tends to be found in still, recreational water such as lakes and ponds, where water is not flowing freely.
Whilst relatively few cases of Weil’s infection have been reported, Friends of Eaglesfield Park are very mindful of the risk of infection during pond dipping activities. We offer advice on health and safety issues and provide disposable latex gloves and antibacterial hand wash for anyone taking part in pond dipping or pond/meadow maintenance.
I would also like to add my own comments – even if there were no risk of bacterial infection, swimming in the pond is not only irresponsible and dangerous, but it will also damage the wildlife environment of the pond and meadow we are endeavouring to create.
Please support the Friends on Sunday.
I notice the the Green Flag awarded to the park by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy has now been erected. That’s excellent news, but I’m not sure about where it has been placed – it seems a bit obtrusive to me. What do you think?
Saturday 28th sees the seventh ‘Green Chain Megawalk’. This very popular 21.5 mile stroll leaves Crystal Palace railway station at 09.15, arrives at the Oxleas Wood café at about 14.30, and finishes by the Thames at Erith at about 18.30. The aim is see many of the really good parts of the Green Chain in one day at average walking pace. A packed lunch is essential and there are more details here http://www.walk4life.info/events/londons-ultimate-walk-the-green-chain-megawalk . One of the best aspects of this walk is the excellent camaraderie generated between participants, some making life-long friends.
Look out for, and be careful of, the Hornets’ nest in a hollow tree just down the hill from the old concrete tank in Oxleas Wood.
Hornets’ Nest in Oxleas Wood
Then on Sunday there is the Unknown Delights and Gems in South East London walk, which takes in Eltham Palace, Eltham College, the River Quaggy and Chinbrook Meadows, Elmstead and Marvels Woods, Avery Hill Park and Oxleas Wood:
Sunday 29th sees us exploring attractive parts of the Green Chain that haven’t featured in Walk London’s programme before. Indeed, few organised walks have. This 10.5 mile walk starts at Eltham railway station at 12.00 and will finish at the Oxleas Wood café at about 17.00. There will then be an extension for those interested down to Plumstead Common via Shrewsbury Park for trains from Plumstead railway station. Again a packed lunch is essential for people who won’t have already eaten by the state time. We’ll take lunch either at King John’s playing fields in Southern Eltham or at Chinbrook Meadows depending on what the walkers want to do. There are more details here http://www.walk4life.info/events/unknown-delights-and-gems-south-east-london.
There’s no need to book for these walks. Ian can be contacted for more details on ianbull at btinternet dot com.
Google Street View of the path before it was closed
Today’s post was written by Clive Barbour who is trying to get the footpath blocked by the MoD reopened. He would like to hear from people who have used the path, ideally those who have used it for 30 years. Here’s Clive’s story:
I moved to the neighbourhood in the early 1980s and almost immediately started using the footpath that runs from Shooters Hill to Academy Place.
It was so handy to nip off the bus stop after a night at the theatre as the bus then used to run then all the way from Haymarket to Shooters Hill and beyond.
And I was amazed by the meadow off Academy Place and the mature woodland on the path which meandered down to Bagshot Court, Prince Imperial Road and eventually to my house in Red Lion Lane and before that Herbert Road.
That little walk, which I often took, especially at weekends, could make you forget you were living in London but somewhere in the country as well as being a very handy shortcut.
Earlier this year as I drove up Shooters Hill I noticed the path had been closed but as there were significant building works going on at the nearby property I assumed this had been done temporarily on health and safety grounds.
But as the months passed and the path remained closed I contacted the Royal Borough of Greenwich to find out what was happenIng.
I was very disappointed to be told that the road had been closed by the Ministry of Defence.
But I wanted to find out why so I put in a Freedom of Information request to MOD asking for correspondence relating to rights of way and discussions with the Royal. Borough of Greenwich and a few weeks later a set of papers fell through my letterbox.
One email in particular grabbed my attention dated 10 October 2012 from the wonderfully named Senior Street Naming and Numbering Officer (Legal Searches) Business & Resources (Property & Transportation) at the Royal Borough of Greenwich to the Ministry of Defence.
That correspondence advised the MOD that while the footpath was privately owned “…however, it could be considered a right of way due to ‘public use over time’ I understand this requires it being in full use for over 20 years by the public.”
There was also references in the papers to complaints from the public about the closure including emails from Plumstead Runners and other people who had written to Clive Efford MP.
I have been using the footpath for over thirty years and I understand that if a path is used on Crown land for that length of time it can be deemed to be a right of way.
So I have formally written to the Royal Borough of Greenwich to protect our right, as provided for by section 130(2) of the Highways Act 1980, to enable pedestrians to continue to use this footpath and therefore be able to walk or run unhindered from Red Lion Lane to Shooters Hill via Prince Imperial Road, Bagshot Court and Academy Place and vice versa.
It is very significant that the footpath has a chicane at the Shooters Hill/Academy Place end and two bollards at the Bagshot Court/Prince Imperial Road end as this can only mean that the owners decided in the past that the footpath was to be used only by pedestrians and not by vehicular traffic.
Bollards at Bagshot Court/Prince Imperial Road showing that the footpath was to be used only by pedestrians
A few weeks ago when walking up Academy Place I noticed that there was a hole in the fence that I took the picture below which shows the chicane to prevent vehicles and the panel that has been put up to close the path.
The path now, showing the chicane to prevent vehicles
I have also asked the Royal Borough of Greenwich to formally dedicate the footpaths from Shooters Hill to Academy Place and onwards to Bagshot Court/Prince Imperial Road as highways on the basis of a presumed dedication as provided for by section 31 of the Highways Act 1980.
The basis for this presumed dedication are:
– my continual use of this route from Red Lion Lane to Shooters Hill along these two footpaths for more than 30 years;
– the presence of the chicane and the bollards preventing vehicular access demonstrates that the owners were content for pedestrian use along this route.
But why did the MOD decide to close the footpath between Academy Place and Shooters Hill in the first place?
In a letter to the Council in 21 June 2012 they say it was because of dumping of rubbish and college students “using the area as a recreation centre to meet and socialise causing a possible nuisance”.
I raised an eyebrow when I read this as I have never encountered either of these problems and in any event even if they are, they are entirely capable of being addressed in other ways which do not require the closure of the footpath.
I hope that I have provided enough information here to enable the Council to take the necessary action to have the route classified as a public right of way which will lead in turn to the re-opening of the footpath. My fear is that the MOD might put pressure on them not do so.
So I am asking for the help of you neighbours who have been using the footpath – ideally for 30 years – to email me on parly @ sky. com to tell me how often you used this footpath in the past and I will present any further evidence to RBG to help persuade them to reopen the path.
Thank you for any information you are able to provide.
The Woolwich Grand – under threat of redevelopment?
Is the Woolwich Grand Theatre under threat of redevelopment? Yes, it is, if the leaflet sent to people living nearby is true. It is an invitation to a consultation event about a proposal to redevelop the site. The leaflet I saw said:
INVITATION TO CONSULTATION EVENT
Proposals for 38 Wellington Street
You are invited to view and comment on proposals for the site of the former Grand Theatre and Regal Cinema at 38 Wellington Street for a mixed use development incorporating commercial on ground floor with residential uses
Event details:
Thursday 26th September 2013 from 2pm to 5.30pm at 9-11 Gunnery Terrace, Room 22 Gunnery House, Woolwich Arsenal, London SE18 6SW
The leaflet I saw had no indication who had produced it or who was running the consultation event. I couldn’t find any application for planning permission for the redevelopment of the site, so I guess this must be an early stage consultation before permission is applied for.
What a set-back for Woolwich town centre this would be – removing one of the few places where cultural activities such as film, music and other events can and do take place. And how discouraging for the people who have worked hard to bring such cultural activities to the town.
Also it doesn’t seem consistent with the Woolwich Master Plan which states that the cultural use should be promoted in the Bathway Quarter where the Grand is located. It also says:
The protection of the town centre’s important heritage value should continue. This will be enhanced by the refurbishment and bringing back into use of historic buildings within the Bathway Quarter. This area should also be given additional heritage protection to conserve its distinct character, as should Powis Street and Hare Street.
I wonder what happened to that additional protection, and the proposal to designate the Bathway Quarter and Powis and Hare Street as Conservation Areas?
It’s a shame that the consultation event is during office hours, but I hope that won’t stop people going along to support the Woolwich Grand.
