Post – Page 19 – a spark in your veins

3rd August 2013

Summer Activities and Bat Walks at Woodlands Farm

Hannah, the Education Officer at Woodlands Farm, wrote with details of their Summer Holiday Activities for children and about a series of bat walks at the farm in the next couple of months. The children’s activities are:

Orienteering Wednesday 21^st August 10am – 2pm

Come and have a go at our orienteering course at Woodlands Farm; can you find your way around without getting lost?

£1 per child, accompanying adults free. Drop in any time between 10am-2pm.

Corn Dollies Friday 23^rd August 2pm-4pm

Have a go at this traditional craft, to make lovely corn dollies to take home with you.

£1 per child,

Explore Woodlands Farm Day Tuesday 27^th August 11am-3pm

Drop by Woodlands farm to have a go at craft activities, meet our animals and have a go at our milking challenge. This event is free and you can drop by any time between 11am-3pm to join the fun!

Farmer for a day Wednesday 28^th August 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm

Ever fancied seeing what it is like to be a farmer? Join us as we have a go at feeding and weighing our animals as well as walking our fields to check all our animals. This event is only suitable for children over 8 years. Booked is essential to book call 0208 319 8900

£2 per child, accompanying adults free

Farm Storytelling and crafts Friday 30^th August 10am-12pm and 1pm-3pm

Come along to the farm for a day or crafts and storytelling. The farm is a place full of wonderful stories so come along to hear some lovely farm stories and take part in our craft activities.

£1 per child, accompanying adults free

The Bat Walks are on Thursday 22^nd August 2013 at 7.45pm, Wednesday 28^th August 2013 at 7.45pm and Tuesday 10^th September 2013 at 7pm. Booking is essential, and you’ll need to be quick as I hear places are filling fast. Hannah’s e-mail said:

Join us for a bat walk around Woodlands Farm. We have a number of different bat species living on the farm so this is a great opportunity to find out more about bats and see what we can find. You will need sturdy footwear, suitable outdoor clothing and a torch. This activity is not recommended for children under 6. £2 per adult and £1 per child. Booking is essential. To book call 020 8319 8900.

Snippet from the Bat Conservation Trust's Big Bat Map — Snippet from the Bat Conservation Trust’s Big Bat Map

Shooters Hill is a great place for bat spotting, and they have been seen or detected at various locations around the hill as can be seen in the Bat Conservation Trust‘s Big Bat Map, Shooters Hill snippet above. As well as the Common and Soprano Pipistrelles seen in Shrewsbury Park on the Friends’ bat walk, the two Pipistrelle species, Noctules and possibly Leisler’s bats have been detected in Oxleas Wood and Soprano Pipistrelles regularly forage over Eaglesfield Park Lilly Pond. Woodlands Farm contribute to the National Bat Monitoring Programme annual survey, which means they look for bats on a transect route of 12 walks and 12 stops at the beginning and end of July each year. This year they detected quite a few Common & Soprano Pipistrelles and Noctules, which bodes well for their bat walks.

There are likely to be other species of bat in the area, and it would be interesting to know which of the UK’s 18 species are here. At the end of the nineteenth century 8 species were recorded in Woolwich and West Kent according to the 1909 Woolwich Surveys by Grinling, Ingram and Polkinghorne. Their section about mammals starts with a list of bat species that had been seen:

This list is compiled from the “List of Mammalia” in the “Fauna of Blackheath,” published in 1859; the “List of the Mammals of Bromley, Kent,” published by the Bromley Naturalists’ Society in 1895; a ” MS. List” from A. S. Kennard ; and a “MS. List” from B. W. Adkin. It will be interesting to note that several species, now very rare or extinct in the area, were at one time even common in the heart of the district.

Probably if more lists were available from the outlying part of the area, a better view of the distribution would be obtained. The contractions used are as follows :

B.W.A. = B. W. Adkin.

A.S.K. = A. S. Kennard.

Fn.B. = Fauna of Blackheath.

B.L. = Bromley List, mainly A. S. Kennard’s records.

CHIROPTERA.
VESPERTILIONIDÆ.

Vesperugo noctula, Schreb. Great Bat. Common all over district, Hayes (A.S.K.) ; Lewisham, rare (B.W.A.).

Vesperugo serotinus, Schreb. Serotine. Occurs (Fn.B.).

Vesperugo pipistrellus, Schreb. Common Bat. Hayes (B.L.) ; Blackheath and district, very common (Fn.B.) and (B.W.A.).

Vesperugo leisleri, R.- Hairy-armed Bat. Chislehurst (A.S.K.).

Vespertilio mystacinus, Leis. Whiskered Bat. Chislehurst (Fn.B.).

Vespertilio nattereri, R. Natterer’s Bat.Chislehurst (A.S.K.).

Plecotus auritus, L. Long-eared Bat. Chislehurst (Fn.B.) ; Hayes (B.L.) ; Lewisham, fairly common (B.W.A.). ; Beckenham,. 1903 (A.S.K.).

Synotus barbastellus, Schreb. Barbastelle. Chislehurst (Fn. B.) ; Dartford (A.S.K.).

RHINOLOPHIDÆ.

Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum, Desm. Greater Horseshoe Bat. Hayes, 1904 (A.S.K.).

Some names have changed: the Noctule is referred to as the Great Bat, which is fitting for one of the UK’s largest bats, the Pipistrelle is called the Common Bat which is also apt as it is the most common in the UK and Leisler’s bat is the Hairy Armed Bat. Also at that time it wasn’t known that there was more than one Pipistrelle species, and that the Common Bat was two species: the Common and Soprano Pipistrelles. That wasn’t certain until 1997 when it was confirmed by DNA analysis. The Long-eared Bat was “fairly common” in the 1909 Woolwich Surveys, and the Brown Long-eared is still common throughout the British Isles. It is quite difficult to detect because its echolocation calls are very quiet, and my bat guide says it is more often seen than heard on bat detectors. They are such amazing looking creatures, with ears that are almost as long as their bodies, that they are definitely one to look out for on bat walks in the woods.

31st July 2013

Friday 2nd August – A midnight 'Megawalk'

If you fancy a 22 mile night hike along the length of the Green Chain Walk from Crystal Palace to Erith then you’re in luck because Ian Bull will be leading one on Friday night. This is a repeat of last year’s successful “megawalk”, but without the Oxleas missiles. Ian has led a number of walks in the area, including the Best Landscape and Views in London, the Thames Path Super Walk and London’s best woodland and views – without doubt. He e-mailed to say:

A leisurely 22 mile stroll over the most popular sections of the Green Chain Walk from Crystal Palace to Erith, but with a difference, the walk is nocturnal!
Meet outside Crystal Palace railway station at 23.45pm. After the first five miles we enter pitch black woodland. Quite amazing! By the time we get to Eltham we’ll see wonderful views of London at first- light. This was so good last year that we spent about 20 minutes watching. At around 05.00, after much more dark woodland we arrive at Shooters Hill for sunrise, and there’s no where better to see it as the view extends right over Essex and the estuary. The rest of the walk is mostly in woodland which looks lovely at that time of the morning. We arrive at Erith and the Thames at about 08.00 for plenty of trains home.
The walk was very successful last year but I must stress that the event is wholly unofficial and just for fun. If you take part you do so entirely at your own risk. For further information please contact Ian Bull – ianbull at btinternet dot com

If you prefer to hike by daylight then Ian will be repeating the walk on Saturday 28th September during the day:

TfL has offered to fund Walk London’s ‘Autumn Ambles’ and thus the 7th ‘Green Chain Megawalk’ will go ahead on Saturday 28th September starting from Crystal Palace railway station at 9.15. It’s the same as the above but in daylight.

Interactive map from Green Chain Walk web site

31st July 2013

Plus ça change

Green Chain diversion at corner of Keats and Dryden Roads

Some things never change, and it seems that includes disputes over footpaths at Woodlands Farm and farm problems with trespassing motorcyclists. An intriguing card in a filing drawer at the Greenwich Heritage Centre led me to an article from The Mercury 21 years ago on 13th February 1992:

Tracks Trouble

Two councils are hoping to settle a long-running dispute with landowners over public access to tracks in Woodlands Farm.

Bexley and Greenwich councils have already been to the High Court, seeking to force landowners to admit that the tracks which criss-cross farmland between Edison and Glenmore Roads, in Welling and Shooters Hill, are public footpaths – ‘even though they’re not listed on’ rights of way maps.

The boroughs quizzed 11,000 locals to gain evidence supporting their claims and obtained High Court writs against the landowners who have fenced off the tracks.

But over a year later agreement has still to be reached with the George Wimpey Company and the RACS Co-op, joint owners of the land at Woodlands Farm.

A report to the last meeting of Bexley Council development committee said draft public path agreements had been drawn up and were expected to be agreed with Wimpeys. But negotiations were still going on with the Co-op who were ‘determined to fight the action.’

A Co-op spokesman said opening up the path would re-expose the farm to problems with motorcyclists and trespassers which had stopped when the fences went up.

He said that the society disputed that the paths had been public footpaths in the first place.

The councils are anxious to secure the footpaths in order to link up with a footbridge across the southern approach road to the East London River Crossing.

Green Chain Walk signpost in Woodlands Farm

The current dispute, about the Green Chain Walk path across the farm has seen some progress recently. The April-July newsletter of ramblers’ Blackheath Group had an article about the blocked path, and supported the farm proposals to re-route it:

I came away with a view that common sense needs to prevail & that the GCW needs to amend its route. I have since discussed the matter with the Blackheath Ramblers Group committee & the committee fully supports this approach.

I have also spoken to the footpath officer for NW Kent Ramblers who commend the trustees of the farm in their efforts to find a sensible solution for all concerned & support the proposed alteration.

So, in summary, the two Ramblers Groups which cover the farm area are in support of the proposal made by the trustees & we feel that Ramblers should be working with the GCW committee to get this alteration accepted.

That sounds good, and so does the the update on the Green Chain Walk in the Farm’s Summer Newsletter, which mentioned that:

Board members have been working with Green Chain officers and the Bexley access officer and significant progress has been made on resolving the problem of the Green Chain Route across the farm. A temporary diversion is at present in place and it is hoped that a diversion around the perimeter of the farm which would provide an acceptable, enjoyable alternative walk will be agreed on by all parties.

There are diversions in place: the photo at the top shows the changed sign at the Keats/Dryden Road end of the path. At the Oxleas Wood end it’s not quite so clear and the signpost in the farm itself is unchanged and points to the blocked path. I could only find one other changed sign post, at the junction of the eastern-most path in Oxleas Wood and Shooters Hill, and that had been crudely adjusted to point in the new direction and only has the words on one side of the pointer – not so good if you are approaching from Shooters Hill.

At the Dryden Road end the diversion sign posts point prospective Green Chain walkers down Chaucer Road and Wickham Street, past Shoulder of Mutton Green to Bellegrove Road, and then to Oxleas Wood. Quite a lot of road walking, and I wonder why they didn’t take the greener route via Footpath 245 near the Green Man pub and then along Hill View Drive to Bellegrove Road. The proposed re-routed Green Chain Walk would also include part of Route 245.

It sounds like the long-running battle over the Green Chain path through the farm is drawing to a sensible conclusion. Meanwhile, on the other side of Shooters Hill, the path down the side of the former Castlewood Day Hospital is still blocked, despite the intervention of local MP Clive Efford.

Changed Green Chain sign post on Shooters Hill

30th July 2013

Green Flag for Eaglesfield Park

Congratulations to the Friends of Eaglesfield Park! It was announced yesterday that environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy had awarded the park a Green Flag, a national award which recognises and rewards the best green spaces in the country. Eaglesfield is one of 1266 parks and greens spaces in the UK that have received the award in 2013. This included 11 parks in the Royal Borough of Greenwich: Avery Hill Park, Charlton Park, Eaglesfield Park, East Greenwich Pleasaunce, Eltham Park South, Fairy Hill Park, Horn Park, Maryon Park, Sutcliffe Park, The Tarn and Well Hall Pleasaunce.

In addition Plumstead Common Nature Reserve and The Slade Ponds, both looked after by the Plumstead Common Environment Group, were amongst the country’s 182 sites which received a Green Flag Community Award. The Community Award recognises high quality green spaces managed by voluntary and community groups.

The awards have been running since 1996 and are seen as the “benchmark against which our parks and green spaces are measured”. They are decided by expert judges who assess the parks against a set of eight criteria following a site visit. The criteria include the park being a welcoming place and being healthy, safe and secure and also that it has a Marketing Strategy and a Management Plan. The Community Award is assessed against similar criteria, but excluding marketing.

The Green Flag award is well-deserved recognition of all the hard work that the Friends of Eaglesfield Park have put in over the last few years.

The Lilly Pond March 2012 — Friends of Eaglesfield Park working at the Lilly Pond

26th July 2013

Suffragette Evening at Greenwich Heritage Centre

How do you make a Suffragette Cocktail? An American recipe from 1909 says it contains gin, Italian vermouth and French vermouth stirred with ice and a dash of orange bitters, and that it has very strange effects on men, such as turning them into dish washers. Well, there’s a chance to try the Greenwich Heritage Centre’s interestingly coloured version of the cocktail next Wednesday, 31st July.

The Heritage Centre is holding a “Museum Late” Suffragette Evening starting at 6.00pm, organised in collaboration with the University of Greenwich. Shooters Hill-based actor Natalie Penn will be performing extracts of her one-woman drama “Lie Back and Think of America” which she recently took on tour, commencing with two performances at Shrewsbury House in April. The Woolwich Singers will be singing popular songs from the era, including the music hall favourite “She works at the Woolwich Arsenal Now” – a munition worker’s romance written by Robert Donnelly. The sheet music for this song featured in the “Freedom of Spirit” exhibition about suffragettes in Greenwich at the Heritage Centre. Donnelly wrote a number of sentimental songs, including “There’s love in my humble home“, “Please let Mother Come Home Again” and possibly “Don’t Go Down in the Mines, Dad“.

Other activities during the evening include historical talks, a DJ and the launch of a new publication about local suffragette Rosa May Billingshurst written by third year University of Greenwich History student Carolyn Ayers. Carolyn was the co-curator of the “Freedom of Spirit” exhibition.

The evening is also a celebration of the Heritage Centre’s tenth anniversary at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. Entry is free.

24th July 2013

Mayor to decide Woolwich Fire Station closure

Woolwich Fire Station – London’s oldest operational fire station

After all the months of consultation, 24 public meetings with 1,330 attendees, 23 council and scrutiny meetings, 13 petitions with a total of 21,770 signatures, 2,323 questionnaire responses at a cost of at least £172,377, the decision on whether to close 10 London fire stations, including Woolwich, comes down to one individual: Boris Johnson.

The consultation did result in some changes to the London Safety Plan: Clapham and New Cross fire stations would remain open, East Greenwich fire station would gain an additional fire engine and Chelsea fire station would keep its two fire engines. I couldn’t find anything in the consultation report and revised safety plan that mentioned the commitment made at the Greenwich consultation meeting to reconsider the closure of Woolwich Fire Station in light of the expected massive increase in the population of Woolwich Riverside. Coincidentally the day after the report was published I received a letter from the Royal Borough of Greenwich informing me that they had given planning permission for a further 2,032 homes in the Arsenal site – this is the plan for a series of blocks of flats up to 22 storeys high along the river front. That’s 2032 homes on top of the thousands already being built in the Arsenal site, just down the road from the fire station.

It seems from the consultation report that public opposition to the closure of Woolwich Fire Station wasn’t as strong as for others in the capital. Only 156 people signed the petition to save Woolwich Fire Station, compared to over 8,000 for the 3 petitions to keep Bow Fire Station and over 6,500 for those to save Clapham. Also no-one specifically mentioned Woolwich in their response to the questionnaire: other fire stations were named by respondents opposing their closure. The consultation meeting back in May was dominated by politicians, it was even commented during the meeting that very few “ordinary citizens” asked questions, though this may have been influenced by holding the meeting in Greenwich rather than Woolwich.

The YouGov analysis of the responses to the consultation questionnaire showed that an overwhelming 94% of respondents opposed any fire station cuts, graphically illustrated in the snippet from the report below.

Snippet from Appendix F of Fifth London Fire Safety Plan Report

Despite the opposition the Fire Commissioner presented the new plan, but the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) voted by 9 to 8 to reject the proposed cuts. Their e-mail on the subject said:

A majority of LFEPA Members (by 9 votes to 8) approved the following amendments – That:

1. The Authority instructs the Commissioner to delete from the Fifth London Safety Plan, supporting documents and appendices all references to station closures, appliance reductions and consequential operational post reductions, including reductions in Fire and Rescue Units, reductions in crewing levels of Fire and Rescue Units, alternative crewing of specialist units and reductions in officer numbers, and to make the subsequent changes that are necessary.

and also:

7. This Authority recognises and respects the single clearest issue raised during the consultation process: that Londoners do not want to see local fire stations closed. The Authority notes that the 1.2% Council Tax cut implemented by the Mayor came at a cost of £9.4million and that the Mayor’s plan to cut it by 10% over his four-year term will cost a further £70million making some £80million in total. Consequently the Authority calls on the Mayor to reconsider his policy of a 10% council tax cut and instead work with officers and members of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority to develop an approach that preserves London’s fire cover, saves London’s fire stations and balances the budget into the longer term.

The decision now rests with the Mayor of London, though a tweet from the London Fire Brigade Union yesterday reported that he is “minded” to overturn the LFEPA decision and close the fire stations.

Boris Johnson has written to the London fire commissioner, indicating he is ‘minded’ to overturn the fire authority’s rejection of cuts.

— London FBU (@LondonFBU) July 23, 2013

I’m not sure exactly what politicians mean when they are “minded” to do something. Have they just not quite made up their minds? Have they decided but are trying to avoid the criticism that a bad decision will attract? Whatever … it is starting to seem likely that Woolwich Fire Station will close after a hundred and twenty six years of operation.

23rd July 2013

Open Day at The Fan Museum

Emily from the Fan Museum in Crooms Hill e-mailed details of their local community open day next Saturday, 27th July, from 11.00am to 5.00pm. Entry is free if you live in Greenwich or Lewisham boroughs, as long as you bring along proof of your address such as a driving licence or utility bill. The museum is in a beautiful Georgian house at the bottom of Crooms Hill, address: 12 Crooms Hill, Greenwich, London SE10 8ER.

The Fan Museum has a huge collection of fans from different cultures and historical periods, many of which are artistically decorated. As well as the chance to see the collection the open day will include demonstrations of fan making and mini-tours of the museum led by the museum’s curators. There will also be refreshments in the elegant orangery – a taster of their afternoon tea which was rated one of London’s ten best afternoon teas by the Daily Telegraph. The Telegraph’s list also included the far-more-expensive Claridges and the Chesterfield Hotel in Mayfair.

It’s several years since I visited the museum and it was slightly surprisingly absorbing, so it’s definitely time for another look around, even if only to replace the fan tea towel I got from the museum shop last time.

22nd July 2013

The Magnificent Mirf

Recycling pile at one end of Greenwich MRF

“That’s about 2 days worth of recycling”, said our guide, Danny Easton, pointing to the massive pile of rubbish that had been emptied from the Borough’s recycling trucks. We were at the start of a tour of the Greenwich Mirf, as the Materials Recycling Facility in Nathan Way is known. We’d already seen where the compostable material from the green bins is deposited, and learned that the methane from the composting waste is piped off to the gas grid.

I’d been trying to get a tour of the MRF for a while, wanting to know how the mixed-up contents of our blue top bins were separated out, but had been told that the old regular tours no longer run. A couple of years ago, in lieu of a visit, I was sent an interesting DVD describing how the recycling centre operates, but it’s not the same as seeing it for real. An enquiry card dropped into a box at the recent Great Get Together/Armed Forced Day event solved the problem, leading to an invitation to a personal guided tour.

The technology at the MRF is very impressive, and it utilises a wide variety of forces to sort the different materials: gravity, vibration, magnetism, induced electrical currents, infra-red, optical recognition and compressed air are all part of the process. The Veolia web site describes the technology and processes really well, so I won’t repeat it all here. I was most impressed by the the huge Trommel near the start of the process, after the bag splitter. The Trommel looks a bit like a massive tumble drier, 3 meters in diameter and 12 meters long, which rotates 12 times a minute separating containers from paper and cardboard. Then later on the infra-red auto-sort for plastic bottles which is able to detect the difference between coloured, clear and opaque plastic bottles whizzing past on a conveyor belt at 30-40 mph and adjust a blast of compressed air to direct them to different places. Amazing!

The MRF undergoes maintenance for 20% of the time, though it can usually be run safely at the same time. Partly this is for routine, scheduled work – for example the moving parts on the conveyor belts need to be cleared of dust and broken glass particles – but sometimes the machinery is stopped by material that shouldn’t have been put in the recycling. Textiles are a problem, particularly for a machine called the V Screen which separates mixed paper. Also old VCR tapes get broken and release hundreds of feet of tape that gets wound up in the mechanisms and need staff to come in on Sunday to cut it away with Stanley knives. So we can help by not putting VCR tapes and textiles in our blue top bins, and by removing the caps from bottles and tetrapak cartoons so they can go to the appropriate place in the MRF.

Separated bales at the other end of Greenwich MRF

As much as possible of the separated waste is sent on to UK companies for further processing, though some does go abroad: for example old tyres are shipped to Holland. Greenwich waste that cannot be reused, recycled or composted mostly goes to the South East London Combined Heat and Power energy recovery facility near Millwall Football Ground, where it is burnt to generate electricity. The train into London goes right past the SELCHP site. This means that Greenwich has one of the lowest figures for the percentage of waste that gets put into landfill in the country. For 2008/9 an FOI Request revealed that “Greenwich Council sent less waste to landfill than any other local authority in the UK. This was around 3% of the household waste generated.” However 2011 data on recycling on the Guardian Datablog indicated that Greenwich was the third lowest council for “Percentage of municipal waste sent to landfill”, with a figure of 6%.

The Guardian Datablog data also shows that Greenwich is a middling performer on amount of waste recycled, at 37%. The best council in London was neighbouring Bexley at 51% and the worst our northern neighbour Newham with just 15%. However the Greenwich percentage has shown quite an increase from the 11.5% in 2003 when it was agreed to build the MRF. There is still a way to go to meet the requirement in Chapter 5 of the London Plan to exceed exceed recycling/composting levels in municipal solid waste (MSW) of “45% by 2015, 50% by 2020 and aspiring to achieve 60% by 2031.” Greenwich is working with other South-East London boroughs to achieve this.

Snippet from Guardian Datablog: Recycling in England: the map

Another interesting thing I learned during the tour was what drove their efforts to improve recycling quality and quantities. As well helping to save the planet, obviously, the need to meet European directives is important, but also economics plays a major role. For example the best grade of recycled paper currently fetches £150 a ton, and aluminium is £700 a ton. This makes it worthwhile to recycle waxed tetrapak type cartons which contain a thin layer of Aluminium. I remember from school chemistry how energy intensive it is to extract Aluminium from Bauxite, so this is a benefit on many levels.

It was a very interesting tour and we were buzzing with fascinating facts when we handed our safety helmets and protective glasses back to Danny on the way out. Some amazing technology, and key to decreasing the amount of our rubbish that gets buried in landfill sites and increasing how much is reused in some way.

Disposal of Rubbish in England from Guardian Datablog

9th July 2013

The Hill is Alive

The Friends of Eaglesfield Park are holding a ParksFest2013 event on Saturday (13th July), with an afternoon of music by the pond. Madeleine from the Friends wrote:

The Friends of Eaglesfield Park would like to invite you to join us at the Eaglesfield Wildlife Pond and Meadow for an afternoon of fun and music on Saturday 13th July between 2 pm and 5 pm. An exciting Afro-Brazilian band and the Greenwich Gospel Choir will be providing the music. Why not bring a picnic. Enjoy an afternoon In Eaglesfield Park and check out the Restored Wildlife Pond and Meadow – it’s amazing how quickly everything has grown and the amount of wildlife it is attracting. Take a closer look at the pond life – come and try POND DIPPING (we will supply the equipment).

Madeleine also mentioned the Friends’ participation at the EPNWS Community Fête on the 15th June, which was memorable, in part, because of the strong winds and heavy rain that that struck bang on the stroke of 1.00pm when the Fête was due to open. But they managed to “Carry on Pond Dipping Regardless” and the weather didn’t spoil their photo display detailing the various stages of the restoration of the pond and meadow.

Madeleine gave an update on the Friends’ plans for the pond:

Our aim is to provide a habitat that will encourage a wide range of wildlife – wildflowers/grasses, insects, bees, butterflies, pond life, birds, etc and a healthy well balanced pond environment. Creating the appropriate habitat is not just a question of “let everything grow, let Nature do its own thing”. Some plants are “thugs” and will take over very quickly, which smother some of the important nectar rich wildflowers. So it does mean we need to carry out maintenance and tidying.

This aspect of work is very much a learning curve for FOEP. We are compiling reference guides for identification of wildflowers, pond creatures, butterflies, birds, dragonflies/damsel flies, bees etc. If anyone has an interest in this type of research or monitoring we would love to hear from you. FOEP is not just pond dipping, digging and gardening! Although I enjoy hands-on gardening, I must admit since I have become more involved with identification and research, I am more aware of how much there is to see, once you start looking!

FOEP will arrange another Pond Dipping and Tidying Session as soon as possible. Please keep an eye on our notice board at the Foxcroft Road entrance to Eaglesfield Park.

Finally, please keep in touch with us. We would like to hear your comments and suggestions about any aspect of Eaglesfield Park – don’t forget the area on the other side of Eaglesfield Road is also part of the park.

We are only a “small band” – so anything you could do to help would be very much appreciated.

There will be another ParksFest2013 event, Plumstead Live, on Winns Common on Sunday 21st July, with a line up of four Jazz, Soul, Funk and Blues acts.

Eaglesfield Park Neighbourhood Watch Scheme (EPNWS) Community Fête — EPNWS Community Fete at Eaglesfield Park

4th July 2013

Aperture Exhibition at Charlton House

The Mulberry Tea Rooms in Charlton House play host to an exhibition of photographs by members of the Aperture Woolwich Photographic Society, one of the groups who meet at Shrewsbury House. The Exhibition is a selection of images that have done well in AWPS competitions over recent seasons by members of the society including Stu Mayhew, Andy Linden, and Trudie Mackie. There are a variety of amazing images, some spookily atmospheric, some surreal and some that have you asking the question “how on earth did they do that?”

Entry to the exhibition is free, and it runs until 4.00pm on Wednesday 31st July. The AWPS are planning another exhibition to be held later in the summer at the Elixir Gallery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and they will have a stand at the Horn Fayre at Charlton House on 28th July.