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!
Our local woodlands are awash with bluebells and other wild flowers: it’s the perfect time for a walk in the woods, and there’s a great opportunity this Sunday, 1st May, when Woodlands Farm have organised a guided walk through the woods from Severndroog Castle to Woodlands Farm starting at 2.00pm.
Hannah Ricketts, the farm’s education officer, wrote with details:
Bluebell Walk
View the delights of springtime bluebells with this guided walk through Oxleas Wood and Woodlands Farm. Starting at Severndroog castle this walk will meander through Oxleas Wood taking in the signs of spring as well as a chance to find out more about the history of the woodland, it will end at Woodlands Farm with a trip up to Clothworkers Wood if you still have the energy to enjoy the farm’s display of bluebells. This walk is free, donations are welcome. For more information call 020 8319 8900.
This is more than just a chance to admire Oxleas’ and Woodlands’ bluebells. Previous bluebell walks have revealed some of the woods’ hidden treasures, such as the Redwood trees planted by the London County Council in the middle of our native woodlands, not to mention native plants that are indicators of ancient woodland, such as the Wild Service Tree and Butchers Broom – species that would be threatened if a road was ever built through the woods. One year we heard about the historic cants of coppiced Hazels and Chestnuts deep in the wood and their place in medieval life. This walk is very educational and very highly recommended.
You can see photographs of the plants and wild flowers of Oxleas Woods in a Flickr album here.
Bluebells in Oxleas WoodBluebells and Wood Anemones in Lesness Abbey Woods
Upcoming events at Woodlands Farm include their annual Lambing Day fair, two barn dances, the first of the season’s wildlife surveys, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust‘s bee walk, and an early spring bird walk.
Maureen wrote with information about Lambing Day:
Lambing Day at Woodlands Farm, Sunday 10 April 2016, 11:00am-4.30pm
All are welcome at the Woodlands Farm Trust Lambing Day. Come and see our new-born lambs, and enjoy the chance to buy quality local produce at reasonable prices, including home-made preserves, cakes and honey. Relax in our café, enjoy the treasure hunt or get involved in craft activities. Entry is free, but donations are always welcome. All proceeds from donations and our stalls go towards keeping Woodlands Farm here as a conservation project and valuable resource for the community. A great family day out!
No parking, please use public transport. Sorry, no dogs allowed.
There seem to have been more new lambs than ever this year. Most are now out in the fields, demonstrating their skills in exuberant bouncing with all four feet in the air, or joining in a mass race across the meadows.
New lambs racing across Woodlands Farm’s fieldsOne of Woodlands Farm’s new lambs
There will be two traditional barn dances this year, on Saturday 28th May and Saturday 9th July, both starting at 7.30pm. Skinners Rats will be providing live country music and will be calling the steps. We’ll need to bring our own food, drink and glasses.
Tickets are £14 (including VAT and booking fee) – booking is via eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/barn-dance-tickets-21713716310
Honey Bee at Woodlands Farm
The first Bumblebee Survey is this Monday, 21st March at 2.00pm. The Farm’s Education Officer, Hannah, wrote with details:
We have signed up to take part in the Bumblebee Conservation Trust bee walk this year. This will involve doing a walk round the farm once a month on a set route and recording any bumblebees we see. This is every month from March to October, so should keep us busy! Anyway the first one will be on Monday at 2pm. We will meet in the Farmyard and will use this time to both map the route and record any sightings, not sure if we will see much if still chilly but hopefully be a nice walk anyway and good to plan route for the rest of the year!
The Early Spring Bird Walk is on Sunday 3rd April starting at 10.00am. It is free to farm members, but for non-members costs £2 per person or £1 for children under 18. We are advised to wear sturdy footwear and suitable outdoor clothing. The walks includes climbing a small stile.
Lots to see and do down at Woodlands Farm. And don’t forget the Spring Equinox Walk tomorrow, Sunday, at 10.00am.
The Friends of Shrewsbury Park celebrate their tenth birthday this year and have arranged a packed programme of events to mark the anniversary, starting with a bramble clearing session this Saturday. Kathy, the Friends’ Chair, e-mailed the details:
We are holding a cutting back bramble hour on Saturday 19th March, at 11am. If you are able to help, please meet at the crossroads of Dothill and the Green Chain walk (the bottom of the concrete path that leads down from the car park). Please bring stout gloves and your secateurs and loppers, we would appreciate your help. If it rains, the event will not take place.
The 2016 events include bird, butterfly and bat walks, and a history walk, plus the ever entertaining dog show. The full programme is:
March 19th: Clearing brambles
April 30th: Bird identification walk
May 21st: Tree identification walk
June 4th: Clearing brambles
June 11th: Summer Festival
June 12th: Dog Show
July 16th: Butterfly identification walk
July 22nd: Historical walk
September 2nd: Bat walk
September 3rd: Clearing brambles
October 18th: AGM
The Friends have also re-built their web site and are regularly adding new content, it can be found at http://fspark.org.uk/ They would welcome feedback on the site. I think it’s looking pretty good.
Head to Shrewsbury House on Thursday, 17th March, for Shooters Hill Local History Group‘s next meeting: a talk about Trams around Shooters Hill. All are welcome at the event which starts at 8.00pm. There is a small visitors’ fee to cover the cost of the room.
Steve wrote with the details:
During the early part of the 20th century, trams were seen as a way of bringing cheap travel to the masses. At 8pm at Shrewsbury House this Thursday 17 March, Tony Johnson will present a talk to the Shooters Hill Local History Group on Trams around Shooters Hill. He will deal with why trams were invented, who promoted them locally, and how they rose and fell as a transport mode. He will review the tram routes in the area around Shooters Hill, including intriguing proposals that were never fulfilled, profusely illustrated with pictures that will tap into nostalgia for the streetscapes of over half a century ago.
The story of local trams is a fascinating one. The first one opened on 23rd July 1910. It ran from Beresford Square across Woolwich Common past the Shooters Hill Police Station then down Well Hall Road to Eltham Church. Tickets cost 2d, which is slightly less than 1p in new money. The line was unusual in that it was powered through overhead wires, like a trolley bus, rather than through the wheels and rails. This was a requirement of the Astronomer Royal who was concerned that the standard method would cause interference with sensitive astronomical instruments.
Should be an interesting talk.
A 4 wheeled tram passes Shooters Hill Police Station from David Lloyd Bathe’s “Steeped in History”
Woodlands Farm have their annual Easter Trail for children on Good Friday this year, one of their Easter holiday activities for children. These also include mosaic coaster making and a search for signs of spring. Hannah, the Education Officer, sent me the details:
Friday 25th March (Good Friday) Egg-cellent Easter Trail 10am-2pm
Join us for our annual Easter Trail. Can you find all the different Easter Eggs and Spring Animals hidden around the farmyard? Find them all and you will get your own Chocolate Easter egg to take home. Drop in any time between 10am and 2pm. £2 per child.
Tuesday 5th April Make your own Mosaic coaster 10am-12noon
Get creative and design your own coaster using mosaic tiles. Each child will get their own backing board and the choosing from different tiles you can design your own pattern or picture before you take it home to use over and over again. £5 per child. Booking is essential to book go to our website www.thewoodlandsfarmtrust.org
Wednesday 6th April Spring Trail 10am-12noon
Spring is here, drop in and pick up a trail sheet to start your search for all the signs on spring. You can even use your finds to make your own spring picture to take home. No need to book, just drop in. £1 per child.
For more information, see our website or contact Hannah Forshaw on education@thewoodlandsfarmtrust.org
The farm will also be holding its Spring Equinox Walk on Sunday 20th March starting at 10am, and the first fair of the year, Lambing Day, on Sunday 10th April. I hear the first lambs of the season have already been born.
Spring blossom at Woodlands FarmSpring leaves emerge at Woodlands Farm
Julie Ricketts, Heritage Project Officer for St George’s Garrison Church, Woolwich will be giving a presentation to the Shooters Hill Local History Group on Thursday 18 February at 8pm at Shrewsbury House, Bushmoor Cresent, Shooters Hill.
A visitor fee applies.
Julie will be covering the Garrison Church’s past and present and discussing plans for future events as well as volunteering opportunities.
All welcome.
It’ll be interesting to hear about what’s planned for St George’s. They have recently appointed a board of trustees to be responsible for the church and the area of land around it as far as the Second Boer War memorial on the corner with Woolwich New Road. The board will be chaired by Tim Barnes QC, champion of many Greenwich causes: he was chair of the Greenwich Society and the St Alfege’s restoration appeal and is currently also a trustee of the Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice and chair of the Friends of Westcombe Woodlands. Other trustees include the Bishop of Woolwich, the officer Commanding the Woolwich Barracks and Woolwich Common councillor David Gardner.
Royal Artillery Barracks seen from St George’s Chapel
Now that phase 1 of the restoration of the chapel is complete the team there are thinking about raising money for phase 2. They are keen to replace the wooden doors at the entrance with glass doors so that the interior will be visible to passers-by, and further work is needed on the pulpit and altar as well as the other mosaics. Public access and use of the chapel is important, and from the start of the year it has been open every Sunday from 10.00am to 1.00pm, with help from a team of volunteers, and it is planned to open for longer when the weather improves later in the year.
Volunteers will be key to the future of St George’s, and Julie will be talking about volunteering opportunities at her presentation on Thursday. It should also include some of the marvellous photographs of the garrison church in it’s heyday. Well worth a visit to Shrewsbury House.
Detail of the altar at St George’sMemorial to the fallen of Woolwich
Evening rush-hour traffic on Plumstead Common Road
There are just a few days left to tell TfL our opinions about their proposed new river crossings at Gallions Reach and Belvedere: the consultation closes this Friday, 12th February. We can respond through an online survey with just 5 questions at:
We can also tell TfL what we think by email to rivercrossings@tfl.gov.uk or by writing to FREEPOST TfL CONSULTATIONS’.
It’s an opportunity to tell Transport for London of our concerns about the increased traffic congestion in our area that their own traffic models predict will come as a result of the new crossings: congestion that will lead to even more dangerous air pollution and the health problems that it causes. The excellent Bexley Against Road Crossings web site has many more suggestions about what to say to TfL.
No to Silvertown Tunnel pollution study results from 2014
The NO2 results map shows that the UK Air Quality Strategy and EU legislation 40 µg m³ limit for NO2 was exceeded at most measurement locations in Shooters Hill and Plumstead: at two sites along Plumstead Common Road and all sites along Shooters Hill and Shooters Hill Road. The cross roads at Shooters Hill Road and Academy Road, close to the Greenwich Free School and just down the hill from Christchurch Primary School had an NO2 level 162.5% of the limit. A similar level was detected down in Woolwich at the junction of John Wilson Street and Wellington Street, close to Mulgrave Primary School. The level near Greenslade Primary was only just below the limit. Children are particularly vulnerable to the health effects of NO2 from traffic pollution.
Upside Down Tube Map – with North/South reversal from not Geofftech.co.uk
I’ve never really understood TfL’s argument justifying new crossings by the fact that there are many more road crossings to the west of tower bridge than to the east. It seems obvious to me that you would have fewer bridges closer to the sea because the river gets wider at it nears its estuary. A better comparison might be the difference in public transport, such as the tube, between north-west and south-east London. This is illustrated by the tube map variation from Geofftech, shown above, which reflects the tube map across to the south-east. If we were as well served as the other side of London we would have tube stations at the Rotunda, Woolwich Common, Shrewsbury Park and Plumstead Gardens, and the tube network would stretch as far as Tunbridge Wells.
TfL would have far more chance of reducing traffic congestion and pollution by improving our current very unreliable and overcrowded public transport and creating new public transport links than by building more roads which will attract more traffic. It’s well worth reading former Greenwich councillor Alex Grant’s very informative post: The supporters of new roads across the Thames are stuck in the past. Without rail links they’d be a disaster for east London for more on the history of east London river crossings, how other modern European cities have tackled the problem of congestion and the recurrent fears that a motorway will be built through Plumstead, Woodlands Farm and Oxleas Wood.
Transport for London seem determined to push ahead with their planned crossings: a recent e-mail from them said:
Last week Transport for London’s Board gave approval for us to submit a Development Consent Order to the Secretary of State for Transport for powers to implement the Silvertown Tunnel scheme. Our application will include a Consultation Report, which will set out our response to all of the issues raised in our recent consultation. We received more than 4,000 responses to the consultation and these are continuing to help inform our final plans.
We plan to submit an application for powers to implement the Silvertown Tunnel scheme in the spring 2016, and we will contact you again at this time once we are in a position to publish our Consultation Report.
If our application is accepted by the Secretary of State, there will be a public examination on the scheme managed by the Planning Inspectorate. In that case, you will have an opportunity to make written representations and take part in hearings as part of the examination. We will explain how you can take part in the examination when we write again, later this spring.
If you’re concerned about how these new crossings will affect traffic congestion and pollution in south-east London then you might like to attend the No to Silvertown Tunnel campaign’s annual general meeting which is at Mycenae House, Blackheath, on Thursday 18 February at 8pm. They ask that anyone planning to attend sign up at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/no-to-silvertown-tunnel-agm-2016-tickets-21083026901
Oh, and complete the TfL East of Silvertown consultation before Friday.
Orange fug over London at time of high air pollution
Woodlands Farm has activities for everyone during February: there is the Big Farmland bird count next Monday 8th, a St. Valentine’s Walk on Sunday 14th and their children’s activities during half term week from 17th to 19th.
Hannah, the farm’s Education Officer sent details of their February half term events for children:
Wednesday 17th February Sparrow Detectives 1pm-3pm
Where have all the sparrows gone? The numbers of house sparrows in London have decreased but why? Become a detective for the afternoon and go on our farmyard trail to find out what has happened and how we can help the sparrows. £2.50 per child. No need to book just drop in between 1pm-3pm to collect your detective pack. For more information call 020 8319 8900
Thursday 18th February Farmer Duck Day 10am-12pm and 1pm-3pm
Join us for a day all about the story of ‘Farmer Duck’. We will start by reading the story of Farmer Duck and finding out about all the jobs he has to do on the farm, before going for an explore of the farmyard to visit all the animals from the story. The make your own farm animal to take home with you. £4 per child. Booking is essential, to book call 020 8319 8900
Friday 19th February Get Wild in the Woods 11am – 1pm and 2pm-4pm
Come and join us in the woods as we learn how to survive in the wild. Have a go at shelter building, wild cooking over a fire and learn what animals need to survive. £4 per child
Age 7+ Booking essential, to book call 020 8319 8900
Just a reminder that it is the Big Farmland bird count next Monday 8th Feb. We will meet in the farmyard at 9.30am before heading out to the fields for the half hour count. Please bring binoculars with you, but we do have some we can lend if you don’t have any.
This is the farmers’ equivalent of the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, but is organised by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust. Last year the farm’s volunteers did the count over two days and spotted 17 different bird species:
Monday 9th February
1 Black headed gull
2 Blackbirds
11 Carrion Crows
6 Common Gulls
5 Long tailed tits
18 Magpies
2 Ring Necked Parakeets
1 Green Woodpecker
5 Greenfinch
1 Sparrowhawk
1 Stock dove
38 Wood pigeon
2 Feral Pigeon
Tuesday 10th February
1 Blackbird
3 Blue tits
5 Carrion crows
8 Common Gull
1 Great tit
1 Lesser black backed gull
12 Magpies
3 Ring necked parakeet
1 Robin
3 Greenfinch
60 Wood pigeon
Then the next of the farm’s series of free monthly guided walks is the St. Valentine’s Walk on Sunday 14th February, starting at the green Education Building at 10am.
And if this all sounds far too energetic then just drop in and see the pregnant ewes in the barn waiting for the lambing season and Lambing Day on Sunday 10th April.
Coal Tit at Woodlands FarmFemale Chaffinch at Woodlands FarmDunnock at Woodlands Farm
As part of the Mayor of Greenwich’s Marathon Team, I’m really pleased to be running for this AMAZING local organisation, the Greenwich & Bexley Hospice. Lots of us have been affected by cancer in one way or another, and this money will help the hospice to build a new sensory garden, a place for patients and their families to enjoy.
The Mayor is also raising money for the Early Dove School in Zambia.
Also in the Mayor’s team are: Councillors Mehboob Khan and Chris Lloyd and Vicky Nock. It’s a great cause, let’s hope they raise lots of money.
Shooters Hill Local History Group‘s next meeting at Shrewsbury House this Thursday, 21st January at 8.00pm is a film show featuring three locally-made local history films. Steve wrote asking me to post a reminder:
It would be appreciated if you could provide a brief update about Thursday’s film show featuring:
‘The Catherine Wheel Dig’ – the archaeological search by members of the Shooters Hill Local History Group and friends for the “Catherine Wheel” ale house at the crest of Shooters Hill, which predated the “Bull” as a stop for stage coaches on the road to Dover.
‘This Girl went to Market’ – a young lady researches the history of Beresford Square market and finds her future (real life) husband.
‘The Plumstead Make Merry’ – the preparation for this popular local festival and the many aspects of how people enjoyed themselves at the two day event on Plumstead Common.
All are welcome. There’s a small visitor fee to cover the cost of the room.
