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Have you seen toad of toad hall?

I just read an interesting bit of news on the neighbourhood watch site, Apparently we hillians are being encouraged to collect data on speeding drivers, and relay this to the met’s traffic police via 999:

Sergeant Barry Edge confirmed the issues of speeding drivers around Shooters Hill could be tackled by getting the traffic division of the Met Police involved, but this will only happen if more residents call the issues in.

We need your help in calling any issues of speeding drivers, logging the date, time and registration numbers.

So, provided any speed freeks don’t whizz by too fast, and the vital statistics can be taken, why not 999 it (noting that callers are sometimes interrogated about themselves as well as the dangers they see).

According to the latest police report for this ward, local safety is up on the last quarter, so collecting previously unknown information on speeding would support new safety initiatives in the area (such as solar powered smiley/frowny faces), and perhaps even give the police the odd chance of a go in the helicopter.

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Shooters Hill on Ice

bramble ice cream
bramble ice cream


-- Ingredients
blackberries - 1 Pound
double or whipping cream - 1 Pint
sugar - ¼ to ½ Pound

--Steps
whizz and sieve the berries
mix the juice & sugar
whisk the cream into soft falling peaks
fold ingredients together
spoon into a carton
half freeze (about 3 hours)
whisk again, add a few whole berries, and wait...

Bramble time is here again! I’ve tried various recipes over the years: crumbles, pies, juice, jelly and jam, but when I was on my holidays this year I came across some blackberry ice cream which was so nice I decided to try making some myself, luckily it was easy, the trickiest part being the waiting around.

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Views of and from the hill

Twilight on Shooters Hill
Twilight on Shooters Hill

There’s been some interesting hill related action on flickr lately, but unfortunately it’s of the look but don’t touch variety, so instead of being added to the site header, here are some links – i hope they stay up.

Shooters Hill (with tower bridge in the foreground)
Shooters Hill (with tower bridge in the foreground)
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Ham Radio Summit

gb4sh cray valley radio society
GB4SH Cray Valley Radio Society
As we know, shooters hill is an excellent location for communicating wirelessly, and so the Bull plays host once again to an aptly named ‘summit’ for ham radio enthusiasts organised by the cray valley radio society:

The Cray Valley Radio Society are again being given on the 28th August 2010 the opportunity to operate from the highest point on their home ground which is also the highest point in South London

The Bull is the highest Pub in South London being situated at the top of Shooter’s Hill at JO01AL, WAB TQ47. It is, also, on a par with another non-functionning pub in North London.

It is 14 Km (~8.5 miles) SE of central London in the London Borough of Greenwich in SE18

Shooter’s Hill is the highest pt. in Inner London south of the River Thames It is 132 m (432 feet) asl. The highest pt in Greater London is Westerham Heights at 245 m (804 feet).

Because of its height the location has a long association with communications:

1585 – beacon chain site
1790’s – Napoleonic wars shutter telegraph site ( part of chain from admiralty to Sheerness and Deal)
21st century – communications site with numerous antennas and dishes on surrounding high buildings.

It is a local prominent landmark: at the summit a Victorian water tower can be seen for miles around London and surrounding counties

Cray Valley members operated from the garden of the Pub on the summit, this highest pub in inner London South of the Thames is at 127m (416.7 ft. Previously there was a pub on Hampstead Heath NW3 some 9m higher but that is now closed and the building has been redeveloped. The highest pub in Greater London is near Westerham Heights at 235m (771 ft).

The name of the area may be derived from an archers practice area. Later it became infamous for activities of Highway men ambushing travellers on the London to Dover Road that passes over the summit (the former Roman road Watling street). It was also the site of a gibbet!

There is a summit ‘folly’: – Severndroog castle (19m high) built in 1784 to commemorate Sir William James (East India Co) who, in 1755, attacked and destroyed the Indian island fortress of Suvarnadurg. The Castle is currently undergoing restoration.

The summit includes areas of ancient woodland: a nature reserve and a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) (Oxleas Wood, Jack Wood and Shepherdleas Wood)

On the eastern slope there is situated one of the last farmland areas of London : 36 Hectare (89 acre) Woodlands Farm Trust – it is open to public and is frequently visited by schoolchildren to view the animals.

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Restaurants

Recently links have been added to the site for two restaurants on shooters hill, one for Ruchita Bengali Cuisine (31 Shooters Hill London SE18 3RL. Tel 020 8319 2233), just down from the red lion pub and chummys shellfish van, and one for City View Restaurant (Red Lion Lane, London, SE18 4LD. Tel 020 8319 9790).

Ruchita, which was previously known as Dhanshirry, and still has the same menu and plates, was awarded a food hygiene certificate in June 2009, and has its own tandoor oven, and so offers good naan, chicken, and lamb dishes.

City View, which is part of the catering school in the Shooters Hill Post 16 campus on Red Lion Lane, also holds a current food hygiene award (which surprisingly few eateries in greenwich achieved), and offers an ever changing and very fancy menu for relatively low prices – the only down side of going there is the walk of shame past all the smoking youngsters by the front gates, plus they only take cash, or at least that was the case when I visited a year ago.

The Red Lion and Bull pubs also got their food hygiene certificates, and only one of eleven eateries on Herbert Road did not get their award, Herbert Best Kebabs, and that was in mid January 2009, so hopefully things have improved there.

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Pavement Parking

Recently it’s been observed that fixed penalty notices are being handed out in the area for pavement parking. The council are possibly going to apply this law more intensively now as they are probably getting fairly desperate for cash, what with central government pulling the plug on building three borough schools, so drivers beware… pedestrians however can probably enjoy having a bit more of their space back.

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SHAM Petition

There are lots of masts on the hill, almost 20 in fact, i must say the mobile reception has got a lot better…

shampetition

Here’s a copy of the SHAM petition in text:

Residents Petition Against the Shooters Hill Masts

Please complete this petition; it will be collected by a SHAM (Shooters Hill Against Masts) member. It is important you complete your name and address to ensure the validity of the petition.

l/we the undersigned hereby support SHAM’s aims as outlined below in regard to the phone masts in the Shooters Hill area and in particular the powerful TETRA mast on Eaglesfield Road:

1. That Greenwich Council ensure masts ad [original typo] all existing mobile/TETRA/and other operators immediately remove their equipment from the Shooters Hill area and relocate them away from peoples homes in the area;

2. That Greenwich Council seek the immediate removal of the recently installed TETRA technology on the mast at Eaglesfield Road;

3. That OFCOM seek the immediate removal of various equipment on the masts which does not confirm to agreed licences and safety guidelines;

4. That the London Fire Brigade remove their mast on Eaglesfield Road and relocate it on one their own operational sites; and

5. That Greenwich Council refuse further planning applications from communications companies where these affect heavily populated communities.

SIGNED:

Name:

Address:

Email Address:

Telephone No:

Your Health:

Have you, your family or your pets experienced poor health that you think may be caused by or exacerbated by the radiation from the phone masts? If so, please give details below.

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Trim Trail

In a previous post on Eaglesfield park, I linked to some negative feedback on trim trails, which said no one uses them – but the other day I was on Lakedale road (very nice it is too) and i saw two wooden trim points by the paddling pool, both of which were very much in use: one by a solitary runner, possibly trying to get his arm muscles in proportion to those of his legs, and one by a family who were having lots of fun twirling round on some hoops, this was at 7 o’ clock in the evening. The devices themselves were not unattractive and it was a pleasant evening, perfect for a bit of exercise.

Seeing this definitely made me feel more enthusiastic about the possibility of fitness facilities coming to Eaglesfield park.

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New Kid on the Hill

A new photo chronicler of shooters hill life has just appeared on flickr, and although he’s only added a couple of bus photos and one of a ferocious looking fox, it’s always nice to see pictures by someone whose ability to catch a moving target is equally matched by their ability to get up early. His collection has been liberally cloned and are on heavy rotation in the headers at the moment.

By the way, Aperture (Woolwich Photographic) have recently announced their free summer programme on their excellent blog.

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Eagles in the field

Wow! The 3rd eaglesfield neighbourhood watch fête was absolutely fantastic. The main park users catered for were the children but i’m sure the dogs didn’t mind. A possible 3rd user group was being sounded out yesterday with the beginning of a council consultation regarding funds allocated for new fitness facilities in the park. There are currently 3 main options:

  • trim trail (monkey bars etc dotted around the park)
  • one gym area (possibly in the south east corner, almost certainly not the top by the lily pond)
  • neither

It would be great to get some more park users (improved access and signs are also coming), although there are several issues to be sorted out at the grass roots level including environmental effects, materials to be used, colours, maintenance etc. For those interested in finding out more, the councillors/friends of eaglesfield park can provide more information. At first i thought that a trim trail might blend in more (require less levelling), but on further reflection i think it could actually be more intrusive as it would involve spreading these potentially unattractive structures over a much larger area, it didn’t take long to find an blog rant on the subject, with a main complaint being that people don’t actually use them – it’s not certain whether people would use an outdoor gym any more or less either.

Moves to make a permanent feature of ww1 gun base are coming along. It was probably installed to help defend against zepellins flying towards london, and is highly significant as it remains a unique find.

The reinstatement of the lily pond is looking promising too.