New Year, New You? Don’t want to pay a gym fee to be indoors working out? Why not join us once a week in the Rivers of Lewisham? Plus, whilst you do that you are actively helping the blue spaces within the borough!
The volunteer session programme has now been released for October to December 2023. Check out the programme HERE. If you would like to get involved in volunteering on Lewisham’s rivers please read through the the River Volunteering web page, and if you have any questions or queries please get in touch with Emily.
Autumn/ Winter is when we can get many of our hands on practical tasks done as most of the wildlife on the banks are hunkering down for the colder period. Why not join our Tuesday volunteer sessions? The volunteer session programme has now been released for October to December 2023. Check out the programme HERE. If you would like to get involved in volunteering on Lewisham’s rivers please read through the the River Volunteering web page, and if you have any questions or queries please get in touch with Emily.
March has seen our volunteers working in the ponds adjacent to some of Lewisham’s rivers. Mid-March generally marks the common toad migration in London, and as one of our 8 priority species within Lewisham we survey the ponds and migration routes at this time of year. Our volunteer sessions changed from morning and afternoon to being ‘in the parks after dark’, one of these ponds that we surveyed was Bell Green Pond (alongside and connected to the River Pool). Common frogs, smooth newts & common toads all found, with common toads seen in mating pairs and toadspawn present.
Onto another set of ponds in the borough, but this time brand new ponds being planted up by Thames21 and our volunteers. Purple Loosestrife, Brooklime, Yellow Flag Iris are a few of the plant species that have recently been planted in.
In this blog conservation student Riley talks us through his placement with Glendale’s Nature Conservation Officer
Monday 25th March I met one of the volunteer bird surveyors at the meeting spot in Hilly Fields and we sat down and got to know each other as we waited for the others to arrive. I immediately felt welcomed despite I have never done birdwatching before. The lady I met first at the meet up spot spent the majority of the day teaching me all kinds of bird and tree species and also taught me how to tell which birds are around by their singing. The whole three hours went fast! The entire experience for me was relaxing and because I have always loved to learn about nature, this was an excellent experience. I even got to see two uncommon birds for Hilly Fields which were the Green woodpecker and a red kite! I then did another task at Mayow Park, elsewhere in the borough, with different volunteers where I learnt how to plant tree whips and put guards on which I have never done before and it was an awesome feeling after I was able to do it all by myself. I know this is considered as a job to do these things but I genuinely felt joy and it did not whatsoever feel like a chore to me. Another positive thing I’ve found doing this volunteering was communication. It was easy to talk to people I have never spoken too because every volunteer was welcoming and approachable. This was especially beneficial for me because of my autism I have found it hard to talk to people I don’t know, so this was really good practice for me to develop communication skills.
Tuesday 26th March I went to Chinbrook meadows and I got to go in a newly built pond with a group of volunteers to plant some aquatic plants, helped make a dead hedgerow and litter picked the surrounding area. Everyone in the group is very kind and joyful because of being passionate about the type of work we were all doing. There was this one volunteer I started talking to during tea break and I told her about how my lecturer told me that conservation isn’t for me because I’m more aware of my surroundings and they reassured me to never let someone tell me what I can and can’t do and how I possibly even could have more to offer in the industry than I think. It was a long discussion and it really uplifted me, she was a very pleasant person to talk to. That just goes to show how great it is to volunteer in this group. I find it also easier to talk to people in this community due to relevant interests and you can talk for hours because there is so much about the industry such as different plant species, wildlife etc. I really enjoyed myself today.
Thursday 27th March Today I built my first bug hotel! As a group we stacked up 4 or 5 wooden pallets and then gathered materials such as sticks and cut dried bamboo lengths to put into the bug hotel as sheltering space for insects and invertebrates. After we did that we applied chickenwire around the top of the bug hotel to prevent the sticks from falling out and to prevent any hazard to the public. I also had the opportunity to put vertical logs into the ground which acts as food and shelter source for insects and invertebrates, these were called loggeries (A vital use of deadwood for the stag beetle lifecycle). During this volunteering I felt like I fit in and I felt welcomed to the group of volunteers where most of them I did not know.
February was a busy and very wet working month for our volunteers, we fixed brash bundles into our berm in our ongoing Ladywell Fields (middle field) project and weaved the main ‘wall’ of the structure with coppiced hazel and lime that was situated alongside the river.
For the latter half of the month we were digging out reeds, iris and encroaching grasses from the ephemeral pool alongside the secondary channel in Ladywell Fields. Although the recent wet weather made it easier to dig the soil, it was still a heavy and very mucky task to do!
Join urban sociologists Dr Emma Jackson and Dr Louise Rondel to celebrate the launch of the Place-making and the Rivers of Lewisham podcasts and project report, hosted by the Centre for Urban and Community Research (Goldsmiths).
As part of this event, you are invited to join us to walk along two stretches of Lewisham’s rivers, from Lower Sydenham to Catford Bridge and from Confluence Park (Lewisham Gateway) to Deptford Creekside and listen to podcasts with stories and soundscapes from the rivers. You are also invited to join us at Creekside Discovery Centre for the launch of the project report followed by a drinks reception.
Friday 28th June, 1pm-7pm – Various venues across Lewisham (please see event information and tickets for more details)
This walk will follow the Waterlink Way and will be on a mix of off-road paths and pavements. It will involve crossing roads. For more details see: https://www.accessable.co.uk/venues/waterlink-way
4.30pm – 7pm Report launch at Creekside Discovery Centre
While the Thames looms large in questions of the past, present and future of London, a network of 25 smaller tributary rivers criss-cross the city, shaping the landscape and impacting in dramatic and mundane ways on people’s lives. These include the rivers of Lewisham: the Ravensbourne, the Quaggy and the Pool.
Over the course of a year, the research project Place-making and the Rivers of Lewisham has conducted a close-up exploration of two stretches of Lewisham’s rivers, through the use of creative qualitative methods, walking interviews, soundscape recordings, ethnography and a review of policy documents that are relevant to blue and green spaces across the borough.
The two stretches of river we are following in the project take us through a fast-changing part of Lewisham. They thread together landscapes of newly privatised high-rise development where the rivers have only recently been opened up as part of the Lewisham Gateway regeneration, the well-established Waterlink Way Linear Park, stretches dominated by transport infrastructure and the unique ecology and heritage of Deptford Creek.
Caring for Lewisham’s stretches of river are groups such as the Friends of the River Pool, Quaggy Waterways Action Group [QWAG], the Friends of Brookmill Park, Creekside Discovery Centre, Thames21, Healthy Rivers Project and Lewisham’s Nature’s Gym. These groups meet regularly to pull on their waders, don litter pickers and bin bags, and walk the river and its banks collecting litter, weeding out invasive plants, clearing debris which impedes the water’s flow, monitoring water quality, and carrying other such essential maintenance tasks; and, of course, sharing flasks of tea and donuts.
If you have any questions or accessibility requirements, please contact the organisers: Emma Jackson and Louise Rondel e.jackson@gold.ac.uk and l.rondel@gold.ac.uk
With thanks to the Goldsmiths Strategic Research Fund for funding the project.
It’s January and the Rivers & People volunteers are back in the water! After heavy rain and storms you’ll notice that the banks collect both litter and fallen branches. some of which restrict the flow of the river and mean that the banks burst. Our group started the year at Cornmill Gardens and was busy clearing the dipping platform of debris. We also managed to collect 8 bags of rubbish and a bicycle from the banks, collected by the Glendale park cleansing team.
At Chinbrook Meadows, our volunteers continued cutting back the overhanging willows and other trees around the pond to allow more light onto the water’s surface. Whilst there we cleared an obstruction in the River Quaggy to reduce localised flooding onto the path adjacent.
Rivers & People is one of many projects and organisations where you can get involved with the Ravensbourne Catchment, here’s a short list of some of our friends also working in Lewisham, and neighbouring boroughs:
If you know of any other groups, organisations of projects that should be added to this list, please feel free to get in touch and we’ll get them added!
December is a shorter month for our volunteers, and with our final and 40th session of the year taking place on December 12th we celebrated with mince pies, yule log and other snacks… after 2 heavy hours building a berm!
From me, I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to all our wonderful volunteers working to keep Lewisham’s rivers so healthy and encouraging others to learn more about this great part of the borough. A special thanks especially to the #RiversandPeople volunteers who join me every week to get waders on and get into the river to make practical improvements- I’m looking forward to 2024 where we can do even more!
One project that will continue into the new year is the new berm our group is building in the middle field of Ladywell Fields, we’ve put the posts in, weaved the frame, and we’ll be back in mid-January to build up the bank.
The volunteers have been all across the borough this month, starting with visiting the regeneration works at Beckenham Place Park (East). We also cleared trapped debris from the recent heavy rains, especially with fallen trees down over the channel.
Combining forces with the Friends of the River Pool, we thinned a section of hazel for a future project in another Lewisham Park where we needed long malleable lengths for weaving. This was a testing day of weather as the light rain predicted was actually a downpour- but the volunteers persevered.
October gave us the perfect weather for working in the rivers in Lewisham, dry and cool enough to still be working in t-shirts! This time at Chinbrook Meadows we were working on the wildlife pond, clearing more of the willow surrounding and blocking light into the pond, and removing any silted islands that were growing vegetation to halt succession from happening on the pond. The pond itself would benefit from being desilted, so we’re keeping an eye out for any funding to hire a mini-digger to help us out in the future. For now, our volunteer group and the wonderful Friends of Chinbrook Meadows are continuing to monitor wildlife in and around the pond.
Another spot we’ve been working on this month is the area under the Ladywell Road bridge in Ladywell Fields. This is a special location for us to work in as it’s near to one of Lewisham’s kingfisher nest boxes, so we only work in the areas nearby outside of their nesting season.
There was a huge fig tree growing into the channel and blocking debris in teh channel, so we spent a few hours working on the lower branches of the tree and allowing the full width of the channel to flow as intended. It’s also a good time to note that sadly this area is affected by litter thrown from the bridge above, but during these volunteer sessions our team get into the undergrowth to prevent this litter from entering the river.
NB: Our volunteer on the left hand image doesn’t normally wander under bridges with a pruning saw but as it was halloween the photo opportunity seemed to good to miss! #SpookySeason
Rivers and People 