Issue 94 Winter 2016 MAGPIE The newsletter of the Friends of Mitcham Common Working to protect the Common and its wildlife Editor: Darren Stillwell Website: www.friendsofmitchamcommon.com Secretary: Melanie Nunzet Twitter: https://twitter.com/MitchamCommonF Telephone: 07944 833 605 Email: [email protected] Annual General Meeting The Friends Annual Review and Annual General Meeting took place at the Mill House Ecology Centre on Monday September 12. The Committee would like to thank everybody for attending, including several people who signed up on the night to be Friends, for which we are very grateful. The papers from the meeting will be circulated shortly, but we had a wonderful presentation from Frank Paine on the Shirley Windmill, drawing parallels with the Mill on our Common. This was followed by the business of the Windmill on the common AGM. It included the election of the existing officials; Andrew Jones’ financial particular issues with swans and geese (see report that showed the Friends having a article later on). healthy bank balance; and questions for Mitcham Common Manager Martin Boyle. We finished with a tribute to Janet Morris, Martin gave a requested update on the our Honorary President, who is standing Mitcham Common management plan, and down after many years as head of the the plans to outsource the maintenance of Mitcham Common Preservation Society, the Common. and latterly the Friends. She has been a true inspiration to the Friends over the Many of the questions this year focussed years, and we will be very sad to see her on the wildlife on the Common, and in go! Page 1 Magpie issue 94 Winter 2016 The Annual Inspection The Acting Chair and Secretary of near the Meadows. Keep an eye out for them the Friends of Mitcham Common over the next few weeks! took part in the annual inspection of the Common this year on Sunday 25 September. As last year, this was an enjoyable morning, learning about the Common, and was a good chance for the Friends to meet and discuss the issues of the Common with Mitcham Common Manager Martin Boyle, Conservators and the Mayors and deputies of Merton, Croydon and Sutton. One of the highlights this year was Martin Heather near the Meadows - heather bee haven! showing us an example of the heather bee, that are now prolific in the area of heather Wise up to the Wandle by Tina Corr and Rebecca Watts Having just celebrated World Rivers looking much cleaner with regular work days Day on 25 September, it’s time to and invasive species management and 5641 people are newly engaged with their river. reflect on our own stretch of water, the Wandleful Wandle! There’s still a lot more to come including 8 new community projects funded within the A lot has happened on and around the river original £1.9 million bid. There will be lots of since the Heritage Lottery funded Living opportunities to get involved over the next Wandle Landscape programme got underway 15 months with volunteers needed for the 3 years ago. Much has been achieved in that Mapping the Mills, Discovering the Source of time, including a book, a film and a newly the Wandle and Climate Change projects. updated website featuring images from the Our ‘Wandle Watchers’ are our wildlife eyes successful photographic competition held in and ears, spotting species and recording 2015 www.wandlevalleypark.co.uk/Projects/ them online so the health and vitality of the Living-Wandle. Access points are being river can be monitored. improved and 25 young people have been introduced to coarse fishing; the river is To date we’ve nearly 600 people volunteering or engaged in different ways and nearly 1000 organisations are being kept up to date with Wandle news through our quarterly newsletter. To get involved in one of the projects or to receive a copy of the newsletter email [email protected] or phone 07500 073 049 Page 2 Magpie issue 94 Winter 2016 “Praying for Commons”...... a story of a shiing populaon by Fr David Pennells, Vicar of the Anglican Parish Church of St Peter & St Paul, Mitcham. Has it ever occurred to you that there are So, after conversations between the two people who regularly pray for Mitcham Parishes and in consultation with the Common? And has it ever occurred to you Anglican Diocese of Southwark, the Parish who has that responsibility for Mitcham boundaries of Mitcham Parish Church and Common? The Ascension, Pollards Hill were changed to accommodate this reality. On 1 August 2016, Well, until 1 August this year, it was the the parcel of land bounded by Commonside undivided pleasure of Fr David Pennells, the East, Windmill Road, Croydon Road and the Vicar, and the parishioners of the historic Croydon Borough boundary, was legally and Parish of Mitcham to do so. The ‘old parish’ formally transferred by a Pastoral Order of boundaries for Mitcham Parish Church (in the Bishop of Southwark from the Parish of the mid-1800’s) extended to Colliers Wood St Peter & St Paul Mitcham to the Parish of and beyond Figge’s Marsh in the North, The Ascension, Pollards Hill. almost to Beddington Corner in the south, and included Pollards Hill Wood in the east - From my perspective it is, to some extent, and followed the River Wandle, meandering sad, as not only does MPC lose those Talbot past Grove House and Wandle Villa to the Close parishioners, but also the Ecology West. Centre, the Windmill and the Harvester pub (!) from our pastoral interest and care. With the advent of suburbanisation in the However the priority has to be ‘being the last century, the old Parish gradually gave up church to the local population’, and The parcels of land – to ‘internally’ develop Ascension, by a mile or two, has the Christ Church, St Barnabas’, St Mark’s, St advantage! Olave’s and the Ascension, Pollards Hill – as populations grew and the need for worship But may I reassure you that the entire centres and more focused pastoral care Common will continue to be prayed for by developed. us at the Parish Church: flora, fauna, and visitors included and now there is the added But, happily, the main boundaries of the bonus that The Ascension parish has a parish kept the whole of the Common to stronger interest and concern for the ‘Talbot’ itself. There seemed little reason to hand area, too - so this can only be to everyone’s over any more land parcels, thus keeping a advantage! clear idea that Mitcham Common ‘belonged’ to the Parish Church (and vice versa). As we approach Harvest-time, giving thanks to God for the many gifts around us with Until recently! The change of land use that which we are blessed, our wish and prayer was previously industrial and is now for the Common and all who care for it are residential and known as Talbot Close has as positive and encouraging as ever. produced a new and changing dynamic in that area. The pastoral needs of people in Long live the Common! Long live the Parish! that parcel of land feel decidedly ‘distant’ God bless us all! from the ‘old’ Parish Church in Church Road, Mitcham – and the Church of The Ascension feels conveniently ‘just up the road’ to the burgeoning community developing there. So about a year ago, the Vicars of those two parishes decided something had to be done! Page 3 Magpie issue 94 Winter 2016 Clearing the crater plaque by Andrew Jones On Saturday 18 June, cub scouts weeds, raking them up or piling them into from the 11th Mitcham St. Peter and the wheelbarrows and removing them to a Paul group did some voluntary work nearby oak tree. Despite gloves and long on Mitcham Common. sleeves, lots of stings and prickles were endured and our Akela was almost The World War 2 bomb site, formally permanently administering sting relief unveiled by The Friends in 2015, had cream. At the end of the session, and as become overgrown with tall grass, nettles parents began to arrive to collect the cubs, and other such weeds. The 11th Mitcham the site was not quite cleared. They cubs were tasked with clearing the site so unanimously agreed to return to the site that the site could once again be more on Tuesday evening – our normal night to easily seen. meet at the scout hut – to complete the task. Mobilising a pack of cubs to clear a bomb site was not difficult. It is entirely possible that in one swift leap, the active By 8:30pm on Tuesday, the site was fully imaginations of 20 eight to ten-year-old cleared and once again, the demarcation boys went straight from weed clearance to between the bomb site and the rest of the finding bomb shrapnel and bits of a Common was very clear. Based on the fun Messerschmitt plane. of the task and the skill that some of the cubs showed in using the billhooks, I have no doubt there are a couple of potential assistants for the Warden in the making! We had an excellent turn-out! Cubs were given guidance on using billhooks and under strict one-on-one adult supervision, set about levelling the site. On a rotational basis, cubs were either chopping down the Page 4 Magpie issue 94 Winter 2016 The story of Mill House and the windmill by Melanie Nunzet In conjunction with Frank Paine’s Reformatory Institution and was known as “windmill” talk at the AGM I thought the Holt-Yates Memorial Home for Girls. it might be interesting to give a brief In 1939 evacuation of the girls was thought history of this site.