The walking group I belong to has kindly put me in charge as organiser for a walk of, probably, five ten mile sections which will take us on the occasional Sunday from East Croydon Station to Newhaven. In the write-up of this walk, the Vanguard Way, there is a list of connecting walks. One of these the Wandle Trail starts in Wandsworth where I live and one of the others is in France, starting at Dieppe.
This gave me the idea that I could add these extras to the Vanguard Way and actually walk between our houses in Wandsworth and Equiqueville.
Stage 1 - Wandle Trail - St. Anns Hill to East Croydon station.
19th. November 2008.
I had tried to canvas some of the group to join in this section but it's mainly of local interest, so I set off from home at 9 am and picked up the trail in St Georges Park. Some Travellers have set up home in the park and I had to struggle with old codgerly feelings about them messing up the soccer pitches with their 4wds and other, more 'live and let live' views - why shouldn't they live as they please? I decided it was best to put all this aside as I picked up the river bank. The Wandle is a surprising peaceful river considering that it is surrounded by suburbs and light industry, and was once the base of a substantial industry itself, with over 90 mills along its short length in its heyday.
I found it slightly irritating that there is no way through the railway embankment between Earlsfield and Wimbledon stations so there is a long walk down Penwith Road to Earlsfield station, which I reached half an hour after leaving home, although it is only 10 minutes walk by the direct route down Earlsfield Road. Even before reaching it I had seen parts of my borough I hadn't seen before and thoroughly appreciated the size and scope of St Georges Park.
Once past Earlsfield the trail follows between the river and the back of all sorts of industrial units but with enough green in the form of trees and grassy banks to help keep up the feeling of a rural river, well rural-ish.
After Plough Lane the trail goes along the back of the Vauxhall garage but soon becomes quite isolated for a long stretch, then though some pleasant new housing developments to reach Merton High Street and the shopping centre there.
This was the site of several important former historical enterprises. The first was built by William Morris of the Art and Crafts movement to print his famous wallpaper designs. Only a plaque commemorates this now. This was replaced by the New Merton Board Mills, probably in the 1890s. This plant was still in existence with its original machinery in 1969 when I made occasional visits there to the young man who was engaged in reorganising that company's transport fleet, Mr Joe Morgan.
His office was in a creosoted hut in the yard of the factory, where he wrangled with the question of whether a leased vehicle fleet or a wholly-owned one would be the most economic way of distributing the company's product. This product was strong cardboard. At the time new uses were being sought for it, including making furniture in modernistic 60s designs and colours, quite in keeping with the Merton tradition perhaps. I don't know if Joe solved these problems. I would be there because I had arranged a meeting in the area which would happily end at around 1230 allowing us to go off for a quick lunch in the pub.
I was there because I worked for Mr Sosnow at the time. Among our many enterprises we imported from South Africa a product called Wonderstone. It was an amazing substance - a naturally-occurring hard ceramic which could be machined and fired and had extraordinary heat and electric insulation properties. However there was only one company in the UK which could do the machining and firing, the downside of Wonderstone being that this needed very specialised skills and equipment. This company was also alongside the Wandle and opposite New Merton Board Mills. My involvement with Wonderstone caused me quite a lot of anxiety at one time, but that's another story.
Having concluded my business I would drop into Joe's shed and off we would go to lunch. This was always excessively boozy and I often made little attempt to go back to the office in Oxford Circus afterwards. It was a long way back on the Northern Line. The Emma Hamilton was the pub of choice, a reminder of Merton's other claim to fame as Emma's 'Paradise'. There is no sign of Merton Abbey where she and Nelson lived.
A little further on is Merton Abbey Mills, some buildings still standing now forming a craft market. This was the calico bleaching and printing plant of Liberty of London, where the famous Liberty print was born.
Soon after I crossed the tramway into Morden Hall Park, where we have walked occasionally, but always driven there - unaware that the best walk would be to walk TO it from home and get the tram/train back.
Ravensbury Park was next, very beautiful in the autumn sunshine. On this section of the river the water is held back by a weir and resembles a lake which is home to a lot of water birds. It was very peaceful and tranquil under the trees, impossible to believe that this is in Mitcham! Crossing London Road and the border between Merton and Sutton boroughs I stopped at the petrol station for a bottle of water and a bite to eat on the hoof. This part of the walk parallels the road we always take to get out of London to Brighton, Gatwick or Newhaven, but it seems like another world.
At Wilderness Island I took the shorter route, thereby missing Carshalton Ponds which is one of the sources of the Wandle, crossed our Brighton route at last and entered Beddington Park. This is a large well-kept open space with some lakes and the Wandle as its centrepiece. At the far end were Carew Manor (now a school) and St Mary the Virgin church, both reminders that this was not always suburbia.
After the park the rest of the route follows the river (now tiny) up to Beddington Mill where the millstream branch emerges from under the building. Just before the tunnel there is a tiny house on the opposite bank covered in flowers even in Autumn with its own tiny bridge across the stream. Fairyland among the mills.
Just before this house but on the same section was a sailing boat (about 24ft with cabin) parked on a trailer, again on the opposite bank. I tried to imagine sailing her up the Wandle - impossible - in any case she has a serviceable trailer. She looks terribly neglected, all grown over with green slimy stuff, but probably fundamentally sound. However all that is not to the purpose. What is striking is that she is the 'Pepper' out of Sausalito in California, and still carries her California boat registration number. I am so curious to know how she ends up where she is, but the explanation's probably very simple, so I won't follow it up.
Alongside Beddington Mill the other branch continues to Waddon Ponds,which is the other source of the river. Again this is a pleasant patch of green trees and grass and dark water with lots of birdlife among the factories and bungalows.
All that remains, now that there is no river to follow is to walk along the streets to East Croydon station. Although hard on the feet, there is a lot to see. The street which slopes uphill towards the station is a market area and there are traders from any country you care to mention with piles of anything you might conceivably want for sale. And best of all, it's a pedestrian street except for the trams which thread there way though the people. What a great investment this tramlink system has turned out to be. I don't know if it has paid for itself yet, but the trams are always full and the boost it has given to Croydon in terms of character and trade must be enormous.
Luckily the Caffe Nero was just before the station and I was ready to relax for a moment before getting the train back home (10 mins to Clapham Junction plus another 10 on the 77 bus). My watch said it was 1.25, so I had taken 4hrs 25 mins for the approximately 11 miles.
Got the train home, and the bus, feeling a bit stiff, but it's still a lovely sunny autumn day. As I walked in though the door someone shouted after me. It was a motorist who had been cleaning out his car by dumping the ashtray and assorted sweet wrappers in the street. He called me a 'silly old so and so'. I don't think so.
