her_welshness
Well-Known Member
Led by Bermondsey Bill:
The Wandle is not truly lost, more mislaid, it emerges from the North Downs in Croydon, although most of it is marked as The Wandle trail. The Doomsday book records thirteen windmills, then came oil, paper, snuff and gunpowder, then textiles’ and paper and the retail trade.
David Saxby wrote early in the 19th century that the Wandle was the hardest worked river in the world for its’ size, it had some 90 mills, its’ rural setting disappeared with the industrialisation of South West London. The river became polluted, the mills declined , new factories came, the discharge of chemicals and industrial effluent increased, until the river was categorised as a sewer in the 1960’s.
This coming weekend is Open house, and as part of that Chapter House of Merton Priory c1100-1200, one of the most important of all Augustinian monasteries prior to its destruction in 1538 by Henry VIII, is open. It sits buried under an access to a Sainsbury Superstore, and is rarely open to visitors, this weekend it is, nearby William Morris worked, and Liberty produced its’ trademark silks until 1973, the waterwheel in the Merton Council logo is that of their plant, and all that remains.
Many of our rides have had munitions links, from Enfield to a cemetery in Norwood, and we take this chance to look at the remains of the Sten MkIII Sub Machine gun, and get our toys out while we remember Triang and Hornby.
The writer and poet Edward Thomas cycled through Summerstown just before the outbreak of the First World War and described the scene in his evocative travelogue In Pursuit of Spring:
“The main part visible was twenty acres of damp meadow. On the left it was bounded by the irregular low buildings of a laundry, a file and tool factory, and a chamois-leather mill; on the right by the dirty backs of Summerstown. On the far side a neat, white, oldish house was retiring amid blossoming fuit trees under the guard¬i¬anship of several elms, and the shadow of those two tall red chimneys of the electricity works … A mixture of the sordid and the delicate in the whole was unmistakable.”
Weybridge and Shepperton lie not on the Wandle, yet they suffered at the hands of The Martians, as did the Wandle, it became a mass of red weed, in appearance between butchers’ meat and red cabbage.
As you will have come to expect from Lost Rivers so much more, from Nelson to Alexander Pope, both on repeat appearances, masses of trivia and a fascinating insight into a London now lost, and as much Open House Stuff as we can fit in en route.
Meanwhile Sambrooks Brewery brew a beer named after this river, how else could the ride end, would it be a shocking waste to pour a pint into the river?
Bermondsey Square 09.00 sharp
We did a similarish Open House Ride last year and it was really special, but hey all of Bill's rides are brilliant! Hope to see some of you this coming Sunday
The Wandle is not truly lost, more mislaid, it emerges from the North Downs in Croydon, although most of it is marked as The Wandle trail. The Doomsday book records thirteen windmills, then came oil, paper, snuff and gunpowder, then textiles’ and paper and the retail trade.
David Saxby wrote early in the 19th century that the Wandle was the hardest worked river in the world for its’ size, it had some 90 mills, its’ rural setting disappeared with the industrialisation of South West London. The river became polluted, the mills declined , new factories came, the discharge of chemicals and industrial effluent increased, until the river was categorised as a sewer in the 1960’s.
This coming weekend is Open house, and as part of that Chapter House of Merton Priory c1100-1200, one of the most important of all Augustinian monasteries prior to its destruction in 1538 by Henry VIII, is open. It sits buried under an access to a Sainsbury Superstore, and is rarely open to visitors, this weekend it is, nearby William Morris worked, and Liberty produced its’ trademark silks until 1973, the waterwheel in the Merton Council logo is that of their plant, and all that remains.
Many of our rides have had munitions links, from Enfield to a cemetery in Norwood, and we take this chance to look at the remains of the Sten MkIII Sub Machine gun, and get our toys out while we remember Triang and Hornby.
The writer and poet Edward Thomas cycled through Summerstown just before the outbreak of the First World War and described the scene in his evocative travelogue In Pursuit of Spring:
“The main part visible was twenty acres of damp meadow. On the left it was bounded by the irregular low buildings of a laundry, a file and tool factory, and a chamois-leather mill; on the right by the dirty backs of Summerstown. On the far side a neat, white, oldish house was retiring amid blossoming fuit trees under the guard¬i¬anship of several elms, and the shadow of those two tall red chimneys of the electricity works … A mixture of the sordid and the delicate in the whole was unmistakable.”
Weybridge and Shepperton lie not on the Wandle, yet they suffered at the hands of The Martians, as did the Wandle, it became a mass of red weed, in appearance between butchers’ meat and red cabbage.
As you will have come to expect from Lost Rivers so much more, from Nelson to Alexander Pope, both on repeat appearances, masses of trivia and a fascinating insight into a London now lost, and as much Open House Stuff as we can fit in en route.
Meanwhile Sambrooks Brewery brew a beer named after this river, how else could the ride end, would it be a shocking waste to pour a pint into the river?
Bermondsey Square 09.00 sharp
We did a similarish Open House Ride last year and it was really special, but hey all of Bill's rides are brilliant! Hope to see some of you this coming Sunday
