Local Wildlife Site

Wildlife

This site includes the River Wandle, and the open spaces beside it, in Merton borough downstream of Phipps Bridge to Earlsfield. In places the river supports a good range of water plants, including unbranched bur-reed (Sparganium emersum) and arrowhead (Sagittaria sagittifolia) and other wildlife, such as the occasional grey wagtail, but the only sizeable area with wetlands beside the river is at Wandle Meadow Nature Park. This valuable informal park was developed on the site of an old sewage treatment works. It includes temporary water bodies, wet grassland and wet woodland, drier grassland developing over the old concrete surfaces, and scrub and woodland on debris mounds and beside the river. It is an excellent place to see wetland plants and animals, including some which are otherwise uncommon in the vicinity: small sweet-grass (Glyceria declinata), eared willow (Salix aurita) and the broad-bodied chaser dragonfly (Libellula depressa). The drier grasslands on the concrete support a rich flora and is colourful in the spring and early summer. The woody vegetation has had breeding bullfinches, whitethroats and reed buntings. Most of the nature park is a Local Nature Reserve. Downstream of the Nature Park the banks of the Wandle are well-wooded, with some wetland influence close to the river especially north of Plough Lane. This length makes a pleasant walk along the Wandle Trail all the way to Earlsfield. A smaller area of wetland has been re-created in Wandle Park in Colliers Wood, where the old meandering course of the Wandle has been opened out and a new reedbed developed to enhance the quality of the water. Upstream of Wandle Park the interest on the banks is more limited, as the adjacent open space is narrow and dry. However there is a pleasant walking route along the Wandle Trail all the way from Phipp's Bridge to Merantun Way with something of the character of a green lane. To the north of the new housing development on Merantun Way Bunce's Ditch flows to join Pickle Ditch near the busy roundabout at the junction with Church Road. Bunce's Ditch has been landscaped in conjunction with the housing development. Pickle ditch is the sole remnant of the original course of the Wandle along this entire length in Merton, the other channels being the result of straightening and mill race construction dating back more than 300 years.