Wildlife Circus

  Many of you accompanied Lucy and myself along the drove roads of  Tolworth for a picnic during 12.8.18. Earlier this week Bruce 'of the drove roads' www.localdroveroads.co.uk - arrived at Tolworth Station from his home in a small village at Carmarthenshire. Ironic, as it was the arrival of the mainline railway in the 1840's that made our local trackways redundant for the movement of cattle.     Our first stop was to walk the old Kingston Road to the 'Moated Manor' site aided by some context provided by the writings of  Richard Jefferies - a former resident of  Ewell Road (where there is now a blue plaque above Stack and Bonner). R.J. wrote of the cows walking along the Ewell Road with their heads moving from side to side c1877. This would have been post - drovers, as by then the railways were used for moving cattle around the country, so these animals might have walked from Surbiton Station.     We disturbed the usual buzzard as we op...

The second  walk in the series presented by myself and walking artist Lucy Furlong, was designed to highlight features in the Tolworth Edgelands and it's environs. The edgelands are a window through social and cultural history; as well as being a reservoir for the shyer species of animals and birds, such as badger, deer, kestrels and buzzards etc. Tolworth was an inspiration to the nature writer - Richard Jefferies (see previous post), and we followed in his footsteps, as well as navigating the informal pathways and desire lines made by  animals, birds, and people. Tithe maps and the tithe apportionment are sound  documents for historical research regarding past land use; as well as dissertations available in the Local History Room (at the back of the Guildhall); one comprises a series of interviews with staff that lived and worked in the Worcester Park. This included the silk printing mill whose remnants exist at the Bristows haulage yard and until 2017, the mill w...

    Thanks to the Environment Trust using CO-op funding, the broken down fence around Tolworth Court Farm Moated Manor (TCFMM) site was repaired yesterday, including a completely new section. The poor state of the fence has meant that litter from the road could blow into sensitive areas, such as the pond, which is scheduled for a face lift in the new year. As well as  human ingress - gaps in the fence- have allowed deer egress,  sadly resulting in a recent vehicle collision. Seclusion ensures that  shyer wildlife species are more likely to be  found at TCFMM than on the main Tolworth Court Farm Fields. Yesterday there were three crows mobbing a buzzard around the perimeter of the field as well as redwings and fieldfares along the old Kingston Road. The large intact area of  hedgerows and  field system on the opposite side of the A240, lead to the main farm being a hotspot for brown hairstreak - only recorded in this borough, slightly f...