Nature Near London: Tolworth Brook, Coppicing, Sunday February 3rd

Each time our group of volunteers returns to work alongside the Tolworth Brook in Berrylands we're reminded that this area used to be home to the famous, and much missed Surbiton Lagoon, an outdoor swimming pool that opened in 1934, but closed in 1979, apparently for repairs (old excuse), and never reopened. The footprint of the old Lagoon complex is still visible in a Google Earth image from June 2003, highlighted in the photo below. Today, the area is partly a wonderful green open space alongside the brook, and partly housing, in the form of Meldone Close, which was built where tennis courts used to be.
The task for the Kingston Greenspace Volunteers today was to continue the hazel coppicing that was started at the end of 2012. Coppicing is a traditional form of woodland management, which involves cutting (mainly) hazel trees to ground level to allow more light to reach the woodland floor and thus promote the growth of an array of wildflowers. As bird-nesting season is not far off, this will be the last such event at this site until next winter. There's also quite a lot of sycamore saplings invading the area from nearby mature trees, so these were also cut back to prevent the woodland being totally taken over by sycamores, which are not as valuable for wildlife as trees such as oak, ash, hazel etc. Coppicing is normally carried out on a 7-10 year rotation, with the products of poles and bindings, being used for crafting hazel hurdles as stock fencing. The next coppicing session at this site will hopefully take place towards the end of 2013, when we'll tackle another hazel patch.
Thankfully, the forecast rain did not materialise and the group, including some new recruits, managed to create a small glade in amongst the trees. The area should quickly recover from any trampling and by April the woodland should be awash with bluebells.
Not surprisingly, we also carried away a lot of rubbish, most of which was children's garden toys, which had apparently been inconsiderately thrown over someone's back fence. Thanks to Quadron Services for providing the trailer to remove this waste which the offender should have taken to the tip or charity shop themselves.

The site of the former Surbiton Lagoon, close to the coppiced woodland.

Elliot, one of our Kingston regulars, takes a break, showing it's not all hard work.

Project assistant, Gerrard, sharpens poles suitable for fencing.

The end result, a small clearing to create a better diversity of habitats.

Here's one we prepared earlier (Dec. 2012), already starting to sprout new shoots.

Surbiton, PLEASE take your unwanted items to the local tip or charity shop, don't throw them over the fence for someone else to clear up. This is a public area, not an unloved wasteland!