Wandering the Wandle

Today was another glorious sunny day, and so I wandered with intent.

Having made a rudimentary error a few days ago and assumed that the River Wandle was just an arbitrary river in Merton, I found while shopping in the week that there is a whole trail that runs the length of this 9 mile little river, and so I set out to travel at least some of its length and explore.

I started just off Merton high street and travelled upstream, south toward Carshalton.

I had seen on a Discovery channel program before that some Industrial Revolution age industry had made its home along this river, and that was the extent of my knowledge.
As I travelled though, I found that this "little river" as I called it, had been the boundary line between ancient parishes, had marked the border of a property in William the Conqueror's Domesday book of 1086 and had run through Merton Priory in the middle ages.

So by the time it contributed to the textile industry (amongst others) in the Industrial Revolution time it had already witnessed and been part of much of London's history.

The point I started had been near a bridge where the Roman Stane Street had crossed the river in the first century. The trail passed Merton Abbey Mills, where a craft market and arts area has been created. However, a mill wheel still turns and demonstrates clearly the ability of the river to power machinery for all manner of industries.

It's quite interesting, as you progress, there are still lots of remnants of weirs and mill pools, where the energy of river has been harnessed.
However, these days it appears that wildlife has taken back this once industrialised river. As I progressed I found all manner of bird life - the highlight being a grey heron that stood in the same place for more than 30 minutes while catching fish for lunch.

I rode through to Carshalton Ponds, one of the sources of the River, and was entertained by squirrels bickering with crows over food on the grassy areas around Wilderness Island.