On Sunday 23 April 2017 the weekly walk was led by John Sealy and followed the Wandle River from its source in Waddon Ponds to Wandsworth where it joins the Thames. The Walk was announced in the club programme as follows:

Sunday 23rd April                          Leader:  John Sealy.   Explorer map 181

Meet       :        Victoria 0920 for 0949 train to Waddon 1022 - Zone 5.

                         Train calls Clapham Junction 0956 and Balham (Northern line) 1000.

Lunch     :       William Morris, Abbey Mills 5 minutes walk from South Wimbledon

                         Northern Line zone 3. Other food and drink options close by.

Distance     : 12 level miles finishing at Wandsworth Town Station - Zone 2

Fare            : Oyster card / Freedom pass / Travelcard options.

We had a few photographers on the walk but not all of them had the skill in send their photographs to me by e mail wo we just have the following fewphotographic memories of the day for the website.

Along the way we saw some delightful scenes of nesting birds with their day old chicks learning the art of surviving in the water. The ducklings are not that visible in this photograph but they are there laboriously following the mother duck up river.

Along the Wandlw trail there are many interesting species of trees and plants. The river was in the past a thriving industrial area and the plants and shrubs grown in the area were used for various industries including the dying industry in which such famous people as the Liberties and William Morris achieved fame and fortune.

I am not sure whether this is an original millstone once used in one of the many mills along the Wandle or a more recently created replica but it provides an attractive monument near the exit from Ravensbury Park onto Morden Hall Road.

We had lunch at the William Morris Pub in Merton Abbey and close by are the works of the former Liberties cloth making operation, including the mill wheel seen on the left above.

Before we left the Pub a kind fellow diner took the photograph of our full group using the mobile phone camera of one of our number.

Leaving the pub we walked along the Wimbledon side bank of the Wandle and this took us by the site of the former Connolly's Mill, which our leader informed us was famous for providing the upholstery for Rolls Royce cars.