Thames21

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A Big Catch on Glassmill!

In the second Thames21 work party on Glassmill Pond 22nd November, we had quite a haul recovering 3 shopping trollies and 4 traffic cones! Some 8 volunteers braved a sunny but very cold day to carry out more vegetation management, as well as picking up rubbish including even small bits of plastic polluting the pond.

However the biggest items of rubbish were undoubtedly the trollies and cones. The former were well stuck in the silt and required a lot pulling on the ned of a rope, up to four people in one really difficult case. Some intrepid volunteers also waded in and collected up to 500 golf balls from the river bed. We estimate as many still remain to be collected. These have been identified as coming from an upstream golf driving range, and the site owners have been contacted by Thames21, about halting this source of pollution.

Others were heavily engaged in clearing some dead trees and other invasive vegetation. This is necessary in order to encourage suitable vegetation to have space to thrive, and so enhance the local biodiversity.

Much remains to be done, so why not take part? The next work party is scheduled for Sunday 8th December 10am-2pm. To find out more and book a place please click HERE.

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A Great day on Glassmill

The work party last Sunday (17th), organised by Thames21 on the Glassmill Pond, was a great success. With some 15 volunteers attending, our primary task was to repair a serious leak, that if not resolved, may have impacted pond levels in the medium term. This task involved people getting dirty pushing ‘puddling clay’ into the gap and ramming it in really hard, thereby forming a good seal. While it involved others moving the clay to where needed, Nick and Christine had the important job of ‘puddling the clay’ itself.

Other activities involved cutting back some invasive foliage, litter picking and collecting loads of golf balls located in the water, wash down from an upstream driving range!

Finally it required a large number of volunteers to move the still very heavy clay to within the fenced off area, ready for later use. Phew!

A great day on Glassmill!

The end of a very satisfactory day indeed, thanks to all those taking part………..

However there remains more work to be done. If you are interested in taking part in future Thames21 organised work party events on this site, the next two events are on Friday 22nd November and Sunday 8th December. There will also be three further events early in 2025. To find out more about all these events and how to book a place, please goto https://www.thames21.org.uk/events/ and look for Glassmill Pond.

You can find out more about our work on this site HERE

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Its All Happening at the Pond

Over the last few days a lot has been happening at Glassmill Pond, Glassmill Lane, BR2 0EL, with two events! The first on 23rd June was part of the Three Rivers Clean Up campaign. Volunteers cleared some 6 bags of rubbish for pond, including many golf balls which had ‘escaped’ from a golf driving range upstream. They also managed to cut back willow tree branches that had fallen into the river channel. If it had not been removed it could have blocked the river with resulting local flooding. At both events we were very pleased to welcome the Mayor of Bromley, who put on some wellies and got stuck in.

Some new flowers were spotted, just a sample of the many plug plants we dug in a few months ago.

And four days later on 27th June Thames21 organised a community event, as part of their London Rivers Week programme. Yet more volunteers turned up. This time the first task was to reposition some large stones, in order to raise water levels next to the pond inlet, thereby making it more possible for fish to migrate further upstream.

They then had a chance to monitor the really small things normally hidden in the river bed, but which are indictors of good water quality. To do this they had to stir the gravel and using a net collect a sample, and study their catch very closely.

By this means they came across loads of tiny immature sticklebacks. Also the larval stage of; olive mayfly, leeches, hoglouse, gammarus, blackfly larvae and some very small worms. All these are potential food of others, including dragonfly larva. Indeed a few adult dragonflies and demoiselles were spotted flying over the pond. This is indicative of the new arrangements having a great impact on improving the biodiversity of the river.

Finally they all pulled together to gather a more unnatural catch, in the form of a shopping trolley and a Lime bike which had been thrown into the pond.

However we left another shopping trolley in place, as it was being used by a Moorhen mother for her nest, along with some eggs, five when this taken earlier by Chris Holly.

A very satisfactory end to these events. We are looking forward to organising more events on this site. To find out more about this site and our exciting plans for the future of this river please go to our Glassmill Pond Restoration project page.

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Glassmill Pond: Construction Work Completed

The construction of the new pond has now been completed. While the new layout looks great, it will still look a bit ‘raw’ until the next phase of the project is completed. This will include; planting, adding diversity to the river features, managing vegetation, and seeding gravel. We will need to wait for a couple of months however, to allow the ground to stabilise in the new structures, before starting this.

As can be seen in the above image the enhanced river channel goes off to the left had side, separated from the improved pond area by an earthen bank, reinforced by hazel posts, permeable membrane and hessian. A large pipe through this bank will deliver more water into the pond during high river flows. There is a similar earthen bank at the other end of the pond. The previous weir boards have been permanently removed to allow fish, eels etc to freely move to and from the rest of the Ravensbourne catchment.

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Big changes on Glassmill

In the last week a lot has changed here with a large channel being dug out, adjacent to the footpath. The river flow has now been diverted down this channel, which will allow work to start on creating an enhanced ‘official’ river channel on the opposite side. A long bank, or bund, will then separate the river channel from the open pond area.

Over twenty years worth of silt has so far been dug out to create this channel. While it looks messy at present it should soon start to look a lot better. The work is scheduled to take about a month.

You can find more about the background of this on our Glassmill Pond Restoration Project page