Ham Lands Butterflies Guided Walk

One of the organisations that I am most pleased to be associated with is Friends of Ham Lands and one of the reasons for that is the guided walks on Ham Lands that explain what can be found there.

My role in this is modest, I do the computer stuff (Eventrbite, website, Facebook, Mailchimp, Twitter,/X, ...) and the naturalists do all the hard work.

These walks are mostly about the plants, which makes sense given their obvious beauty, but this month Paul Cook was our guide and the subject was butterflies.

I have bit of a history with butterflies. I collected them as a boy and I also collected the butterfly cards given out with packets of tea in 1963. I still have the book. 

And several years ago I did a picture round on butterflies which I still get mocked for because the highest score was something like 2 out of 20.

Undaunted by that minor setback I went on the walk with eagerness.

Paul Cook was a fantastic guide, not only knowledgeable but also very good at explaining things, like the subtle differences between the various whites.

He was also very well prepared and he caught several butterflies gently in a soft net and passed them around in a display jar before releasing them unharmed.

I learned a lot about butterflies and in particular what to find in which parts of Ham Lands and why.

I also learned that my iPhone can recognise butterflies and it told me that this is a Comma, which Paul had already confirmed.

Paul counts butterflies on Ham Lands every week, and has done so for years, and he was able to explain how the numbers of each species had varied over those years. 2013 hd been a good year for butterflies but their numbers changed a lot from year to year, according to the weather, and so there was no cause to be complacent.

It was an excellent walk and we are already looking to repeat it next year, possibly in a different month to see different species.

Social Housing of Ham - past, present and future

Presented with an offer like "This year's annual Ham United Group architectural tour will follow a walking route with Richard Woolf, architect and building historian, as your guide." I was always going to say yes. 

Architecture is a keen interest of mine, Ham is another and Richard is a superb guide; I think I have been on all of his previous walking tours.

In my frequent walks to find pictures to feed my Ham Photos blog I have walked through all the areas of social housing many times and I was interested to learn more about the history of their development.

Richard was well prepared, as always, and in addition to the leaflet he gave us all he had several large pictures to show us with photos of old street scenes and floor plans of houses.

He also had an assistant, David Williams, who as both the former leader of Richmond Council and a local historian was able to add stories about how the various local councils in the area were involved.

The pamphlet marked out our route which started with the alms houses in Ham Street, not social housing in the modern sense but a precursor. Along the way we saw housing from various periods and, because of that, of various designs.

Our final stop was at Ham Close, where I took the picture above which is both the most recent social housing development in Ham and also the site for a new development over the next decade or so.

Throughout the tour Richard explained the national politics and social history that drove the development of social housing in various waves, perhaps most famously in the "homes for heroes" policy after WWI.

There were recurring themes of housing the poor and of making profit, and clearly these themes were often at odds with each other. Thatcher got a few mentions, and rightly so.

The variety of housing, including a few recent infills, was particularly interesting to me and Richard was able to explain the thinking behind the designs, such as the medieval inspired terraces of four houses where the two end houses were side-on to form a [ shape. I also liked the story of a row of houses commissioned by the long gone Ham Council which were designed with vegetable gardens in front of the houses.

Over two hours we walked a little and learned a great deal. It was exactly my sort of thing.

Learning about The Buildings of Ham Common

My favourite community events, by a country mile, are the local architecture walks and talks given by local architect Richard Woolf and organised by local community group Ham United Group so I was delighted to join his tour of The Buildings of Ham Common.

Ham Common, unsurprisingly, is the heart of Ham and it is ringed by an interesting collection of buildings from old cottages to substantial modern lodges. Richard squeezed eighteen of them into a fact-filled, informative and entertaining walk.

Here we see Richard explaining the rise of Neo-Georgian (Neo-Geo) houses and how the few examples on Ham Common sit uneasily with their grander Georgian neighbours.

I know the buildings on Ham Common pretty well and have photographed them all, often many times, for my community blog HamPhotos, but I was still absorbing new insights on their design and construction at a prodigious rate of knots.

This was a fascinating talk and it ended on the best possible note, Richard promised to do another walk and talk next year.

HUG workshop: What does sustainability mean for you?

Ham United Group (HUG) is one of the two local groups that I belong to. It is an umbrella organisation and in recent years my main involvement with it has been through the Friends of Ham Lands (FoHL) sub-group.

One of the reasons that I have not been as involved in recent years is simply the lack of free evenings with HUG meetings clashing with other things, notably theatre dates. Then things fell into place and I was able to get to a meeting and it was a good one to get to.

Previous meetings had been fairly formal round-the-table affairs with updates on each of the projects HUG manages and little conversation on each of them. This was a back-to-basics workshop, the first in a series to identify projects that HUG and individuals can undertake to improve sustainability locally.

In three rounds of discussion in small groups we covered sustainability from the perspective of ourselves, our community and our planet.

While some of this was obvious and some of it had been though about in depth by others before, e.g. the UN Development Goals, there were some new ideas and some specific things that we can develop in future meetings.

I was talking a lot, always a good sign (for me, at least) but I did manage to take a few scrambled notes. What follows is my attempt to make sense of them after the event.

There were common themes of what three things we would look for as individuals when moving to a new area, i.e. into a new community. There were the survival basics (shops, healthcare, schools,...), places to go (cafes, pubs, parks,...), things to do (churches, sport, clubs, allotments,...) and good transport (especially walking and cycling) to get to them. Meeting people was the big driver in finding things to do.

In looking at changing behaviours to make them more sustainably we could consider barriers, perceived and real; e.g. why do I drive?

Once we go beyond the individual we need organisations and rules to enable sustainability, e.g. someone needs to maintain the parks, provide the jobs and police the cars.

Already we are starting to find gaps that HUG could help to fill, e.g. to encourage more cycling by providing bicycle repairs, training, safe routes and a market for used bikes.

With meeting people identify as being a key requirement we could look to organise regular meet-ups in one or more of the local cafes (a moveable feast, sadly) or even help to support a community pub given that Ham will soon only have one having lost five or six in recent years.

Tree planting and better gardens were other ideas. Here HUG could provide advise and guidance to residents and potentially promote participation through competitions.

It was an encouraging start and I look forward to the next workshop.

Improving wildlife habitats with Friends of Ham Lands (10 March 18)

Friends of Ham Lands (FoHL) have sessions on the second Saturday of each month where we venture into Ham Lands to clear important sections of it to improve the wildlife habitats.  A focus of this is to keep the grasslands clear of scrub and connected to each other so that butterflies can move between them.

In March we tackled a section quite close to the junction of Riverside Drive and the footpath leading to Teddington Lock.

The map we were working to showed a path from the grasslands to that footpath but it was not very visible on the ground and I could see no sign of it at all from the Teddington footpath end. We had to go into the grasslands, find the path at that end and try and battle our way through.

The picture at the top shows what we started with. The path almost disappears under the twin challenge of brambles on the left and saplings on the right.

We tackled both and as I had some sturdy loppers I chose to tackle the saplings and small trees. The ground was very mossy on the left and I wanted to get more sunlight in there for the grass and, ultimately the butterflies.

The picture on the right shows some of the team in action. Some others were behind me and some of braver ones were beyond that group deep in brambles.

It was a very successful and rewarding session. I took this picture from about where the path disappeared in the top picture looking back to the open grasslands.

We even managed to cut our way through to the Teddington Lock footpath.

Improving wildlife habitats with Friends of Ham Lands

I have been a member of Friends of Ham Lands (FoHL) for several years and most of that time we have been talking about what we want to do with this important nature reserve and it was good to get involved with some direct action.

Ham Lands supports a rich variety of wildlife and at the moment we are concentrating on butterflies and are clearing some of the grassy patches of encroaching scrub.

It was a grey day with the promise of rain but that did not stop a group of us heading out along the main path that follows the river in Ham Lands South.

I should have taken a "before" picture but was so keen to get chopping that I forgot. Above is the "after" picture which shows a clear patch of grass.

We cleared that in about an hour and then we headed down the path in the middle of the picture making sure that it too was free from encroaching scrub and we also cleared a couple of smaller grassy areas.

We had not gone to do a litter pick but we could not ignore the litter in the areas that we wore working in and we filled a good sized bag with cans and bottles some of which had clearly been there a long time.

We worked for a couple of hours before the tiredness and impending rain encouraged us to call it a day. It was a good workout rewarded with a visible improvement to the area.

We will be back doing more work on Saturday 10 March.

Ham United Group Meeting: January 2016

I have been going to Ham United Group (HUG) meetings fairly regularly but have been much less good at writing them up afterwards and it is this tardiness that means my last post on HUG was two years ago, not my enthusiasm for the organisation.

I was keen to get to this meeting as it was discussing the proposed redevelopment of the Ham Close site and lots of other people were keen to discuss it too as the meeting room at Ham Library was full. I was not counting but there must have been around thirty of use there which is a good turn-out for a HUG meeting.

The main stakeholders in the Ham Close Uplift Programme are the landlord, Richmond Housing Partnership, and the other major land owner, Richmond Council, both of whom were represented at the meeting.

They opened by saying that the revised plans expected in early 2016 would not now be ready until the Summer and went on to say that almost everything in those plans was open for discussion. That was good news for residents who did not like the old plan but it made the discussion rather open ended.

For information only, this is what the previous scheme looked like. It redeveloped the whole site, encroaching on to the Village Green as it did so and it approximately doubled the number of units from around 200 to 400.

Current residents of the blocks in Ham Close (understandably) raised several issues of direct concern to them from the affordability of the new units and their size compared to the current accommodation. I am in no position to comment on the details of this but I think that securing the support of the current residents, leaseholders and tenants, is important.

Traffic was mentioned a few times by residents concerned about both the main Petersham Road that is the only way in/out of Ham and also the roads within Ham that already struggle with cars parked on narrow streets. There was a request that people be encouraged to walk, cycle or use public transport but not much in the way of ideas for how this could be achieved.

Design was the other main issue with comments like, "This is not Ham, this is just a land-grab." It was pointed out that Ham is rich with architects and one of them spoke about the architectural heritage which includes a lot of notable twentieth century development such as Parkleys and Langham Close. Several of us, including me, called for an iconic development rather than something bland like we had seen so far. It was suggested that the scheme should go out to architectural contest and that many imaginative firms would be keen to go in for this. I was reminded of a recent exhibition by Karakusevic Carson Architects at RIBA. Social housing can be exciting and I want that for Ham Close.

There were several comments made about the types of accommodation to be provided with calls for lots of social housing that is genuinely affordable and a mix of sizes to suit different families and also sharers.

It was a constructive and (generally) well-tempered discussion but while I generally support the idea of rebuild I was left with the feeling that there is a long way to go to get to a good scheme.

We ran through the other HUG news quite quickly. The Ham Hydro scheme has gone to appeal. This is an appeal against the Council so there is nothing we can do except sit back and wait. A Forest School was proposing to build a structure on Ham Lands. Not much information was known and views varied from it would only be a shed to there should be no more building on Ham Lands. St. Michael's Convent on Ham Common had been sold to a developer of retirement homes. While this suggested its new use but it was pointed out that in planning terms residential is residential so it could be any residential use, or mix of uses.

I left the meeting enlivened by the engagement with things that impact where I live and heartened that so many other people care about these things too.

An architect explains Parkleys

If I had to design my perfect outing it would be something like this.

I am a fringe member of Ham United Group (HUG), which means I go to some of their meetings and at one of those meetings local architect Richard Woolf suggested that HUG got out and about a little to learn more about the area. The upshot of all that was that he ended up giving a talk on local development Parkleys in Parkleys.

A talk on architecture about a development that I like and is just a minute's walk from my house was not something that I was going to miss. Plenty of other people thought so too and a good crowd turned up to listen and learn.

Parkleys was designed by Span the driving force of which was architect Eric Lyons. The name Span was chosen to indicate that the design spanned the whole development, i.e. the spaces between the houses as well as the houses them selves.

It is the combination of the broad design of the site and detailed the detailed design of the features (including paving and lighting) that mean that places like Parkleys are still very attractive and popular today.

Richard had done a fantastic amount of research for his talk and had found some good illustrations to explain his points. This map shows the greenhouses that were on the site before and in red is an early outline of what the site could look like. It is very close to what was actually built.

Richard's talk covered other works by Lyons and he was helped in this by somebody who had worked for Lyons for a while (but whose name I forgot to write down).

It was a brilliant and fascinating talk that continued in the pub afterwards where Richard was able to claim a corner of the garden and display all of his posters so that we could examine them at a more leisurely pace.

This was something of an experiment for HUG and for Richard and given its great success I am hoping that there is more like that to come.

Ham Fair 2014

Ham Fair is one of the big annual events locally and I always go to look at all the stalls from the local societies and to buy a few treats.

This year I also played a minor role for two of those local societies.

Ham Amenities Group (HAG) always runs a children's art show and competition. This year they extended it to include photographs which I was asked to judge because of my Ham Photos blog.

Two of the categories, pets and portraits, were easy to judge with a clear winner in each but the Ham Pond category was harder as most of the children, unsurprisingly, had chosen to take pictures of the swans and their cygnets. I discounted my favourite picture (of a dramatic swan) as it did not show much of the pond and chose one that did, as well as some birds climbing out of it.

Then later in the day I took my turn on the stall for Ham United Group (HUG). That's the stall on the far left. We were showcasing the range of projects that came under the broad HUG umbrella, some of which had grown sufficiently to warrant their own stalls within the Ham cluster.

The stall's gimmick was an apple press that we used to make fresh apple juice.which was very welcome on a hot day. HUG has planted some apple trees and the aim is to grow this in to a full community orchard and the apple press will get some serious use then.

Ham Fair is one of those events that confirms, if confirmation were needed, that Ham is a distinct community and it is because of that that I like living here so much.

Ham United Group Meeting: January 2014

I am not yet an active member of Ham United Group (HUG) but I like to go to their meetings to find out what is going on locally. My Master Plan is to get involved in some of their many projects and probably to run some of my own later on.

This is what I learnt in January.

New garden at Ham Library. A competition about to start to pick a design for the shady part of the garden. The winning scheme will require funding for plants etc.There will be other category prizes too, eg. under 20s. The ball-park estimate c£1500. Will be other funding and, possibly, sponsorship.

HUG is looking for more interesting venues for meetings to mix things up. It was suggested that we combine a meeting at St Peter's Church with a graveyard tour. Apparently the graves include a Napoleon descendant and 4 MPs.

Green Screen will be starting soon.

Cleaning materials have arrived and we will do clean-up of Ham Lands later this year, to be organised by the FoHL sub-group. Other ideas are being considered, such as a new pond.

The Ham and Petersham Association are planning more, unrelated, work on the pond by Ham Gate. Personal view: this is something else that the H&PA has got completely wrong and the pond was better before they started to interfere with it.

Latchmere planning application is due soon. The amount of affordable housing is an issue and it does not help that the site crosses borough boundaries and so two separate applications are required.

Affordable housing is also an issue on the Star and Garter Home too.

The new Russell School application is also due Spring, with the school due to be open in September 2015, but likely to be controversial. The consultation led to no changes; no surprise.

The Ham and Teddington Hydro. public meeting in Teddington was difficult. Minor changes will be made to the design as a result, to reduce height.

The Neighbourhood Forum was due to be approved by LBRUT that evening. The target for referendum on the Neighbourhood Plan is still the date of the 2015 General Election, despite delays to process.

The Ham Close workshops were happening that week to be followed by a public meeting at Grey Court next Monday. It was not clear how this work fitted in with the Neighbourhood Forum.

Concerns were expressed that it might be difficult to meet the changing standards for social housing and this could force them to become private housing eventually.Not sure how much money is available for this. The consultation questions are blue-sky, lacking a framework or options to make it meaningful.

The body that owns Cassel Hospital is about to become a foundation trust. The attempt to let it appears to be bogus, it's just an attempt to show that the site is not viable as a clinic. The badger area cleared against LBRUT agreement.Want to include this site in the Neighbourhood Plan.

Ham United Group Meeting: September 2013

I had been paying attention to the activities of Ham United Group (HUG) for some time. There are several community groups locally, including the Ham and Petersham Association and Ham Amenities Group, and HUG seems to be the most active of them. It is involved in several local projects, most of which it initiated, from cycle maintenance classes to a hydroelectric scheme for Teddington Lock.

Eventually circumstances and interest combined to take me to one of their meetings. This was held in a small office in one of the local developments, Ham Close. It was a small informal affair. Everybody else knew everybody else but I had spoke to a couple of them so it took me a while to work out who people were and what they did.

The Neighbourhood Forum was the big topic. This would devolve some planning powers from the Council to a forum run locally. These forums came in through the Localism Act 2011 so they were very new and experimental.

The ext meeting was scheduled for mid-October with planners and architects.

The Forum was trying to ensure that all community groups were represented on the Committee and they hoped to get the organisation approved by the Richmond Council Cabinet in October.

The scope of the forum had been defined as Ham, Petersham and Richmond Riverside Ward, which included the Star and Garter Home and also Teddington Lock.

HUG dad recently attended a useful meeting with DCLG to get advice on guidance on setting up the Forum. Only a handful of Forums were being set up in London but there were many more in rural areas usually based on Parishes.

A grant was available to employ an expert to vet the neighbourhood plan before submission.

Richmond Council had approved the (separate) Ham and Petersham Village Plan in one minute!

It was expected that the draft of Neighbourhood Plan would be out for consultation next April/May with the final referendum expected on the General Election date in May 2015.

I won't get a vote on that as I live just across the road in Kingston.

The Friends of Ham Lands (FOHL) were planning walks and talks in Ham Lands to promote its wildlife credentials. There were some issues with the way that the area was being managed, such as mowing when the orchids where in bloom and allowing cars to park on verges when caterpillars are around.

HUG was looking to start some sort of makers scheme, building on the IT work already done. A local student was building a 3d printer. They were also looking to build an automatic irrigation system, to build a web server and to make use of some of Grey Court's facilities.

The Ham Hydro application was still going through Planning. It had been delayed from September's  meeting as officers requesting extra information. The main problem was objections from Lensbury. I had recently submitted a response in favour of the application.

The HUG Allotment at Grey Court had been covered in rubble by the building works. Looking to move to Walnut Tree Allotments on Riverside Drive.

The gardens at Ham Library and Woodville Day Centre had been recognised in London awards. The plan was to do more in dark part of Ham Library gardens, possibly using a competition to collect ideas.

Concerns were voiced about disconnected green spaces reducing options for wildlife. Individual gardens are not enough on their own.

Cider making was suggested!

Another idea was Green Screen, a club showing environmentally themed films. This could start in January and be run monthly.

A new editor was taking on the Ham and Petersham Magazine. This was distributed to residents in Ham and Petersham but I had never heard of it as I live in Kingston.

Richmond's suggestions for how to spend Boris' cycling money included a bridge over the Thames which would connect Ham to Twickenham. There are four possible crossing points and my favourite would connect to the White Swan.

The proposal for an Olympic Swimming Pool at Grey Court had stalled.

I was not able to contribute much to the meeting but it was good to hear more about the many activities and projects in progress and in the pipeline. It is through groups like HUG that places like Ham become communities.