Pigs, bees, education trails and other lovely things - a new Surrey Docks Farm plan to love!

Wonderful!  A development plan with nothing but nice things associated with it!

Surrey Docks Farm has applied for a grant to develop the under-visited west side of the farm, with a new pig interpretation centre and a brilliant new farm trail.  Lovely to see the farm going from strength to strength.  Please visit the web page on their website to see more about the plans, which are provided in good detail:  http://www.surreydocksfarm.org.uk/western-site-development/.

There is also a questionnaire on the above page and they would be really grateful if you could fill it in after reading the proposal for a grant to fund the new plans.  I've done it and it only takes a couple of minutes of your time.

Surrey Docks Farm Spring Fair this coming Saturday 16th May

SURREY DOCKS FARM SPRING FAIR

Saturday the 16th of May 2015

The Surrey Docks Farm is one of our best local facilities for adults and children alike.  Their Spring Fair is one of the biggest events that they put on throughout the year. It’s always a great family day out with loads of fun on offer.  By popular demand they will be holding live sheep shearing demonstrations throughout the day, which should be brilliant.

Here are some of the day's activities

• BBQ chill, and grill.
• Fun for all the family, young and old.
• Local food stalls.
• Live sheep shearing throughout the day.
• Surrey Docks Farm produce.
• Mangalitza pigs – ever seen one? We have four!
• Bottle fed lambs and lots of baby animals.

No need to book - just go to the Farm on the day. Entry is Free to all and they are open from 11am.

http://www.surreydocksfarm.org.uk/spring-fair-saturday-16th-may-2015/ 

Surrey Docks Farm History Trail Launch Event - 15th March 2015

The foreshore on Saturday

I was supposed to be going along to do some survey work with the Surrey Docks Farm Research Project today.  It was cancelled due to the torrential rain and is now rescheduled for 26th October.

Yesterday, unsure if I would be able to make it today anyway, I went  down to the Thames foreshore at low tide to see if I could find anything to contribute to their search.  I used the watermans stairs at Surrey Docks Farm, walking as far as the Hilton and back.  I was in hiking boots, not wellies, so I didn't venture out very far into the mud, which can ooze well over ankle level. Somehow I still ended up looking as though I was wearing asymmetrical blue warpaint when I arrived home. 

I wanted to have a closer poke at a long cylinder that I had noticed last time (photo above), to see if it had any markings, but although I cleaned it off there was nothing to be seen.  It weighs an absolute ton. The cylinder itself is undamaged and may have its original contents in tact. On closer inspection it has connections at both rounded ends, so it may have had taps and hoses.  It continues to intrigue.

Brick from Marston Vale works, Bedfordshire

As well as bagging a bit of London stock with very characteristic burned holes, more for sentimental reasons than anything (I became quite fond of it whilst researching it), I trundled around amongst the brick that was dumped there after the Second World War.  The brick dump was an exercise of clearance following the wholesale destruction of the Downtown area during the Blitz.  I'm vaguely interested in where building materials came from and how far they traveled from brick factory to building, so I took some photographs of factory names fired into the brick and will look into that a little more.  Many of the bricks are too water-worn to be of use, but in some cases the manufacturer names are incredibly clear.  Liberally scattered around are red bricks from Marston Vale (Bedfordshire), mixed red and yellow "Phorpres" examples from the London Brick Company (Peterborough) and yellow bricks from Milton Hall (Essex) brickworks.

Thorn pipe with leaf motif on seams

The real find of the day was in the clay pipe department. I found two interesting pieces, as well as a lot of short pieces of unmarked stem.  The first of these pieces was a very plain bowl, with a heel and a centimeter or so of stem, without markings.  From its shape alone it is difficult to date.  Pipes with bowls of this shape were made from the 17th to the early 19th Centuries.  The other piece is certainly later in date and it is, superbly, completely in tact.  I found it immediately under the Farm's foreshore.  As you can see from the photograph, it has little decorative bumps on the bowl and stem called "thorns" (pipes featuring this are referred to as thorn pipes).  There are two identical lines of leaf motif, the outer line partly damaged, from the base of the bowl to the top along each of the seams at opposite ends, in line with the pipe stem.  Both were common features of late 19th Century pipes, as was the very short length.  There are no manufacturer markings, which is real shame, and may be because the area immediately beneath the bowl has been damaged.

Sherd of a large vessel, with glazed interior

I also picked up two bits of ceramic, just because I liked them, and a piece of jet black rock that I've now posted to my friendly local geological expert to sort out for me (photo below).  There are all sorts of different types of stone scattered over the Thames foreshore, including piles of flint, but this is particularly distinctive, jet black with percussion ripples, and looks remarkably like a rather rough form of obsidian or even basalt. There was nothing remotely similar that I could see anywhere else along the foreshore, but I daresay it will turn out to be something very tame!  Rocks have an unfriendly habit of looking as though they may be something really exciting before turning out to be simply a different colour or form of something fairly bog standard. I'll report back when I know for sure what it is.  

Pottering around in the mud and stone is far from glamorous (somehow when I arrived home, wild-haired, my face was liberally painted with blueish mud, making me look more like Braveheart than a respectable local citizen), and none of the finds that usually turn up have any financial value, but the odds and ends that have emerged on the few occasions that I've walked along the foreshore have been endlessly interesting.  It is a terrific way to spend some spare time. 

As I was returning to the steps back to the real world, one of the modern Mississippi-style stern-wheeled paddle steamers went downriver.  I had no idea that there were any of these still carrying tourists on the Thames, although I've seen them moored at Tower Bridge.  It looked distinctly odd passing Canary Wharf!  The paddles are purely decorative, of course.

Brick from Milton Hall brickworks, Essex

From Surrey Docks Farm to Nelson Dock along the foreshore

It was a beautiful day today so after several days of moving at museum-speed in Paris and several hours on the Eurostar, a tromp along the Thames foreshore seemed like a good idea, to loosen the limbs and get a sunshine fix.  

The easiest way to check the tide level is to look at the Tide Tables page on the Port of London Authority's website and use the North Woolwich low tide as a reasonable estimate.  Today it was at ll48, and when I arrived at the stairs next to the Surrey Docks Farm, the tide was still on its way out.

I wasn't sure how far I could get upriver without being up to the knees in mud, so I went to find out.  At low tide that took me as far as Nelson Dock, and my trainers were un-mudied.  I would have been wary at crossing in front of Nelson Dock because it was pure mud and no matter how safe people tell me it is, I've experienced that mud when wearing wellies and it has a lot of suction.

I didn't go with a view to finding anything in particular - I was just there for a stroll.  But having been involved in the Surrey Docks Farm survey (still working on documentary stuff) I was fascinated by all the odds and ends that are kicking around on the foreshore. None of them have financial value (unless you spend a lot of time rummaging in the mud, and get lucky), but many are really interesting just as a random sample of what washes up.  

The stone-covered beaches are full of small objects that have washed up over the decades, some easily identifiable, others a complete mystery (at least to me).  The bricks, stock bricks from the construction of may nineteenth century buildings, were bulldozed into the river after the bombings of the Second World War, a small reminder of the destruction and bits of our lost heritage.  The mud is full of timbers, chains, nails, bolts, all sorts of odds and ends from wrecked, broken up and damaged ships including surprising numbers of anchor parts that were apparently used to moor small boats and barges at low tide. Some of the steel cables, a piece of which I picked up, were rock solid. There was a simply staggering amount of bone.  There were numerous oyster shells, presumably from the Victorian period when oysters were gathered off the English coast and consumed in large numbers.

Today I saw dozens of white pieces of clay tobacco pipe shaft.  Clay pipes consist of a long tube of white clay, which makes up the shaft, finishing in a bowl, which often has a small heel to keep it upright when placed on a table. They were mass produced by the end of the 16th century (see the Museum of London's web page on the subject for more information), and as they were prone to snapping and could be easily replaced their remains are littered throughout the country, turning up in handfuls in fields, gardens, and of course rivers. There must be many thousands of fragments along the entire length of the Thames alone.    Some of these were marked with stamps, enabling their manufacturer to be identified and a date to be assigned. Pricier models were elaborated with little embellishments and sculptural features. A far greater number are unmarked, but all are remarkable, if only for the sheer volume of them remaining in fragmentary form.   Most of the bits I've found in the past have been completely unmarked, but today I found two which had been marked - one with a little line of decoration on the shaft, and one with a stamp on the base of its heel. 

I was unable to identify many of the items that I found.  A number of identical tiny silvery bottles, for example, may have been pharmaceutical jars but are round-bottomed and I suspect actually belonged to machines, partially because the glass or glass-like fabric is so very strong.  They are very vaguely familiar, but I am not at all sure where from (see photo right).

Overall, there was a lot of ceramic and coarse pottery - everything from willow-pattern china to bits of flower pot, chimney and coarse ware.  There were also a lot big fragments of thick clay jars and bottles, probably Edwardian and Victorian, judging from the stuff I used to dig when clearing down to the Roman layers on town sites.  

So much of what I picked up had been heavily rolled by the Thames and fragments of glass, stone pipe and pottery, which must have very sharp edges when first broken, were now rounded and smooth to the touch. 

There were, of course, the usual selection of items tossed unwanted into the river - lots of bits of bicycle, for example, a plastic chair, and the ruined remains of a Blackberry mobile phone.   But it was surprising how little ordinary rubbish there was.  The usual detritus of human living, plastic bottles, tin cans, crisp packets and the like, must be washing up somewhere else.

I was only there for a random hour's stroll, but there was so much to see. A couple of words of warning to those thinking of heading down to the foreshore, if you haven't been before.  Wellies are essential if you are getting off the stones and pebbles and going into the mud.  Even if you stick to the stones and pebbles, you need sensible footwear because the stones shift a lot beneath your feet and the bricks are slippery. In addition, there is a lot of broken glass, not just little bits but big broken bottles.  Importantly, the tide comes in very, very quickly, so it is essential to check the tide tables.  Finally, the mud can be nasty stuff, with all sorts of things decaying invisibly beneath it, so you if you are intent on picking up objects with your bare hands (waterproof gloves, like those used by the Thames Discovery people and other professionals, are a much, much better idea) then you absolutely must have tetanus shots.  These days they last for 10 years, and I never miss mine.

Nelson, polar bears and the career of the bomb vessel HMS Carcass (1759)

HMS Carcass was built by Thomas Stanton at the site now occupied by the Surrey Docks Farm, her keel was laid down in September 1958 and she was launched in 1759.  She was sold, presumably to be broken up, in 1784 and had a busy career in the intervening 25 years.

Several warships were named Carcass, which today sounds a bit grizzly, but the word carcass referred not not a corpse but to a form of armament container.  Admiral Smyth's Sailor's Wordbook (published in 1867, reprinted by Conway in 1991) describes it as "an iron shell for incendiary purposes, filled with a very fiercely flaming composition of saltpetre, sulpher, resin, turpentine, antimony, and tallow."  Most of the few images of Carcass date to her expedition to the Arctic in 1773.

Racehorse and Carcass in the Arctic in 1773.
By John Cleveley. National Maritime Museum

The 1759 HMS Carcass is probably best known because of her association with Admiral Nelson, but in many ways she is most interesting because of the records of the number of times she was refitted and repaired, which represents a typical experience for a naval vessel of the 18th Century.  She saw active combat and travelled extensively.

Not much is known about her builder Thomas Stanton, although Stuart Rankin's research suggests that he was the manager or foreman at a Captain Bronsden's shipyard at Deptford Grove Street.  Rankin suggests that he achieved the means to establish himself at Rotherhithe by joining forces with business partners in joint shipbuilding enterprises.  He is listed, for example, as a partner for HMS Chester which was ordered from "Bronden, Wells and Stanton."  He was at the Rotherhithe yard by 1754.  The name by which the yard was known at the time is unknown, being marked simply as "shipwrights" on early maps of the area.  It is now usually known as Barnard's Wharf, due to its association with a later ship building family.  Rif Winfield lists the builders of Carcass as Stanton and Wells, which differs from other sources, but it is entirely possible that the Wells shipbuilding company (probably the Wells involved in the above-mentioned construction of HMS Chester), which took over the yard after Thomas Stanton, was involved in her construction.  More on the Wells family in a later post.

Carcass was an Infernal-class ships, a class of bomb vessels designed by Naval surveyor Thomas Slade.  Six Infernal-class ships were built following the design of HMS Infernal, but whilst three were ketch-rigged (like Infernal) three, including Carcass were rigged as ships.

Bomb vessels were equipped with vast mortars mounted forward, which expelled bombs or carcasses, solid casings filled with explosives, as described above.  They were used mainly to shell land-based targets over substantial distances and you can form a good impression of their role in the painting below of the bombardment of Le Havre, in which Carcass participated. These mortar guns had tremendous recall.  To bear their weight and withstand the recall, bomb vessels were built with a particularly strong hull.  Although they were also equipped with a few carronades, these were for self defence and did not form part of the ship's overall objective.  

Carcass had a gundeck length of 91ft 8ins, a breadth of 28ft, a depth of 12ft 1 1/2ins and weighted 309 tons.  She ws armed with fifty broadside guns and two mortars.  Rif Winfield (2007) says that she was built at a cost of £3,757.14.6d, and required a further £2,144.8.1d to fit her out. Rif Winfield's "British Warships in the Age of Sail" records all her known repairs and refits, which are listed below to emphasize just how much work could be carried out on an mid 19th Century warship.

The bombardment of Le Havre in 1759
Bibliothèque nationale de France
(click the picture to see the bigger image)

Her first commander was the 28-year old Charles Inglis.  In July 1759 she was one of six bomb vessels that formed a squadron under Rear Admiral George Rodney, and also included the fourth rate 60-gun flagship Achilles, four 50-gun ships, five frigates, a sloop, and the six bomb vessels.  Their mission was to destroy flat-bottomed boats and supplies that were being assembled at Le Havre to prepare for an invasion of England during the Seven Years War. The mission was a considerable success, destroying the invasion attempt before it had really begun. In 1760 Carcass captured the 10-gun Mercury off La Rochelle.

She was refitted in March 1760 in Portsmouth for £531.15.1d, as a sloop, and was again reiftted in Portsmouth in 1761 at a cost of £1346.7.9d.  She was recommissioned in January 1762 and placed under the under the command of Lord William Campbell. Campbell had recently returned from service in India and later in 1762 went to America, and he seems to have spent only two months between these two postings with Carcass.   However, between February and March 1762 she refitted again, this time as a bomb vessel at a cost of £727.10.1d.  She was under the command of Robert Fanshawe in August 1762, before being paid off in 1763.  Following a small repair Deptford in 1763, costing 1211.14.10d, she was fitted out in 1765 in Deptford, for £2281.17.6d.  I have been unable to find out what she did or where she was stationed between her refit of March 1960 and being recommissioned in 1765, although the various refits and repairs indicate that she was busy somewhere.

She was recommissioned in August 1765 under Captain Mark Pattison. Pattison sailed her to Jamaica in October 1765.  Jamaica in 1765 was a British colony, and the mid eighteenth century seems to have been one of its more peaceful periods, so it is unclear exactly why a bomb vessel was required. By September 1766 she was under Commander Thomas Jordan. A small repair and refit at Deptford  cost £2870.14.6.  She was recommissioned in June 1771 under Commander Skeffington Lutwidge, for service in the Irish Sea. 

Carcass off Nova Zembla.
Arents Cigarette Card

Carcass was again paid off in April 1773 and was immediately refitted (at a cost of £2,895.8.8d) in Sheerness in preparation for an expedition to the North Pole with another bomb vessel, HMS Racehorse.  Bomb vessels were often chosen for work in the ice because they had been built with particularly strong hulls, thanks to the armaments they carried and the bombardment they received.  These were now strengthened by reinforcing timbers, particularly in the bow section where the ship would have to push through ice.  The ships were equipped with boats that, in the event that the ships had to be abandoned, could carry all the crew, as well as equipment to build emergency shelters.

Carrying 90 and  80 sailors respectively, the task of Racehorse and Carcass was to break through the ice to see if there open sea beyond Spitsbergen that might provide a route to the Bering Strait and the Pacific, the so-called northwest passage.  The expedition was under the overall command of Racehorse's captain Constantine Phipps, who took with him a ship's doctor, an astronomer and a naturalist.  Carcass was still under the command of Skeffinton Lutwidge. Both Lutwidge and Lieutenant John Baird were popular officers, Constantine Phipps being unusual amongst the aristocracy in pulling his weight in all aspects of the ship's operation.

Nelson and the Bear. By Richard Westall, 1806

Horatio Nelson was assigned to the Carcass as a midshipman (a paid volunteer), through the influence of his uncle, Captain Maurice Suckling.  Nelson's career was helped along considerably by Suckling, and Nelson had already served under him on the Raisonnable for a year.  Captain Lutwidge told  story in later years that in 1773 Nelson, at that age of 14 or 16 wanted to take a polar bear skin home to his father.  When he saw one approaching he ventured out on to the ice with his musket to shoot one (several polar bears had already been shot when venturing near to the ships). The story says that the musket misfired, so Nelson attempted to bludgeon it with the butt end.  In some versions of the story he was with a companion, in others he was alone. Fact or fiction, or a mixture of both, the story was immortalized by Richard Westall's splendid 1806 painting of how he imagined the episode. Having been becalmed one night, the following morning the ships found themselves iced in, and the decision was taken to unload the emergency boats.  On August 7th  the weather was warm and the crews started to haul the boats across the ice, filled with provisions.  Nelson was placed in charge of one of Carcass's emergency boats.  The boats were pulled for four miles, but fortunately the ice loosened and Racehorse and Carcass were able to overtake the party and bring the crew and the boats back on board, reaching open sea on the 10th August.  An account of the voyage was later published by Phipps in A voyage towards the North Pole: undertaken by His Majesty's command, 1773, which was published in 1774.  Nelson never wrote an account of the expedition, and two weeks after leaving Carcass, he was assigned to the 24-gun Seahorse under Captain George Farmer.

A Jersey stamp showing Racehorse and Carcass
stranded in the Arctic in 1773.

After the conclusion of the Arctic expedition, Carcass was again paid off, being recommissioned again in January 1775 under Commander James Reid for service on the African coast.  She was again paid off in September 1775 after which she was refitted in Deptford as bomb vessel at a cost of £1003.3.11d.  She was again refitted, this time at Woolwich, at a cost of £2813.18.4d and sailed to North America in May 1776 under Commander Robert Dring, who was succeeded by John Howorth in February 1777 before coming under the command of Thomas Barker.

Carcass came under the command of Lieutenant Edward Edwards at Sandy Hook in 1778. In 1780 she sailed for Barbados as part of escort, under Commodore William Hotham, for a convey 5,000 troops to West Indies. They departed on 4th November and arrived on 10 December. She was under John Young, off the Leeward Islands (a British colony) by the end of 1780.  Paid off in December 1781. She was surveyed in 1782 at Woolwich and was finally sold in Woolwich for £320 on 5 August 1784, presumably for breaking although there is no record of her final fate.

A good strong ship, with a busy career, HMS Carcass had an interesting life and it is fascinating to see how many times she was refitted and repaired for the different roles she was required to play.

Update re the Surrey Docks Farm Heritage Project

Today the Surrey Docks Farm Heritage Project took another step towards piecing together the various chunks of data about the site now occupied by Surrey Docks Farm, and its foreshore area.   So far, apart from an inspection visit, the project has focused on archival research, which has produced some excellent information about the site, particularly during the period when the London River Ambulance receiving-station was based at South Wharf (more commonly known as Acorn Wharf).   Other research paths have also been identified and are being pursued by both the experts and the volunteers on the project.  I will produce a single post when the work has been finished, but I thought that a couple of photographs of the work in progress might be of interest.

Today's work focused on uncovering, cleaning, photographing and planning some of the many wooden remains of ships, the River Amulance receiving-station's pier and other features on the Thames foreshore, all revealed at low tide.  I should have taken some "before" photos, because if you weren't actually there you wouldn't believe what sort of state all of these wooden features were in before they were uncovered, washed and brushed to remove the thick, cloying mud so that the features of wood and fittings could be seen and recorded. Most conspicuously, vast wooden posts that once supported the ambulance station pier remain without any sign of serious rot setting in, but the remains of a flat-bottomed barge and other less informative wooden remains were examined.

A group of volunteers was organized into a useful team by the friendly and expert Thames Discovery Programme people, with the assistance of two co-opted Museum of London staff members, who had been persuaded to give up their Sunday afternoon to help out.  As someone who can't communicate anything without the aid of PowerPoint, I was so impressed at how well they took a bunch of amateurs and turned them into an effective, if slightly hesitant, group of assistants.  They are a great bunch of people, professionals and volunteers alike.

We worked for about two and a half hours, starting before low tide and working until the tide started to come in.  It is amazing how quickly the tide creeps up on you.  With my back to the river, helping one of the Thames Discovery people plan one of the wooden features in the mud, I was quite happy to keep going to complete the job until it was pointed out that the water would soon be lapping at my ankles!  

Mudlarking is a time-honoured Thames activity, and in addition to the more formal work of revealing and cleaning structures, wandering along the foreshore produced a fascinating collection of bottles, ceramics, bits of clay pipe, and anchors, deliberately halved, which served as mooring weights (and I presume were marked by buoys).  There was also a staggering carpet of bricks that had been cleared from sites bombed during the Blitz when Rotherhithe, targeted with great ease because of the moonlight reflecting off the Surrey Commercial Docks, suffered really appalling damage. 

Once you begin to understand what you're looking at, through the eyes of the people who know what they're talking about, the Thames foreshore begins to reveal a very multi-layered account of itself. Truly fascinating.

Various passers-by came to watch and asked questions, and the Thames Discovery people were welcoming, friendly and informative, which was really great to see.

It was a good day, if a very muddy one!  I was somewhat impressed, when I arrived home, at how much of the Thames foreshore was liberally plastered to my face, hands, hair and clothing. Thank goodness for my 10-year Tetanus jab!  My wellies were a sight to behold, and I created something of a stir on my walk home, looking as though I had just come from an Olympic-standard mud wrestling contest. 

As ever, click on the photos to see the bigger version, which may help you to pick out some of the details.

Related posts:

Surrey Docks Farm Heritage Project starts up    
Research taking place into the heritage of the Surrey Docks Farm site

Surrey Docks Farm heritage project starts up

I went up to the Surrey Docks Farm earlier today to attend the kick-off meeting for the heritage project, the purpose of which is the investigation of the heritage of the site, known at different times as Wells Shipyard, Barnards Wharf, Acorn Wharf and South Wharf.  

Quite a lot is known about the site when it was run by the Wells and Barnard families, but, perhaps surprisingly, less is known about the period from 1888 until the establishment of the Farm in 1986.  In the early 1880s the Metropolitan Asylums Board purchased the site to set up a river ambulance station, established to diagnose and ship out smallpox cases to isolation hospitals downriver.  However, there are some large gaps in the history of the site, particularly in the post war years, and one of the aims of the project is to find out more about the site during the periods when data is not readily available.  

Looking down at the foreshore at low tide with the fieldwork team, prior to the actual survey work, it is remarkable how much survives in the mud, and what can be gleaned from the surviving remains.  

The organizers have already done some excellent research, pulling together documents, images, maps and aerial photographs of the site, all of which help to chart its changes and pinpoint different uses. I am chuffed to bits to be involved in the project, and am really looking forward to contributing to the group's research and finding out more about what remains in the ground.  Everyone is so keen, and there are lots of different skills being brought to bear on the task.

If you grew up around here or worked here and have knowledge about the site, it would be most welcome.  See the above poster for information and contact details.

The Wells yard 1816

The site in 1843

Ordnance Survey Map 1868

Ordnance Survey Map 1894

 

Ordnance Survey Map 1914

Research taking place into the heritage of the Surrey Docks Farm site

Excavation taking place on the Thames foreshore
at Bermondsey Wall West

I was just having a look at the Surrey Docks Farm website to check out their latest news, and found that a Heritage Lottery Fund project is being rolled out at the site of the farm.

With the assistance of Thames Discovery (which is holding tomorrow's Stephen Humphrey lecture about Rotherhithe), they are looking into the history of the site that the farm now occupies, and will be carrying out archaeological surveys in the immediate area to see if more clues are available about the site's past.

They would welcome any input from anyone who may know more about the site's earlier roles as a shipyard, timber yard, river ambulance station and its uses in the poorly documented period between 1945 and 1985.  Any sort of information will be welcome, whether you have personal memories or can tell them stories you have heard from family members or friends.     

It sounds like a really excellent project.

Have a look at the news update on the Surrey Docks Farm website for more information and contact details:

http://www.surreydocksfarm.org.uk/surrey-docks-farm-bringing-our-thames-heritage-to-life/

Pure self indulgence on my part:
A sleepy June piglet at Surrey Docks Farm

Update re the birdlife at the northern end of Greenland Dock

I went up today, in what felt like a howling gale, to check on the coots in Norway Cut and the swans in Greenland Dock.

The coots were looking distinctly wind-swept, with waves pushing the nest around within the confines of the pontoon.  Wind had swept much of the plastic rubbish off the nest, but it was looking very waterlogged. 

The swans were far more protected from the wind at the end of the dock, and there was very little turbulence at their level.  There is still only one cygnet, but although the female swan is still sitting on the nest, with the male in attendance, it seems very unlikely that any of the others will hatch now.  The single cygnet continues to look very well and was moving around the nest a lot.

Next to the swans' nest a coot is setting up home on the neighbouring pontoon.  Until the coot chicks hatch there probably won't be too many problems but coots and moorhens are notoriously vicious in protection of their young, and hopefully the swans will have moved on by the type the coot eggs hatch in just under a month after being laid. In fact, in demonstration of this, a moorhen climbed onto the same pontoon as the coot and all hell broke loose for a minute or so, with the coot attacking the moorhen, which hopped onto the swans' pontoon only to be attacked in turn by the female swan.

The water beneath the pontoons was full of huge fish. I overheard someone saying that they were bream.

I then walked to the delightful Surrey Docks Farm, mainly to inspect the pigs, which I love, before walking back along the Thames Path, and cutting over the Salter Road foot bridge to return through Russia Dock Woodland along Waterman's Walk.  The Yellow Flag iris is infesting every channel and looks very beautiful, although it is considered as something of a weed by many parkland managers as it has a habit of colonising open water like a particularly virulent weed.  The main green, which was looking distinctly shaggy a week ago, is looking beautifully manicured today, and the whole area is looking very well maintained.

New Bee Observation Centre at Stave Hill Ecology Park

Great news that the new Bee Observation Centre at Stave Hill Ecology Park is up and was the very main attraction for the hundreds of visitors from all over London who visited during last weekend's Open Garden event.  This is such a good initiative.  

The photo shows the exterior of the Observation Centre, (photograph by Steve Cornish).  An official opening event is planned for the near future. Details will be forthcoming.

For those with a particular interest in bees and beekeeping, Surrey Docks Farm will be holding their Beginners guide to Beekeeping course this Sunday the 16th from 13:00 to about 17:00.  The course is designed to give people who have very little or no beekeeping experience a glance into the world of beekeeping, including how a beehive works, how bees make honey and much more. The course will also include a look into a beehive (weather permitting) and some basic bee handling skills.  For more information see the Surrey Docks Farm website:
http://www.surreydocksfarm.org.uk/beginners-guide-to-beekeeping-course/

Surrey Docks Farm & Greenland Dock on the 16th March

After leaving Stave Hill Ecological Park I walked through the RDW and headed past the Downtown site and over the bridge to the Thames Path.

The Downtown site is an absolute disgrace. The strategy of leaving an area to decay so that people will support development is truly dishonourable. Fortunately local kids don't seem to have adopted it as a private hideaway (which is what we would have done when I was a kid, it has to be confessed).

I cut through the Surrey Docks Farm to follow the Thames Path and was lucky enough to see piglets! Quite gorgeous. As usual the farm looked great and the cafe, re-opened a few weeks ago, was absolutely heaving!

I walked back to my house along Greenland Dock where the coots and grebes were already attacking each other. A pair of grebes were laying claim to the pontoon under the Norway Cut swing bridge - last year they shared it with a pair of coots. We'll see who wins this year!