15th - 17th September 2014
North
Downs and River Mole - Monday 15th September
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| View from Denbies Vineyard towards Leith Hill |
Walk from Dorking to Leatherhead via
Denbies Vineyard, Ranmore Common, Norbury Park, Thorncroft, Leatherhead.
Fine, warm settled weather great for
walkers and plein air painters, though it's been a long dry summer for rivers.
Dorking Deepdene. Arrived about half-ten.
Across the A24 to the park and pond, then path across the A'road and railway
into Denbies Vineyard. Vineyard extensive, extending out the west. Grapes
ripening.
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| Box Hill from Denbies Vineyard |
Started off following tracks through vineyard west, but couldn't find
a way up the hill (not PRW), anyway. Retraced steps north acrosd vineyard to
NDW and followed that up the hill and round to the west at the edge of the
woodland of Ranmore Common. Shade pleasant as it felt warm and sticky in the
sun. Continued along NDW to St. Barnabas Church, Ranmore, spire seen further
back.
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| Grapes ripening on the vines, Denbies |
Took the bridleway opposite the church
north across the Ranmore Common wood. Came out into the combe near Bagden Farm.
Sign pointing left to youth hostel about 3/4 mile west at Tanner's Hatch.
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| St. Barnabas Church, Ranmore |
Crossed Chapel Lane, continuing north
through Chapel Wood, past Phoenice Farm behind hedge on left - guard dog
warnings - into Bookham Wood and the march larger woodland area of Norbury
Park. Lunch in the clearing a bit further up the hill from the crossroad of the
main paths near the western end.
Following the paths down towards, Norbury
House, passed the sawmill. A pair of sculpted tree stumps outside the gates.
One had finger / toe like digits, a bit like the tree on the riverbank near Box
Hill. The other looked like the head of a pig - or maybe a wild boar (or bore after my trip to the Severn last week). From another angle (like in the pic below) it could have been a fish. Viewed facing, though, it looked more distressed and gargoyle like than it came
across in my drawing.
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| Lunch stop in Norbury Park |
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| Wood sculpture outside Norbury Park Sawmill |
From there, I followed the road down the
hill and joined a path off to the left which crossed the railway tunnel and
came out of the woods at Icehouse Copse. Then took the path on the west under
the A246. The graffiti art enhanced the otherwise barren, boring concrete,
though the Flow River arrow in metal
was pointing upstream rather than towards the Thames.
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| Graffiti gracing the Leatherhead bypass bridge |
At Thorncroft House I turned right to the
footbridge. Between there and the redbrick multi-arched town bridge, the river
flowed between islets. Stopped to sketch at bench facing the flint stone bridge
between two of these on the far side. A large oyster like shell over the
archway. Then carried on crossing the road at Town Bridge, under the concrete
B'road bridge and two viaducts into the open area of the Common Meadow.
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| The Mole near Norbury Park |
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| Thorncroft bridge, Leatherhead |
There were scenes around Leatherhead, I
recognised from You Tube footage of last winter's flooding. such as the Thorncroft footbridge with the
10mph speed limit sign, where on Christmas Eve I wondered if the river was so
fast and furious that it achieved that. Here, too, at the beginning of
February, on the day I saw the double whammy fluvial-tidal spillages on the
Arun, a lady videoed her trudge through the over flowing River Mole, probably
ruining her walking boots. A forgottten Deep Flood Water sign by a now dry ditch near leisure centre.
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| The Shell bridge |
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| Leatherhead Town Bridge |
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| Leatherhead Common Meadow |
What a contrast with what I saw now: River levels were very low throughout. I wasn't surprised: the Mole is like that.
A note on local geology and water levels
At Leatherhead, the Mole leaves the Chalk of the
North Downs for the London Clay of the London Basin (BGS online geo maps).
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| Low water levels - Common Meadow, |
There is a superficial cover of alluvium all
along the floodplain. Beneath this at the southern railway viaduct - Lewes
Chalk (later Cretaceous); Thanet Beds (Palaeogene) - sand and silt at the
northern viaduct; and London Clay (Eocene) beneath the Common Meadow. If the
low water level I saw today was due to alleged swallow holes in the Chalk, I'd
have expected water levels through the Common Meadow to have been better than
they were upstream. They weren't. Therefore, must be due to the currently very
low rates of run-off in the catchment.
The Environment Agency A and CEH say rainfall in England and Wales
was above the long term average throughout August, with soil moisture
increasing, river and groundwater levels within the normal range for August.
Rainfall was well above average over much of Scotland, with flooding in some
areas, including the River Lossie near Elgin. EA flow gauge data this week (10th - 16th September) shows the Thames (Kingston) and groundwater dominated rivers such as
chalk streams comfortably normal. However, this September so far has been very dry
throughout the UK (data from the Met. Office, via this report). As of 16th September, overall rainfall across
England has been just 15% of the long term average. In
SE England, just 2mm of rain has fallen during the first half of September. The
EA say most of their indicator rivers are still flowing within their normal range
for the time of year, though rivers in northern and western England, in
generally impermeable catchments are running a bit below normal.
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On the Mole, things must be better than they
were around this time in 1976: compare water levels beneath the A246 bridge
today with the photo of from summer 1976 with the completely dry river bed,
Surrey Weather Book (Currie et al, 1990) which I'm pretty sure was taken here.
Though we may not have had the hottest or
driest of summers, I reckon the past six months have been particularly hard on
the Mole and rivers in impermeable catchments generally, especially in SE England where rainfall is lower. Even in March, barely
a month after the flooding, the CEH said that it was notably low. Spring was
early, dry and very mild. Plants growth has been prolific throughout, sucking
up moisture from the ground. Even with the wetter August, I noted from the EA's
website that the Mole was below normal during the second half of the month. The
soggy August Bank Holiday revived it briefly, though only briefly as it soon
all ran away. See my musings along and near the Mole near Box Hill earlier this year:
Wey
and Godalming Navigations, Guildford -
Tuesday 16th September
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| Water meadows - St.Catherine's |
A late start before heading into Guildford
on the train around midday. There, a leisurely walk along the Wey to Shalford,
cuppa overlooking the river in Debenhams, then another stroll up to Dapdune
Wharf and the Woodbridge Meadow tree / train sculptures. Didn’t rush as, once early cloud / drizzle had
cleared and sun came out, it felt warm and sticky. Still very much that into the evening.
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| Mooring by Shalford bridge |
Along the Wey, I did a sketch of tree
reflections on the bend near St. Catherine’s Lock. Enjoyed flowers growing in the meadow / more marshy land
inside the bend.
Signs up at various intervals along the
towpath with photographs – 250 years of the Wey
and Godalming Navigations – thought it was 360
years last year, but never mind. Near St. Catherine’s Lock, a photo of the drownded lock and meadow at the height of the
1968 floods. That was the big exception the usual back-to-school-back
to-better-weather / rivers low and tired after the summer rule. Took a photo
now to show what it usually all looks like, looking upstream towards Godalming.
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| St. Catherine's Lock today |
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| St.Catherine's Lock in aftermath of 1968 mega-sog |
Reflections beneath railway bridge I’d crossed on the way to Dorking yesterday. A
temporary pontoon, scaffolding etc across the river, work being done on the
pipe which crosses here.
Opposite Dapdune Wharf later a bit about
the Wey barges, constructed here and launched here, from the side shed nearest
the railway viaduct, side off the wall.
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| Relections at Dapdune Wharf |
Further to yesterday, the Wey didn’t look nearly as low as the Mole, though a lot
lower than it did in the spring, particularly noticeable at Millmead. Think the
canalisation of the river, with more ability to direct flows, must help. Along
with perhaps a more permeable catchment, though by now the upper reaches of the North Branch in
Farnham can look overgrown and anaemic.
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| Fish eat fish eat fish, Woodbridge Meadow |
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| Tree creature and phone guy in Woodbridge Meadow |
My blogs along the Wey 2013 - 2014
The
Thames Barrier, Greenwich and the Tower of London - Wednesday 17th September
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Arriving in London about 11:00am, I took a
train from Waterloo East to Charlton and walked down to the Thames Barrier. It
was still foggy and rather gloomy. After the highs on the Severn last week with
the spring tides, the Thames was subdued on the neap. All a fitting vibe
perhaps for my thoughts of the wider world situation. See above and hints
scribbled beneath the water in my sketches, along with notes on flooding and
the Barrier's role in protecting London, as witnessed last winter. Not that the
is likely bothered about petty human affairs to do with referendums, being
probably upwards of two million years old. Even so, I write this on the way
home, the long way round from Victoria, just crossed Grosvenor railway bridge,
view upriver to the Albert Bridge outline lit up against the fading evening
twilight. I wondered to the longest river in England what we'd wake up to on
Friday morning.
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The sun partially broke through the fog
from about early afternoon, shining some light on the Barrier and the river,
though the persistence of the fog took the edge of the threatened heatwave.
Essentially a re-run of late September 2011. The autumn and winter went on
persistently dry threatening drought, numerous rivers dwidling visibly by the
year's end. Hope no re-run of that, but the freebie paper I picked up on the
train this morning speaks of a "blowtorch" heatwave, with
temperatures as high as 27C tomorrow. Presume that's London and hope it's a bit
cooler back home, though I get the impression it's foggier to the east. Come
October, I could use a bit of autumn, with fresher weather to knuckle down.
Don't know what the pollution levels were in London, today, but anywhere near
busy roads, eg Tower Bridge early this evening, wasn't pleasant. As in the
summer heatwave, the heat builds later in the day, too.
Sketched near play area and cafe in front
of floodbank just below the most southerly gate of the Barrier (gate 9) and
control tower. In due course, a party of school children turned up for a lunch
stop and slide on the slide. The City of Westminster marine aggregate boat
passed through the Barrier on the nearside. It had probably come from the works
just upstream of the Barrier and Charlton. I had my sandwiches and did another sketch,
this time looking between gates 7 and 8
towards the O2 arena (before then the Millennium Dome) and the
multiplying Canary Wharf Towers.
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| Profile of the River Thames beneath the covered walkway near the Barrier |
I then went under the covered walkway
marking the eastern end of the 184 mile Thames Path. On the concrete wall on my
left, a profile of the River Thames from sea to source. At the eastern seaward
end, a mark marking the high tides on 11th January 1993 (the higher one) and
Christmas Eve 1988. Below these, near the base of the wall , a line marking the
profile of the Thames with height in metres relative to Ordnance Datum, Newlyn,
the line rising moving towards the source, most steeply nearer the source at
Thames Head near Cricklade, Gloucestershire, about 105m AOD. Along the way,
landmarks, major towns and cities such as Oxford, the inflows of tributaries,
including the Wey, the Mole (aka Ember nearing Hampton Court), the Hogsmill,
Cherwell etc.
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From there, I followed the Thames Path and
Jubilee Greenway around the Greenwich Peninsula, where the river loops round
Blackwall Point, and the O2. on the far side of the Thames the outlet of Bow Creek,
where the River Lee / Lea comes out. Went under the chutes / passed the
gravelly stockpiles of the Angerstein and Murphy's aggregate works, later under
the new chairlift / gondola ride passing high over the river - Emirites
something or other. As with the O2, everything round here being named more by
brand - usually foreign - than a landmark with any direct connection to the
Thames or London. Seeing the chairlift, with it's relatively big ticket to
ride, had this surreal idea of suited executives riding the chutes etc of the
aggregate workings once they run out of aggregate to dredge out of the North
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Around the O2 - seemingly more successful
as a gig arena than its relatively short incarnation as the Millennium Dome
through the year 2000. A Monty Python reunion and Kate Bush's first live stage
gig for 35 years taking place here recently. Rounding Blackwall Point, a
gathering of gulls and comorants on the sand accumulated on the inner bend.
View across to the Isle of Dogs with the Canary Wharf Towers. The Blackwall
Tunnel passes under the Thames here.
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| Towers of London |
More or less right round the bend from the
O2 to the old power station at Greenwich, a building site, with lots of new
blocks going up, a luxury cruise ship stop in the making, preparation for a
Tall Ships event somewhere here this year. All looked very corporate, big biz,
like much of the rest of London's becoming. I sympathise with Scots not wanting be ruled by faraway London, but the dominance of the City, rich foreigners
buying up the property pricing everyone else out is making many people living
much closer to it feel cut off from the Capital. Building sites at least honoured the route
of the Thames Path and cycleways, so I got round to Maritime Greenwich without
any obstacles or detours. Another historic high tide mark, this one on a wall in by the Trinity Hospital, for the highest
tide of the first half of the twentieth century.
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| Approaching Maritime Greenwich |
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| The Cutty Sark |
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| The Cutty Sark |
Busy around Greenwich, the National
Maritime Museum and Cutty Sark. Didn't go up into the Park as time was getting on. Had a cuppa in Costa and
looked round the Cutty Sark area. Cutty Sark, where it always was, with the
masts prominent from the river, the base of the hull now undercover, in the new
museum. The restoration, of course, the subject of my father's paintings, wood
engravings and the big five block linocut.
Left Greenwich via the subway under the
Thames to Island Gardens - unlike the Tube / Docklands, refreshingly cool
beneath the river. There, I took the Docklands light railway to Bank. Got a bit
lost there trying to get out of the station. Inevitably for this time of a
weekday (half-five ish), streets strewn with suits. Big crowds streaming across
London Bridge. I crossed Tower Bridge, passing the Tower of London, the moat
area in front of the outer walls strewn with poppies. The carpet of red growing
August 4th - 11th November, remembering the fallen on the centenary of the
start of WW1.
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My blogs about the London Thames during 2014
