landfill Archives - Remote London https://www.remotelondon.com/tag/landfill/ Wild spaces & solitude on the edges of London Wed, 27 Jan 2021 15:35:18 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.1 https://www.remotelondon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Greater-London-outline-favicon.png landfill Archives - Remote London https://www.remotelondon.com/tag/landfill/ 32 32 179982959 Exploring South Ockendon landfill, ancient woods & wild meadows https://www.remotelondon.com/south-ockendon-landfill/ https://www.remotelondon.com/south-ockendon-landfill/#comments Fri, 19 Jun 2020 17:25:00 +0000 https://www.remotelondon.com/?p=1029 South Ockendon, a small town in Essex, lies just beyond the M25. On the northern edge of town, West Road passes…

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South Ockendon, a small town in Essex, lies just beyond the M25. On the northern edge of town, West Road passes the railway station, bridges the rail tracks, and passes the grey bulk of a Next distribution warehouse. Across the road, flat agricultural fields stretch into the distance.

At the junction with Arisdale Avenue, a rough path leads up to a low plateau of dusty landfill. This battered landscape is in the early stages of transformation into Little Belhus Country Park.

Little Belhus Country Park
Little Belhus Country Park in the making

This was farmland until the 1940s, when food production gave way to a lucrative new crop of gravel and sand, dug from the ground with extensive quarrying. The quarries and pits were then filled with household and industrial waste, leaving the site contaminated and potentially hazardous.

A couple of wind turbines dominate the horizon, and a path leads to a landscaped, accessible part of the new country park. Even on a sunny day, only a few others were sharing the path, family groups and occasional joggers.

South Ockendon Wind Farm

The M25 borders the western edge of the park. An unofficial path leaves the landscaped park here, and follows the motorway, dropping into woodland.

A very rough track leads towards trees
Following a rough track away from Little Belhus Country Park

Ghosts of Belhus Mansion

We skirted an active landfill site and continued into more woods, following the motorway. A glimpse of dark water reveals the Long Pond, an ornamental lake created in the mid-18th century in the grounds of Belhus Mansion. The pond and parkland around this grand country house were designed by Capability Brown, described as ‘England’s greatest gardener’.

Time has not been kind to Mr Brown’s designs. Belhus Mansion was demolished shortly after World War II, its scant remains now buried under a nearby golf course. The London Orbital now slices the former grounds in half and thunders over the Long Pond, which is lost below its shadow.

A footbridge crosses the motorway just south of the pond, and paths lead into Belhus Chase. This former arable farmland was acquired by the Woodland Trust in 1998 and is now a patchwork of woodland and wild meadows. Paths meander through the Chase and it’s easy to get a little lost.

Meadows, woodland and a path
Belhus Woods Country Park

Ancient woodlands

At Belhus Woods Country Park, ancient woodland leads to a succession of lakes, popular with young families. Seeking a quieter route, we crossed the road and wandered the paths of Warwick and White Post Woodlands, and the younger Cely Wood. We got lost but didn’t mind. The main paths are wide and firm; others twist tightly through mature woodland and lush vegetation.

Narrow track through wild grasses, flowers with young trees on either side
Tangled paths all lead somewhere, eventually

We chose a different path back, following the motorway down to the leisure centre at Belhus Park. Here, another bridge spans the motorway. A path leads back to Long Pond, the landfill, and Little Belhus Country Park.

The bulldozed edge of South Ockendon landfill site
Wide expanse of flat, bare land
South Ockendon landfill site stretches away like a desert.
Looking over bulldozed earth at a blue lake surrounded by trees
A surviving gravel pit at South Ockendon, next to the landfill site

Thanks to Ed A for joining me on this explorative walk, undertaken on 31st May 2020

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]]> https://www.remotelondon.com/south-ockendon-landfill/feed/ 1 1029 Barking Riverside & Footpath 47, a wild riverside path with an uncertain future https://www.remotelondon.com/barking-riverside-footpath-47/ Wed, 17 Jun 2020 13:25:05 +0000 https://www.remotelondon.com/?p=986 East London’s riverside landscape is changing fast, but amid the ongoing redevelopment there are still good places to enjoy London’s quiet…

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East London’s riverside landscape is changing fast, but amid the ongoing redevelopment there are still good places to enjoy London’s quiet side. The footpaths at Barking Riverside won’t stay empty for much longer, so now is a good time to walk these wild Thameside paths.

Welcome sign at Barking Riverside

Footpath 47

Footpath 47 is a public right-of-way leading from Renwick Road, next to Barking Riverside. The path doesn’t look promising, the entrance poised between heaped landfill and dominated by construction works.

Nearby, the new Barking Riverside Overground extension resembles a half-built motorway, a monument to reinforced concrete. The rail tracks rear up to meet the terminus, providing plenty of space for retail chains and franchised coffee shops below.

Wild flowers, grassland and saltmarsh line the Thames at Barking Riverside
Wild flowers, grassland and saltmarsh line the Thames at Barking Riverside

Ripple Level

This area used to be known as Ripple Level, an expanse of low fields protected from the worst of the Thames tides by walls and embankments. This area would once have been extensive saltmarsh, but river walls are likely to have gone in during the 14th century, perhaps even earlier, and the marshes drained for the grazing of sheep and cattle.

The former Ripple Level, looking west towards Renwick Road
The former Ripple Level, looking west towards Renwick Road

This description from 1883 gives an impression of the landscape at the time: “Beyond Barking Marsh, immediately abutting the Thames is mostly dreary marsh, crossed and intersected with straight dykes and sluggish pools, but further in land are broad stretches of pasture land, serving as an admirable grazing ground for cattle” [Walford 1st. pub. 1883].

The river foreshore at Barking Riverside, looking west and upriver

The old field patterns could still be seen in 1950, their outlines delineated by drainage ditches, but times were changing. The land around the River Roding had been heavily industrialised in the early 1900s, along with the construction of the original Barking Power Station at Creekmouth (since demolished). Development stalled on the edges of the Ripping Levels, probably because the land was too prone to flooding, but another use beckoned.

From livestock to landfill

Post-war London needed to rebuild, and to do that it needed to remove huge quantities of Blitz and slum-clearance rubble. The subsequent dumping grounds now surround London, especially to the east and west. Between the mid-sixties and the 1980s, the Ripple Levels all but vanished under landfill and tipping.

The low-lying fields are now piled high with broken brick and buried domestic rubbish. On a June day, these low, undisturbed hills of waste bloom with colourful wildflowers, and skylarks sing overhead.

Waves of landfill at Barking Riverside, colonised by wildflowers and wildlife
Waves of landfill at Barking Riverside, colonised by wildflowers and wildlife

Barking Riverside

Footpath 47 tracks a riverside route, between the fenced-off landfill and the River Thames. Inland, the new apartment blocks of Barking Riverside are being pulled skywards by huge cranes. Tracks lead down to the river and the falling tide reveals wide mudflats. Small squadrons of bulky shelduck patrol the river’s edge, and seals are often seen here, lounging close to the water’s edge.

Distance construction with tall cranes, behind a tall wire fence, with a crow perched on top
Barking Riverside apartment blocks will soon reach this fenceline

The footpath was closed without notice in 2014, leading to a campaign by local walkers to reopen their right-of-way. The developers eventually did so in 2015, having fenced off the landfill they will be developing. Soon, densely piled apartment blocks will overlook this fenceline, and the wild solitude of Footpath 47 will be lost.

Mounds of landfill look like dunes, with long grass growing on them. Tall cranes in the distance.
Looking back at dunes of landfill, from a path down to the foreshore

The Gores

The rough, rutted track heads east, patrolled by the occasional security car and few others. The path eventually heads back inland where a waterway, the Gores, meets the Thames. The Gores is an old drainage channel, now protected from incoming Thames tides by a large one-way sluice complex.

The Gores sluice, allowing the land to drain into the Thames, but keeping the tides at bay.
The Gores sluice, allowing the land to drain into the Thames, but keeping the tides at bay. In the background, a large cargo ship is moored off Dagenham. The sluices prevent flooding, but also stop migratory fish, such as the endangered European eel, from reaching the inland waterways where they once thrived.

On the other side of the Gores the Dagenham Cement and Ash Terminal provides a noisy counterpoint to the tranquillity of the river path. And yet the Gores itself is beautiful, two channels threading along a narrow, green valley, banked with landfill on one side, industry on the other.

The Gores valley

The valley is fenced, and signs proclaim it a Wildlife Concern Area, with no public access. Bird song drifts up from the waterways and reedbeds.  The Gores itself used to track a different course, meeting the Thames farther east. The waterway’s original course was beyond the cement plant, feeding an area of old marshland called Horse Shoe Corner. 

Wildlife Concern Zone and the Gores. The industry in the background stands on the former marshland of Horse Shoe Corner

Horse Shoe Corner

Horse Shoe Corner resisted taming until the mid-20th century, when it was infilled and reclaimed for coal storage and railway sidings, which then gave way to industry. The Gores was pushed west, into a new, man-made channel. The re-routed waterway may also have played a part in removing the polluted waters draining from the council tip, funnelling foul water into the Thames.

The path follows the Gores away from the Thames and to Choats Road. The route, raised relatively high on landfill, gives good views of the surrounding, changing landscape. On a warm June day, with wildflowers on all sides, one could almost be in a pocket of deep countryside.

Many people, including at least one influential conservation charity, argue that landfill and brownfield are only fit for building on. In truth, such sites can be far better for wildlife than much of our countryside

At Choats Road, a tricky barrier makes an effective guard against off-road bikers, but you can wiggle a bicycle through if you are wheeling one beside you.

Tall spiked railings with a narrow gap, partially blocked by metal posts
Choats Road entrance to Footpath 47

The Gores continues north, and on my visit, I could clearly hear a cuckoo calling from within this fenced and hopefully protected slice of urban countryside. A map of 1915 marks this stretch of the Gores as bordering a sewage works and filter beds, now lost under landfill and partially used as an industrial estate.

Overhead, a kestrel scanned the Barking Riverside landfill, hovering on tremulous wings, perfectly focussed on the wildlands below.

The river Gores flows between green banks towards a large, distant pylon. More pylons can be seen on the horizon
The Gores valley north of Choats Road

The future of Barking Riverside

As Barking Riverside develops, much of the current wildlife will probably be squeezed out. The shoreline shelduck are wary of movement on the bank, and the cuckoo and kestrel will lose their hunting grounds. Without the wildflower meadows of old landfill, the skylarks will have nowhere to nest, and no seeds or insects to feed their young.

The seals may still visit, having become accustomed to the busy River Thames, but it won’t be the same. The many thousands who come to live at Barking Riverside won’t miss the song of the skylark or the call of the cuckoo. They won’t even know such wildlife lived here before them.  

Distant cranes over half-finished buildings at Barking Riverside. In the foreground, a crow perches on a wire fence
Lots of grey buildings seen from above
How Barking Riverside is likely to look when finished. Click on the image to visit the Barking Riverside website. The developers claim that “preserving and enhancing the rich ecological diversity of the area is a priority for the development”

More information

Barking & Dagenham Local History – https://www.barkingdagenhamlocalhistory.co.uk/barkingreachhistory.htm

Edith’s Streets – http://edithsstreets.blogspot.com/2011/05/thames-tributary-goresbrook-dagenham_30.html

Satellite view of Barking Riverside, showing construction, landfill and river path
Google satellite view of Barking Riverside © Google 2020. Footpath 47 mostly borders the development to the south, along the Thames, and to the east, heading up to Choats Road

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]]> 986 South Norwood Country Park, a wild urban gem https://www.remotelondon.com/south-norwood-country-park-a-wild-urban-gem/ Tue, 28 Apr 2020 16:52:49 +0000 https://www.remotelondon.com/?p=780 South Norwood Country Park is a beautiful, semi-wild parkland in south London. Nature blooms across rolling hills of WW2 demolition rubble…

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South Norwood Country Park is a beautiful, semi-wild parkland in south London. Nature blooms across rolling hills of WW2 demolition rubble and a former sewage works.

This is recovered land, rewilding from previous use. In the late 19th century, the former fields in the southern part of the park were being pitted and scared, as open mines scraped out deposits of London Clay. These were the South Norwood Potteries and the Portland Road Brick Works, typical of the metropolitan edgelands of the time.

Fragrant cow parsley growing shoulder-high in fresh woodland
Fragrant cow parsley grows chest-high in fresh woodland

South Norwood Irrigation Farm

From 1865, the northern half of the park was being used as a sewage treatment works, the South Norwood Irrigation Farm. At first, sewage effluent was simply spread across large fields, fertilising the growth of grass (probably for sale as hay) and fodder beets for animal feed. Back then, sewage farms really were farms.

The underlying clay meant that the fields drained slowly, as they still do today. Concrete filter beds and channels followed, but sewage treatment ceased in 1967 and the works were dismantled to ground level. Today, traces of these works remain across the park. Meanwhile, the abandoned fields naturally rewilded, creating undisturbed wetland and grassland, a haven for nature.

Nature reclaiming the old sewage farm

South Norwood Country Park is beautiful, but the distinctive perfume of wastewater still lingers if you explore along the north western edge. The culverted stream which borders the tram line and Beckenham Cemetery is festooned in places with ‘rag’. These grey chains of ‘flushable’ wet wipes hang like ghostly bunting, a celebration of our thoughtless, disposable culture.

Clear signs of pollution in this stream, on the edge of the Park.

Rubble, landfill, and recovery

Following World War Two, the gaping pits of the potteries and brickworks were filled with the broken bricks of post-bombing demolition. Wildflowers growing from this landscape of rubble became a bleak testament to lost and damaged lives. In later years, landfill was also tipped across the south western end of the sewage farm, largely rubbish and waste from highways.

Star of Bethlehem growing amid the undulating landfill
Star of Bethlehem growing amid the undulating landfill
Battered metal water tank surrounded by plants
The secret history of South Norwood Country Park reveals itself in places, away from the main paths

Nature, wildlife, and open space

Nature began to reclaim the abandoned sewage farm and landfill, creating a wild, green space. In 1982, the area was designated as Metropolitan Open Land. This recognition of the Park’s contribution to London’s green infrastructure gives it the same legal protection as Green Belt, making it difficult (but not impossible) to build on.

These green, rolling hillocks are formed from the broken rubble of WW2 demolition
These green, rolling hillocks are formed from the broken rubble of WW2 demolition

South Norwood Country Park

In 1988, Croydon Council began to develop the site as South Norwood Country Park. The rolling fields of hardcore were shaped into mounds and hillocks, and a secluded lake was created.

Looking up a rough track which leads to the top of a low, green hill.
The clay pits, dug for bricks and pottery, were backfilled and packed with the broken rubble of bombed homes. Now the rubble reaches skyward, forming gentle hills.

Today, the Park is a wonderful tangle of main paths and narrow, winding tracks. I visited in spring, the warm air perfumed with the aroma of hawthorn blossom and cow parsley. It is worth exploring the smaller paths, getting momentarily lost. Some tracks lead nowhere, curving paths which melt into the green, consumed by nature. It is fun to explore, and easy to retrace your steps.

South Norwood Country Park is a wild, urban gem and free to visit. If you live locally, it is well recommended.

If you would like further inspiration, check out London National Park City, celebrating the capital’s green side!

Green footpath sign, unreadable.
Old signage on the edge of the Park
Hawthorn blossom, small, fragrant white flowers
Hawthorn blossom, a sure sign of spring.
A comma butterfly, soaking up the sunshine
A comma butterfly, soaking up the sunshine
Battered footpath sign, with graffitti
Footpath 666. You won't be lost for long.

More information

https://friendsofsncp.org.uk/history/

https://londongardenstrust.org/inventory/gardens-online-record.php?ID=CRO081

https://www.croydon.gov.uk/sites/default/files/articles/downloads/south-norwood-country-park-history.pdf

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