Thames Landscape Strategy - Hampton to Kew -

Arcadian Diary November 2005

For me, the Thames on a cold frosty morning veiled in freezing fog is quite the most wonderful place. Everything looks magical with new delights appearing from the fog all the time. I do hope that many of you have braved the cold to enjoy it. About 100 volunteers did last the weekend, wrapping up warm to take part in one of the foreshore clean up days organised by the Environment Trust for Richmond in partnership with Arcadia, The Thames Landscape Strategy and the Ham and Petersham Association. These events were timed to coincide with the annual draw off and simply involved donning a pair of wellies in order to get down onto the riverbed to remove the things that have been thrown into the river over the year. We filled skips full of rubbish including glass bottles, motorcycles, car batteries, discarded cameras, mobile phones, shopping trolleys and cars!

The draw off takes place annually, usually in November between Teddington and Richmond Locks. During this period the gates on Richmond Lock that are normally closed at low tide to facilitate navigation are kept open and the river is allowed to drain out naturally at low tide. The high tides are unaffected and can still be very large, which often catches a lot of people out. This year’s draw off has been particularly good due to the low water volumes coming over Teddington Weir. This means that there is far less water in the tidal river at low tide exposing even more of the riverbed than in previous years.

It may be hard to believe but the reason for these low freshwater levels is due to drought. The Thames Valley is experiencing one of the worst dry patches since records began. The last twelve months have been the driest since 1976 and the fifth driest on record. The Environment Agency officially declared a drought back in June and although this October’s rain provided some respite helping to top up the surface reservoirs, underwater reservoirs are still perilously low. We all need to be saving water now for our non rainy days. When the winter rain does finally come we may be in the weird position of having a hosepipe ban being ordered in the same week as a flood warning is issued – for the same place. Yet another consequence of our changing climate.

Whilst these low tides revealed many horrors for us to clear up they also revealed all sorts of treasures normally hidden beneath the waters. To my untrained eye it was like an Aladdin’s cave down there. Under every rock were literally hundreds of freshwater shrimps, crabs and much more excitingly eels. These ranged from 2-inch elvers right up to more mature specimens over a foot long. You can imagine the fun the kids were having exploring this hidden world and the shrieks of delight on discovering a slithering eel.

On hand at all times during the volunteer events were three marine biologists from the Zoological Society of London to guide the children in their adventures and to carry out a more scientific survey of identifying exactly what lives on the riverbed. This is important for us. Without a clear understanding of the river ecology it is difficult to plan works and management programmes. The more interesting species recorded were the freshwater gastropod, the river snail, pea muscles, zebra muscles, freshwater cockles, swan muscles, leeches, flatworm and bleak.

Whilst beautiful, the current cold snap is causing us problems in delivering planned works especially down Water Lane (Richmond) where the repair of the granite setts and river wall has proved to be particularly difficult. The contractors need a temperature of above 3 degree Celsius for an eight-hour period in order for the mortar to set. The bitter weather has not allowed for this. Already having to work around the tides the work is taking longer than any of us could have imagined but we hope that the inconvenience caused will be worth it once Richmond’s historic town wharf is restored.

The works being carried out under the London’s Arcadia Heritage Lottery funded scheme on Richmond Hill are finally coming to an end. The central steps are open again and the restored historic railings are being put back in. With so much having taken place recently under the Arcadia project we needed to carry out a market research study to find out what riverside users think of the work. This is a requirement of the Heritage Lottery Fund who is paying for a lot of the work.
The survey, which was carried out by the Richmond Town Centre Management, was designed to find out whether locals and visitors to the river had noticed any changes and what they thought of them. We never know what the results are going to be when undertaking these surveys but we were very encouraged by the findings. The vast majority of those people surveyed had noticed improvements along the river, felt safer in the area and were generally positive about the work taking place. It is hard for a project like London’s Arcadia to please everyone all of the time but this survey helped to show that we are pleasing most of the people most of the time!

Although the draw off period will be finished soon the cold snap is set to last for a while. So why not wander down to the riverside and enjoy the winter spectacle. This time of year is also a special period to watch the sun set from the top of Richmond Hill. Only in the mid winter does the sun set directly over the bend in the river below the Terrace Walk. It was quite incredible last Sunday and if the weather is clear this weekend I know where I will be at sunset.

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