River Wandle
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The River Wandle is a river in England about 9 miles (14 km) long. It runs through south-west London.
Rain falls on the North Downs, filters through the chalk and emerges on the spring line at the Wandle's two sources, both at about 115 ft (38 yd, 35 m) above sea level. These are a pond in Waddon Ponds beside Mill Lane, Croydon; and a secondary source at Carshalton Ponds. It joins the River Thames at Wandsworth after passing through the London Boroughs of Croydon, Sutton, Merton, and Wandsworth. The names of the river and of Wandsworth are thought to have derived from the Saxon "Wendlesworth" meaning "Wendle's Settlement".
In prehistoric times, the river probably flowed from the Surrey Weald northward across the North Downs through the Merstham Gap. In more recent times, rainwater falling on the Down percolates through the chalk and reappears as springs in central Croydon, Beddington, and Carshalton. The occasional stream, known as the Bourne, which runs through the Caterham and Smitham Bottom (Coulsdon) valleys is a source of the River Wandle but only surfaces after heavy rainfall. A series of ditches and culverts channels the water from Purley to Croydon.
For many centuries the River Wandle rose from a spring near the present Swan & Sugarloaf pub, on Brighton road and flowed through the Haling area. It then ran northwards along Southbridge Road and by the time it reached Old Town it was 20 feet wide and began to divide into smaller channels. The grounds of the Old Palace and Scarbrook Hill had several springs, ponds, streams and canals where fish swam, especially trout. However, as Croydon's population grew, the Old Town streams became little better than open sewers and were filled in or culverted from 1840 after outbreaks of typhoid and cholera.
The river then flowed through Pitlake (meaning 'stream in a hollow') and on through two marshy fields - Froggs Mead and Stubbs Mead, which became Wandle Park in 1890. Local springs were used to form a boating lake in the Park, but frequent drying up problems led to the lake being filled in. The Wandle now continues underground, through where the Gas Works used to stand, under the Purley Way road and into Waddon Ponds.
A tributary starts in Thornton Heath as the Norbury Brook, becomes the River Graveney and joins the Wandle near Summerstown. For part of its length it forms the boundary between the London Boroughs of Croydon and Lambeth.
'Village' names in the Wandle basin include: Croydon, Waddon, Beddington, Wallington, Carshalton, Hackbridge, Mitcham, Ravensbury, St Helier, Morden, Wimbledon, Colliers Wood, Summerstown, and Wandsworth.
The river has been well-used since Roman times and was heavily industrialised in the 17th and 18th century (the industrial revolution) at one point being one of the most polluted rivers of the period. The main industries of the period were tobacco and textiles. Subsequent cleanups have led to a dramatic improvement in water quality leading to a return of the river's once famous brown trout.
The predominant geology of the area is chalk and London clay.
The river is heavily managed with artificial channels, runoff ditches and subterranean stretches.
It appears in Michael de Larrabeiti's Borrible books published in the 1970s and 1980s.
See also
External links
- [Wandle Trail route]
- [www.wandletrail.org]
- [Pictures of The Wandle Trail by Imran Ahmad]
- [Borrible books]
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