Dear Members
We were delighted to hear at our May committee meeting that the City has gained Higher Level Stewardship Scheme funding (HLS) for management of the Coulsdon Commons for the coming decade. The new agreement with Natural England was signed in April and Rangers are currently producing a year by year work plan to implement the scheme on Farthing Downs. The HLS requires more complex environmental management focused on delivering significant environmental benefits and, for the duration of the ten year agreement, the Ranger Team will be working with local advisers from Natural England to set up a management programme aimed at achieving these benefits. So how will this affect visitors to the Downs? In the first instance we will notice that grazing will be more prescriptive and the Sussex cattle, introduced some fifteen years ago or more, will be grazing the Downs for shorter periods and not necessarily all year round and there will also be restrictions on grass cutting. The field in front of the cottages used for parking by visitors to last year’s Fun Day is no longer available, as parking will disturb the potential of the site and this year a bus service from Lion Green car park brought visitors to the Downs – the bus organised by the City was a great success and is likely to be a regular feature of the event. A tree survey has already been carried out and residents will have noticed that some older diseased trees have been removed. One of a number of improvements Natural England are looking for will be an increase in the number of rare chalk grassland species, like the Greater Yellow Rattle and management of the Downs will be further enhanced to encourage this. The HLS is being targeted in areas in England where Natural England are seeking the most environmental benefits for wildlife, landscape, the historic environment and resource protection. Farthing Downs, along with the other five Coulsdon Commons, are suitable sites for this additional HSL funding. We will be organising a meeting with the Rangers in the New Year to enable members to find out more and ask questions about the Scheme and the new management plans – details to be published in the Events Diary to be circulated later this year.
Why not be a volunteer helper?
If you’re interest in conservation, community enhancement, need work experience in the countryside, want to learn new skills and meet new people and have available free time, now is the right moment to become a Farthing Downs volunteer. Volunteers work with the Rangers on Farthing Downs, New Hill, and Woodplace Farm Fields carrying out conservation tasks ranging from hedge planting, bench making, scrub bashing, ragwort pulling, clearing boundaries, and footpath regeneration. Volunteers can also become involved in archaeological protection and stock checking (grazing animals). For more details contact: Ashtead Common Estate Office at Woodfield Road, Ashstead, Surrey, KT21 2DU: Tel: 01372 279083; email: citycommons@cityoflondon.gov.uk.
Historic brochure comes to light
In June this year we received a letter from Scotland.
To Friends of Farthing Downs
Hello there. I have a recycle/community shop in Angus Scotland. I came across the enclosed little brochure advertising The Welcome Tea Rooms and wonder if you would like it for your local history etc.? It was placed inside an old book so obviously meant something to an earlier visitor to your area! I checked on the internet and came across your committee. I hope you can use it. Regards . . .
The brochure is double-sided folded in two to give four 6"x4½" pages. Proprietor: H. Goddard, Phone: Merstham 177. The brochure says “Come by 58, 59 and 414 Omnibuses or Electric Trains to Coulsdon North. . . Large and small parties catered for. Seating accommodation for 1,000.” From the picture, The Welcome Tea Rooms appear to have been a large building behind the cottages, not the tea and cakes served from the back of one of the cottages that most of us remember. Notice the swingboats and the charabancs bringing day-trippers. So when was this brochure produced?
From Redhill and Reigate History Society, I learned that Merstham exchange opened in 1910 and had only 43 lines at 1st January 1911. The Downlands exchange started as a hypothetical exchange at Merstham
on 16th June 1930 and subsequently moved to Hollymeoak Road, Coulsdon. Telephone number Merstham 177 seems to have existed between 1918 and 1930. The London Transport Museum informed me that
Routes 58, 59 and 414 served Coulsdon from1924 to 1934, 1922 to 1986 and 1924 to 1992 respectively. Electric trains (overhead system) served Coulsdon North (but not Coulsdon South) from 1925 to 1929.
So our brochure dates from the late 1920s. Do you remember the original Welcome Tea Rooms? We’d love to hear from you.
GREEN BELT ENTHUSIAST TAKES CHAIR OF THE FRIENDS
At the inaugural AGM in May this year members approved the appointment of local resident Graham Lomas as Chair of the Friends for the coming year. Graham is a founder member of the Coulsdon Green Belt Action Group and ECRA’s London Green Belt delegate. He moved to Woodplace Lane from Coulsdon West five years ago and almost immediately became involved in Green Belt issues and a fund raising campaign for the purchase of Woodplace Farm Fields, land adjoining the Downs, in a joint venture with the City. Local people raised £55,000 which helped the City of London acquire the land. At the time everyone had felt that this proved a positive working relationship with the City. As a result of the campaign the Superintendent at the time, Mike Enfield, initiated both the Friends of Farthing Downs and the Friends of Kenley Airfield, the integrity of both sites having been under threat from development. Both Woodplace Farm Fields and Hooley Farm provide a vital ‘buffer zone’ which helps protect the fragile existence of wildlife habitats that the Downs provide. Any development on land close to the Downs needs to be considered in these terms. Graham pointed that over the past ten years many sites including Green Belt land have been sold to developers. We all need to be more and more aware that this land is under threat if, as suspected, Government were to change Green Belt policy and reduce the powers of local authorities over future developments.
Graham gave a brief summary of the history of the group saying that since its formation in 2005 it has made good progress working within informal terms as a low key voluntary organisation backed by the City of London. Graham reminded those present that the City of London has owned and run Farthing Downs for one-hundred-and-thirty years along with other nearby local commons but until recently had had no cause to work with voluntary groups. Graham felt sure that everyone present would agree that now is a good time for the group to take stock of past achievements and move forward.
Other appointments at the AGM included: Vice Chair, Brian Lancaster (Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society); Treasurer, Ian Payne (East Coulsdon Residents’ Association (ECRA)); Secretary, Pauline Payne, (ECRA). The group needs new volunteers and will welcome offers of help and new members to the committee. Please contact the Secretary on 01737 554449 or email: fofd2@btinternet.com.
CAR PARK UP-DATE
