Part One:  Waddon Ponds to Wilderness Island

 Waddon Ponds are in a little tucked-away park behind Purley Way, lots of different species of water birds, pretty flower beds, children’s play area. It’s next to Mill Lane, where there was once a flour mill and now it’s just various industries. Start walking along the path and immediately the River disappears behind a hedge but you can just hear it tinkling busily along.

Walking along this narrow path, somewhere you cross the borough boundary from Croydon to Sutton, then you cross the first Wandle bridge; at this point you could probably jump it! On this side you pass some bungalows which I think were for older Sutton Council tenants but which are now boarded up, the remains of their pretty gardens looking sad and neglected. And look! There’s a fake heron in a garden on your left, when I first saw it I thought it was real…..

Next you get to another bridge, cross over and there’s a building which I think is now offices and was formerly a flour mill (another one) and next door is the mill owner’s house with a Sutton Heritage Red Plaque (like a Blue Plaque but not quite as posh.)  The mill that was there originally is mentioned in the Domesday Book and was a corn mill and then a snuff mill. And here are the mill workers cottages, with the River Wandle babbling along in their front gardens, lovely! Then it’s a short walk along the aptly named Wandle Bank to your first road crossing, Hillier’s Lane. On the other side there are a couple of manmade concrete waterfalls with stones set in them, so even when you can’t see it you can hear the water rushing along.

Now we reach the lovely Beddington Park, the subject of many photos on Facebook, some interesting historic buildings and a wonderful clear shallow stream that everyone can remember playing in when they were children. I’m not sure if the Trail goes right beside the River as it gets very muddy on the banks, but that’s where we will walk, perhaps spotting a dog enjoying the stream. Over a couple of bridges and then we reach the metal curved bridge, which I’m sure was painted blue when I was young, though some say white, but now is definitely green, and looking a lot like Monet’s Garden (google it). The River then flows into the Lake, and from the banks you can see all kinds of water fowl with their cute babies in Spring.  And in the Grange Children’s Centre on the left there is something that really looks like a giant poo, sorry, but it does!   Moving swiftly on, the last time I was doing this part of the Trail I stopped to talk to these two guys who looked like they were fishing, but were actually collecting mosquito larvae in nets for a PHD in Entomology (the study of insects). The mosquitoes here don’t carry malaria, I was happy to discover.

Now we get to the part of the Trail where you can’t walk beside the River.  Wandle Side and Riverside Close invite you to follow them, but alas, they are private property and dead ends and you can’t get access to the River.  Never mind, we do get to see the colourful Elm Pond which has green dyed water (for some reason.) Then we go down Butter Hill, spotting The Lodge, Butter Hill on the way.  At the bottom of Butter Hill/Mill Lane, we pick up the other branch of the Wandle which has come from Carshalton Ponds. Strictly speaking you are supposed to go to The Ponds as part of the Trail, but I thought for this Walk I’d take the short cut and just do the 12 miles!

Over the bridge into Mill Lane, and what do we see under the railway arch? A small but very colourful Garden Centre, SOS Gardens, should I tell them I’m giving them free advertising? Next we see the strikingly yellow Strawberry Lodge (maybe it should be red?), built in the late 17^th century for the gunpowder maker Josiah Dewye. This part of the Wandle had several mills: flour, snuff, corn, oh and I think Papermill Close gives a clue as to what else. Does anyone remember the Vinyls factory that used to be here? Now there are tasteful apartments which look a lot nicer and don’t smell of chemicals. And here we are at Wilderness Island, where you can actually get lost, I did. But we are not venturing inside today, we have a trail to walk!