Walks around London: Morden Hall Park

Here's another episode in my series of infrequent walks around the metropolis. Last Sunday (30th April) the Margravina and I decided to mix it up for a change and take our Sunday constitutional away from the usual haunt. We opted for Morden Hall Park, a few miles from us in SW London. I'd been there, briefly, one time before in the epic adventure up the Wandle River undertaken by Lincolnshire Tom and I a few years ago. I seem to have lost that post (if I ever wrote it up). The Wandle, a Thames tributary, skirts Morden Hall Park on its journey from Croydon to the Thames at Wandsworth, via Wimbledon.

South London - MH Park is in the area circled in the bottom left

By the standards of Richmond, this is quite a small park. Nevertheless it has a number of distinct areas, and would repay repeated visits before you got bored of it. As our first proper visit, our walk was fairly unstructured. Captions below the following pictures explain things as far as I can.

This looks like it could be the home of Colonel Sydenham Hill, Parliamentarian hero of the battles of Clee Fields and Grimsby, 1643, https://horseandmusketgaming.blogspot.com/2019/10/lincolnshire-campaign-ii-battle-of-clee.html

Aha! The true purpose of the building above. A mill, but for what?

I was taken with this arrangement. The Margravina did explain what it was, but the cares of state have washed it from my mind.

Close up

And even closer.

Blossom everywhere

Now this appears to be some device for controlling the flow of the water. Some type of gate at the bottom.

I liked the symmetry of this, err tree.

Local birdlife enjoying the day.

I found this parish boundary marker. There appeared to be some writing on the reverse but I couldn't clean off all the mud on it.

So this place produced snuff until the early 19th century. Tonnes of it!

Who doesn't love a tulip?

Evasive little fellows, or were they just Coy?

A side branch of the Wandle?

The above, but zoomed in. Very picturesque.

Not covered in the above photos is an area of wetland. This takes up quite a big portion of the northern part of the park. You hear more and more of these wetland areas nowadays, where nature is given a helping hand, in often urban or suburban areas. Seems like a very good idea. There also seems to be quite a few of these river trails around London. Most of them are arterial to the Thames (if that's the right word) and provide handy corridors for wildlife. Eels have been spotted in the Wandle for example. Excellent! An idea occurred to me whilst walking and talking on this particular walk. To what extent would it be possible to link these various Thames tributaries with green corridors?

Anyway, it was a pleasant change from our usual walks.