Pith helmet at the ready, David Gill is in search of the source of Croydon’s river, and is looking beyond Wandle Park
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Locating the source of the River Wandle ought to be reasonably straightforward, though DAVID GILL says that his latest project has raised a few eyebrows
The conversation usually starts something like this:
“So David, have got this right? Someone is paying you to find the source of the River Wandle?”
“Yep, that’s right.”
“OK, there are some silly people out there. Let me tell them that the Wandle starts in Waddon Ponds – simple and easy!”
“You are sort of right… but it does not end there.”
“How do you mean?”
“Take a walk in Wandle Park and you will see a small river. This is the start of Wandle today.”
“Oh, so its starts in Wandle Park. That wasn’t difficult was it?”
“Well, again you are sort of right…”
“Go on…”
Tesco Express: the acknowledged source of the River Wandle
“Historical evidence tells that the Wandle used to start where the Swan and Sugar Loaf pub is now in South Croydon.”
“What? … the one that is now a Tesco Express? On the Brighton Road in South Croydon?”
“You’ve got it…but it does not end there.”
“Go on…”
“Do you remember the awful floods back?”
“The ones that affected Kenley and Purley?”
“Yes.”
“Go on…”
“Well some people believe that this is connected to the River Wandle.”
“How can that be? Purley and Wandle Park are miles apart.”
The flooding of the Caterham Bourne is being linked by some to the River Wandle
“Well observed my friend… Purley and Kenley are well south of Croydon, as you know. They are both built on a rock called chalk.”
“That’s the white stuff isn’t it?”
“Yes… the chalk is porous. That means it allows water to flow down through it.”
“Go on…”
“When rain falls on the chalk, at places like Kenley and Purley, some of that rain disappears under the ground because the chalk is porous…it disappears in to an underground river.”
“So you are saying there is an underground river somewhere below Purley?”
“Yes sort of… occasionally because of lots of rain the water comes up to the surface of the ground to cause flooding.”
“And this underground river is there all the time and somehow flows under the ground and comes out of the ground at Wandle Park in Croydon?”
“Yes sort of…”
“Wow, that’s incredible.”
“Yes it is…”
“Wow, David you are genius!”
“Yes I know.”
“It doesn’t mean they have to pay you though.”
If you would like to find out more about David Gill’s research project, called Discovering the Source of the River Wandle, then do check out www.wandletrust.org or give him a call on 07468 529 312 or drop him a line to david.gill@wandletrust.org
- David Gill is the education officer of the Wandle Trust
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