Mathew Frith of the London Wildlife Trust, who championed Croydon’s nature reserves
The London Wildlife Trust last night announced the sad news of the death of Mathew Frith after a long illness.
“Mathew was, in many ways, the heart and soul of London Wildlife Trust. His passion for nature, his commitment to London’s wild spaces, and his unwavering belief in the power of community have shaped the Trust into what it is today,” they said in a brief online tribute.
Croydon’s open spaces and nature reserves, in particular Hutchinson’s Bank, at New Addington, Bramley Bank and Chapel Bank, owe their existence and their worldwide reputations to Frith’s persistence to defend and champion them.
Frith worked for the London Wildlife Trust in three terms since 1988 and (between 2002 and 2009) as a trustee, serving most recently as LWT’s director of research, leading on the Trust’s collaborative research programme and nature recovery work in Croydon and around the capital. He was a full member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, the Society for the Environment and a Green Flag Award judge.
Frith’s legacy: Hutchinson’s Bank near New Addington is a tritbute to the work of the London Wildlife Trust, led by Mathew Frith
The Trust said: “For decades, Mathew championed the idea that London’s wildlife and people are inseparable. His leadership and insight have guided countless nature conservation and recovery projects in London and inspired new generations of conservationists. Whether it was creating wetlands like Woodberry, protecting woodlands like Sydenham Hill, or speaking up for urban nature in the face of immense challenges, Mathew approached everything with humility, courage, and a rare generosity of spirit.”
When Croydon Council’s Brick by Brick put forward plans to build housing on the perimeter of Hutchinson’s Bank, much of the scientific data and argument to oppose the ill-considered scheme was sourced by Frith.
Hutchinson’s Bank sits in a narrow, dry valley between New Addington and Featherbed Lane. It is a long, narrow strip, almost 35 acres, about three-quarters of a mile long by 300 yards wide, mainly chalk on the upper slopes and clay-with-flints along the valley bottom.
Marbled white: Hutchinson’s Bank is noted for its ‘high diversity of lepidoptera’, and was focus for much of Firth’s work in Croydon
This chalk downland is a rare habitat, one that is as important for its species and biodiversity as the rainforests of the Amazon, and yet which is under just as much threat. The land is owned by Croydon Council.
Fortunately, though, for almost 40 years, the Bank has been under the care of the London Wildlife Trust, who lease it from the council.
Hutchinson’s Bank, the scene of an Inside Croydon guided walk in June, is renowned for its “high diversity of lepidoptera”: butterflies and moths, nearly 30 species of the former, including grizzled skippers, dingy skippers, the small blue, green hairstreaks, brown hairstreaks, the dark green fritillary and even the Glanville fritillary.
“Hutchinson’s Bank is not a butterfly garden,” Frith once said, “and we will never manage it as such.” Frith disliked the idea of forced introductions of species to the site, as with the Glanville fritillary.
The LWT, according to Frith, set out to manage Hutchinson’s and other nearby chalk downland habitats – “a suite of nature reserves” – “as part of a nature recovery network that can provide the conditions for natural dispersal and colonisation”.
There is yellow rattle there, a rare parasitic plant that is a vital part of creating the rich, grassland habitat of the downlands. On Hutchinson’s Bank, there’s yellow rattle aplenty. There’s also at least three species of wild orchid.
According to a survey of the botany of Hutchinson’s Bank conducted in 1988, soon after the London Wildlife Trust had taken the lease on the land and Frith had joined its staff, Hutchinson’s Bank has the second-richest selection of calcicolous fauna – chalk-loving plants – in the whole of Greater London. Had world war not intervened, what is now subject to various protections, including Green Belt status, might be underneath dozens of private houses.
“These remarkable species-rich sites have achieved a nationwide recognition and each year attract visitors from all parts of our country with Hutchinson’s Bank and Chapel Bank attracting the greatest interest,” say the Trust, with good cause.
Frith’s monument: the pathways across Hutchinson’s Bank now have QR codes to guide and inform walkers
In its tribute to Mathew Frith, the London Wildlife Trust said: “Beyond his extraordinary professional achievements, Mathew had the gift of making everyone feel valued, listened to, and supported. His warmth, humour, kindness and occasionally grumpiness (mainly at computers) will be remembered so fondly by all who had the privilege of knowing and working alongside him.
“Mathew’s vision and dedication to London’s nature recovery will live on in the work we all do for the wild places he loved, for the forgotten corners of London and for the people he inspired.”
The London Wildlife Trust say that they will soon “share details soon about how we will honour Mathew’s life”.
Famously, in St Paul’s Cathedral, there is an inscription (in Latin) for its architect, Sir Christopher Wren: “If you seek his monument, look around you.”
For future visitors, a memorial to the life and work of Mathew Frith might be placed at the entrance to Hutchinson’s Bank: “If you seek his monument, look around you.”
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Mathew was an inspiration in promoting the value of urban wildlife through his various and significant roles with the trust over the years. Croydon has benefitted greatly from the Trust sites mentioned above, in part from Mathew’s passion and energy as a former local (Selsdon) resident, son of Ted, himself a regular contributor of local and natural history notes for years via the Selsdon Gazette. I found Mathew approachable, friendly and ready to share his knowledge, be it at a reserve or at the AGM. Will be sorely missed.