The History of Wandsworth Common

— Lake

LAKE - POND-LIFE - INSECTS - TERRAPINS ETC





Cope here, to make nice link?

The lake and the wondrous parish cope . . . 

There are several delightful references to fishing and the lake on the St Mary Magdalene cope, including these:







Numerous scenes of the Common are shown on the cope.

[With many thanks to photographer Barbara Littlechild, whose mother was one of the Sewing Guild of SMM that created the cope in 1995.]

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Revd Theodore Wood's Dwellers in the Pond . . . 



Revd Theodore Wood, Dwellers in the Pond, frontispiece and title page, c.1910. The prolific naturalist-educator TW was for many years the vicar at St Mary Magdalene church on Trinity Road.

Download a colouring sheet here (pdf).

(Click on image to enlarge)

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Water voles - which we of course assumed were water rats.

Birmingham Daily Post — Thursday 14 January 1869

The weekly meeting of the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society, included a paper read by Mr. E. Simpson on unusually large Wandsworth Common pond-life.



Hydrophilus piceus, the largest of the aquatic British beetles, the singular water scorpion, Ranatra linearis, and other scarce insects from a pond on Wandsworth Common.

[BNA: Link]

Here are some pictures of the two prodigious insects:



Hydrophilus piceus, the largest of the aquatic British beetles

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The life cycle of Hydrophilus piceus. Notice the great size of its larva.

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Ranatra linearis, the "water scorpion".

(Click on image to enlarge)

This report was part of a long tradition of plant and insect hunting on the Common, which was particularly famous for species that lived in and around water. (Nearly two centuries of draining and flattening the Common have put an end to that.)

Reading Evening Post — Saturday 31 January 1987

"Fears about the presence of exotic animals was boosted on Saturday when a fisherman found a terrapin the size of a dinner plate in Wandsworth Common Pond . . . "


"A red-eared terrapin — tiny and innocent looking when young . . . A snapping turtle — could give a very vicious bite

(Click on image to enlarge)

By WENDY FULLER

Have you got a tiny terror in your tank?

PET lovers beware! Timid turtles and terrapins could grow into the terrifying tyrants of the Thames.

Those who buy the little pets to keep in indoor tanks are often unaware that some of the creatures grow into massive vicious snappers up to a metre long and capable of inflicting a very nasty bite.

__________

And as the popularity of the unusual pets grows, Thames Water Authority is becoming more and more concerned that worried owners will set their pets free in rivers and ponds, wreaking havoc with native fish and mammals.

Spokeswoman Brigitte Daniels said: "People who buy snapper turtles don't seem to realise the nature of the beast they have bought or what size they will grow to

"Terrapins have already been found in the waterways and we fear it is only a matter of time before someone dumps one of these snapper turtles.

"They are nasty-tempered snappy beasts and as they grow they can inflict a really nasty bite. A fully grown one has a head the size of a small dog with a horny beak — someone could lose a hand or a foot."

Fears about the presence of exotic animals was boosted on Saturday when a fisherman found a terrapin the size of a dinner plate in Wandsworth Common Pond.

And a colony of terrapins is established in a stretch of the Thames in Oxford.

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Philip Boys ("History Boys")