Froglife comes to Dacres Wood Nature Reserve

12th, 13th, 19th & 20th July Dacres Wood will be open for the Sydenham Arts Trail.

The weekend of the 12th & 13th July, 11-5pm artists Kay Bromley, Lilian Chow, Diana Mckinnon, Lisa Muten, & Jill Tse will be showing their work varying from paintings, textiles, prints and jewellery.

On the 19th July Froglife are coming to the reserve, 10-4pm. On this day there will lots of activities for all the family including pond dipping, making plaster cast frogs as well as talks and information on the amphibians and fauna of the pond.

We look forwrad to seeing you then.
Also if you are able to volunteer a few hours on any of these days to help with making teas or greeting visitors please contact us.

 

An Eventful Time

Potting Up for the Edible High Road
Saturday 27 April, 10.00am, Devonshire Road Nature Reserve
Potting up and decorating of the fruit trees. Please come along if you can lend a hand potting up to 70 trees prior to the official launch of the Edible High Road in Forest Hill and Honor Oak.
Organised by Forest Hill Society and Lewisham Gardens

Open day at Dacres Road Nature Reserve
Saturday 27 April, 12-3pm, entrance via Catling Close, off Dacres Road SE23
As Dacres Wood Nature reserve is a bit of a hidden gem, there's a plan to have regular open days on the last Saturday of every month from spring to autumn. The next one is this Saturday. There will be refreshments and tours of the reserve, and opportunities for those visitors coming with sturdy gloves and secateurs to help with some conservation work.
Organised by Friends of Dacres Wood

Sydenham Market - street food, craft & vintage
Sunday 28 April, 10am-4pm, Sydenham Station Approach
Organised by SEE3

Forest Hill Food Fair
Sunday 5 May, 11am-3pm, Forest Hill Station
A Forest Hill Society Event

Syd Soc event: visit to the Brunel Museum & Thames Tunnel, Rotherhithe
Friday 17 May, 10am
The Brunel Museum in historic Rotherhithe is directly above the Thames Tunnel which opened in 1843. We'll be taking part in a one-hour tour of the tunnel, followed by a visit to the museum and lunch at the nearby Mayflower pub. The cost of the visit is £6, payable in advance. To book your place and arrange payment, please email jacquelinealdridge [at] gmail.com
A Sydenham Society Event

Edible High Road Launch Day
Saturday 18 May, 1pm, Forest Hill Station
Official launch of the Edible High Road, with a celebrity guest!
More details at http://www.foresthillsociety.com/2013/03/the-edible-high-road.html
Organised by Forest Hill Society and Lewisham Gardens

Introducing the Friends of Dacres Wood

Claire Jaeger, chair of Friends of Dacres Wood, tells us about Dacres Wood and their plans for 2013.

This has been an exciting time for the residents of Dacres Road and the surrounding area. Unbeknownst to some there is a small, little known nature reserve hidden between Dacres Road and the railway. I say small but that does not mean uninteresting as any visitor will tell you. 

Back in September 2012 an initial meeting was called by the council to see what local residents and interested parties wanted to do about the area. It was decided a "Friends of " group should be created. So with that in mind several local people decided to join forces to open the nature reserve more frequently and show the world what's there.

Since the meeting the Friends of Dacres Wood Nature reserve (in conjunction with the Forest Hill Society and Friends of Mayow Park) have hosted an open day and a bring and take day. Both events have been very well attended and the interest shown by visitors has shown how necessary it has been to open the reserve.

Towards the end of 2012 the project was awarded £2000 by Lewisham Council at the Perry Vale Assembly. The money has been awarded to support the on-going pond works in the reserve.

Interestingly, the two ponds in the reserve are remnants of the Croydon Canal. When the railway was built by the Croydon railway company this little stretch of water was left behind, and one of these was where the young Ernest Shackleton played with friends. Unfortunately, in the last few years it has become overgrown and so the awarded money will be used to remove some of the overgrowth.

Later this year, along with removing pond weed, more open days will be organised and in conjunction with Lewisham Council, volunteer aided maintenance of the vegetation. Our website dacreswood.org.uk keeps all of us up to date as to what is going on and if anyone else would like to get involved please leave a comment on the website.

The next event at Dacres Wood Nature Reserve will be an open day to explore this hidden treasure of Forest Hill on Saturday 16th March. There will be a meeting of the Friends group at 11am, and the nature reserve will be open from noon.

Bring and Take Day at Dacres Wood

Sunday 28th October 2012 - 1.00 pm – 4.00 pm
DACRES WOOD RESERVE FIELD CENTRE, Dacres Road, SE23
(access via a Honeyfield Mews between Catling Close and Homefield House, near the junction of Dacres Road and Silverdale) see http://goo.gl/maps/0hPuf

Swap unwanted items for something you need – typical items include CDs, DVDs, small electrical items, bikes, lamps, plants, kitchenware, books, clothes, toys
ALL FOR FREE!!

Items should be in good condition and easy to carry home.

BRING ELECTRICAL ITEMS THAT NO LONGER WORK
There will also be a van for the collection of WEEE Waste – this is electronic waste that no longer works, eg broken kettles, hairdryers etc.


REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE

A Forest Hill Society event in conjunction with Friends of Dacres Wood Nature Reserve

Dacres Wood Open Day