Dead trees

A few trees were planted along the edge of The Copse by the boundary to the new Clarendon SEND School but the pleas to "Please Water Me" were ignored and they died. 

To be fair, it was somewhat optimistic to expect them to be watered without organising people to do so, particularly when they are not immediately next to any houses. If only there were a local residents association who could do that sort of thing.

Different views of Clarendon SEND School

Clarendon SEND School is set well back from Meadlands Drive which makes it hard to get a good view of it from there so I went into The Copse to take a look from the side. The details of the building are hidden but the size and scale can be judged.

The new building will clearly impact on The Copse because of the height and the extent of that impact will depend on the finish of the building and the cover provided by the trees.

There is not much to see from behind the school, other than construction clutter, and the final view matters less as it can only be seen from the access road to Ham Polo and the German School.

Copse boundary

I am still unsure what is happening to the former Strathmore site on Meadlands Drive (but I am not interested enough to find out) and while what is going on in the site is a mystery the new boundary fence is not.

It is a nice fence too and well suited to the location. At the moment it is slightly obscured by the temporary barriers and there is little vegetation in front of it so it will look even better soon.

Three dead trees

These three trees along the edge of The Copse may be dead but they still make a dramatic impression with their dark twisting branches etched on to the grey sky.

Entrance to The Copse

I was cutting through from Meadlands Drive north to Douglas Footpath and was surprised to see a substantial entrance path being created at the north end by Ham Polo.

I made a point of going back a week or so later by which time the work had finished.

I though that either they were building a new entrance to the former Strathmore School site or a proper path all the way to Meadlands Drive, but this is neither and I am struggling to see what the point of it is.

Abandoned gate

I thought that i had posted a picture of these posts before but I cannot find one so either I did not or I tagged it incorrectly, either way that means I can post some now.

To be honest, I am not sure whether these are gate posts or fence posts but I will go with gate posts as there are only two of them.

The gate was between Ham Avenues, next to the spur past Ham House, and The Copse.

 

Another reason for thinking that these are gate posts is the decoration that despite being simple seems too much for a fence post.

Copse cleared

This is the east side of The Copse, next to the former Strathmore School site, where there is a narrow band of trees along the border that is separated from the main part of The Copse by a grassy clearing and a muddy path towards the German school. 

Some heavy clearance of the undergrowth has taken place and the area looks temporarily stark.

 

This might be standard maintenance or it might just be connected to the proposal to revelop the former school site as a new school.

Dead tree

Walking along Meadlands Drive this tree makes a striking image. It is just a shame that it does this by being dead while it is surrounded by healthy trees heavy with leaf.

Passing The Copse

Almost always when I take the path that skirts The Copse as it goes from Meadlands Drive towards Ham House I am walking South from Ham House and I have posted views that way before so it made a vary pleasant change to capture this view when walking the other way - that is the Ham House wall just to the left of the centre of the picture.

Through The Copse

The main paths through The Copse go along the edges of it so I took great pleasure in taking one of the paths that run through the middle as I went from the back of Ham House towards Meadlands Drive.

It is places like The Copse that make Ham special and walking through it is always rewarding.

Beside The Copse

I think that the name, if it has one, of the open spaces between the back of Ham House and Sandy Lane is an unsolved mystery so I will continue to call it Horse Field. I usually cross it using the main path, Melancholy Walk, but this time I chose to take the smaller path that follow the edge of The Copse, which is on the left.

It is easy to see why that route attracted me.

Having got to the far corner, by Meadlands Drive, I turned around and took this picture of the route I had taken.

As with most of Ham Lands, there is no evidence of buildings or cars and the only sign that there might be some people around is the well-worn path through the grass. Lovely.

More path repairs in The Copse

A year ago work, led by Ham and Petersham Association, was done to repair the path in The Copse to encourage more people, especially school children, to walk through there; and this year the work continued with more bark being put down.

Repairing paths in The Copse

The paths though The Copse are busy, my boys used to walk through there to and from school every day, and they stay muddier longer than some others due to the lack of sunlight and wind both of which are interrupted by the trees.

The reasonable solution adopted was to put down tree bark.

The bark looked good on a sunny day in Winter when the trees were devoid of leaves but it will be more useful on a wet Spring day.

Sunset over The Copse

This was taken from the path that runs from Meadlands Drive towards the German School. Another school, Strathmore, was behind me. The sun has all but disappeared leaving the grassland in deep shadow while silhouetting the bare branches of the taller trees.

Where horses play

Ham Lands creeps South down from the river all the way to Sandy Lane where the tarmac forms a hard brutal barrier before the greenery continues with the playing fields of Grey Court School running either side of Great South Avenue. Melancholy Walk forms the border on the West but to the East lies The Copse and Ham Lands makes it all the way to Strathmore School.

Between the path and the woods is a small field where horses trot in circles alone apart from the occasional dog owner who dares to stray from the more usual routes.

Boundary trees

The great beauty of Ham comes from the open spaces that surround it with Richmond Park to the east, the Ham Lands that follow the river on the west and north and the sports fields of the Hawker Centre to the south.

Cutting through Ham from east to west is a green corridor that includes Ham Common Woods, Ham Common and Great South Avenue with the playing fields of Grey Court School either side of it.

Crossing Sandy Lane we reach a thick tongue of Ham Lands that has broken away from the river and swept pass the minor obstructions of Ham House, Ham Polo and the German School before reaching the impassable barrier of the road.

Marking that barrier is a firm line of proud trees that do their best to hide the buildings of Ham. Behind them are the bushes butchered last year that are hoping to make a comeback. In the background is The Copse doing its best to look like the Wild Wood but the truth is it holds no fears and is actually quite charming once you get inside.

The Copse

The Copse sits snugly on the eastern edge of Ham Lands lying between Meadlands Drive and Petersham Avenue.

It is best viewed from Melancholy Walk across the horse riding area. Here the view is nicely framed by the flowers and trees that border the path.

Inside The Copse a number of paths weave between the trees to give the explorer a choice of routes through and out of the woods.

Winter wonderland

When the snow came I wanted to see how it had transformed several parts of Ham and one of these was The Copse. Here the snow had weaved its magic and turned an ordinary wood into Narnia. There was no sign of Aslan though.

The Copse

Melancholy Walk is looking less melancholy every day as the trees, grasses and flowers burst in to life. This is particularly true when looking east towards The Copse.

The Copse from Meadlands Drive

Most of Meadlands Drive fronts directly onto The Copse with no houses on the other side of the road to break the view. From there you can walk to the river without going near a road.