Waders and sketchbook

There is a hand coloured satirical engraving by William Heath (1828) at The British Museum entitled Monster soup commonly called Thames water, being a correct representation of that precious stuff doled out to us!!! It’s a great image! A title above the design reads: Microcosm dedicated to the London Water Companies. Brought forth all monstrous, all prodigious things, hydras and organs, and chimeras dire. It shows a lady discovering the quality of Thames river water, reflecting public concern at the time about increasing pollution in the water supply from the River Thames. [link to image] It seems sewage in our rivers has been an issue for many years!

I have been meaning to write this post for a while. With Mogden Sewage Works next to the Crane, and knowing Thames Water’s track record on sewage spills, thoughts of river hygiene occasionally flit through my mind while tramping up the river and burying things under the water. There is very little plant life on the river bed, and whilst I see the occasional fish, the river seems far from teeming with aquatic life.

So I have been looking into sewage on the Crane (not literally!).

There are apparently small and medium sized pollution incidents on the River Crane most years*. There were two major incidents (one a faulty sewage valve at Heathrow and one a damaged sewage pipe near Mogden) that caused devastating sewage discharges in 2011 and 2013 and killed nearly all downstream river life. The Environment Agency has worked to restock the river with thousands of fish, but each incident adds to the stress and demands placed on the whole ecosystem of the river.

But I wonder whether Thames Water regularly dispel ‘storm sewage’ into the River Crane? There’s a lot in the news about the water companies’ appalling practice of storm sewage discharge. This happens when there is prolonged rain or a storm and the rainwater enters the sewers and floods the sewage storage tanks at the treatment plant. This ‘soup’ of rainwater and raw sewage is then discharged by the water companies into our rivers and seas.

Here is a fascinating real time interactive map of Thames Water Storm Discharges – [link to interactive map]. I have to say I have become a bit obsessed with reading it – and am shocked and heartbroken to see how often and how many places are discharging across the Thames Valley even when we have not had appreciable rainfall. In the meantime water company bosses have been enjoying massive bonuses, dividends and profits.

EDM Map, Storm Discharges Data, 23 February

The good news for the Crane is that Thames Water does not discharge storm sewage from Mogden Sewage Treatment Works directly into the River Crane. The bad news is that Thames Water does discharge storm sewage into the Thames just north of the River Crane. Critically just downstream on the Thames, there could be some tidal influx…

EDM Map, Storm Discharges Data, 23 February

Petition

The fact that billions of litres of raw sewage are being dumped into our rivers, seas and streams is a disgusting state of affairs. But with an election coming up this year, there is a chance to change things. We can write to MPs and DEFRA. There is also a petition from the pressure group 38 Degrees: “The next Government should fine water companies in shares, not just their bonuses and profits. If they fail to clean up their act, renationalise them and their profits – and let’s clean up the mess once and for all.” Every name on it counts: after 10,000 signatures, petitions get a response from the government. After 100,000 signatures, petitions are considered for debate in Parliament. So far there are 55,000 signatures. [link to petition]

Household misconnections

River Crane Smarter Water Catchment Programme (SWC)* has identified “major pollution pulses coming into the river, that are likely to be caused by cross-connections from the sewerage system into the river.” Properties are misconnected when sewage systems are plumbed into the surface water drainage system (meant for clean rainwater) instead of the proper sewage outlet. But also Identifying the misconnected drains is now one of the objectives of SWC in order to reduce sewage pollution in the river.

There is something called the Crane Valley Outfall Safari run by Zoological Society of London, in which volunteers (and I am one such…) log and map outfalls into the river along an assigned stretch. ZSL say “An estimated 3% of houses in greater London have misconnections so this is a serious problem that is degrading the health of our urban rivers.”

So that’s a bit on sewage – there is oh so much more information out there! But I want to say, in spite of the polluting efforts of disreputable water companies, disastrous accidents and mismanaged household connections, the river is an amazing wildlife corridor which just keeps on giving! It has recovered from one polluting event after another and still it has a huge range of marginal plants and wildlife (including kingfishers, water voles, eels and seven types of bat). We just need to protect it more as it’s an invaluable site and if we are not careful, pollution will win (I haven’t even got started on runoff pollution from Heathrow and major roads – but that’s for another time…).

Links below are to

*   State of the Environment Report of the River Crane Smarter Water Catchment Programme 2022

Fish and Fishing on the Crane and Dukes River 2014

I went back to the river today to dig up the linen I buried 2 weeks ago. I was feeling concerned that it would be a)washed away or b)torn to shreds.

Happy days! It was still there and much stained by mud, silt and stones from the river bed. Even after rinsing, the stains stayed in the fabric – as did the smell of the river! Stretching it over a recycled picture frame, the corners of the linen were fragile and tore in places. But dried out and stretched, it’s now ready to draw on – watch this space…

I took some linen down to the river today and buried it. I’m hoping it will hold marks made by the water and stones, soil and other bits of debris from the riverbed. The current can be quite strong, especially after rain, so hopefully the linen will still be there when I go back!

I also tied up some bulldog clips and some chain. They’ll be washed twice daily, being exposed to the air at low tide and submerged when the tide comes in. I plan to hang some of my work using these as fixings and want them to be as much a part of the river as the drawings themselves.

I’ve a strange sense after making these small interventions that the river belongs to me more – marking territory.

With all the rain we have had this month, this was the first week I wanted to brave the river – the flow has been really fast and high.

Not much marginal plant life at this time of year – the river banks are pretty bare. But the river walls keep on giving – I am drawn to the small plants hanging on for life, that seem to keep on going through the winter months. I have taken photos of these to draw at my studio, but made a note to myself to bring paper and inks to draw them on site next visit.

Ivy forms a curtain along the steep banks and I have taken a stem for my next painting on plywood. I painted this trailing bellflower (below) in August on a piece of recycled plywood and would like to do a series of marginal plants on similar sized plywood. Having just returned from the Garden Museum I feel inspired by Frank Walter’s paintings. They are all painted on old cardboard, wood, backs of photos – anything he could use.

Trailing Bellflower, oil on recycled plywood, 60x30cm

Three delicate trees, oil on single-ply cardboard, Frank Walter

I really enjoy the conversations that come up at exhibitions. At Brentford Creative Mile this month, two lovely snippets of Crane history came out of the many amazing conversations I had…

One was that there used to be a freshwater swimming pool with water supplied from the River Crane at the top of Mereway Road next to Kneller Gardens in Twickenham. It was called Mereway Bathing Place. After some online digging I found some old newspaper records and photos…

In this photo the river appears to open up into the swimming pool and, besides the structure, looks very natural! The name Mereway Road would suggest the pool was originally a pond as the Old English meaning of Mere is lake or body of water. Records from 1895 indicate building works being undertaken and an attendant appointed.

Thousands of school children learned to swim there and over one 6 month period, 40,000 swimmers were reported to have visited the pool.

The bathing place eventually had to be shut down in 1930 due to pollution by the creosoting works of the Great Western Railway and effluent from Hayes sewage disposal works. Hundreds of dead fish were reported. The council decided that the baths would be reopened “if and when the pollution ceased”. It was never reopened. Can I just say … plus ça change!

The other story was told by one of my studio colleagues, John Carbery, whose family garden backed onto the Crane and has many memories of the river. One that stands out though is his mother’s excitement when Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart came rowing down the river in a small boat past the end of his garden!

The African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn (above), was being filmed at Isleworth Studios and apparently the River Crane was used for some of the filming. Although she was not in the film, Lauren Bacall, who was married to Humphrey Bogart, had wanted him to show her the river.

What great stories! I’m hoping there will be more along the way!