Snapshot of a Chalk Stream
The River Cray, a rare and precious chalk stream nature habitat, runs through your neighbourhood. How well do you know it? How often do you wander alongside it? How accessible and meaningful is the river to you?
We invite you to join us and spend time sharing your understanding of the river, what it currently means to you and how you might like to see yours and the wider community's relationship with this unique nature space develop and improve. Working with South East Rivers Trust and London National Park City Rangers, your thoughts and reflections will feed into Chalk Stream Connectors, a project designed to improve access to, understanding and appreciation of, chalk streams.
Who is this for?
This workshop is open to all, We are particularly keen to hear from people who feel underrepresented in green spaces, including older people (65+), young people (16-30), carers (young people and adults), individuals with disabilities, health conditions or impairments, and people from minoritised ethnic backgrounds.
What’s involved?
Working with local London National Park City Ranger and artist Doug Shaw, you are invited to come together for a short conversation about the river. You will have an opportunity to discuss and share your current experience of the river, learn more about this important nature space, and interact with it by taking a gentle, mindful wander along a section of the river, reflecting on your experience as you go.
As we wander, we will explore the river and its surroundings - and maybe take a few photos. We can look for and record sightings of plants, insects, and more. We can then combine our photography with citizen science - linking our findings to nationwide and even larger nature projects, to help improve our collective understanding of these rare habitats.
Once our walk is complete, we will reflect on our experiences, sharing our thoughts and images, which will be transcribed into a document which can be shared with the group, and in turn, with other groups interested in exploring and accessing the river.
The learning, sharing, and work we create together will help South East Rivers Trust improve its understanding of how people currently feel about the river, and will feed into a funding application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which if successful will enable changes to be made to ensure the rivers are more welcoming and accessible for everyone.
About Your Guide
Doug is a freelance mixed media artist, naturalist, and community project manager. As a boy, Doug was a member of the Young Ornithologists Club and used to spend hours out and about bird spotting. That interest has never left him and he remains a keen birdwatcher. He’s also really interested in insects and regularly spends time in local green spaces and along a South London chalk stream, The Wandle, observing and recording what he sees. Doug takes lots of nature photos. Nature and our relationship with it is a key theme in his artistic practice, and much of his project work is focused on the arts and nature involving local community groups.
This work is supported by South East Rivers Trust
Location
Hall Place Gardens, DA5 1PQ