Wandle Meadow Nature Park facts for kids

Wandle Meadow Nature Park is a 4.15 hectare local nature reserve and Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade 1, in Wimbledon in the London Borough of Merton. It is owned and managed by Merton Council.

A map of 1847 shows the site as Byegrove Mead, which may have been managed as water meadows. In 1877 it was acquired by a sewage company, and it formed part of a sewage works until this closed in 1970. A plan to build a stadium for Wimbledon Football Club on the site was strongly opposed by local residents, and in 1989 it was designated as a nature reserve by Merton Council.

The Meadow lies between the River Wandle and Mead Path, part of the Wandle Trail. Wetland plants and animals include small sweet-grass, eared willow and broad-bodied chaser dragonflies. Bullfinches, whitethroats and reed buntings breed in woodland areas. There are also bodies of water which have a variety of frogs, toads and newts.

The Nature Reserve is accessible via Chaucer Way, Boundary Road & North Road in Colliers Wood, a footbridge across the River Wandle from Garfield Road Recreation Ground in South Wimbledon and from a footpath at Plough Lane, Wimbledon.