Where the Wild Things Were

The walk started from our headquarters which was the former margrove park Village School. We started by looking at various records relating to how children learnt about nature including a former head teacher that took children on nature walks to select his hazel canes: salt vinegar and pepper.  People reminisced about nature tables, nature walks and first finds and favourite nature books.  We set out through the woods joined by Alan Simkins, a fungus expert, who showed us remarkable fungus including the weird witches butter.  We explored memories of the things in the wild that children used to eat including soury docks (wood sorrel) and yennits (ground nuts).  We looked at squirrel dreys and explored the last memories of red squirrels in the area.  After dropping down through Margrove Park village we crossed to Margrove Ponds where we encountered a mass spawning event of frogs that led to memories of collecting newts and frogspawn.  Following the footpath to Slapewath we explored memories of water voles and egg collecting before crossing to Charltons and discovering the fascination of the local meatworks for small boys and the appeal of the woods beyond for reaching the moors.  Photo by Audrey Barnes