Merton abbey mills update

Works across the entire site [Full image 24.5kb]

Visitors to the site can see that the battle is over. Works across the entire site are under way, new levels have been established, mainly using the rubble created by the machines which have ground up all that remained of this historic site.

Thankfully Dave Saxby and his team from the Museum of London have been present throughout, and new information has appeared regularly. An article by Dave has been promised.

New paddles have been fitted to the waterwheel at the wheelhouse, and the displays inside now include a range of historic tools and implements.

Abbeyfest 2003 has been and gone, and very successfully too by all accounts. The dry hot weather of August has encouraged more people than ever to spend their Friday evenings enjoying the music, the company and the environment. Whether this will be able to continue when the site is overshadowed by residential flats we must wait and see.

The ongoing ‘traffic improvement' scheme to replace the roundabout outside the Tandem centre at the head of Church Road with a traffic light managed scheme is successfully managing traffic in all directions to a standstill. We must hope that it will work better when completed.

No news about the proposed Heritage Centre, but meetings are ongoing to try and get the structure for its governing body right. The Museum is represented indirectly, through its position in Wandle Heritage. Now that the proposals for the Brown and Root tower can be seen to include the new Donald Hope Library, one of our last hopes for such a Centre to have a viable second existence (as in the de Morgan centre in Wandsworth) would seem to be dashed.

Ed August 2003