Each summer Friends of Manor Park hosts a series of walks to encourage residents to engage with our natural and historical landscape. We’ve hunted bats in Six Acre Meadow, explored the Hogsmill River into Kingston, and on Thursday 18th July, for our final walk of the season, we headed over to Tolworth Court Farm. We were, as ever, very fortunate to have Elliot Newton, Kingston’s Biodiversity Officer, guiding us.

Tolworth Court Farm is Kingston’s largest nature reserve at approximately 100 acres. It’s a historic site which was last farmed in the 1960s and is recorded in the Doomsday book. It was the potential to become one of the best nature reserves in London.

Elliot is leading a project to re-wild the site, with the aim of raising the level of biodiversity, whilst ensuring it remains a place local people can enjoy. He spoke about new wetland features which will be created. Cows and sheep will use the site for grazing, as part of a process of mimicking natural processes (which would have occurred on the site before it was farmed), which will encourage a wider variety of flora and fauna.

The weather for our evening walk was amazing. The sun low in the sky gave the farmland a rich glow. We started our walk at the Moated Manor, a locked site on the other side of the road to the publicly accessible Tolworth Court Farm. Elliot gave us a talk in the barn space.

We then headed over the road and took a position on the raised earthworks that surround the farm. These were added in the 1990s to prevent vehicles entering the space, following a 5 day rave.

We then headed to area which will be made into wetland. Elliot gave his final talk here, and we headed for home via the Hogsmill.

If you’ve never been, we’d encourage you to explore this local treasure.