We are pleased to share that we have secured funding through the national Trees for Climate programme, working with Thames Chase Community Forests, to restore and enhance Tong Farm. Our aim is to maintain a farmed landscape that is of greater benefit to our local wildlife whilst also improving access.
10 benches will be installed across the farm to allow you to sit awhile and enjoy this piece of countryside that we all cherish.
A total of 16,000 trees will be planted to vastly improve the field edge habitat and provide nectar and food for invertebrates, birds and small mammals.
9600 trees will make up 1.5 kilometres of mixed native hedgerows and a further 5000 trees planted in enclosures.
A final 100 trees will be planted across the farm to create more of an open wood pasture habitat, whilst retaining key viewpoints across the landscape. As these trees mature, they will provide a home for wildlife as well as shade for livestock.
Installing and planting fenced enclosures with dense scrubby tree species in the lower fields to increase species diversity and provide valuable habitat for scrub-reliant species.
Flushers Pond will be drained early in January so it can be mechanically desilted. An appropriate outflow system will also be installed to allow the duck weed to be skimmed off and a filtration pond dug out, before being refilled in time for the amphibians to return in early spring.
Replacing 8 kilometres of dilapidated stock fencing and installing water troughs in all fields to allow us to graze all farm fields.
The sections of the brook that runs through the farm fields will see considerable reprofiling of its banks to slow the flow of water and create marginal wetland areas along the lower fields.
The livestock were taken off-site prior to works commencing and are being returned as work is completed.
As work progresses we will update this page with further information on our progress and the areas where we will be working. If you are visiting the site, please look out for our poster boards that will also have up-to-date information about the work and any effects this may have on access.
In the intial stages of the project our contractors will be using some heavy machinery and may require a few areas to be temporarily fenced off. Your safety and enjoyment are very important to us and our contractors, so please observe all signs and directions given by the team and on the posters. We aim to minimise the effects of our work and will do all we can to reduce noise and disruption.
We'll keep as many paths and spaces open as we possibly can. Please be aware that some of the paths may become more muddy than usual and therefore may be slippery in places. We will also put any important information for visitors on the website - we suggest you bookmark this page.
Thank you for your understanding.
Blog
Throughout the project we'll be keeping a blog on this page, which will showcase the work we are doing and the progress made.
The Tong Farm Project Blog
9 April
Ewes, lambs and young cattle arriving
This past week, as phase 1 of the project is wrapping up, we were able to introduce a flock of ewes with their lambs to the lower fields of the farm. They are currently grazing the two fields that run parallel to the footpath beside the Kyd Brook. This is the first time these fields have been grazed for a considerable number of years, as the field is now secure with the new fencing and is serviced by a newly installed water trough.
The 21 cattle will shortly be moved to a different field, closer to the woodland. They will still be visible from the footpath where the brook comes under the railway line, which now also has a newly installed bench.
Last week, the Kyd Brook/wetland creation works were completed. Work was carried out on three different sections of the brook, which runs through the Hawkwood estate and farm for just over 1km. One wetland is next to the brook footpath where a spring-fed ditch now enters the wetland area. The larger of the two wetlands is located in the middle of the farm, this is away from footpaths to minimise disturbance and create a valuable refuge for local wildlife.
Since the wetland was joined to the brook just last week, there’s already been a heron, a little egret, two geese and eight mallards enjoying the new habitat.
As well as these two wetlands, a section of the brook that runs between two of the grazing fields has been reprofiled to allow the flow of water to open up and meander, replacing the previous, heavily canalised, section.
The works along the brook have considerably improved the Kyd Brook for wildlife, and will also help capture more water and hold it, reducing flood risk downstream.
This week, the 13 new water troughs are being installed and plumbed in, which will enable livestock to graze in every field. These larger water troughs are also much more suitable for cattle due to their larger volume of water.
The 20 additional fruit trees that were planted in the farm orchard are now guarded, and we were able to move the sheep into the orchard to graze off the grass, allowing wildflowers a chance to flower later in the year.
The wetland and brook improvement works will also be completed by the end of this week, photos of which will be shared in the next update.
Flusher's pond is also almost at capacity again, and there is frog spawn and newt spawn in the pond. The moorhens that live in Flusher’s pond stayed during the entirety of the works being undertaken, and are still there enjoying the refilled pond.
Twenty new fruit trees have been planted in our traditional orchard. Orchards are a valuable habitat in their own right, providing nectar for invertebrates as well as providing fruit, so the expansion of its size is of great benefit to local wildlife.
All the field standards are now planted and have been guarded with robust, locally sourced, sweet chestnut post and rail, which will stand up to cattle scratching against them whilst protecting our field trees from browsing, whilst they establish over the next couple of decades. The field standards will, in decades to come, provide valuable shade for livestock as well as diversifying the field habitat and maintaining open pasture.
This past week saw the installation of the pond's new outflow. The old one was dilapidated and leaking so the new outflow will provide a more consistent water level in the pond. The design also allows us to skim off the top of the water to prevent duckweed from accumulating. Now the outflow is in place, the water volume should increase over the next few weeks. There’s still a bit of work still to do around the perimeter of the pond and the filtration pond, and some tidying to be done over the next week.
The wetland works have also commenced this past week, with the shape of the smaller wetland area along the Kyd brook now profiled. The larger wetland is located in the middle of the farm away from footpaths and there is also considerable bank reprofiling being undertaken along the long, canalised section of the Kyd brook that runs through the farm fields. These works will create more wetland areas along the valley of the farm, will hold water back during periods of heavy flow, and also mitigate flood risk downstream by holding water. The smaller wetland, located beside the footpath, will have a leaky dam either end to capture and hold the water, effectively creating a slow-moving area of water for wildlife, and the top of the bank between the stream and the wetland will be dead-hedged to prevent dogs from disturbing the wetland.
The pond desilting is now complete, and the filtration pond has been shaped with an excavator. Flusher’s pond is clay lined and the original banks are quite steep, so the contractors have dressed the edges to create marginal, niche habitat along the edges which makes it more favourable for wildlife. The outflow for the pond is scheduled to arrive next week so will be installed once it arrives and the pond will then be refilled to its capacity.
The new water troughs arrived this week and will be installed in mid-March. As the farm will be grazed with cattle and sheep, we will be replacing the small sheep water troughs with larger capacity troughs suitable for both cattle and sheep. We will also be installing water troughs in the fields that currently have no source of water for livestock which will enable all fields to be grazed.
All this year’s hedgerows and enclosures have been planted, and the field standards are being planted and guarded over the next couple of weeks. We have also been generously donated five disease resistant elm trees from Elms4London which are also being planted as field standards. The species being planted as field standards are: Field maple, Pedunculate oak, Sessile oak, Small-leafed lime, Wild Cherry, Hornbeam, Wild service, Native black poplar, Scots pine, Elm and Walnut. The hedgerows have been planted with a mixture of 14 different native hedgerow species, and the enclosures have been planted with a mixture of 28 different native species, predominantly scrubby species.
The field that runs along the railway line is now fenced. The gap between the field fence and the railway chain-link fence will be planted up with predominantly scrubby species, to eventually screen the railway lines and create valuable field edge habitat along that boundary. The footpath fence line has also been laid as a hedge this winter, which opens up the view across the field whilst also creating a denser hedgeline for wildlife.
On the topic of hedge laying, the work to the hedge along Soldier’s Field is now complete. Laying the hedge encourages vigorous, dense regrowth, which is ideal habitat for birds, small mammals and invertebrates. The hedge will be maintained at the height it is, to provide open views across Soldier’s field from the footpath.
After a delay with the pond works due to the adverse weather conditions, the pond desilting is now well underway. The silt is being spread in Long Field and will be muck spread in early spring. The amount of rain the past few weeks has meant the ground is looking quite rutted at the moment, but this will all be levelled off when the last of the machinery leaves the work area.
With Cooper’s Field now fenced, the cattle were moved over from Pond Wood Field at the end of January. Coopers Field is over 8.5 hectares in size, the largest field on the farm, so they have a lot of space to roam. They were joined this week by the flock of sheep that were previously in Long Field. The livestock can usually be seen from Botany Bay Lane or the footpath running along the school boundary.
Wimpey’s Field, the field that can be seen from the footpath beside the brook & railway line, has now been refenced too and will be grazed in the coming weeks. The fenced-off section in the field that can be viewed from the footpath is a scrub enclosure. This area will be planted with predominantly scrub species, creating a dense thicket for birds to nest. Eventually livestock will be able to shelter in amongst the scrub, and the diversity of tree species will be increased on the farm.
Soldier’s Field has also now been completely refenced and just requires water trough installation before livestock can be sent out. The natural regeneration of trees along the footpath has been laid as a hedge. Doing so creates a dense boundary which is much more valuable to wildlife, whilst also opening up the view across the field from the footpath.
Coopers field is now refenced and the cattle were moved into this field at the weekend. The contractors are now working on refencing the lower field where the woodland footpath emerges beside the Kyd brook. After this, Soldiers field will then be refenced. Both of these fields will be grazed with sheep once they’re livestock proof.
Desilting of the pond will commence in earnest this week. The silt from the pond will be spread across the field and left to dry out. Large bales have been placed in the field to prevent the silt running back into the pond. This job will create a lot of mess as the excavator tracks in and out of the field but this will all be levelled off when work is complete and vegetation will soon grow through in the spring.
Work started on Tong Farm on Monday, 5 January with the removal of the old outflow system at Flusher’s pond. The two inlets have also been diverted to bypass the pond to allow it to drain sufficiently so that the silt can be dredged out towards the end of January.
As one of the inlets to Flusher’s pond comes from road run-off and through back gardens, the defunct filtration pond will be re-dug and planted with common reed to reduce the number of pollutants running into the pond from this source. High levels of nutrients and pollutants is evidenced by the blanket of duckweed that covers the pond each year. Removing the build-up of silt from the pond will also contribute to bringing nutrient levels down to create a much healthier, biodiverse pond in the long-term.
The old fences from Coopers field have been removed and the new fencelines are currently being installed. The fencing stakes are made from sweet chestnut, grown locally in North Kent. As well as being locally sourced they are much more robust and longer lasting than softwood posts.
We would like to express our grateful and heartfelt thanks to Thames Chase Community Forests (part of England's Community Forests network) for their very generous grant, without which the Tong Farm Project could not start. You can read more about Thames Chase in our partner panel below and on the Thames Chase website.
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This project is supported by Thames Chase Community Forest, part of England's Community Forests network.
Our Vision:
By 2030, Thames Chase Community Forest will be recognised as an inspirational example of landscape regeneration where enhanced, connected woodland and green space has made a clear difference to wildlife and peoples’ lives.
Although it's just 13 miles from central London, the rural feel of Petts Wood and Hawkwood has been preserved since the woodland was saved from development before the Second World War.
Explore this woodland haven for wildlife, enjoy the peace and quiet here – so close to central London – and discover the plants and animals that live in this idyllic spot.
