Near where I live, there used to be a village called Itchen Ferry. Most of it was destroyed during World War 2, as it was close to the Supermarine factory where Spitfires were built, and now there’s a memorial with a garden. The memorial plaque states that, in 1985, pupils from class 3B at Ludlow Middle School learned about the area, and wanted there to be a memorial. You can read the full text here.
As R.G. King points out in his book Itchen Ferry Village, a 16th century map shows a few houses at a place then called ‘Itchyng’. My aim with this post isn’t to write about the history, though – the book just mentioned is available in the library, and Marie Keats has written an excellent post on the subject, which includes some fascinating photos. My angle is the natural habitat and the space for nature provided by the garden. As I wrote in my blog post from 2021, I’ve done occasional litter picks here with the Woolston Wombles, and regular ones with my partner. I hadn’t paid too much attention to the garden, other than adding a Pollinating Peartree sign. I was told it was looked after by Southampton Amateur Rowing Club, who are based at there, so when I noticed it looked in need of a little attention, I contacted them to organise a shore litter pick and garden tidy up. Below, you can see ‘before and after’ photos.
The rowing club do regular litter picks, and John Bailey of the club organised the memorial and raised funds for the garden. But he isn’t sure when it was established – if anyone reading this knows when it was, or has photos, I’d love to hear from you! Ongoing garden maintenance isn’t something the club has taken on. Despite this, around 15 club members were already well underway when I arrived with other volunteers on the day, and had cleared a lot of the scrub that was spilling over the sleeper walls. I was lucky to have my partner Tricia with me, who’s a professional gardener. She was able to guide others about what was growing, how to prune and what to leave. Here she is with Robin, who’d come prepared with tools and long arms, and was a great help at cutting back clematis and pulling out rubbish from the back of the garden, including two footballs, a crowbar and a kit bag.
Below: before and after on one corner, looking towards the Itchen Bridge. You can see some of the dry stems of couch grass, which is well established and may make it hard to establish new plants, though Tricia did put in a few from our garden.
The rowers worked hard to clear the grass from the three tree pits, then Laura and son Toby planted crocus bulbs – some provided by the club, some from Pollinating Peartree.
As I write this in early December, there’s some Borage in bloom and a Rock Rose in bud. Come spring, thanks to everyone who helped, pollinators should be able to find food more easily, especially when those crocuses come out!
Dandelion Nature 