Folks,

On Wednesday (4th Jan), I cycled along the Mitcham Common to
Beddington Park cycle path, just to see what state it was in...
I cycled on the footpath(?) from Beddington Lane tramstop to the
footbridge over the railway. After the tramlink platform, the
section through the trees, alongside the golf course was a bit
muddy, but not too bad.
I see the fiendish barrier is still on the west side of that
footbridge over the railway, but not on the east side. Has it been
removed from that side or was it always only on the west side?
I turned left and went south along the path to Beddington Park,
having to go through the difficult barrier (at least it should stop
motorbikes accessing/churning up the path's surface!).
After a short/small rise you get to the first of the 3 paths which
cross this path and also have a bridge over the railway. 1. This
northernmost crossing point (called "Hundred Acre Bridge") is the
most promising one for re-opening. The wide (vehicle) bridge is
fenced off by a high (~3m?) chainlink fence (in good condition!) on
both sides of the railway, and west of the railway appears to go
across a field/grassy area before apparently emerging on the A237
opposite Goat Road. On the eastside there is a locked gate across
an access road (notices say that it is NOT open to the public!), but
you can see the road going straight across to the Jessops Way
industrial estate road and even out to Beddington Lane in the
distance. This looks by far the most viable east-west route from
Beddington Lane to the A237 that could EASILY be opened as a
bridleway for cycle/horse/walker access.
2. The middle bridge (called "Irrigation Bridge" on maps) is just
about passable by bike going west across the railway bridge, and
there is a road going east into the sewage area. The only user of
the road (on the other side of the locked gate) was an urban fox
which ran away down the road when I appeared. I didn't look to see
how far the road went, but according to the map, this route would
not go direct to Beddington Lane anyway...?
3. The southernmost bridge (now called "Mile Road Bridge" on maps,
although it used to be called "New Road Bridge") looks the most
promising on the map, but although the bridge is passable and it's
not far west to the A237 by its Hackbridge Road junction, to the
east there is a ~20m hill/mound of earth, possibly the perimeter of
a sewage lake(?), so Mile Road is clearly not as promising as the
(non-updated) maps indicate!

Most of this route is well surfaced and drained, but the last
section of this path (south of Mile Road) had clearly seen motor
vehicle(s) of some description, which had chewed up parts of the
(wide) path.
After negotiating the other "difficult" barrier at the Beddington
Park end, I immediately turned left and went on a path through the
woods along a perimeter fence (of the CEGB site?), but this path was
muddy in quite a few places. This brings you out to a bridge over
the River Wandle near Carew Manor, allowing you get back onto the
Wandle Trail.

I think Sunday's PHC ride (bound for a pub lunch in Fickleshole)
will probably pass along the Mitcham Common to Beddington Park
route, so everyone on that ride can see this route too!

Hope to see a lot of you on Sunday.

Cheers
jim
Jim Bush, ACE Europe
Tel: (020) 7173 7162
E-mail: jim.bush@...