Botanical Walk, Harmondsworth Moor, Saturday 14th September, 2024

Photo: Nick Ferguson. 2024. Harmondsworth Moor.

The flora of Harmondsworth Moor was brought under the public gaze by amateur botanist Richard Mabey when in the early 1970s he wrote:

“This was the Middlesex borderlands, a huge area of wasteland being slowly overtaken by hi-tech industry… […] … To the west [of my office] lay a labyrinth of gravel pits, now flooded, and refuse tips whose ancestry went back to Victorian times. […] The whole area was poked with inexplicable holes and drifts of exotic litter. And most thrillingly to me it was being overwhelmed by a forest of disreputable plants.” (Mabey, 2012, pp. 1–2)

This walking tour, led by artist Nick Ferguson and ranger and naturalist Rebecca Harris, looks at the botany of Harmondsworth Moor 50 years on. We’ll identify flora and explore their representation in folklore, magic, medicine, cooking and craft, and ongoing importance for science today. We’ll ask: What do we know about the ‘disreputable plants’ Mabey found ?  How has the expansion of hi-tech industry (Heathrow Airport lies immediately to the south and east) affected them ? And, what can they tell us about botanical biodiversity in a global city ? The distance of the walk is estimated to be around 4 km and it will last around 1 hour 30 minutes.

What You’ll Need

Please bring a mobile phone with the Google Lens and/or Picture This apps loaded onto it. You can use these for free for a limited period.

If the weather is wet you’ll need a coat. Even if it is not, please consider wearing walking boots as the ground is low lying in places and can be boggy.

Timings, Duration, Start and End Point

Timings:
The walk is scheduled twice on Saturday 14th September, 2024

Walk 1: 11.00am
Walk 2: 2.30pm
Running time: Approximately 1 hour 30 minutes.

Meeting point: The grass area in front of the Five Bells Pub, Harmondsworth

Booking

This event is brought to you in collaboration with  Open House Festival, 2024.

Booking: https://programme.openhouse.org.uk/listings/12660

Photo: Nick Ferguson. 2024. Harmondsworth Moor.

Further Reading: 

Corder, K. 2018. “HOW – Heathrow Orchard Walks, observations and explorations of vibrant land, Studies in Theatre and Performance,” Studies in Theater and Performance, vol. 38, no. 3, (2018), 267-277, https://doi.org/10.1080/14682761.2018.1506967. ↩

Ecology Handbook 7. 1987. Click here to download a botanical survey of this area from 1987.

Mabey, R., 2012. Weeds: The Story of Outlaw Plants, Main edition. ed. Profile Books, London.

Mabey, R., Sinclair, I., 2010. The Unofficial Countryside, Revised ed. edition. ed. Little Toller Books.

A TV version of the Unofficial Countryside is available on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=0C3nTmF6zzc