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| Water lilies on Wimbledon Common |
During my 7 hour walk around the City of London, where I had seen several Wren churches, the Guildhall Art Gallery, parts of the London Wall, the Museum of London and the mediaeval churches of St. Bartholomew the Great and St. Giles Cripplegate among others, I had only walked for 4.5 miles but I had taken the best part of 1000 photographs.
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| My walk around the City of London |
On the next day, a Sunday, I could easily have spent an hour or more in bed if I was at home; however, staying in my brother’s house right on the edge of Wimbledon Common, I decided to put on my walking boots and go and explore it – with my main objective to look at Caesar’s Camp.
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| An Ordnance Survey map of Wimbledon Common |
As a geologist, I was also interested in learning more about the Cenozoic strata and landforms of this part of London. Although it lacks the hard rocks and spectacular scenery that I have got to know since living in South Yorkshire, when living in various places in South London, I was familiar with many significant hills and slopes, but knew nothing about the underlying rocks.
Leaving the house by the back gate, the flat area of alluvium and the Devensian Kempton Park Gravel Member to the east of Beverley Brook have been laid down on the silt and clay of the Eocene London Clay Formation – now used as playing fields.
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| Exposures of gravel in the banks of Beverley Brook |
Following Beverley Brook for a short distance, before its banks and bed seem to be reinforced and culverted, I could see exposures of flint gravel in the stream banks; however, I needed to leave its course and head up through the woodland towards Caesar’s Camp, crossing undifferentiated Quaternary River Terrace Deposits comprising sand and gravel, which is covered with woodland, scrub and heath.
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| A view from the path across Royal Wimbledon Golf Club |
The gravel is exposed along the path that I was walking along, but this runs across the Royal Wimbledon Golf Club and there are no opportunities to explore the surrounding landscape, to look for ditches or uprooted trees where the gravel might be further exposed.
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| The path through Royal Wimbledon Golf Club |
Arriving at Caesar’s Camp, which is on a plateau formed by the Black Park Gravel Member – with the underlying bedrock being the Claygate Member - the extensive landscaping of the golf course makes it very difficult to make out the position of the earthworks, although its circular plan is still quite visible on a LIDAR map.
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| A LIDAR map showing Caesar's Camp |
Having only a general interest in this Scheduled Monument, I spent a few minutes looking for the earthworks on the periphery of the greens, particularly on its north side, but I saw nothing that struck me as being a very obvious ditch or embankment.
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| Photographs taken within Caesar's Camp |
Not knowing at the time that I was a short distance away from Caesar’s Well, one of very many natural springs found on Wimbledon Common, I went to see if I could find the windmill but, as it was some distance away, I turned back and after discovering one of several ponds on the common, made my way towards Cannizaro Park.
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| A pond on Wimbledon Common |
I had never been to this very attractive park before but, finding only the Grade II Listed white marble statue of Diana and fawn as being suitable for inclusion in this Language of Stone Blog, I only spent just over half an hour here.
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| The statue of Diana and fawn |
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