Carshalton author releases new book on River Wandle (From This Is Local London)

Carshalton author Bob Steel looks at the history of the River Wandle in new book

10:46am Thursday 21st June 2012 in Where I Live By James Pepper

The history of the River Wandle has been uncovered through a new book.

Carshalton author Bob Steel, assisted by wildlife expert Derek Coleman, will release the River Wandle Companion on June 25.

The 250-page full-colour book looks at many aspects of the life of the river from the river's illustrious industrial past to the big houses which once dotted the river's banks, and the increasingly diverse wildlife of the Wandle valley.

There's also a chapter on the regeneration of the river in the past fifty years, from a low point in the 1960s when the river was officially an open sewer.

The book carries a detailed guide to the Wandle Trail, the path which follows the river from Croydon and Carshalton to its confluence with the Thames in Wandsworth.

Illustrated with nearly 200 photographs and some forty maps, the book is, according to Theo Pike, Chairman of trustees of the Wandle Trust, "essential reading for anyone who has ever wandered along the Wandle's banks, remembered this famous little river's hard-working history, or wondered about its future".

The book is being launched with a signing in the Hope pub, in West Street, Carshalton on Monday June 25.

The paperback version of the book will be on sale at a reduced price of £12 rather than the recommended retail price of £15 on the night.