The river Wandle once offered wonderful trout fishing, up to the latter part of the last century it was prized by anglers including, some say, Lord Nelson who fished here two centuries ago, before annihilating Napoleon's fleet at the battle of Trafalgar.

The rivers swift flows were increasingly harnessed to power water mills producing everything from silk to gunpowder, but also to take away the effluent, and, by the 20th century the river was all but dead!

Now, after centuries of abuse and neglect, and the indignity of running red, pink & blue from the dyes of the calico printers, and worse, we are learning to treasure the Wandle. As a result, the kingfishers, water voles and mayflies have returned.

In the 1960s the Wandle was officially designated an open sewer. A major factor in its recovery since then can be traced back to the privatisation of Britain's water industry. In our area Thames Water has invested millions of pounds into improving water quality.

In March 2003 brown trout were released into the Wandle for first time in 100 years, thanks to Alan Sutties Trout in the Classroom program, which is run by the Jet Set Club in partnership with Environment Agency and Thames Water. This is a relatively simple idea where teachers set up aquariums and incubate trout eggs in their classrooms. The teachers and children are responsible for daily maintenance and observation of these eggs until they have an aquarium full of trout fry, which is released into the Wandle during a class field trip.

The project is designed specifically to incorporate more environmental education into the curriculum by inviting local Primary Schools to breed trout in the classroom and releasing them into the River Wandle thus helping to sustain the rivers population of brown trout.

Although only two of every hundred are likely to survive into adulthood, this is a cumulative process and we are hoping that each such release exponentially increases the benefits.

March 27th saw 4 local primary schools and Linden Lodge special school visit Merton Abbey Mills to release this years trout fry into the Wandle, in the presence of various local dignitaries including Mertons Deputy Mayor and his wife, and the Leader of the Council. A parallel event involving Wandsworth schools took place a few days later.