Crane Park Island is a Local Nature Reserve in

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...

in the

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in southwest London forms part of Outer London and is the only London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London ...

. It is also part of The Crane Corridor

Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI), Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) and regionally important geological site (RIGS) are designations used by local authorities in the United Kingdom for sites of substantive local nature ...

. The site is an island in the River Crane, which is owned by

Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London, the United Kingdom capital. Richmond upon Thames ...

and managed by the

London Wildlife Trust London Wildlife Trust (LWT), founded in 1981, is a local nature conservation charity for Greater London. It is one of 46 members of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (known as The Wildlife Trusts), each of which is a local nature conservatio ...

. The (only) entrance is next to the Shot Tower in

Crane Park Crane Park is a 30 hectare public park next to the River Crane in western Twickenham. The park north of the river is in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, and the south in the London Borough of Hounslow. It is part of The Crane Corridor ...

History

The area was formerly the site of Hounslow Gunpowder Works, and the island was created to contain a mill pool to drive mill machinery. Some remains of it can still be seen, but the only major surviving structure is the Shot Tower, built in 1828. There were frequent explosions, and the Shot Tower was probably built as a watch tower to warn workers of fire hazards. The Ogden Standard on 9 July 1915 reported that there was a huge explosion heard for . An initial small explosion warned factory workers and they were able to flee before the larger explosion. Only 1 person was killed but flying debris wounded many. In 1927 the licence to manufacture gunpowder was withdrawn, and part of the site was sold to Twickenham Council. The Council turned it into Crane Park, which opened in 1935. In 1990 Crane Park Island was designated a Local Nature Reserve.

The site

The island is heavily wooded, and also has a pond and areas of scrub and

reedbeds A reedbed or reed bed is a natural habitat found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions and estuaries. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. As ...

. Mammals include the rare water vole, and other animals such as

kingfishers Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

(a legally protected species), woodpeckers, frogs, damselflies and

dragonflies A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of true dragonfly are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threa ...

are also found there.

References

External links

* {{coord, 51.4436, -0.3789, type:isle_region:GB-RIC, display=title London Wildlife Trust Nature reserves in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Local nature reserves in Greater London