Blackberry picking at Tottenham Marshes

Tottenham Marshes

Sunday, 25 degrees with a three-year-old and a 6-month old baby. What to do?

Blackberry picking at Tottenham Marshes of course.

Off we set with our Tupperware collecting-boxes, chuckling at how our Sunday mornings have changed so dramatically since our kids came into our lives.

There is ample parking at the marshes and it’s free (find the car park off Watermead Way), otherwise if you are walking, it’s a nice walk too.

The Lee Valley Regional Park Authority took over the management of the area in 1972 and since then it has gone from strength to strength.

Today, the marshes host a thriving local community who grow their own produce in the allotment area alongside an abundance of wildlife ranging from a vast array of birds, plants and insects.

There are also honey-producing beehives at the marshes which you can learn more about at the various talks and open days they hold during the year.

Everyone we encountered during our visit was friendly and chatty (though the sun obviously helped with that) and there was a wide variety of people using the marshes, including families, dog walkers, cyclists and sleepy fishermen on the canal that meanders right through.

From the car park we headed across the canal and took a left up the tow path. A little way up this is a green bridge on the right, which we crossed to reach a series of paths that, to our delight, were bordered by blackberry bushes for as far as the eye could see.

The green bridge

We filled our Tupperware containers and headed on to our next stop to find lunch. The Waterside Café is situated at Stonebridge Lock directly on the side of the canal and handily close to the car park.

It was a lovely place to sit and watch the world go by.

The four of us had sandwiches and drinks which hit the spot perfectly and came to a very reasonable £17 to boot. Our three-year-old boy entertained himself with a variety of games and books he found inside the café too.

The Waterside café

Then we headed home where the kids had a nap and we could make a blackberry and apple crumble to round off a day at the marshes.

Images and words by André Ainsworth