Diary Reports - 2005
2 January 2005
This was cancelled, since it fell within the New Year holiday. It was suggested that we change workparty dates from the first weekend of the month, since they so often clashed with public holidays. This will be put to a vote at the Annual General Meeting.
5 February 2005
A mild, dry day although quite wet underfoot. Julian & Lindsey led the workparty, since Pat was incapacitated and able to do no more than put new notices on the boards. However, she had visited the reserve during the week and marked trees to be worked on.
We removed branches from trees in the glade on EHDC land to allow more light to reach the ground vegetation, and piled the arisings into the dead hedge previously constructed.
We removed lower branches from three oaks on the Central Meadow path to ensure safety for walkers and encourage a thicker canopy. We also removed lower branches from the two alders in the middle of the meadow to provide more clearance for tractors. We dragged most of the branches across the end of the playing fields to make a barrier at the entrance to the bluebell wood. Hopefully this will discourage the BMX riders. Other branches were stacked into the dead hedge near the pools.
Jenny planted a couple of buddleia seedlings between the river and the hazel fence diverting the path around an oak tree. We were able to do a lot of work because Robert brought his long reach chainsaw and an ordinary chainsaw. We also looked for frog spawn in the pools, but couldn't find any - although there was some this time last year.
10 February 2005
Pat Redhill and Jenny Broadhead met with Isabel Girvan, who was inspecting the work we had done for the Living Spaces Grant. Jenny walked the site with Isabel, and they were lucky enough to catch the frogs in a frantic sexual orgy! Now we have masses of spawn in the pond.
6 March 2005
A dry day with bitterly cold wind. We worked on the path between the Tilmore Brook and the ploughed field owned by PTC. Large boughs had fallen from an ash tree, so we sawed and lopped. We also cut back brambles encroaching onto the path. Larger pieces of the ash were stacked into a habitat pile, and the smaller branches, together with brambles were used to create a barrier between the playing fields and the bluebell wood. Volunteers donned tabards to publicise Environment Agency Action Earth, for which we received a £50 grant. We also received good publicity in the local papers for our attempts to save the bluebell wood from further damage by BMX riders.
2 April 2005
A beautiful day, with bright sunshine. We worked at the pumping station end of the site. We cut back a lot of brambles and blackthorn which had almost closed both sides of the path between the Tilmore Brook and the fenced field owned by PTC. We also collected and burnt off a considerable quantity of garden refuse which had been dumped over the Pulens Crescent fences. We cleared the vegetation creeping onto the gravel paths.
1 May 2005
A hot, grey day (25C) with spots of rain. Low attendance, since it was a Bank Holiday. We first attached notices to trees in the bluebell wood, warning that destroying bluebells was illegal. We repaired the fence to the otter reserve and fixed a new notice. We removed the notices from the hazel fence creating a diversion around the oak tree, since a new path had been successfully created. We found cowslips in bloom along the river bank. We moved tadpoles from the pools to the pond. We also removed an old pile of bramble arisings into the dead hedge near the pools and pulled a lot of balsam inside the otter reserve. Peter, Jill, Julian and Pat had attended a useful meeting with Tim Speller, manager Q.E.Park, on 22 April to examine the boardwalks and pond in the park, and discuss the assistance available for our own project, To follow up, we spent a long time surveying the bank of the pond for a future boardwalk. It was agreed that 5 alders would have to he removed to allow this construction, The project was therefore deferred until 2006, since the trees could not be felled this year.
4 June 2005
Warm, overcast with sporadic rain. A back-breaking task - we cut down docks in the hope that with no seeds, we will reduce their infestation. We began in the Eastern Meadow and moved into the Central Meadow. We also pulled a lot of balsam between the pond and the meadow. Pat also cut back a lot of hemlock water dropwort (since she seems to be unaffected by the poison), because this is spreading in the Eastern Meadow and on the reclaimed land around the pond. Pam and Clifford carried out a plant survey. Clifford identified raw sewage running into the Rother from a pipe in the Central Meadow, but the Environment Agency have since confirmed that it is pure spring water. However, they have asked us to ring immediately if the foul smell returns they can attend within half an hour.
29 June 2005
A mini mid-week gathering to pull balsam in the EHDC glade before it flowered Mike & Leslie Owen, Roger & Maureen Pendell, Peter Battersby, John Woods and Pat Redhill successfully removed it all (we hope).
9 July 2005
Warm and dry. We laid membrane and 12 tonnes Hamer Warren Path Gravel on the path adjoining the dog pool, and continued along the path in the Central Meadow until the gravel ran out. A very professional job, successful and satisfying, and all finished by 1 pm. For future reference, we laid about 70 metres with 12.04 tonnes gravel, 160 pins and 75 m Plantex. This takes into account that next to the dog pool the path was 2 m wide.
20 August 2005
Lindsey and Julian led the workparty. It was a dry sunny morning. We trimmed the overhanging branches and brambles along the footpath either side of the wooden bridge over the Tilmore Brook. During the previous weeks, Jonathan West had moved some large logs from near the pond and stacked them close to the stone bridge over the Tilmore Brook. We used the logs to reinforce the track either side of the bridge by laying them over the soft areas. Hopefully the tractors will find it easier to negotiate the bridge this September when the meadows are mown.
18 September 2005
A beautiful clear, sunny day, hot in the sun. Jill led the workparty. We cut back brambles on the path behind Barnfield Road. Despite all our hard work on this path in April, it was again almost impassable. The Right of Way Department had cut down an alder which had fallen across the Tilmore Brook path, and quite correctly had left all the logs piled into a habitat pile. Local boys had thrown these into the brook, so Julian and Peter pulled them all out, and also attacked a willow which was overhanging the path, and dropping a few inches each month. Alf cleared all the vegetation smothering the buddleia near the bridge. Pat started on the grass encroaching onto the path - a job to be continued. After coffee break, some of us cleared and burnt off more rubbish thrown over the Pulens Crescent fences, other walked the site with an eye for planning next year's work, and others visited the Vallis' pond, which is rather more attractive than our own at the moment. A very busy and successful morning.
15 October 2005
Beautiful dry, sunny day. With such a low turnout, the workparty was almost cancelled, but since Jonathan had brought the chestnut poles we had ordered, we decided to go ahead. As it turned out, it was a most successful morning. We had one final attempt to prevent cycle access from the playing fields into the bluebell wood. The contractor had placed bales of grass along the edge of the playing fields, but unfortunately could not complete the job when his tractor once again became bogged down at the stone bridge.Jonathan erected the poles for us, and we cut long branches from the hazels in the bluebell wood. These were slotted in and out of the poles to form a narrow dead hedge, which we filled with brambles and more hazel. A neat job, which we hope won't be pulled apart. We finished at 11.30 after a very pleasant and not too tiring morning.
20 November 2005
Lindsey and Julian led the workparty. It was a dry sunny morning with a blue sky, but there was a hard frost. Many small tasks were completed by splitting up and working along the site. We trimmed the footpath edges near the pumping station and near the wooden bridge and we trimmed back the overgrown vegetation around the sleeper bridge in the eastern meadow and around the notice boards. We cut netting off this year's bales, and some older ones, in the dry meadow (the Mount). We cut back the brambles that had not been cut by the mower under some of the smaller trees in the central wet meadow. We used the brambles and some hazel to repair the path diversion fence near the river in the central wet meadow.
17 December 2005
Jill led the workparty. Beautiful day, cold but bright sunshine. We thinned brambles along the riverbank in the central meadow, creating deeper scallops so that the river could be seen from the path. Arisings were stacked behind the hurdle fence, hopefully to deter further dismantling of this fence. We finished early, after coffee break with hot mince pies.
