Merry Christmas from Wapley Bushes!

Just three more days to enjoy Westonbirt Enchanted Christmas 2012

The last three days of Westonbirt Enchanted Christmas 2012 will be Friday 21st, Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd December. It's better than ever this year - here's a slideshow of photos from last weekend with a taste of what to expect:



Adults £9, concessions £8, children £5. No dogs please except assistance dogs.  Westonbirt Arboretum, A433, 3 miles south west of Tetbury, Gloucestershire, GL8 8QS, 5.00 pm to 8.30 pm with the last entry at 7.15 pm.

The Spectacular Westonbirt Enchanted Christmas 2012 - Fri, Sat & Sun evenings from 30 Nov to 23 Dec 2012

The Enchanted Christmas will return this year with a spectacular new illuminated trail and more exciting festive activities, foods and stalls onsite. The costs are adults £9, concessions £8, children £5. No dogs please except assistance dogs.  Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening from 30 November to 23 December 2012 at  Westonbirt Arboretum, A433, 3 miles south west of Tetbury, Gloucestershire, GL8 8QS, 5.00 pm to 8.30 pm with the last entry at 7.15 pm.

Planting despite the rain!

When we were rehabilitating the old part of the Orchard for the Future earlier in the year, we started thinking what to do with a the trunk of a dead plum tree. We decided that we would make it a "feature". Despite having to cancel the work morning yesterday, members of the Wapley Bushes Conservation Group were able to plant a climbing rose in memory of a local Dodington resident, Mrs Molly Turner, later on in the afternoon.

This rose, Rosa "Wedding Day", will eventually produce a large display of flowers in the summer and hips in the autumn. The scented single flowers are wildlife-friendly and will be benefit pollinating insects such as bees and hoverflies. The summer flowering season will also complement that of the adjacent spring flowering fruit trees to provide a longer nectar and pollen season for insects. Similarly, the autumn hips will be of benefit to foraging birds. Not only good to look at, but ecologically useful!

Jane Giddings gets down and dirty planting the new rose

Meet our new friend Rosa...

Workday Sunday 4 November CANCELLED - have a squirrel instead!

We've had to cancel today's work morning due to heavy rain overnight making the ground unsafe for working. It's still raining and sleeting out there, so in case you need a wildlife fix to make up for it, here's a short video of a squirrel that Paul saw yesterday:

Wapley Bushes Workday, Sunday 4 November

This workday will be a morning of general maintenance work and tidying up the reserve prior to the winter season. Please wear walking or wellington boots and bring some gloves if you have them. We will provide the tools.

Meet at the Shire Way entrance to the woodland, south Yate, 10.00am.

Owl Prowl at Ridge Wood Nature Reserve, Wednesday 31 October

We shall be joining our guide, Ian McGuire, for a twilight owl prowl through Ridge Wood and hear him call for the resident tawny owls. Please wear warm clothes and boots and bring a torch. This event has been organised in cooperation with South Glos Council.

Meet at the southern Quarry Road entrance to Ridge Wood, Chipping Sodbury, 7.00pm (until 9.00pm).

Kingsgate Park Ponds Workday, Sunday 28 October

We shall be undertaking maintenance of this important amphibian site including the cutting back of vegetation. Please wear gloves and wellington boots.

Meet at the Scott Way entrance to Kingsgate Park, Scott Way, Yate 10.00am (parking is available at the entrance of Shackleton Avenue).

Avon Wildlife Trust's Southwold Group is very active and would very much welcome more like-minded people to join them. They organise workdays, walks, surveys, fundraising events and it only takes a couple of hours every other month. If anyone wants to help out and try something new then please call Malcolm on 01454 310328 and you will be made very welcome.

Wonders of the Universe - Star Gazing, Thursday 25 October

This free presentation by Callum Potter of the Cotswold Astronomy Society will be an opportunity to learn more about the wider universe. If the skies are clear we will also walk to nearby St John’ Park to view the night sky. Please wear warm clothes, strong footwear and bring a torch. This event has been organised in cooperation with South Glos Council.

The Old Grammar School, High Street, Chipping Sodbury, 7.00pm (until 9.00pm). 

Fungus Foray at Tytherington, Monday 22 October

Our guide, Justin Smith, will help us get to know the difference between mushrooms and toadstools on this autumn mycological adventure. Please wear warm clothes and boots. This event has been organised in cooperation with South Glos Council.

Meet by the Village Shop at the junction of The Nurseries and Itchington Road, Tytherington, South Gloucestershire, 2.00pm (until 4.00pm).

Ridge Wood Conservation Day, Sunday 21 October

This will be a bit of practical voluntary work to help manage the reserve. and please meet at the northern Greenways Road entrance to the woodland, north Yate, 10.00am (until midday).

Kennedy Way Pond Workday, Saturday 20 October

Following on from the major pond restoration works at the start of the year, this pond has now become a wildlife haven again full of newts, pondskaters, water beetles and other wildlife. We shall be carrying out general management works on the reserve including vegetation clearance.

Meet at the Kennedy Way Pond, Link Road, Yate Shopping Centre, 10.00am (parking is available at the Yate overflow car park also on Link Road).

Tree Life Centre Open Day, Saturday 13 October

Join us for an Open Day at the BTCV Tree Life Centre. The Tree Life Centre is a community project based at Grimsbury Farm in Kingswood where people from many different backgrounds come together to grow trees, shrubs and wildflowers.  There will be a range of activities for people of all ages which may include harvesting, preparing and sowing seed; potting up plants; wildlife and tree identification walks; pond dipping.

Access: Wheelchair access around parts of the site is limited but the area close to the entrance of the nursery is flat and accessible and there will be a fully accessible activity set up in the covered potting shed area. This event has been organised in cooperation with South Glos Council.

Meet at the BTCV Tree Life Centre, Grimsbury Farm at the junction of Grimsbury Roadand Baden Road, Kingswood, 11.00am (until 4.00pm).

A celebration and a successful workday

Our work morning last Sunday started with a celebration as Cllr Gloria Stephen, Chairman of Dodington Parish Council,  presented the volunteers of the Wapley Bushes Conservation Group with the Green Flag Communities Award. The Green Flag Community Award is the national award scheme for high quality green spaces in the UK that are managed by voluntary and community groups. Wapley is is one of just three sites in South Gloucestershire to receive Green Flag awards this year.

We were very pleased to see so many at our work morning - around 30 people, many of them children. Our numbers were boosted by a community work party from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

With so many willing hands we accomplished a lot of work. The key objective was our annual task of clearing the ditch down through the wood - this year it wasn't as clogged up as usual. When (if?) we have dry summers the ditch fills up with early leaf fall, but this year it was just a case of clearing some excess clay and removing fallen branches.

Another major task was cutting back fast-growing vegetation along some of the paths. This was of course more onerous than usual. We also cleared some young blackthorn that has shot up among the unmowed part of the orchard grass, and did a litter pick throughout the Reserve.

Our next Wapley workday will be at 10 am on Sunday 4 November, meeting at the Shire Way gate - call Paul Hulbert on 01454 315851 for more details, or just turn up.

Don't forget that we have a Bat Walk at Yate Common on 19 September and a Wild Food Foray at Wapley on 24 September, and there's a whole list of local wildlife events shown in Dates for Your Diary. Full details of each event appear on this blog a couple of weeks before the due day.

Wild Food Foray at Wapley Bushes, Monday 24 September

Come along and enjoy an autumn walk with our guide, Justin Smith, and see what nature's free larder has in stock for you to take home, cook and eat. This event has been organised in cooperation with South Glos Council.

Meet at the Shire Way entrance to the woodland, opposite Cherington Road, south Yate, 2.00pm (until 4.00pm).

Scenic South Gloucestershire Walk, Sunday 23 September

We shall be going on a walk to look at the autumnal delights that nature has to offer at this time of year at Wick and Doynton in the Golden Valley. Our walk leaders will be the experienced guides Richard and Pauline Wilson and please wear walking boots or other stout footwear as this walk will be about four miles or so.

Meet for a car share at the Clock Tower, High Street, Chipping Sodbury, 2.00pm. Please note that ample free car parking is available at the Wickwar Road car park.

Wildlife dates for your diary

Here's a quick glimpse of local wildlife events coming up over the next few months. We'll post details of each a couple of weeks before the event.

• Wednesday 19 September - Bat Walk at Yate Common
• Sunday 23 September - Scenic South Gloucestershire Walk
• Monday 24 September - Wild Food Foray at Wapley Bushes
• Saturday 13 October - Tree Life Centre Open Day, Grimsbury Farm
• Saturday 20 October - Kennedy Way Pond Workday
• Sunday 21 October - Ridge Wood Conservation Day
• Monday 22 October - Fungus Foray at Tytherington
• Thursday 25 October - Wonders of the Universe - Star Gazing, Chipping Sodbury, 
• Sunday 28 October - Kingsgate Park Ponds Workday
• Wednesday 31 October - Owl Prowl at Ridge Wood Nature Reserve
• Sunday 4 November - Wapley Bushes Workday
• Fri, Sat & Sun evenings from 30 Nov to 23 Dec 2012 - The Spectacular Westonbirt Enchanted Christmas
• Saturday 19 January 2013 - Wapley Bushes Workday
• Friday 8 March - AWT Quiz Night Live!

Avon Wildlife Trust's Southwold Group is very active and would very much welcome new members and volunteers. If anyone wants to help out and try something new then please call Malcolm on 01454 310328 and you will be made very welcome.

Bat Walk at Yate Common, Wednesday 19 September

Avon Bat Group’s Laura Plenty will be taking us around this green open space for a twilight stroll in search of bats. Bat detectors will be provided and please wear warm clothes and boots and bring a torch. This event has been organised in cooperation with South Glos Council.

Meet at the Westerleigh Road entrance to the Common opposite St. Briavel’s Drive, 7.15pm (until 9.15pm).

Work morning and presentation of Green Flag Award, Saturday 8 September

We will be pleased to welcome the Chairman of Dodington Parish Council, Gloria Stephen, who will be presenting the Green Flag Community Award at the start of the Wapley Bushes Work Morning on Saturday. Gloria has of course been a frequent volunteer at Wapley as well, so she knows the Reserve well. We thought it would be more appropriate to do the presentation to our volunteers on site rather than at an artificial event in the Parish Hall.

This workday will be our annual stream clearance where we hope to clear the central watercourse through the main woodland. This work is required to preserve the habitat of the rare local thin-spiked wood sedge. We will also have a range of lighter tasks - there will be something for everyone!

Please wear walking or wellington boots and bring some gloves if you have them - we'll provide all the tools. Meet at the Shire Way entrance to the woodland, south Yate, 10.00am.

Avon Wildlife Trust's Southwold Group is very active and would very much welcome more like-minded people to join them. They organise workdays, walks, surveys, fundraising events and it only takes a couple of hours every other month. If anyone wants to help out and try something new then please call Malcolm on 01454 310328 and you will be made very welcome.

Orchard for the Future - update

Malcolm masking up ready for spraying

The Orchard for the Future is going well, apart from a minor problem with the quince trees and a few others others which have had to be treated for quince leaf blight fungal infection using traditional Bordeaux mixture and flowers of sulphur. Both of these chemicals are traditionally used in organic agriculture. Thanks go to  Isabel, Malcolm and Tim for carrying out the spraying. At least two further retreatments will be required - one in winter and one before leaf burst in spring.

Tim points out the blackthorn that
we'll need to eradicate from the
long grass

You will have seen that the grass around the young trees on the Common has been left uncut apart from the wide pathway where people walk. This is to provide a habitat for mice and voles, which will hopefully entice owls to nest in the woods. In future years the grass will be cut in sections on a three-year rotation. We've noticed that there is a patch of young blackthorn shrubs growing in the long grassland where the apple trees are on the common and this matter needs to be addressed at some stage. Off with their heads!

Major award for local beauty spot as Wapley Bushes wins Green Flag

We are pleased to announce that Wapley Bushes has won the Green Flag Community Award 2012, the national award scheme for well-managed, high-quality public and community parks and green spaces.

Our entry combined Wapley Bushes Local Nature Reserve, including our recently-planted Jubilee Hedge, with the new Orchard for the Future, which aims to restore heritage varieties of fruit in a public orchard.

We are particularly happy to have gained the Community Award because it recognises the efforts of all our volunteers.

The award will be presented at the next Wapley Work Morning  on 8th September – meet at the Shire Way gate at 10.00 am.

Orchard for the Future - successful tree pruning workshop

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We had an excellent workshop this morning pruning the old plum trees in front of the Wapley cottages. The trees hadn't been tended for many years, but we've managed to make a visible difference.

The workshop was led by local expert Graham White - Mr Fruit - and paid for by Dodington Parish Council. Graham explained to us that stone fruit should be pruned in the summer. Other fruit such as apple trees should be pruned in the winter, and Graham explained what we will need to do to look after the trees we planted last year.

The old trees in this small area are local varieties such as as Frampton Magnum plums. The new trees - most of which are on Wapley Common - are also local heritage varieties of apples, plums and other fruits.

Last year's new tree planting was financed by South Gloucestershire Council, organised by Wapley Bushes Conservation Group, and carried out by local volunteers - a real community project.

Free Fruit Tree Care Workshop Sunday July 1

First fruit at the Orchard for the Future!

As part of the Orchard for the Future project, Dodington Parish Council and Wapley Bushes Conservation Group are running a free Fruit Tree Care Workshop on Sunday from 10am to 1pm.

We will be learning about pruning and about how to care for the young trees we planted last year, and starting to rehabilitate some very old fruit trees.

This is an open event, so it could be useful to people who perhaps have a tree or two in their gardens. If you're interested, just turn up!

The meeting point is the Wapley Rank cottages that are opposite the southern entrance to the Wapley Bushes Nature Reserve, Besom Lane, Westerleigh, South Gloucestershire (satnav postcode: BS37 8RW, OS Grid ref: ST708803). Limited parking is available at the southern entrance to the Wapley Bushes Nature Reserve at Besom Lane.

Grand Duck Race, Chipping Sodbury Sunday 24 June

As part of the Wildlife Trust's contribution to Chipping Sodbury Festival Week, we will be holding our annual duck race along the River Frome.

Why not come along, have a flutter, and join us for an afternoon of races, a cup of tea and a doughnut? You are very welcome to come along and bring a picnic to enjoy in the park. The races start from 2.00pm.

Meet at Jubilee Park, Quarry Road, Chipping Sodbury, 2.00pm.

Update 25 June: The river was running so fast and deep yesterday that we had to postpone the Duck Race. Yes, it CAN be too wet for ducks! But don't worry if you've paid for a duck, we'll be running the races one in the near future.

Great guided walk at Wapley Bushes Local Nature Reserve this morning

Many thanks to our experts Pauline Wilson (plants) and Alan Daniels (birds). It was nice to see some new faces, including visitors from Patchway and from Leap Valley Nature Reserve. We spotted many varieties of flowers, several types of fungi, 16 species of birds and a steam train!

Wapley Meadow Flower Walk, Saturday 12 May

We shall be having a spring walk around the meadows and woodland to have a look at the different types of wildflowers that are on display. Do come along and learn more about our native flora. Please wear walking boots or other stout footwear.

Meet at the Shire Way entrance to the woodland, South Yate, 10.00am.

Ridge Wood Wild Flower Walk, Sunday 29 April

Discover this local woodland in Spring with this guided walk, starting at 2.00pm at the northern Greenways Road kissing gate entrance to Ridge Wood, Yate.

Ecologist Rupert Higgins will lead the walk through Ridge Wood Local Nature Reserve to discover bluebells, wild garlic and primroses. Walkers can also discover more unusually named woodland plants such wood anemone and dog’s mercury.The walk has been organised by South Gloucestershire Council and the Friends of Ridge Wood.

The route is just under a mile and follows the main path through the woodland. There will be a chance to find out more about how this site is managed through the council’s management plan. 

Help survey our Heritage Orchards!

Traditional orchards are a much loved part of our British heritage and countryside providing fruit and peaceful places to enjoy, as well as food and shelter for hundreds of rare plants and animals.

Since 1950 Natural England estimates that overall orchard area in England has declined by 63%, and it's probably higher in our area because of all the building developments.

The People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) recently carried out an England orchard inventory, listing 321 potential traditional orchards in South Gloucestershire covering an area of 127.9 hectares. So far, owner questionnaires have revealed that 8% of traditional orchards in South Gloucestershire are in excellent condition, 40% in good condition and 52% in poor condition. 12 traditional orchards were in Environmental stewardship comprising 9.10 hectares. Further information about the national survey can be found at www.ptes.org.

The South Gloucestershire Orchard survey will now build on the work undertaken by the national survey and aims to fill the gaps, where survey data has not been verified and by identifying orchards that have been left out.

South Gloucestershire Council currently have a work placement volunteer who is looking at the 1915 maps to find out just how many orchards have been lost locally. It's early days but the losses for most parishes look to be around 90% which represents an area of anywhere between 3ha (Bradley Stoke) and 60ha (Thornbury).

Could YOU help with this community project? South Glos is currently looking for volunteers to take part in the survey and help verify the orchards in the parish.

You can find out more about the survey here. If you are interested in helping with the orchard survey  please email Sarah Wells sarah.wells@southglos.gov.uk or John Morris johnv.morris@southglos.gov.uk, or call 01454 863581.

South Gloucestershire Council offer small environmental grants for community groups or landowners wishing to restore or create traditional orchards, just like the one created at Wapley last year. Contact John Morris on 01454 863581 or email johnv.morris@southglos.gov.uk for more information, or download details from: www.southglos.gov.uk/environmentalgrants.

More photos from the extra March workday at Wapley

Lovely photos here from Isabel Ryan, showing work on the Orchard for the Future at Wapley.

Gluttons for punishment - more planting the week after!

Only a week after the mass planting on Mothers Day, we were back at Wapley for a "bonus" workday on 25th March. We put up some bird and bat boxes...

We planted some replacement fruit trees in the Orchard for the Future, plus a horse chestnut tree donated by a local resident...

And we put the finishing touches to the Jubilee Hedge!

Mass planting marks the Jubilee

Wapley Bushes' Jubilee project is complete! 800 trees have been planted to produce a new hedge on Wapley Bushes Local Nature Reserve.

The hedge was planted by a combination of volunteers and local contractors. More than twenty local people and Wildlife Trust members got together on Mothering Sunday (18th March) and planted a hundred yards of hedge in less than three hours.

This hedge will be an excellent wildlife habitat and food source in the years ahead for mammals, birds and insects once it has become fully established. All the plants in the hedge mix are native species such dogwood, hazel, hawthorn, etc. and they will ensure that the hedge has a high wildlife value.


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This project shows what can be achieved when lots of organisations and individuals get together. Wapley Bushes Conservation Group coordinated the work, which included preparation work funded by Dodington Parish Council. Local contractors Landcare Tree Nursery supplied and planted half the trees, paid for by a Biodiversity and Landscsape Grant from South Gloucestershire Council.

The trees planted by our volunteers came from the Woodland Trust’s Free Tree Packs scheme. That initiative was jointly funded by the furniture group IKEA and three volunteers from the IKEA Bristol store also turned up to help with the planting and with putting the rabbit guards around the plants.

The new Jubilee Hedge marks the boundary of the Centenary Wood, which was planted by volunteers in 1994 to mark 100 years of Dodington Parish Council. The Woodland Trust scheme aims to plant six million trees to mark the Queen's Jubilee.

Spring clean, and a "brand new" pond!

A major project comes to fruition this weekend with the reopening of the Kennedy Way pond (opposite the petrol station). The Wildlife Trust, working with South Glos Council, secured a large grant from Viridor the waste recycling company to totally refurbish this pond as a valauble wildlife resource.

The pond will be opened at 10 am on Saturday, and the event will be followed by a Spring Clean litter collection along the River Frome, organised by Yate Town Council and Chipping Sodbury Baptist Church.

South Glos are providing bags, litter pickers, gloves etc., but feel free to bring your own if you have them.

Plant a Jubilee Hedge for Mothers Day!

This splendid woodland in Wapley Bushes Local Nature Reserve was planted by volunteers in a single morning on Mothers Day in 1994. Eighty people took part, half of them children. The trees are now over twenty feet tall, and now they need a hedge to mark the border between the woodland and the Upper Meadow.

Please come and help this Sunday morning, March 18th. We would love to see some of the parents and particularly the children, now grown up, who took part in the original planting so long ago. Who knows, maybe they could bring along some of the next generation too?

Everyone is welcome - we will be meeting at 10.00 am at the Shire Way entrance to the Nature Reserve, near the zebra crossing opposite Cherington, South Yate. Please wear wellies or similar, and bring a spade if you can.

The trees for the hedge planting morning are being provided by the Woodland Trust as part of their Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee Year Project to plant 6 million trees nationwide. A second length of the Jubilee Hedge has been funded by South Gloucestershire Council's Biodiversity & Landscape Grant scheme and by Dodington Parish Council's annual grant to Wapley Bushes Conservation Group.

We are very grateful to all our partners and supporters. Without the necessary funding and advice we wouldn't be able to improve this lovely area for future generations.

Great January work morning!

It was good to see so many people at the workday on Sunday 22 January - we had 18 volunteers, so we were able to tackle a wide variety of work. We planted 20 trees in the gaps in the laid hedge at the bottom of the lower meadow, cut back overhanging trees and brambles, and did a lot of tidying-up. As a bonus, one of our groups of volunteers saw two deer at fairly close range! Here are a few photos from the day:

Clearing overhanging branches from popular paths

Derek taking a swing at the undergrowth with a slasher

Malcolm cutting back brambles and dragging them away

Quiz Night Live! Friday 3 February

This is your chance to have some fun and pick a team of Eggheads and bring them along to our general knowledge quiz. We have found this to be a very popular event and you are most welcome make up a team name and bring your own snacks and beverages. We will also be serving tea and coffee for you in the break.

Quiz teams are usually made up of four players at a cost of £2 each per person. Please contact Malcolm on 01454 310328 to book your team's place.

The Old Grammar School, High Street, Chipping Sodbury, 7.30pm.

Wapley Bushes Workday, Sunday 22 January 2012

This is your chance to burn off some of those Christmas calories by joining us for our first workday of the new year. We shall be undertaking general management tasks that will help to enhance the biodiversity of this precious nature reserve. Please wear walking or wellington boots and bring some gloves.

Meet at the Shire Way entrance gate, South Yate, 10.00am.