Saturday 9th August saw our regular working party event hit the pond just below the Echo. We carried on removing the overshadowing laurel bushes and cleared out the black dead pools in the hope that we will be able to revive them in coming months. The water level around the main pool dropped a good four and a half inches as we removed rocks, branches, all manner of rubbish, and lots, and lots, of porridgey mud from it. With the rain over the following few days the water level should be replenished and the water settle before we look at how best to return it to a natural wildlife feature.

Lots of the surrounding Laurel was removed and views can now be got looking right back up to the Echo above. We hope to be able to cut the fallen trees away too to further improve the area.

Another great find from recent weeks has been these illustrations of the trees in Kings Weston park from a book published in 1834. ‘Studies of trees with and without foliage” was a collection of 12 bound lithographic prints taken from life by Miss S A Young while she was convalescing in the Bristol. To pass the time she sketches the trees in Lord de Clifford’s park at Kings Weston at various times of the year.

Many of the locations can still be identified for each of the trees and there is a high degree of accuracy in the illustrations. Sadly all of the trees have, as far as we know, long since died though we still have this beautiful record of the park in its heyday.

The book is held in Bristol Central Library Local Studies collection and is free to view there on request, but you can see all of the plates in a new gallery on our website here.