Jubilee Clearing has long been a memorable spot for local people from Shirehampton and Sea Mills. After the death of the last squire, Philip Napier Miles, large parts of Penpole Wood and fields beyond were sold to Bristol District Scouts. Between 1937 and 1947 the clearing became the favoured campsite of the district’s scouts.
The view on entering the clearing from Penpole Lane on the south edge.
Since the compulsory purchase of the Scout’s land by the Council, little has been done to protect the character of the woodland clearing – until now. The Snowberry that’s invaded the area is not native, and had obscured the open character of the area. With the recommendation of the wildlife and woodland officers, the restoration of the clearing for both heritage and ecology is a project we’ve been keen to engage with.
A good band of volunteers set out to clear the invasive shrub from the area in mid-March. Knowing that bird nesting season was upon us, we were exceptionally careful in approaching the task, though, with the Snowberry yet to leaf, there was little cover to attract birds.
The view east across the historic clearing. Some of the original imported evergreen specimin trees can be seen on the far edge.
The removal has been surprisingly effective. The transformation now hits you immediately you enter the area, views through and across it restoring the sense of openness. We recognise that the snowberry is a tenacious plant, and will need repeated cutting, but this is a major step in restoring the character. The ground-cover beneath it is largely moss or ivy, the only species able to grow below the dense coverage. This month we hope to try and improve the biodiversity further by preparing the way for seeding of suitable shade-loving grasses and wildflowers.
Looking across Jubilee Clearing from the south, before and after work.
In retrospect, perhaps February’s working party was a bit of a challenging job. We hoped to root out a large patch of brambles, the first along the ancient avenue of lime trees leading towards the house. Through a combination of limited resources and tools that were less than ideal, we struggled to meet the target we’d set for ourselves. The poor ground conditions, clinging wet mud, and rain hardly helped matters.
Animated image showing the scene before and after work. The drive down the lime avenue is on the left.
We did manage to complete a significant part of the work on the day, but had to admit defeat when the rain began in earnest later on. Fortunately, a few volunteers were able to donate more of their time a couple of weeks later to complete the job.
Now the two recently replanted trees on the avenue are better revealed, and there’s a definite improvement in the open character between the main drive and the open lawns leading to the house. It’s our hope that, having taken the brambles out by the root, we’ll have a much better chance of them not returning with such vigour this year.
Before and after work on the brambles looking from the lawn back towards the drive and the Circle beyond it.
Whilst this will stem the encroachment of only a small part of the avenue, we’ll be unable to continue this work during bird nesting season. This will also give us time to rethink how we approach the job.
Animated image showing the work on the lime avenue looking towards Kings Weston house on the right.
It was invigorating to see so many new volunteers join us in January to re-cut cherry laurel regrowth close to The Circle. It was 2016 when we last went through the compartment to fell the forest of laurel that had grown to choke out natural species. Gratifyingly, it’s been slow to try making a comeback, mainly due to the Council following through with poisoning at the time.
Above: Looking into the woods westward from The Circle
However, the laurel remains a persistent weed and has begun to get going again, so last month’s work helps to knock it back again.
The area sits at the northern, back, side of The Circle, a patch lined on the south with the Avenue to Penpole and the north by the main path to the Point. Most of the work could be done with loppers, but there were a few extra bits that needed the saw taken to them again.
Looking back to The Circle in the direction of the car park from the main path through the woods.
We also took the opportunity to get back on top of some natural spacing, clearing competing saplings around trees that stand a better chance of maturing. This should keep the avenue to Penpole clear and in good shape for a little longer.
A huge thank you to everyone who helped out, and we hope to see you all this month.
A broad panorama from The Circle looking west towards Penpole
At the end of January, Bristol City Council park rangers held true to their promise to provide a fence around the recently cleared ponds close to the Echo. This is to ensure the progress made in emptying it of mud and logs is not undone as it was after we last cleared it.
Unfortunately, silt, sticks and logs thrown in for fun, and dogs regularly enjoying a dip prevented earlier work from flourishing. This, and the regular autumn dump of leaves and a large dead tree finally finished any aspiration to revive it.
Now, a fence with timber posts and large gauge mesh fence should help protect the wildlife and give the ponds a chance to thrive. They’ve now filled-up with water very nicely after the recent wet weather, and are brim-full, ready to start receiving some native pond plants the Council will be providing soon.
We look forward to Spring when the project should be finished, and we hope wildlife will begin to make its return.
December might not be the favoured time of year to be splashing about in ponds, but that’s just what we did at the tail end of last year. Our plan was to continue work that the Council had begun with a mini-digger, but by hand. It hadn’t been possible for the digger to reach into the middle of the pond and so the Council turned to our volunteers for help.
The two ponds are concrete-lined and probably date to the 1960s or 70s. The lower pond, the larger of the two, had to be emptied of water so people could get in to do the dirty work of shovelling-out mud and hauling branches away. In the event it worked out easy to scoop the water up into the top pond, from where it would need to be transferred back afterwards.
There was a great turnout for the event with some new faces, so a big thank you to everyone for making this such quick work. The lower pond was certainly an easy job and was finished in a brief space of time. The debris was carried away as far as possible, continuing piles already set up by the Council workers.
The top pond, however, was more of a challenge. Once most of the water had been thrown back to fill the lower pond, there was a dirty sloppy silty mess that was more challenging to scoop out. With most of it poured into buckets and taken away we called it a day at about 1pm, a job well done.
The next phase in the restoration of these ponds as natural habitat will be the erection of a small fence to prevent dogs disturbing the wildlife and discourage rubbish being thrown in again.
In July this year, we made a start on clearing laurel from an area at the foot of the steps down through Penpole Wood, close to the Point. This location is at the far eastern end of the Eighteenth Century pleasure walks through the woods, an important route long-neglected. Last month we returned to continue efforts to stem the tide of this invasive species.
a wide panorama looking up the slope from the Middle Path, before and after volunteer work.
We were a little depleted in numbers in October, but set ourselves clear targets of two areas either side of the path. The steep slope here proved challenging and sapped energy in requiring a steady footing and the transport of the cut material towards waste piles.
Cherry laurel is pushed back from assailing a beech tree along the Middle Path.
With just seven volunteers, we managed to achieve most of the task at hand. Unfortunately, by the time everyone’s energy had lapsed, we were left with a mess. Having managed at least to clear the path, it was down to the efforts of one of our volunteers to tidy everything into piles over the following weeks; a huge effort that we’re enormously grateful for.
Perched on the slope and looking westwards, with the Middle Path leading into the distance.
About a week after volunteer work at the lily pond in August, the heavens opened for days on end and helpfully began to complement our work on restoration. By the start of this month, the pond has really begun to recover some of its water, despite the reeds already having begun a resurgence. There was never an expectation, or immediate desire, to see the reeds eradicated, but they were in need of better management to help protect the pond. This and the removal of many of the trees has put the brakes on the speed of decline for a little while longer.
Fuller still, the level of the water on 4th October.
For a number of years, the dreaded Ash Dieback has been slow to take hold at Kings Weston. While other areas in the city were quickly decimated by this fungal disease the estate has been less quick in succumbing. We identified early signs it had arrived several years ago, and perhaps it’s the prevailing winds off the Severn have blown spores away and slowed it’s progress. However, it’s now very much caught up with us.
A series of ash trees and large boughs have fallen recently, these across one of the main paths through the woods between The Circle and Mancroft Avenue below. KWAG volunteers have now cleared all but the trunks from here. .
Even trees on The Circle have become bare and begun dying. These grew up since the 1960s.
Whilst Ash was not commonly planted in the Kings Weston parkland in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century, it has become established, particularly since WWII and the institutional decline of the historic estate. There are of course some notable exceptions, huge mature trees that have established in Penpole Wood and elsewhere. Most, though, are of middling size and have thrived on neglect.
These more mature trees are now the victims of die-back, with many now showing advanced signs of ill health. Penpole Wood has recently been littered with fallen ash, or large boughs that have broken away from distressed trees. You’ll notice the ground around ash trees littered with leaves and dead twigs, and their canopies thinning and full of dead twigs and dying branches.
There are a series of dead or dying trees alongside the historic Viewing Terrace behind the Echo, a number on the Circle, and many more overhanging paths and public rights of around the estate. There is a genuine risk to the public from these dying trees, so we urge everyone to be aware, particularly during windy weather. We hope to go through the parkland soon with the parks team to discuss the problem and identify which trees may need to be dealt with and brought down before they fall.
Ash trees at the top of the slope above Shirehampton Road, immediately over the Georgian Viewing Terrace and the public right of way are now heavily impacted, with some already dead.
Sir Robert Southwell when President of the Royal Society.
The Bristol Records Society has recently published its 78th volume, one with some Kings Weston associations. The new publication, edited by Anthony Turner, catalogues the correspondence between William Cole, a gentleman and customs official in Bristol, and Sir Robert Southwell of Kings Weston and his son Edward. The letters exchanged between them largely relate to their mutual interest in natural history and associations with the Royal Society. Sir Robert was elected President of the Society in 1690, a position he was re-elected to five times.
There are few insights into Kings Weston, but a short series of letters are particularly fascinating. They describe the discovery of some crystals Cole had discovered on Sir Robert’s estate and presented them to him and his family as a gifts. The “topaz” stones were made up into five rings, one for Sir Robert and Edward, and the remaining three for each of his surviving daughters.
It’s not clear where the stones were found on the estate, but crystals are not uncommon in the rocks of the Avon Gorge. Known since the Seventeenth Century as “Bristol Diamonds” they became popular as souvenirs. Dug out of iron ore veins, or found in nodules and geodes they were actually quartz crystals. The “topaz” Cole found are likely to be similar stones.
Both the main stone types within the Kings Weston parkland, limestone and Dolomitic Conglomerate, could have produced these gems. KWAG has come across them before now during excavations for steps, or mixed in topsoil, but none appear to have the same clarity encountered by Cole. What became of the Southwell’s rings is, sadly, unknown.
Quartz crystals of a very flawed quality found during KWAG work in Penpole Woods. Perhaps the Kings Weston topaz stones were finer quality than these.
The following excerpts are taken from the recent publication and give extra colour and depth to the story:
William Cole to Edward Southwell, 5 May 1694
“Honoured & deare Sir I have forborne to write to you since your last of the 27 March for that I was desirous in my next to make good my promise of sending you some of the Topaz stones of Kings Weston which I have att length and without much difficulty procured and now send you…
Now concerning the stones it may not be impertinent to give you a particular account that about 10 or 12 yeares since I procured many of them from Kings Weston and among them all there were not above 5 or 6 which were very good, and these I parted from to gratifie the earnest desires of some particular freinds not keeping anie for myselfe (being a stone I always fancied above others) presuming to have gotten more but never could till your last time being heere and when I had gotten severall hundred of them I caused the Jeweller to examine them and he pict out 22 of them (not finding any more that he thought good) which he carried with him to London to be cutt there but 12 of which found fitt to be cutt and returned the rest to me as defective, of which I chose out the 5 best and biggest to be set in Rings which are now sent by [….)
I did as well as I could by conjecture, direct the Jeweller in sizeing the ringes, 1st that for Sir Robert to be made a small size too big for me i.e. no 1. The next No 2 for yourselfe a size bigger then that supposing your finger to be somewhat bigger then your fathers, and N° 3 for Mm H[elena] & M E[lizabeth] neere of the same bignesse and N° 5 the least for M K[atherine]. I presumed the stones would have beene bigger, but he that cutt them assured me that when the topps of those which are crystalline the rough side & both are ground of The Topaz in the midle would be noe bigger soe as to be cleane and pure.
These 5 taken out of the aforesaid 12, the remaining 7 are not soe big nor indeed soe good as these. He further assured me that in grinding them he found them harder than the common Topazes, tho not as the Orientall hard Topazes which are neer in value to dyamonds, which are allsoe called yellow dyamonds. The foile under the stones is the common looking glasse foile. It hath been my designe some years past to procure some of theise stones to the end they may be worn not onely, rudely cut enough as they are, but as such found in S’ Roberts owne mannor. If these several tokens of gratitude find acceptance with the same [illegible interlined word replacing”
An example of Bristol Diamonds from the Gorge area, now in the M-Shed museum
Sir Robert Southwell to William Cole, London 2 July 1694
“Wee lately had the effects of your favour in five Rings you told us indeed of Topazes of our own Growth but I little thought you would have improved them as you have done. But you have at the same time improved our value of Kings Weston. for we newe not before we were so rich. Mr Woodward a great Judge of these things admires them very much, and hath obleiged me to furnish his collection with 2 or 3 Rust ones when I gett downe.”
William Cole to Edward Southwell, 23 aug 1694
“Besides these thinges I was requested by him in his letter & […] to imploy the stone digger to find some of the rough topaz stones for Mr Woodward which I proposed to doe this weeke, but before that spoken with him he came this morning to offer some other sorts of stones to me; and told me that he was yesterday att Kings Weston digging in Sir Robert’s land and forbidden by one of his servants. I examined him what answer he made him, and he told me that he said I had procured leave for him from Sir Robert but I never spake with him nor sent to him since I went into Wilts in May last. He offers to ingage not dig in any place to the damage of the Land and to suffer punishment if he doth not levell the holes where he shall dig for stones which he sayth lye neere the surface if your father think fitt that he shew the places where he supposeth to find them to one of his servants that he may be first satisfied that it may be don without damage to the land, he hath one large peec of a hollow rock of about half hundred within which are found good stones which I presume will be pleasing to Mr Woodward tho not of the right Topaz colour which if your father please to accept it I shall ingage the stone digger to present to your father being found in the same Mannour and to search for such as are of the true colour.”
the Kings Weston estate in about 1710. It’s not known where in the grounds the crystals were discovered.
We’re delighted to share a couple of recent photos of the quarry grove alongside Shirehampton Road, the site of October’s Big Bulb Plant. The daffodils volunteers planted have bloomed early and were in full flower last week when a rare day of sun showcased them to full effect. The impact has been pretty incredible, particularly when seen from passing vehicles on the road. A big thank you to everyone who helped out and made this such a success!
The host of gold along the edge of the quarry grove on Shirehampton Road Just last year this was engulfed in brambles and the trees were unnoticeable.
