We’ve been delighted to hear from Kingsweston School, who occupy the Eighteenth Century walled gardens on Napier Miles Road. They are planing an open morning on Wednesday 1st June between 10. This is an opportunity to explore the school grounds, and we hope that many of you will be interested, not only in the historical aspects, but also to see how the school still uses the gardens as part of their work with children with a wide range of special needs.

Clive Farmer from the school said “As you can image it is not always easy for us to open up the school to the community, but we would like to propose that we open up the grounds to visitors whom may wish to take advantage to see the walled gardens, forest school and flower meadow. We would only be able to open between 10:00am – 12:00, but this should allow a reasonably time span for groups/individuals to wander the grounds. Unfortunately we would not be able to grant access into the school buildings.”

KWAG hope to be offering tours and information on the day and hope that people will take advantage of this rare opportunity.

We have some good news from the City Council!

Thanks to one of our followers on Facebook the moulding patterns for the Grade II Listed Iron Bridge over Kings Weston Road have been uncovered in storage by the Council. They’re presently undergoing “fettling and repair” before casting iron replacement parts for repair of the footbridge.

It is likely that the reproduced new casting will be completed by the end of March with the view that the re-installation on the footbridge will be programmed into the new financial year 2016/2017. Once the complete programme for the new financial year has been agreed we will be kept up to date, but it will not be before April that this will happen. Hopefully it will be open again soon.

(photo courtesy of Bob Pitchford)

Just  released: Our working party dates have now been set for 2016. We will be starting the year with continued work supporting the Council’s Forestry Commission grant works in Penpole Wood. Please get in touch if you, or someone you know would like to get involved. More details can be found here

Improvements along Shirehampton Road

Asking for your thoughts on proposals to protect and enhance the park edge

Many of you will recall there have been a number of occasions over the last two years when travellers have moved into and camped in the park. This has partly been due to the poor condition of the current set of wooden bollards. Although a number of these have been replaced in Shirehampton Road car park the estate is still vulnerable.

Bristol parks have proposed replacing sections of bollards with low earth banks to prevent vehicles gaining access to the park and improve the appearance of this prominent area. The proposals would see the mismatched timber posts and a couple of boulders removed and banks constructed no higher that 3ft and sown with grass seed to blend-in better with their surroundings. Access to the principal paths would be maintained with openings in the banks, and drop-bollards to allow for maintenance vehicles. There may be additional benefit in the removal of the regrowth of scrub on the former tennis court nearby, and the capping of the tarmac court surface with topsoil; also to be resown with grass.

The principles are already supported by the Avon Gardens Trust, but to engage with the council and make sure any of our concerns are addressed, KWAG has drawn a set of plans for discussion and agreement. With the support of Parks we are sharing them here to get your thoughts as well and to try and make sure everyone is comfortable with this development. We hope that these changes will enhance the appearance of this side of the park as well as improving security.

Please let us know your opinions, whether you support the idea or have any concerns, and we can discuss these with council officers. We will collate any feedback we get, but please don’t be alarmed if you see part of a bank being constructed any time soon; this is just a trial section to see how it will look and how it will perform. If you could get in touch before Christmas with any comments, the sooner the better, we can amend plans to discuss with Parks. If the proposals go ahead then they hope to begin work early in 2016.

A full set of plans can be downloaded as PDF here:
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/d6754e0d3b18e9a31be2d62e5/files/earth_bank_proposals.pdf

On Thursday 5th November we received the bad news that a lorry had hit and badly damaged the Iron Bridge over Kings Weston Road, close to the old inn. We’re grateful to Bob Pitchford for having taken these photos showing the damage, and although it’s less serious than it could have been, it’s now in a serious condition.

As a Grade II Listed structure the bridge is protected from removal. It was built by the engineer John Loudon McAdam (from whom tarmac derives its name) and installed as part of his road improvements for the Bristol Turnpike Trust. The cutting where the road now runs was dug through the hill to avoid the steep gradient, and the bridge installed to ensure that visitors were still able to cross from the historic inn into the landscaped parkland. McAdam wrote of it that he was “Lowering Hill and building walls at Kingsweston Hill” in 1821, and the bridge dates to these works – making it a venerable 194 years old.

Damage appears to be limited to the north side where two arched spandrel sections of cast iron support, but an inspection of the bridge was being made on Friday to ascertain the extent of the damage. Cast iron is not an easy material to repair and new sections are likely to require casting. Bristol City Council quickly committed to repair the structure in a press release stating : “We will do everything we can to restore this historical bridge and to reopen the road as soon as possible.

In the meantime the bridge is closed to pedestrians, though we understand the road below has since reopened. The Council are exploring alternative arrangements for walkers, and hopefully we’ll be able to report more on the situation soon.

A full copy of the Council statement can be read here.

In the meantime we have come up with a short diversion. It’s far from ideal, but will get you between the Home Park and Kingsweston Hill, but PLEASE take extreme care when crossing the road at the location marked.

Saturday saw us return with our Big Bulb Plant and we planted over 7000 bulbs around the estate. 4000 bluebell bulbs were planted around the concrete steps beside the South Walk, with the remainder of daffodils planted between the boulders along Shirehampton Road, and natives along the wood-line above.Hopefully next spring will bring the rewards for our efforts.

Thanks to Bob Pitchford for providing us with photos of the event.  

After the success of last two years Big Bulb Plant we are running it again this year, but with THOUSANDS MORE BULBS! The Big Bulb plant is a free, family-friendly event where you can get involved in one of our easier going working party events. The event is completely free with all the native wild flower bulbs provided!

This year we have a great mix of natives all ready to be slipped in the ground in areas around the Echo and down the South Walk. The event will run on Saturday 10th October,  between 10:30am and 3:30pm and we’d love to see you there. Please bring a spade if you have one, but gloves and some tools will be provided.