Tag Archives: volunteer

Working Party update: Jubilee Clearing cleared!  

Leave a reply

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. 

Working Party update: Bramble rooting on the lime avenue 

Leave a reply

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. 

Working Party update: A decade’s growth restrained  

Leave a reply

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

Working Party update: Slopping-out at the ponds

Leave a reply

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.

Working Party update: Back into the woods for cherry laurel clearance 

Leave a reply

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. 

More light laurel pruning below the Echo

Leave a reply

The issues of invasive cherry laurel are well known; outcompeting native species, leaching toxins into the soil, and contributing to soil erosion, are just three reasons that many hundreds of hours of volunteer work have been devoted to its removal. Whilst it was once maintained as a decorative landscaping plant, it’s now run wild and is having a seriously detrimental impact on the woodland and the soil.

the cherry laurel regrowth long the mid-18th Century pleasure walk 

The last two working parties this year returned to the area on the north-east side of the Echo path, sections of the estate we originally felled laurel in around nine years ago. Whilst much was poisoned by the Council in the wake of our work, the areas closer to Kings Weston house weren’t treated and have more quickly regrown. This was the target of March’s working party.

With a good team of volunteers, we carried on the surgical removal of the laurel whilst leaving the native species that have begun to recolonise the area. Starting from the twin ponds, work progressed downhill throughout the day though, sadly, we didn’t manage to clear as far as the boundary with the house; this was left for a few volunteers to clear away later.

The area behind the two ponds before and after volunteer work. Many native bulbs were planted here in the autumn of 2014, many of which had been hidden. 

In the process of opening the area back up many of the saplings and native bulbs planted in the area have been revealed. In February we found the snowdrops lost beneath the laurel growth, and last month the bluebells and miniature daffodils were rediscovered, now better able to reach the sun! Eventually, when the laurel toxins have eventually leached out of the soil and the forest floor has matured further, it will ensure that rainwater run-off from the slope will be more effectively captured.  

the view from the pleasure walk along the garden edge looking towards the main Echo path and the lawns beyond. 

Keeping up appearances near the Echo

Leave a reply

It’s always lovely to meet new volunteers, and we welcome those who turned up last month to lend a hand with keeping on top of the cherry laurel regrowth close to the Echo. It’s been eleven years since we began cutting this invasive shrub away in this area. Thanks to the Council following-through with poisoning of the stumps the growth has been seriously retarded, but eleven years is still a long time to go without any re-cutting.

Looking downhill towards Kings Weston house, an area first cleared in 2014. 

Some areas had started to become quite overgrown with laurel, and there was a need for care in cutting them out. Dozens of saplings, planted by KWAG not long after we cleared, survive and have begun to thrive. It was important that none were accidentally lopped off in the process!

The target was to clear everything between the Echo and the two ponds. Most of this was achieved, but we fell slightly short for want of volunteers to help in the afternoon. Nevertheless, only small areas immediately around the pond remain to be done this month.

Looking up the slope with The Echo revealed in the distance after laurel clearance work. 

One unforeseen bonus of our work has been the revealing of some of the native bulbs planted in the area as part of one of our early big Bulb Plants. Groups of Snowdrops and native daffodils were discovered cowering under the cherry laurel and bramble, hopefully now more able to survive.

Another task performed on the day was the pushing back of the cherry laurel margins alongside the boundary wall and road. We’re keen not to lose all of these and expose walkers to the traffic, but there was a good deal to cut that had begun to grow back across the path again. Unfortunately, we have an incomplete set of before-and-after photos, but we’re returning this weekend, so we’ll provide more of an update next month. 

The view looking back towards the house looking down the pleasure walk leading behind the woods from the Echo. 

Persevering  in Penpole Wood

Leave a reply

We’ve noted before that the summer months make working parties much harder, and last month was no exception. Despite a good turnout and a couple of welcome new faces we didn’t manage to finish off the area as planned. This was more to do with the amount of work left being more than we first judged. Nevertheless, the last few months have seen a significant erosion of the cherry laurel’s dominance in this area.  

The change in the  view east, back towards the house, between May and this month. 

It’s clear from historic maps of Penpole Wood where the problem stems. The area we’ve been tackling is just outside, to the east, of the historic boundary of Penpole Wood. Here the Southwell family sought to blend the landscaped parkland into the natural ancient woodland by planting specimen trees and between them fashionable laurel bushes. They were, it is believed, intended to create a continuous blanket of evergreens below the picturesquely scattered specimen trees. Some of those trees are likely to be those that still surround the area, but the cherry laurel has since grown wild, suffocating anything else in the area and even obscuring historic paths.

Diagram showing the 1772 estate survey with current features of the felling area annotated.   

The slope now looks bare and barren where we’ve passed through, a legacy of around 250 years of laurel suffocating the area. We intend to replant trees in this area this autumn, to better integrate it back into the native woodland. So, back again this month to try and finish this tricky area! Thank you to everyone who came out to help last month and we hope to see you all again this weekend. Perhaps we will finally get it finished…  

A big oak at the top of the slope remains as laurels retract over the last four months. 
The view up-slope from the middle path thorough Penpole Woods. 


Working Party Progress: Dealing with dumping… 

Leave a reply
While the other volunteers work away in the woods a couple deal with the verge.

KWAG hasn’t often got involved in litter collection across the estate as we know there are locals and walkers who often do this, and the Probation service continue to carry out community service collections. However, one area has been a persistent pain: the layby on Penpole Lane. This regularly gets fly-tipped and the Council have recently erected a timber fence to try and inhibit illegal dumping. This, unfortunately, hasn’t worked, and one of last month’s working party aims was to clear the old quarry areas of rubbish.

The flytipped area before and after work.

We found it in a poor state, with binbags, and loose waste strewn about as well as the ubiquitous used mattress! We had a great turnout for the event, so good that it only took just a couple of hours to bag-up everything and leave it for collection in the layby. Unfortunately, just a fortnight later, more flytipping had been dumped in the same area. This has also been cleared away and we aim to keep monitoring the area.
 
Thank you to everyone who came out to and contributed to one of our best ever attended sessions, especially the new faces who came to join working party efforts.

…and some tree trimming 

The second target for volunteers on our Working Party was a scrubby area alongside Penpole Lane, not far from the litter collection. Since the 1960s this area, once grassland, had been colonised by ash and sycamore. Most is in a poor condition, being multi-stemmed, damaged by cutting in the early years of their growth. Having persevered through many probable attempts to keep on top of them they have grown into a thicket along the roadside.

Looking south along Penpole lane showing the impact of recent work. 

Our plans were to undertake “natural spacing” or “haloing” to thin out this area, cutting out the weedier and less healthy saplings to allow the better specimens to thrive. This has the secondary advantage of opening up glimpsed views from the main path along Penpole Point to the hills of Somerset to the west. From an historical perspective, these were once greatly admired by visitors to the estate.
 
Working carefully, warry of bird nesting season, we threaded through the copse gradually felling small saplings and raising the crown to allow sunlight in. Whilst the impact of the work might not be immediately obvious, it has helped open the area up and should prevent the further encroachment of scrub onto the remaining meadowland.

Looking across the area from the path to Penpole Point. 

Working Party Progress: Finishing at the View Garden 

Leave a reply

Volunteers concluded work on the old View Garden in February, with a final tidying-up of the laurels and woodland, and a focus on preparation for wildflower meadow planting. We undertook natural spacing with the woodland area, selecting the most viable saplings and shoots of trees and clearing around them to allow them to thrive in the future. This woodland management technique is the same as we started with the Forestry Commission in Penpole Wood in about 2015 and should ensure strong growth and positive regeneration of the woodland floor. We hope that this area, the glasshouse wall and verge, is back as it was when we last passed through in 2016.

incredible to think that it’s just been seven years since the glasshouse wall was last cleared by KWAG volunteers. 

A few stray laurels were felled to complete work at the corner of Kings Weston Lane and Napier Miles Road, whilst around half of the volunteers took to digging out the roots of brambles long the verges. This will be critical in ensuring that the wildflower seeding planned for the end of this month has the best chance of thriving. We’re grateful to our regular volunteer Mike, who has undertaken to return week after week to get on top of the job and organised the specification and funding for the seeding project.

A couple more cherry laurels are cleared back from the edge
The view from Kings Weston Lane showing the removal of laurels and the preparation work along Napier Miles Road, for the sowing of meadow seed.