Apologies – yesterday’s post stated that the start time of our AGM is 7.45 pm. In fact the AGM starts at 7.00 pm, but the guest speaker will give his talk at 7.45 pm. Just to remind you of the details, the AGM will be held in the Redlake Valley Village Hall, Chapel Lawn, SY7 0BW and the guest speaker is Richard Thomason, Senior Manager, Coppice Development at the Small Woods Association. This is a particularly relevant topic given the work we have been doing recently to protect our coppiced hazel stools from deer damage.

Please don’t miss our AGM in the Redlake Valley Village Hall, Chapel Lawn on Thursday 25th May. The guest speaker is Richard Thomason, Senior Manager, Coppice Development at the Small Woods Association. This is a particularly relevant topic given the work we have been dong recently to protect our coppiced hazel stools from deer damage.

The AGM begins at 7.00 pm and the talk at 7.45. Admission free to shareholders, £3.00 for others.

Click on this link to see full details: 2017 AGM poster

Do, please, forward details to others.

 

Here is advance notice of our Woodland Fair. Please bear in mind that numbers for the evening talk are limited to eighty, so we do advise early booking.

 

Apologies if you’ve been missing these news bulletins – I offer the usual excuse of having too much to do in retirement.  To make amends, here is a selection of the activities that have been taking place in the last few months up at the quillet, starting with the most recent, which is:

Our New Information Board

In recent months our Treasurer, Anthony Morgan, has been steadily working to create a handsome information board that tells passers-by about the wood, the quillet, and the wildlife.  As you can see, it is now firmly in place at the foot of the quillet steps.  Many thanks  to Shropshire Hills AONB for funding this and to Shropshire Wildlife Trust for advice on the content.

 

“In woods we forget things, at the wood edge we tell stories”. This is a project run by poet, Jean Atkin, which provided opportunities for three different groups from the community in south Shropshire to spend time in native woodlands, learn real, useful conservation skills, respond to place through poetry, and perform their own site-specific work. The project is funded by the Shropshire Hills AONB Conservation Fund and Shropshire Housing Group. The three groups were Bishop’s Castle Primary School, St Mary’s CE Primary School, Bucknell and the Working Together Group, a Ludlow-based registered charity that provides a focus for people with learning disabilities and their families. It was this last group that visited the Brineddin quillet with Jean Atkin, and Karen Limbrick. The group of three young people visited twice during September, the first time to draw inspiration from the wood to write their poems and to carry out protection of some coppiced hazel, the second time to “perform their poems to the wood.” Jean publishes the poems here. On Wednesday 9^th November at 6.00 pm, the three groups will met up for a celebration of the project at the Assembly Rooms in Ludlow. All are welcome.

Bicycle Wheel Coppicing.

With a healthy deer population (17 spotted in a field adjoining the woods early one morning!), we find ourselves between a rock and  a hard place as far as our hazel understory is concerned. If we don’t coppice, the hazel will die of old age, and many are in the process of doing exactly that. If we do coppice, the deer will nibble the new shoots and leaves, and they are doing exactly that. The solution? Well, isn’t it obvious? Bicycle wheels. Courtesy of Pearce Cycles in Ludlow we were permitted to raid the skip at the back of their workshop and bring home a selection of buckled wheels. Scrap metal to some; gold dust to us. A group of us then applied our imagination and used the wheels as frames in which to insert brash and sticks of varying lengths. In the slide-show below you can see Mk1, Mk2 and Mk 3 versions below, plus Mk 4 constructed from squares of steel mesh fencing. So far they’re proving to be about 75% deer proof. It seems that the deer are reluctant to force their way through anything really solid, but where we left a gap, or sticks later fell out, they have pushed their heads in to reach the tender leaves. It’s not a permanent solution, but it is certainly better than just piling brash on top of the cut stools as that disintegrates within a few months.

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The wheels can be cut away at a later date when the young hazel tree is established.

 

Bird Boxes

Following a successful visit to the woods by Bishops Castle Community College last Autumn to undertake some coppice work, students went on to make bird boxes . Two of these boxes were recently donated to us, with the promise of more to come from this year’s students. The college is planning to arrange an article about them for the Shropshire Star.

Bucknell School Pupils Achieve John Muir Award.

We reported last year how pupils from Bucknell School were working towards their John Muir Award.  All pupils achieved their awards and in February were presented with them on the same day that the Ofsted Inspectors were in. The school was given a clean bill of health, no doubt influenced by what the inspectors had learned about the awards.

 

Planning Ahead

Board members have now agreed a number of future activities.

At the top of the flight of steps a woodland glade will be created by felling a few rather weak and spindly oaks that are not thriving. This will let more light penetrate and it will be interesting to see what effect that will have on the ground  flora.  We are also keen to discover if the oaks will regenerate, but a few rowan and bird cherry trees will also be planted there that have been kindly donated by a local farmer.

An area has been identified that is suitable for what we hope will be more permanent deer protection.  Special reinforced plastic fencing will be bought to surround a space where hazel and weak oaks will be coppiced and encouraged to regrow, hopefully safe from the grazing deer.

Some of this work will be carried out by Shropshire Council’s Wild Team led by Simon Brown.

Dates for your diaries:

More work parties are planned for the following Sundays: 27 November 2016, 8 January 2017, 12 February and 12 March, shareholders, friends and family are more than welcome to join us.

Although the date has not been confirmed, the Society will be be holding another Woodland Fayre in 2017 – probably at the beginning of October. This is as the result of many requests for a follow-up of the high successful event held in 2012. Was it really that long ago?

With Valentine’s Day not far away, instead of a card, why not email this delightful cartoon of trees to ‘you know who’. Produced in 1932, it was, in fact, the first cartoon to be produced in full Technicolour. Click here, and then scroll down to click again.

By December last year there had been six school visits made to the quillet, and a total of about 60 local children/ young people now understand more about Brineddin Wood and life in an oak woodland. They listened for birdsong, looked for mini-beasts, snacked on the benches and walked up and down our quillet steps.  In addition the wood has benefitted from their careful conservation work on its lower slopes, where hazel coppice stools were cut back for regrowth this spring. Here are some photos from those visits:

Apart from our presence at shows and hosting school parties at the quillet in the second half of last year, we ran a programme of work parties. We have already earmarked two dates this year and wonder if you would like a morning out in the woods doing a little hazel coppicing, oak seedling planting or other woodland management? If none of these appeals, please feel free to simply come and have a look at the quillet and see what we are doing. We plan to meet on Sundays, 31st January, and 6th March, all at 10.00 am in Chapel Lawn village hall car park. There is a small band of regulars who would love to see you there. We usually work until about 1.00 pm. If you want to take part please try to bring tools such as loppers, bow-saws or secateurs along with sturdy footwear, waterproofs, and a drink, although we now have a good supply of tools, courtesy of Shropshire Hills AONB, for volunteers to use as well. We will provide the cake and biscuits at break-time!  Please let us know you will be coming by contacting Karen on 01547 530002 or limbrick85@btinternet.com  We may have to cancel the work-party if inclement weather is forecast (you will still be welcome even if you decide to come at the last minute!).

Our work as a Community Benefit Society will continue after the Shropshire Hills AONB funded project comes to an end in March 2016.  We have already planned the date of the AGM, so please mark it in your diaries or on your calendars. It will be the evening of Thursday 26^th May and we are in the process of attracting an interesting speaker to deliberate on a topic related to our work.

Finally, here’s a poem written by children from St George’s School Clun

 

 

 

A lot is happening at the moment so here’s a quick snapshot of what we’ve done recently and what we’ll soon be doing. Please join us if you can

Recent Activity

We have had a busy week!

On the evening of Tuesday 5^th October, board member and Treasurer, Anthony Morgan, represented the Society at a ‘Friends of the Shropshire Hills’ evening, at the AONB offices in Craven Arms.

On Wednesday 6^th, children from Bucknell School visited the quillet as part of their John Muir Award (click here to find out what that entails). Cath Landles of the AONB has secured funding for the children to visit Brineddin Wood on four occasions this autumn to enable the schoolchildren to achieve this well respected award for outdoor activities. On this occasion the theme was bug life. Here are three photos from the day, two self-explanatory, the third a little confusing.

On Thursday 7^th, we hosted a visit from the Shropshire Hills AONB Conservation Fund Trustees. They came to see how we have been spending the grant that they gave us this year. It was a lovely afternoon of mellowing sunshine, so we were able to relax by sitting on the benches in the quillet while we explained what we have achieved so far.

On Sunday 11^th, members of Knighton Tree and Allotment Trust visited the quillet on a bright autumnal day. We presented a slide show of the wood and the Society’s work in the village hall and then walked over to the quillet.

After ascending the steps, some of the more intrepid visitors chose to make their way to the top of the hill where the tree cover thins out. They were rewarded with good views across the valley to Caer Caradoc. But that’s not quite all. One of the KTAT party, Ritchie Cotterrill, sent us a fabulous photo of us as we climbed the steps. It’s so good we’ve placed it  on our gallery (click here). Do take a look and don’t forget to send in any particularly good pictures of your own to go on the gallery (of the wood, that is, not your holiday snaps!)

Forthcoming events

We are looking forward to setting out our stall at Knighton Community Market on Saturday October 24^th. Please come along and see our new display and take away one of our new leaflets.

We are also planning hard for visits by children from Clun School and from Bishops Castle Community College on October 21^st and November 10^th respectively. They are all keen to learn about hazel coppicing and to gain some practical experience. Where we have permission from other quillet owners to carry out woodland management, we expect a good sized area of the lower slopes of several quillets to show the signs of a working woodland once again !

We have compiled a list of dates for conservation work parties this winter and hope that those of you who like to wield a pruning saw or spade would like to take part. We plan to meet on the following Sundays: 25^th October, 22^nd November, 3^rd January, 31^st January, and the 6^th March. Meet at 10.00am in Chapel Lawn Village Hall car park. We usually work until 1.00pm. Please remember tools along with sturdy footwear, waterproofs, a flask (and a packed lunch if staying until 2.30 pm). We will provide the cake and biscuits at mid-morning break!

We are very pleased with the interest shown in our community woodland project to date and look forward to welcoming many more adults and children to this idyllic corner of south Shropshire.

P.S to our posting the Clun Valley Fairtrade Flyer a few days ago, Chrissie Verduyn has asked us to also post the notice of their forthcoming AGM on 1st October (click to enlarge).

Who was there all day at Bucknell show, having helped erect the gazebo and stand earlier in the day, and then helped to take it down at the end.

Saturday 3rd September, and the sun decided to shine on Bucknell show after a stormy morning. Society members, Karen Limbrick, Anthony Morgan and Martin Garland worked together to show off the society’s new display materials. A great deal of interest was shown and it turned out that a fair number of local people knew little or even nothing about Brineddin Wood and its quillets, with a few promises made to visit in the not too distant future and even help with work parties (yes, please to that!). Karen again engaged children’s’ interest with practical activities. About seven children made bug hotels, ladybird tidy tins or ‘God’s eyes’, but bug hotels were a particular favourite.