Having had to cancel the last two work parties because of wet weather, it was such a relief to wake up to sunshine on 22nd February. And there was a lot to do. Aside from routine maintenance work of clearing paths and repairing deer fencing, the winter storms had brought down some quite large branches and a couple of complete trees, the latter having squashed the fences of neighbouring landowners.

We far from completed the work, but we made a very good start, creating a new dead hedge alongside the public footpath in the process.

Other jobs included setting up yet more quillet stones, the one shown here to correct the position of quillet number 2876, and the other to mark the boundary with neighbouring quillet number 2875. We’ve also planted a couple Wild Service trees to meet our felling licence obligation of restocking the recent clearing with 20% of species different to Sessile Oak as a hedge (pun deliberate) against climate change and disease.

The next work party is scheduled for Sunday 22nd March. New volunteers are very welcome.  

A dreadful pun, but just a way of pointing out that the two fenced exclosures/glades in our woodland quillets need to be constantly monitored for damage in order to keep out the ever-present deer. In this instance, Bob James is removing a fallen branch that had created a deer-sized gap in the fence. If the deer had managed to get in, the vegetation you can see to the right of the picture would soon have disappeared and the floor of the woodland would look like the centre and right of the picture.

As well as checking for and repairing damage, there are many other tasks that our volunteer workforce carries out including clearing paths, creating deadhedges for wildlife and clearing obtrusive undergrowth, all fuelled by coffee and cake at half-time. Work parties are generally on Sunday mornings and last for about three hours – meet at 10.00 am in Chapel Lawn Car Park, SY7 0BW. We’d love to see new faces, but it’s best to let Mark Limbrick know if you intend to come along as he contacts people in the event of bad weather necessitating cancellation. His email address is redlakevalley@gmail.com

The next scheduled dates are 28th December, 25th January, 22nd February, 22nd March, 26th April.

The annual apple-pressing day went well on 12^th October with over 400 bottles of apple juice pressed and pasteurised and more than £400 raised to help fund future work.

Earlier this year the Society contracted with Wild Borders Ecology to conduct a survey of its two quillets and surrounding areas with a view to assessing the impact of our interventions on biodiversity. More specifically, an area of recent felling is being compared with adjacent, very similar but untouched pieces of woodland.

What’s been done so far?

• eleven site visits between May and August 2025,
• surveys of trees, shrubs, and ground plants,
• surveys of butterflies, moths, and dragonflies along set walking routes,
• pitfall traps for ground insects like beetles, spiders, harvestmen, woodlice, centipedes, and millipedes.
• Early signs:
  • the felled glade seems to also be affecting the woodland around it, with greater  variation in shrubs and ground plants,
  • there are hints of richer insect life in the felled area (though data still needs full analysis).
• Species spotted:
  • butterflies and moths such as the orange-tip, speckled wood, meadow brown, and silver-washed fritillary,
  • dragonflies like the emperor dragonfly and beautiful demoiselle,
  • ground creatures including the violet ground beetle, devil’s coach horse, Dor Beetle, woodlice, harvestmen, and millipedes.
• Next steps:
  • organise and check all data,
  • compare findings with existing records,
  • produce a full report with recommendations,
  • create habitat maps,
  • train others to use the same survey methods for long-term monitoring.

In short: The survey is showing promising signs that woodland restoration at Brineddin Wood is boosting plant variety and insect life, but the data still needs to be fully analysed before firm conclusions are made.

Here is forward notice of two upcoming events. More detail will be posted in due course.

On the evening of Thursday 2nd October: the Society’s AGM at Chapel Lawn Village Hall will be followed by a tree and woodland-themed quiz. Open to all: teams of up to four people; £5 entry per team.

Sunday 12th October 9.30 am to 3.00 pm: Apple pressing at Chapel Lawn Village Hall.

Seven volunteers turned out for the final work party of the season last Sunday on a perfectly cloudless spring day. Having no Bob James and his quad bike with us that day, Simon Jameson fired up his 1951 Land Rover to ferry tools and another quillet stone across to the wood, and very picturesque it looked as I’m sure you’ll agree.

Work involved installing the seventh new quillet stone (no. 2876), dead hedging, repairing a stretch of deer fencing in the new clearing, removing an obstacle from the public footpath, and clearing vegetation that was choking the older deer fencing we had erected in 2017. Things were generally looking good in the quillets. In the original exclosure, the young hazel appeared to be thriving. The Millennium (Pedunculate) Oak we’d planted half way up the rustic steps last year was breaking into leaf, as was the small elder bush we’d very recently transplanted close to the footpath.

Inside the new clearing, the stools of the oaks we had felled in 2023 were thrusting new shoots skywards, and everywhere there were tiny oak seedlings battling for space and light.

The coming months will be an instructive period as we watch with interest how young oaks and the ground flora establish themselves in the new clearing. Watch this space for future news.

The Society recently had the chance to talk at a conference on woodlands organised by the Middle Marches Community Land Trust. This made us pull our socks up and revamp our standard PowerPoint presentation that tells the story of our formation and activities, the history of Brineddin Wood, and what our plans are for our two quillets. The presentation was well received by the audience, so if you are a member of an organisation that might like to hear it, do get in touch with Patrick Cosgrove at pccosgrove@icloud.com.

One of the other presenters was Richard Thomason of Wild about Westwood, well known for his expertise on hazel coppicing. He showed a short film about his work that has just been produced by Shropshire CPRE. It’s well worth setting ten minutes aside to watch – click here.

Having gone to great lengths to protect areas of our woodland from deer by erecting fencing, our greatest fear is that a fallen tree—or even heavy branches—might create gaps that deer will quickly discover. This has happened twice in recent months: once when a fallen branch breached the original deer exclosure, and about a month ago when a tree brought down an entire corner of the fence around the newest clearing. In both cases, there was clear evidence that the deer found the gaps very quickly.

In the original exclosure, they concentrated on eating bramble and fortunately ignored some hazel saplings planted last summer. In the second case, they nibbled the tops of a few shoots on some oak stools. Luckily, in both incidents the damage was spotted within a couple of days, and we were able to make repairs before too much harm was done.

In the latter case, we initially put up a temporary barrier until tree surgeon Nicky Tranter very generously cut up the fallen tree—free of charge—allowing us to properly restore the fencing later. We are extremely grateful to Nicky for taking on a task that would have been difficult for us to manage.

This post is therefore a request to anyone walking near the quillets: please take a slight detour around the exclosures, check that the fencing is intact, and let us know if you notice any gaps. Those of us in Chapel Lawn will be especially vigilant after storms, but as the last two incidents have shown, the deer are very quick to take advantage.

Many thanks.