SUMMER 2017
NEWS FROM
Ickwell Field Study Centre
The year at Ickwell The summer will have ended when you read this but to those of us who remember 1967, 50 years ago was celebrated with flowers and messages of peace. This year therefore, I have been trying to encourage the growth of and record our native flower species found or that should be found on the reserve. There is much peace to be enjoyed at Ickwell, especially when this year’s IB group had gone home. I have been aided in my endeavours by the IB team and the usual staff support of Miss Bell and Mr Palmer. The warden Tony, assisted by Claire, help keep up with vital management and construction tasks. Spring With spring, our fenced off area in the woodland produced our first clump of bluebells. Despite frequent searches on the reserve we have failed to find any native bluebells. It may be that predation by muntjac deer is keeping them hidden but even their distinctive leaves fail to show up. So we were very pleased to see the three clumps supplied by OB Colin Carpenter, of the Community Tree trust, are growing strongly and flowering. The same notable growth is seen in hazel coppice, also fenced off in 2
Ickwell Field Study Centre
the same wire enclosure. Wildlife site managers continue to struggle in the face of increases in deer numbers, especially in non-native species. Our own wood is partly native wood and we are doing what we can to educate and maintain bio diversity. The boys who have been out this year have, we hope, learned something of conservation issues in their woodland work.
reserve. The boys cleared scrub and trees making the ditch more accessible. After struggling in the ditch for a few weeks, the boys moved on to hazel coppicing and making stockades around the hazel stools.
Winter The winter season started with some clearance work in the conservation meadow. The grass is cut in the late summer and the IB group helped clear the cut material. This reduces fertility and allows the less combative species to flourish against the mostly grass Monocotyledons, which can out compete in fertile conditions. The boys then moved onto the medieval ditch system. There was an opportunity here to improve the profile and interpretation of what may be an 800 yr old feature. There is evidence locally of the Knights Hospitallers being active locally and there are also known Roman remains nearby. So, there may have been an earlier property before the C17 manor house was built. Unfortunately, no images, maps or other records have survived but parts of the ditch are extant and we have a substantial part on the 3
Top: The winter CAS team line up for a photo before commencing work Left: Winter tasks on the reserve included coppice crafts and planting new trees in the tree nursery
Below Left: Charcoal we made from waste corn cobs as an experiment, from a box given by a project training communities in Africa in sustainable agriculture
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Ickwell Field Study Centre
Coppicing
Tree Planting
Coppicing is an ancient woodland practice and has led to our rich patina of UK woodlands with their high conservation value. Traditional coppice produced wood for charcoal, making furniture and hut making, as well as hurdles to keep sheep and possibly pigs in check.
Having completed our stockade building in the early spring, we moved on to final hedge and tree planting of the year. The long hedge being planted at the northern end of the reserve continues and we completed another 30m of hedge, with a further length of 50m being gapped up to replace failures in the hedge line. The boys completed tree guards around the new plantings, this time using a roll of new mesh.
The boys cut and clear the material and use older dry lengths of wood to make charcoal in our three containers. In our wood, we have to protect cut hazel stools from deer browsing. In order to do that we can use wire fencing, which we do from time to time. However, we have a ready supply of poles to make wooden stockades which is what the boys did.
All of the new trees planted this year were from our own home grown stock and we are endeavouring to keep up with this. We have further plans to keep building up a stock of new trees and shrubs for planting.
CAS This has been, once again, a successful year with the CAS groups and I am grateful for the hard work and application shown by the boys in helping maintain the reserve, as well as applying their own conservation learning.
Biological Surveying Further use of the reserve has been biological surveying and my own pursuance of a Certificate in Field Ecology, to give me the knowledge to pass on to users. 5
I have completed another course during the year on Wild flower ID and hope to move on to a course in Ecology or Field Survey Techniques.
Making Charcoal Making charcoal is always one of the most popular activities on the reserve. We did succeed in making some this year, but the results were a bit patchy. However, the boys enjoyed themselves and were able to use some of the produce for art work at the end. Once again, I am indebted to Miss Bell and Mr Palmer who bring the IB boys out onto the reserve. To Tony and Claire who look after the reserve on the maintenance side and to all the other users in 2017.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award This year, Ryan Apps carried out his DofE bronze community service on the reserve so together, and mostly
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on Sunday afternoons, we cleared brambles from around a specimen tree and dug out and repaired the small field pond. We also planted trees, ably assisted by the Head Master’s daughter who, helped by Dad, was also using the reserve for her DofE volunteering. The reserve is ideal for this king of conservation activity and I hope more boys from the school will follow this up as it is now listed in the school DofE Guide.
Greys Academy I am very pleased that we have a new regular user in Greys Academy, which is a federation of schools based in Kempston. They use the reserve for DofE and for Forest School and STEM activities. I am pleased to be working with them as I spent many happy years teaching there.
Ickwell Field Study Centre
Top: Ryan Apps by one of his conservation projects for DofE Right & Below: Badger watching in an Oxfordshire wood with Radley College and two trainee teachers from Malawi. Our badgers will be under scrutiny next spring
Far Right: Our water has too much Nitrogen we will have to investigate
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A visit from the Brownies The Great Denham Brownies enjoyed their visit. While they were there a few simple conservation tasks were carried out towards a new badge. Here are some of their drawings:
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Ickwell Field Study Centre
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Ickwell Film We have a new outstanding film showing Prep School activities on the reserve taken during this autumn. You can find it here: www.bedfordschool.org.uk/news-events/video-and-live-stream/ Enjoy watching the opportunities depicted on the film. If you would like to investigate the use of Ickwell for education purposes please get in touch via the school website: www.bedfordschool.org.uk or email cjones@bedfordschool.org.uk The use of the new school drone has enabled us to show the reserve off in all its glory from above. Some time in the late C19 an avenue of trees was planted from the reserve all the way to the top of Cople Hill by Oak Farm a mile or so away. Part of the line is still there and you can follow some of it from the photograph:
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Ickwell Field Study Centre
Contrast: An earlier aerial photo taken by the RAF in the 1940’s showing Ickwell being used for market gardening!
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Bedford School, De Parys Avenue, Bedford MK40 2TU +44 (0)1234 362200 | info@bedfordschool.org.uk | www.bedfordschool.org.uk Bedford School is part of The Harpur Trust: a company limited by guarantee. Registered in England: Company No. 3475202. Registered Office: Pilgrim Centre, Brickhill Drive, Bedford, MK41 7PZ. Registered Charity No. 1066861.