Cash Splashed for Thirsty Volunteer Cows

Large, hairy, long-horned volunteers are helping to create a sanctuary for wildlife but they are getting thirsty.

English longhorn and highland cattle have been grazing the grassland at Cutacre Nature Reserve for six years now, creating perfect conditions for some of our best-known farmland birds.

And the Lancashire Wildlife Trust reserve, on the WiganSalford border, close to Tyldesley, has been boosted by a grant from waste management company, Viridor, and Wigan Council Brighter Borough to provide the hefty volunteer cows with water troughs and a water supply.

Reserve Officer Stephen Cartwright said: “This will help us to get water to the cattle so that they can graze the fields more effectively by allowing us to concentrate the grazing. The way the cattle “grab” the grasses creates a lumpy and bumpy field, with lots of clumps where insects nest and long-billed birds can dip for food. The way the cattle graze also helps to reduce the dominance of grasses and open up the area for wildflowers to set seed and flourish.” At the moment however, some of the fields have no water supply which means cattle cannot be kept there in dry weather to do their amazing work for the wildlife of the reserve.

The funding will also allow us to restore ponds on the reserve, a site which has gained a reputation for its collection of amphibians. “If the ponds are left to dry out with invading scrub, this will be bad news for the amphibians, including the protected great crested newt, which still breeds at the Cutacre reserve,” said Stephen.

“This new funding will allow the Wildlife Trust and its human volunteers, who are just as important, to restore the ponds to their former glory, enhancing biodiversity around them and allow the newts, frogs and toads to thrive.”

Management of the reserve is also aimed at encouraging rare farmland birds such as lapwing, oystercatcher, redshank and skylark to breed. However, some of the fields are overrun with rush and this can not only prevent some of the birds breeding, but reduces the diversity of the wildflowers. This wet grassland is an important habitat and the funding will allow us to improve it for wildlife by cutting back some of the rush opening up areas for flowers such as cuckooflower, lesser spearwort, ragged robin and marsh bedstraw.

Stephen said: “We also get the double benefit that this will provide more succulent rush growth, so we are keeping our work force happy while reaping the benefits. And all this is good for wildlife.”

The site offers some amazing opportunities to see wildlife, with grasshopper warbler, reed bunting, linnet and stonechat being found in the scrubby areas of the site. Bullfinch, now a scare bird, can be found within woodland, whilst snipe, a long-billed wading bird, can be seen foraging around the edge of pools, which is exciting being so close to an urban area.”

Of course, visitors to Cutacre will also get an opportunity to see the magnificent cattle that have grazed the British countryside for centuries.

The Lancashire Wildlife Trust is creating fantastic habitats on its 37 nature reserves across the North West, but also helping to maintain Nature Recovery Networks connecting these and other wild areas so wildlife has corridors to increase and thrive.

If you are interested in supporting nature in the North West you can find out more about the work of the Wildlife Trust at www.lancswt.org.uk

The Wildlife Trusts

The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside is dedicated to the protection and promotion of the wildlife in Lancashire, seven boroughs of Greater Manchester and four of Merseyside, all lying north of the River Mersey. It manages around 40 nature reserves and 20 Local Nature Reserves covering acres of woodland, wetland, upland and meadow. The Trust has 30,000 members, and over 1,200 volunteers. No matter where you are in Britain, there is a Wildlife Trust inspiring people and saving, protecting and standing up for the natural world. With the support of our members, we care for and restore special places for nature on land and run marine conservation projects and collect vital data on the state of our seas. Every Wildlife Trust works within its local community to inspire people to create a wilder future – from advising thousands of landowners on how to manage their land to benefit wildlife, to connecting hundreds of thousands of school children with nature every year. wildlifetrusts.org

By Sarah Ridgway

THIS MONTH WE CAUGHT UP WITH RACHEL CABBLE FROM KENDAL BASED CABLE & BLAKE.

The company designs and creates beautiful fabrics from the local Herdwick sheep fleeces that are inspired by the landscapes of the Lake District.

HOW DID THE BUSINESS BEGIN?

My friend and co-founder Alice, who sadly passed away 2 years ago, both had a passion to do something with Herdwick fleece. The Herdwick fleece was achieving a tiny price in the marketplace and farmers were burning it as a consequence. It was primarily used for insulation and carpets, whereas other sheep’s fleeces were sold for profit, Herdwick was not due to being quite hardy and itchy. We thought it was such a shame and decided it was a challenge where a solution was long overdue. I had always wanted to produce my own fabric and so this seemed the perfect opportunity to merge sustainability and creativity. We were both living and working in Cumbria and with a soft spot for our native Herdwick sheep the journey began, a journey that was not for the faint hearted. Thankfully our dedication and determination paid off and after two years of research, we found the way to keep the best and leave the rest. We took the prickle out and we took advantage of the hard wearing feature of the wool making it both soft enough and strong enough for soft furnishings, upholstery and everything else in between. Cable and Blake was born, a new and innovative local business, excited to work with individuals and companies large and small.

WHAT MAKES HERDWICK SHEEP AND WOOL UNIQUE?

The colours we use for the fabric reflect the Lakes, but still maintain the character and tones of the Herdwick fleece. Also, it is an extremely durable fabric and remarkably diverse so is not just limited to upholstery. What we have found is that the hardness of the fleece can be a blessing because of the nature of the fleece and yarn it is incredibly hard wearing. A key selling point for our upholstery fabric is the rub test. If you rub most woollen fabrics it takes less than 25,000 rubs before the fabric starts to break up. With Cable and Blake Herdwick fabric you get up to 50,000 rubs, so our fabric has significantly increased durability.

HOW INVOLVED ARE YOU WITH THE DESIGN PROCESS?

My late business partner Alice was from a banking background and was more the financial side of the business, whereas I am the creative one, so I produced our printed designs. I have always loved the creative side of things, but I am not originally from a creative background and got into it later in life. My husband and I moved to the Lakes after I took voluntary redundancy and the first 15 years were spent raising a family, but after that I wanted to get back into the creative side of things and was interested in upholstery. My upholstery journey started when I took an old egg chair for a quote to get upholstered and they said well why don’t you come and do it yourself, so I did. I enjoy working with the customer on their ideas as much as I enjoy creating my own work and ideas. www.lancmag.com

We offer an upholstery service, and we receive about 5 requests each week. We upholster in our own fabric or anything the customer chooses. We can ship our fabric directly to customers or their upholsterers and have wholesale agreements with many companies. All Cable and Blake fabrics are available through www.cableandblake.co.uk.

HOW HAVE YOU INCORPORATED SUSTAINABILITY INTO YOUR BUSINESS?

Sustainability is incredibly important at Cable & Blake. The Herdwick fleeces were traditionally burnt or thrown away and the main thing we wanted was to find something useful that was workable and sustainable to stop them going to waste. Everything is produced locally which reduces the carbon footprint and supports the local economy, not just the Herdwick farmers but also local makers, everything we sell is made within 20 or 30 miles from Kendal. Living in such a picturesque environment we see part of our role as harnessing the natural beauty that surrounds us in a beneficial way that preserves something very special and lessens the waste. When a piece of furniture is well made, it will last and this also helps people to avoid throwing out items.

ARE THERE MANY OTHER COMPANIES USING HERDWICK WOOL?

There are a few other companies that make handbags and other companies are making rugs, and throws etc. We however wanted to do something different and

contemporary, so we thought let’s print on the fabric as other companies were just using the natural grey of the wool. It was a challenge initially as not many companies would print on wool, but we found a company that would, and we created our first two prints based on photographs taken around the Lakes. Then we thought wouldn’t it be fantastic to dye the fabric, we chose not to dye the yarn, so we get to keep those beautiful tones, we have the fabric woven on the grey and then we dye it from there and that is how we have differentiated ourselves from the other people that are using Herdwick tweeds. Our colours represent the tones and seasons within the Lake District, so the Autumn tones are the darker ones, the Spring tones are paler and represent the colours in the area at that time of year. I have taken photographs directly to the dyeing company and they take a reading from the picture and reproduce those exact colours.

WHAT ARE YOUR BESTSELLING AND MOST POPULAR PRODUCTS?

We opened our original shop three years ago as a place to showcase the fabric as predominantly we are fabric producers. As we grew, local makers would come in and say, “we love your fabric”, so we asked them to come back and show us their stuff, and if we liked it, we would sell the products in the shop for them as we very much wanted to help local crafters and promote their work. Our fabric is remarkably diverse so we can make all sorts of things, we have local companies making bags for us, door stops and things for pets. We also work with local furniture makers who use our fabric, and we can sell their furniture in the shop. It is really lovely to meet new people and help strengthen our unique and very special community. we have increasingly been able to support local creative people too. So much so that we have now created The Creative Quarter, Kendal (www.thecreativequarterkendal. co.uk), with the aim of encouraging more visitors to our end of town, but also to make Kendal a destination for everybody interested in the creative arts.

YOU SAID YOU WANT TO PUT HERDWICK FABRIC ON THE MAP, HOW IS THAT GOING WITH REGARDS TO TRADE?

It is going well, and it is constantly growing, we want the Cable & Blake brand to be synonymous with the Lake District. With anything it takes time to become established, but we are now starting to get enquiries from all over, so word is getting out there. We are happy taking a slower approach, especially over the last year as it has been hard for everyone and we are still expanding the Cable & Blake story further afield. Our business is about the story and the journey to educate people about the importance and beauty of the Herdwick sheep as many people see a sheep as just a sheep and don’t understand the different breeds.

HOW HAS THE PANDEMIC BEEN FOR BUSINESS?

One of the positive things out of covid is that more people are shopping online, so we are getting more orders that way. This makes us more accessible as it is not always

I SEE YOU HAVE DONE COLLABORATIONS WITH YOUNG DESIGNERS; HOW DO YOU CHOOSE THEM?

Yes, one collaboration was with Izzy Castle, a young designer who is currently at the Glasgow School of Art. We have created the “Izzy Castle Collection,” where we have created five new prints, which we are just about to launch. The prints are based on Lake District themes. Izzy was able to quickly understand what Cable and Blake represented, so we were thrilled to be able to collaborate and offer her the opportunity.

HOW IMPORTANT IS WORKING WITH LOCAL BUSINESS AND BEING BRITISH MADE?

We started off thinking that we would be supporting local farmers. It is crazy that such a fantastic resource is being destroyed or thrown away. As we have grown, 32 LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE www.lancmag.com

easy for people to come up to the Lakes, and slowly but surely, we have had orders from other parts of the country. We also have a distributor in Hollywood, so our fabric is now being sold in a shop in LA. The pandemic gave us the time to get the website up to speed, we also moved to a bigger shop which was a bit of a risk, but the smaller shop didn’t have the visibility we wanted. The larger shop now is double fronted, and we are getting so many more people popping in which is such a positive. Ultimately it has given us time to think about where we want to go and focus on the fabric and getting our name further afield.

WHAT IS NEW FOR CABLE & BLAKE?

We are going to start promoting the new prints. We have also launched a new product called’ Petal Wool Print’. We have partnered with a floristry company called ‘The Floralistas’ and an eco-print company called ‘Leaf’. A bride will be able to preserve her wedding bouquet and turn it into a printed fabric keepsake. We can take the foliage and roses from the bride’s bouquet and steam them onto our Herdwick fabric, from there we can make unique and memorable items like cushions, or a piece of upholstered furniture.