Environment

Increasing biodiversity at Shiplate Slait

WEmoved to Shiplate House Farm at Bleadon in the summer of 1987. We then “lambed down” the following February and proceeded with our choice of the Poll Dorset breed to build up our flock of sheep and register as an organic farm. We travelled to North Wales to purchase our wonderful tri-coloured sheepdog, Bess, who faithfully worked our flock.

In 1988, we purchased our hill land Shiplate Slait, which is listed as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). We therefore decided to go into stewardship to help care for this special piece of land, with the support and advice of Avon Wildlife Trust and Tom Lane, English Nature.

The plan was designed to carry out scrub management as well as to facilitate appropriate grazing with Shetland ponies.

Shiplate Slait is calcareous limestone grassland meaning there is an array of wildflower species, including mouse-ear chickweed, purple orchid, dwarf sage, dropwort, fairy flax and lady’s bedstraw. One of our concerns were the turkey oaks and holm oaks as they are invasive species which needed to be removed with such methods as ring barking.

Avon Wildlife Trust has worked to scallop areas such as gorse, which in turn provide valuable habitat and maximise shelter for a variety of species. This rotational plan has encouraged the living seedbank to flourish especially in the spring and summer months.

We have worked on the B-Lines Project with the support of the trust, in which the permanent wildflower-rich habitat links existing wildlife and pollinators to create a network of “biodiversity lines” across the landscape.

We have also planted a traditional Somerset orchard with cider apples such as Slap me Girdle, Horay Morning, Somerset Redstreak, Varlington Mill and many more. We have therefore made the most of our apples with cider making, apple and raisin wine and of course the annual Wassail, where hats and beards are worn by all!

We have so enjoyed welcoming the volunteers from Avon Wildlife Trust and have kept a log of all the comments from “your hill is awash with flowers and I look forward to working here again” and “great views from your hill and thank you so much for the homemade flapjack”.

We have met an amazing array of people including volunteers carrying out fungi surveys, those that have visited year after year and one we affectionately named “the butterfly man” who came to identify and log the small blue, orange tipped, grizzled skipper, and marble white to name but a few.

They all had to mention our Shetland ponies as one could open zips and be off with your lunch, so it was advised to hang all rucksacks in a tree!

In 2018, we started to rebuild our Mendip dry stone wall, which we are still working on, and have completed 170m with the trust. Once completed our son, Tim, will be inserting a “time capsule” so that we can celebrate everyone who has been a part of the rebuild with pictures and comments as well as being inscribed with “Avon Wildlife Trust”.

We have had sightings of adders on our hill and whilst I am still in search of their place of shelter, the dry stone wall will provide shelter for vertebrates and invertebrates to live. Without the trust’s support, advice and expertise, we would not have been able to secure the biodiversity of our SSSI grassland for generations to come.

Volunteers starting work on the wall Jane with the dry stone wall

Yeo Valley Farms opens new access across the Mendips

A NEWmulti-user access route, crossing the Mendip plateau, has now opened thanks to Yeo Valley Farms with the support of £11,912.50 funding by the Farming in Protected Landscapes Programme (FiPL).

The multi-user route is open to walkers, equestrians, off-road cyclists and disabled mobility scooters.

The new route which is 5.5km in length, provides a safe, offroad route linking Townsend Pool, Priddy to Charterhouse and Nordrach at Yeo Valley’s Ubley Warren Farm for the first time, improving access within the Mendip Hills AONB for local communities and visitors alike.

Yeo Valley’s Tim Mead said: “From both Ubley Warren and Priddy there is good access across the Mendips; from Ubley Warren, Black Down and Velvet Bottom are easily reachable, and Priddy is on a network of paths to the south of the Mendips.

“But there was a missing link between the two; this new path provides better access to key landmarks in the Mendips for walkers, campers and horse riders alike.”

Rachel Thompson, from The Trails Trust and chairman of Priddy Parish Council, who had asked if this trail could be provided, said: “This new trail will be a fantastic asset for our community and for visitors.

“It provides a safe missing link to multi-user rights of way and permissive paths at either end of the parish and will promote active and recreational travel between Priddy village, Charterhouse and Nordrach. The whole community is very grateful to Yeo Valley for this route.”

The access route is flat with few inclines or steep sections making it suitable for users of different ages and abilities. It passes close to a number of historic features with far-reaching viewpoints across the plateau.

As part of the project, 100 metres of dry-stone wall has been restored using traditional techniques, creating sustainable, durable walls with natural habitats for local wildlife.

Gateways, signage and fencing have also been created to separate people from livestock.

Pictured (l to r) Megan Godley and Patrick Hancock, Mendip AONB, Tom White and Tim Mead, Yeo Valley, and Rachel Thompson, chair Priddy Parish Council

School wins sustainable travel award

Oscar and Olivia on Scooter Day last year School council members who took part in a virtual ceremony for the regional award

CHEWStoke Church School is in line for a gold national award – for the second year running – for promoting walking, cycling and sustainable travel, after winning a Gold Modeshift STARS award last year.

The award is a national accreditation scheme that recognises schools that champion healthy and active ways to travel to and from school, as well as embedding those habits for pupils in later life.

The school has now been named the South West and Midlands Stars Local Authority Primary School of the Year and Regional Primary School of the Year.

Head teacher, Ben Hewett, said: “As winners of the regional award we will automatically be put forward for the national award later in the year, which will take place at the Houses of Parliament. Congratulations to the whole school community.”

Community gardens are taking shape

FAMILIES gathered at the Broadway Community Gardens site in Frome for a clearance work party and Easter fun and games.

Frome Town Council has submitted a request to Mendip District Council, who own the site off Broadway and Oakfield Road, to take over the one-acre site and allow the community to run it.

The Broadway Community Gardens Association plans to run half of the as an allotment and educational area and the other as an orchard and informal woodland space leaving parts untouched to encourage wildlife.

The association was set up after Mendip included the site in a list of council-owned spaces to be considered for possible housing.

People living nearby have already installed raised beds for vegetables and herbs and planted trees and hedgerows and improved the public footpaths across the site. They say the site provides a vital link in a wildlife corridor through that part of Frome.

Everyone joined in the work party

Parts of a buried motorbike were discovered Having fun whittling wood

Clearing some of the brambles and undergrowth to create a seating area

Local residents have taken the site to their hearts

Students plant trees

STUDENTS from the Mendip School planted 200 trees at the new community space, Wilfswood in Evercreech, to mark the start of a partnership for a forest school and outdoor learning activities.

The Mendip School, based on the Bath and West showground, is a special school and has over 140 students with a range of additional needs.

The school says the project will help build confidence and awareness around environmental projects and broaden the opportunities for outdoor learning.

Wilfswood is motivated by the Climate and Ecological Crisis and since it started in 2020 has planted well over 500 trees on former farmland.