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Waitrose Community Matters
Waitrose and Partners in Frimley have chosen to support the Blackwater Valley Countryside Trust during February 2020.
Shoppers are given the opportunity to vote for our charity with their green token that they receive when they pay for their goods.
There is £1000 available which will be split between us and the two other nominated charities. The amount given to each charity is determined by the proportion of green tokens posted for each. The more tokens that are placed in our slot, the greater our share.
If you’re shopping in Waitrose in Frimley, please support us and tell all your friends too!
Read more about Waitrose Community Matters
We walked off the Christmas pudding!
We had a lovely guided 6 mile winter walk starting at Blackbushe Airport car park, round Yateley Common, then through the beautiful Castle Bottom National Nature Reserve and back to the car park via the Common.
This was followed by a bite to eat at the Bushe Cafe
This was our last fundraising event of the year to help us carry on our conservation work in the Blackwater Valley.
Thank you to all who joined us on the walk, especially to the new members who joined the Trust at the walk.
Monthly walk in October 2019
October’s walk was a circular walk starting from Swallowfield Park. Here’s Paul’s walk report.
It seemed to me like it had been raining constantly for two weeks when we met under a spinney of oaks at Swallowfield Park on Saturday morning. But for a change the sun was shining promising a fine day for walking.
This park was first recorded in 1316 and the home to many noble families including being owned by Thomas Pitt, grandfather of Pitt the elder. The first thing we noticed was a fine display of a ring of large mushrooms in a circle around one of the mature oak trees. These, possibly Parasol Mushrooms, were at least twelve inches tall and were all left untouched. Later in the day, several other people arrived there to photograph them.
We set off on the footpath around the large fields and passed the copse named as “Cuckoo Pen” before taking the quiet Nutbeam Lane and the now very narrow path to descend to the Blackwater River. The recent rain had raised the water level to make a fine display with many geese in the field on the far bank. The confluence of the Whitewater and Blackwater rivers was clearly visible.
Crossing the river near Thatcher’s Ford, where the Roman road, the Devil’s Highway, meets the river on its passage from London to Silchester, we followed the path around a field which took us away from the river and into Bramshill Plantation. We followed the wide forestry tracks past a large pond which was almost unnoticed as the vegetation on the banks has grown profusely since we were there last year – I think I know several volunteers who would willingly cut this down if ever the Forestry Commision wished to, Continuing alongside areas of dense young pines and then areas of thinner more mature trees before we followed the only marked footpath in the forest to its western edge.
We left the forest behind to take the quiet lane to Springwater Farm and through the paddocks to start to turn north. Here at a very picturesque end of the field Angus was waiting for us with his yellow wheelbarrow containing hot drinks and cakes for us.
Suitably refreshed we followed the bridleway to the wooden bridge over the Whitewater River and then past Risley Mill. The mill which was the lowest of eight mills on the Whitewater river and of late eighteen century origin. It ceased operation when the mechanism failed in 1910 and is now a private home. Then with the grounds of Wellington Country Park on our left we entered the newly created SANG on the water meadows on our right. These have been named the Wellesley Water Meadow and having areas both named Wellesley in the south of the Blackwater Valley and now in the north will I’m sure not cause any confusion to anyone! Anyway we strolled around the perimeter of the meadows on the mowed paths which again took us down to the Whitewater, unfortunately there was no sign of the kingfisher that had been spotted there the previous week but red kites did fly overhead.
We returned to the Devil’s Highway to head further west before crossing fields and quiet lanes before returning to Church Lane at Salters footbridge where the Blackwater temporarily splits into two streams. We then had a quick look around the churchyard of the thirteenth century All Saints church. Our cars were parked just at the exit of the churchyard near the grave of Mary Mitford the author of “Our Village”, based upon life in nearby Three Mile Cross before she moved to Swallowfield. We had finished our seven miles at exactly one o’clock.
I hope everyone enjoyed this, my last walk of the year and thanks to those that came along on this one and all the previous ones this year since we started at Lakeside Park in February. I’ve enjoyed your company.
Blackwater River Festival 2019
Our Festival has now drawn to a close and we reflect on a fantastic week. A huge thank you to everyone who joined and supported us.
Please see our Blackwater River Festival 2019 page for further informtion.
Mammals and moths enthrall the children
Thanks to all our friends at Tice’s and Moor Green who supported us with these events, and contributed material to this write up.
“Nice to get a waved black, nationally scarce“
Mammal walk at Colebrook lake
Mammal survey at Colebrook lake
45 traps were put out on Thursday and our wildlife expert, Bernard, returned on Friday to add more bait to the traps and then set them.
A glorious day, with wall to wall sunshine, heralded the first event of the Festival – a walk along the north shore of Colebrook lake to check the traps and see which rodents had been found.
Bernard had lots of enthusiastic young helpers to locate the traps, retrieve them and the marker stakes, and then clean out the traps.
14 mice were found, regretfully no voles or shrews.
Then came the exciting process of extracting the mice, sexing them, before releasing them back into the wild.
Moth survey at Tice’s Meadow
Moth survey at Tice’s Meadow
This moth survey was a huge success – a great evening’s mothing.
We were delighted to be joined by new visitors and well as some familiar faces, including the amazing Ben, who despite being a young lad, outshone all our experts with his ID skills and 700+ moth list. He amazed everyone with his knowledge and enthusiasm.
We found 3 new moth species for the site, including a Waved Black, which was a lifer for all present. An interesting selection of birds were also observed, including – Arctic Tern, Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Snipe and Hobby.
We ended the evening by Len using his telescope to show Jupiter, its moons and Saturn with its rings on a bright evening.
Moth survey at Rowhill
Unfortunately this last event of the Festival was cancelled due to bad weather.
Shout out to our amazing volunteers
Everyone had fun getting their hands dirty doing practical conservation work.
Restoration at Claycart Woods
Many thanks to all the hard working teams – a more friendly and cheerful bunch you could not wish to meet.
Read more about our volunteering opportunities.
“You are all amazing well done xxx“
Creating a canal-side habitat at Claycart Woods
Our Festival event at Claycart Woods was to create a canal-side habitat for the wildlife.
We built a grass snake egg laying heap and cleared overhanging trees to open up an area suitable for ground flora.
Read the full report from the Blackwater Valley Countryside Partnership
River clearance at Tice’s Meadow
Enjoying a well-earned cuppa!
River clearance day and it was raining cats and dogs!
Nevertheless, a fantastic amount of work was achieved with the Partnership volunteers, as part of the Festival.
Vegetation was cut back to let light into the river and to prepare the site for a new path surface.
Volunteer day at Rowhill
The Reserve Field Centre was open from 10 am and people were welcome to come and experience a day with the volunteers.
A warm welcome on our nature walks
Interesting guided and self-guided nature walks occurred during the Festival and attracted a lot of interest. A huge thank you to our friends at Tice’s and Moor Green Lakes Group for organising these events.
“The bat walk was excellent. I learned a lot and met some lovely people”
“I was amazed how many bats we have at Shepherd Meadows”
“Thanks for a fabulous insight into the amazing work being done here, was great to meet you today”
Self-guided signage, © Angus McDonald
Self-guided walk at Moor Green Lakes
A self-guided walk around the perimeter of the reserve was available every day of the Festival.
Information posters describing conservation activities were placed near public footpaths from Grove Hide along the River Blackwater to the Moor Green Lakes car park.
Bat walk at Shepherd Meadows
Of all the Trust’s regular specialist walks, our bat walks are always the first to fill up, and this was no exception.
Maybe it’s the combination of the expert knowledge of BVC Partnership Manager Steve Bailey and the specialist bat detector equipment, or maybe it’s just the strange fascination these creatures of the night have for us.
Birds at Tice’s Meadow
This was a great evening for all the family. We met in Shepherd Meadows car park, wrapped up warm, and explored for about two hours.
Guided birdwatching walk at Tice’s Meadow
This event was an introduction to the birds and other wildlife found at Tice’s Meadow. It was run in conjunction with the Surrey Bird Club, a walk of 1.5 miles, lasting around three hours.
Volunteers explained the site’s history and helped visitors spot some of the 191 species seen on the site. It was a lovely morning until the heavens opened!
Open day at Moor Green
Open Walks Day at Moor Green Lakes
With the nesting season over, Moor Green Lakes was open to the public at the birdfeeder paddock next to Colebrook Hide. Volunteers were there to talk about the reserve, its conservation and its wildlife. The hides were manned, allowing visitors to hear more about the reserve and its role in the Blackwater Valley.
In addition, hourly guided walks took place on the private paths within the reserve. The weather was perfect for walking and we were treated to the most amazing insight, by the MGLG team into the variety of wildlife and habitat that this reserve has to offer. We skirted Colebrook Lake, viewing Tern Island and Plover Island around to the tip of Long Island before exiting the area not normally open to the public.
Festival first – a new initiative
BVCT trustee Chris has been negotiating the Trust’s involvement with the Community Rail Partnership (CRP) to find ways to encourage the use of railways as a sustainable way to explore our Valley.
Rail to trail initiative
We are very lucky to have such wonderful countryside on our doorstep but have you considered exploring further along the 23 miles of wildlife corridor by train?
This is the principle behind our new and exciting Rail to Trail project – to show just how accessible the Blackwater Valley is by train and how easy it is for people to explore by combining the Blackwater path and the rail network.
What better way to get to know the Valley – all the health benefits but no car and no stress.
The Festival gave us a great opportunity to test out the idea – as part of a partnership project with CRP, we ran 3 Rail to Trail walks. The walk reports are below, from our leaders Colin and Chris.
We hope to share more news soon about our partnership with CRP and our new Rail to Trail signage project.
“We enjoyed joining the walk today, the weather held apart from a brief shower”
“A fantastic walk – we can’t wait for the next time”
“I enjoyed the walk at Wildmoor Heath from Sandhurst station and met a lovely group of people”
Rail to Trail: walk North Camp to Crowthorne, return by train
Waterproof boots were advisable!
This was a super valley walk of just under 9.5 miles between the 2 stations. It was led by David Daniels of CRP and Colin Wilson from BVCT, and the route ran through some of the most striking scenery on the Blackwater Valley path.
Despite the enthusiasm of our newsletter editor, who, when bathed in sunshine before the Festival, predicted the same for the Festival, the weather deteriorated quite severely such that only a small party of walkers was bold enough to join us.
As it turned out, the weather was not so bad! Lunch was had in the dry at Sandhurst and only a few showers blotted the day.
For the two previous nights torrential rain had affected our route through Hawley Meadows where a solid multi user path is proposed to help in future but as you can see, wearing waterproof boots was definitely advisable!
The walk ended in good time, the train ride back to North Camp was exactly on time and on this occasion, free to our walkers due to CRP funding.
We all made some new friends, learnt new things, enjoyed good company and added to our fitness, exactly what walking is about!
Our thanks go to David Daniels of CRP for joining us.
Rail to Trail: a nature trail around Sandhurst
Fly Agaric mushrooms
We set off from Sandhurst station, a brave small group having spotted that the rain would stop just as we started!
Passing through some very pleasant suburban streets we joined Wildmoor Heath for a circular route enjoying the heath and some good views from a carefully placed but tucked away seat overlooking the Valley.
Autumn colours were beginning to show and Trudi from Thames Basin Heaths Partnership gave us a short explanation about the valuable nature we could find there.
We failed to see any dartford warblers but we did find a rather unfortunate common lizard with a damaged tail and some nice fly agaric mushrooms. Chiffchaffs and nuthatches were heard as well as some of the expected tit flocks in the birch trees.
The walk route returned by the hidden gem of Snaprails Park before continuing south across Sandhurst Memorial Park to the River then followed the Blackwater Valley path back to the station.
This was a super, varied walk with lots to interest us. Our thanks again go to David Daniels of CRP and Trudi from TBH Partnership for joining us on such an unpromising day!
Rail to Trail: a circular walk from Ash
Chris hopped onto the 13.25 from Blackwater, 15 minutes and three stations later he arrived at Ash and joined up with seven fellow travellers wanting to see more of what the Valley had to offer.
This walk was led by David Daniels from CRP, ably assisted by our own guide and Valley expert Steve Bailey (Manager of the Blackwater Valley Countryside Partnership).
The walk took us from Ash Station to Ash Green Meadows, onto Tongham Woods via the Old Railway Path. We then picked up the Blackwater River footpath and along the Basingstoke Canal returning back to the station.
A fantastic walk of around 4.5 miles and it took us 2 hours 30 mins.
