Leader Rob
Crickley Hill Country Park has been a regular site for the GVCV over the past 15 years or so. The country park is jointly owned and managed by the National Trust and Gloucestershire County Council. On this occasion we were working for the former, clearing scrub from the scarp slope as part of an ongoing management programme for the limestone grassland.
The reason for the work is that if left unchecked the scrub will take over the grassland and shade out the community of plants supported by the limestone grassland. Several 'Belted Galloway's' cows have been employed to graze the slopes to keep the scrub under control. Obviously centuries ago the area would have been grazed as part of a farm and the flowers would have flourished accordingly. Also, what makes this site so valuable is that being on a steep slope, it has become marginal in terms of agricultural production, and therefore has never been 'improved' (sprayed with chemical fertilisers) or ploughed up during the war.
After a safety briefing
we set to work clearing the mainly hazel scrub whilst Tim the
National Trust warden started the fire with consummate ease.
After a few minutes a steady stream of brash (cut scrub) was being
dragged to the fire and duly burnt. For the larger hazel trees
Tim gave a demonstration of safe felling techniques which was
very well received.
The task was a joint venture with the Gloucestershire Outdoor Group, 5 of whom turned up to work with us and boosted numbers to 15 in the morning. Many thanks to them for turning up and getting stuck in.
Lunch was taken around the roaring fire, before the afternoon session began. By the time we 'clocked off' at 4 'o'clock a considerable area of scrub had been cleared, hopefully to be reclaimed by the limestone grassland plants. The whole park is a great place to visit particularly in the spring when the coppice woodland and limestone grassland areas that we have worked on are awash with flowers.
