What a very successful month it's been for raising funds for the Essex Wildlife Trust at Warley Place. The total profit from the weeks spanning the Open Days and the extra days on Easter Sunday and Monday (26th March – 25th April) raised a staggering £6,254. This included donations provided by the majority of the total visitors during this period (nearly 3,750 at the weekends); sales of the crafts, bird boxes, fat poles, leaf mould, prints and books. Guided walks were also conducted that received much appreciated donations from interested groups. The open days have been running for a few years now, however, they don't happen automatically and an enormous thank-you to Fiona Agassiz who organised the volunteers from across the Brentwood and Billericay branch area to man the tented reception area, and car park attendants, who did a great job to ensure drivers didn't have the luxury to park where they wanted to, ensuring as many as possible could get in. Also, to John Cannell, who always seemed to be there at the weekends. Some questioned whether he has really got a home to go to. The funds raised by Warley Place for the Brentwood and Billericay Branch of the Essex Wildlife Trust are allocated at the discretion of the branch committee. In March £8,000 was allocated to the Trust's reserve at Fingringhoe Wick to purchase a new bird hide. Other spend has been provided locally for a new cooker at the Thorndon Visitor Centre and some new tools at Warley Place. Additional, funding has also been provided for a detailed survey of Warley Place, which started in April. The objective is to accurately map all the important features of the reserve, of which there are countless, and to make it easily updatable as new things are unearthed. Many thanks for all your donations and monies from bought goods to enable these things to happen. The tireless John Cannell has again been back to Spetchley Park in Gloucestershire (formally the home of Ellen Willmott's sister) to photograph Ellen's photographic negatives. There are numerous boxes of them and appear to be in no specific order, so all are being copied. Volunteers are trawling through those we have so far trying to identify what they are of, especially Warley Place. More trips are planned to capture all the negatives available in the archived store there. Ha, ha no digger – well, the digger did turn up and made an initial scrape to deepen the ha ha near the Main Drive and promptly decided it had had enough. Repairs are under way as I write and visitors in early May should see some progress here. This work will also be done to the ha ha next to the sweet chestnuts, this work is to stop cattle in the meadows with delusions of mountaineering making an exit into the reserve again this year. During May at Warley Place the last of the familiar spring flowering bulbs will have died off and weeds will come into their own. Or, are they wild plants in places that we don't really want them? In essence these plants are left to their own devices, however, there is a need to manage these in certain areas of the reserve to ensure they don't engulf and kill of some of the inherited plants from Ellen Willmott's day. One area is the Walled Garden where, in the previous years, an effort has been made to get rid of dock leaves, which have become abundant. An effort is made to dig out the plants with its root before they seed. However, this is much more practical when the ground is wet. Like many gardeners we will welcome a downpour of rain. Mick Hedges |
