If you are interested to learn a practical skill and to help conserve the landscape around you, you may be interested to hear of courses in hedgelaying being offered at Church Farm in Semley over the next few months.

Day-long courses, aimed at beginners and free to participants, though limited to half a dozen people at a time, will be led by Anthony Brown, a man of considerable experience and skill, on five days between now and next February:

Saturday 12th November, Friday 25th November, Saturday 10th December, Friday 20th January and Friday 3rd February.
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If you think you may be interested then please use our contact form and we will forward the email address to you.

Thanks to everyone who popped by our stall last Saturday including our lovely volunteers, Lizzy and Janet, who helped man the stall. And well done to those who tried their hand with the Wildlife Quiz. The best score was 18 out of 20. No prizes but you know who you are!

Young Nature Watch provided some bug hotels from their recent group activity which we gave away for small donations. We hope to see some new members at the next Young Nature Watch activity which is a bug hunt on Saturday 13th August. Please sign up to their mailing list to keep in touch.

What a beautiful evening it turned out to be, fresh after the rain. Thank you to all who came along and joined us in celebrating the Society's 40th Anniversary on Saturday.

Peter and Inés set out a challenging 26 wildflower identification trail across the meadow and Andrew Graham's multiple choice mystery wildlife quiz had people marvelling at the stunning clues taken from photographs by our members.

Prizes were awarded to young guests and slightly older members... What could be better than celebrating together in a pretty meadow in the late June sunshine? 

The skies are clearing and we're keeping to plan with the party on the Field. Please see below for details.

We look forward to seeing you on Tisbury's Community Field at 6pm this Saturday. Parking is available at the Nadder Centre and you can walk down the track beside the swimming pool to reach us on the field.

There’ll be a Wildflower Treasure Hunt and a Wildlife Mystery Quiz to amuse both young and not-so-young, and for whole families working together. Come early and get stuck in; the grand prize giving will be at 7:00PM.
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We’ll provide a glass (or rather, paper cup) of wine &/or other drinks, and some nibbles, but please bring your own picnic or snacks (do avoid anything breakable, or glass) and something to sit on if you wish.

At the moment the weather app is saying it's going to be a warm, sunny evening on Saturday. If it changes to a rainy forecast, we'll put a notice up on the blog about the change to an inside venue.

Poppy Roou from the Chase & Chalke Landscape Partnership has contacted us to spread the word about needing trainees for their Chase & Chalke short River Ebble Training sessions next week. All equipment will be provided.

The sessions with the Wessex Rivers Trust and the Chase & Chalke team are open to all ages and it is a great opportunity for skills development and for our river habitat health.

Unfortunately, if they don’t have more trainees they will need to re-schedule the sessions.

Sessions are:
Thursday 19th May
3pm - 4.30pm / 4.30pm - 6pm
 
Register here for training:
www.bttr.im/cnmw2
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If you or potential trainees have any questions please email info.cranbornechase@wiltshire.gov.uk or contact Poppy on PoppyRoou@cranbornechase.org.uk.

More information and background to this training is here: https://cranbornechase.org.uk/chaseandchalke/a-crystal-clear-ebble/

We are delighted to share the news that Peter Shallcross was announced as the winner of the Conservation Project of the Year at the Wiltshire Life Awards 2022 ceremony last Friday for his Disease Resistant Elm Project. Well done, Peter! 

As a token of our gratitude to past committee members, Peter Shallcross presented  ‘Plants and Us’ by John Akeroyd to Pete Thompson and Pam Chave at the AGM on 17th February and to Val Hopkinson afterwards, as they were on the very first committee 40 years ago.
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Elizabeth Forbes was also presented with an 'Earth from the Air' book by the photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, for her work with the Swift project.

Congratulations to our chair, Peter Shallcross, Vice Chair of the Nadder Valley Farmer Group, on being short-listed for his disease-resistant elm project in the  Conservation Project of the Year category of the 2022 Wiltshire Life Awards.

With 6,000 elm trees delivered nationally, Peter’s work over the last five years has made a significant contribution to the re-establishment of elm trees in our landscape and the conservation of species which rely on elms to thrive. 
  

Here are the photos of our trip to the Harnham water meadows on Saturday. It was a very successful morning.  The weather was perfect.  We brought a group of 26 + people including several children and Hadrian Cook, gave us an excellent guided tour of the meadows explaining  and demonstrating  the drowning process which probably started in Harnham in about 1660.

The natural water meadows were made from the 13th C when mill ponds, drainage channels and hatches were constructed to create a controlled system to irrigate the meadows.

A regular flow of nutrient rich warm water from the stream or river nearby was diverted onto the meadows.  This water was flowing gently, so not stagnant. This was controlled by hatches in channels which were lifted to allow the water to flow from one area to another and the hatches lowered to stop the flow after about a week.

This resulted in this early ‘bite’ for sheep.  The grass was much earlier and richer than that found on the downs at that time of year. This process would be done during January and maybe throughout the summer. When the numbers of sheep decreased in the first half of the 20th C as a result of mechanisation and wartime the practice of water meadow irrigation ceased.

However, a Trust was formed in 1990 to restore and preserve this internationally important heritage site in Harnham.  It is managed mainly by a team of volunteers and Rose Cottage by the Town Path was purchased in 2006 by the Trust.  It is a meeting place for all activities connected with the meadows including public walks, educational visits and lectures. It has an exhibition inside showing historical and scientific details about the meadows  and photos of work done and recent events.
 
The Trust welcomes visitors and school groups and also volunteers.
More information is available by email: info@watermeadows.org.uk or there is a website www.salisburywatermeadows.org.uk

​Debbie Carter​