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​

 ​The Tisbury - and district - Natural History Society is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and, with more than a 100 members, is as healthy as ever. This timeline reviews some of the key milestones during its first 40 years, as the present committee has recalled going through past documentation or asking past members.

Click on the timeline picture for a closer look at all the details (and have a look at the lovely hand drawings by Debbie Carter).

​During this time, more than 400 talks and excursions have been organised and successfully undertaken, on many different topics and reaching as far as Lundy Island. Despite our relatively modest ambitions as a local society, support to funding appeals from local, regional, national and international charities have been very numerous over the years, including World Wide Fund for Nature, National Forest (including the Memorial Arboretum), Save the Tiger, Kingcombe Trust, Wiltshire Wildlife Hospital, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, Dorset Wildlife Trust, Woodland Trust and Froglife.

None of this would have been possible without the knowledge, help and enthusiasm of many individuals, either committee members, members, collaborators or guests, who have given up their time to promote the natural world in and around Tisbury. We are very grateful for their contribution and very sorry we cannot list them all in the timeline! 

​Other past committee members, not in the timeline but to whom the society is extremely indebted: Lizzy Paylan, Ann Wilson, Rosie Buck, Anne Martin, G. Mathews, Ruth Timbrell, Anne Grey, D. Ramsley, Steve Flowerday, Phil Woods, V. Broughton, Steve Palmer, Richard Tambling, Steve Roger, Bill Simcock, Connie Roberts, Mary Osborne, Diana Forbes. 

Do have a read of the inaugural Society meeting notes of 1982.

We apologise if we have missed anybody or any important milestone. Please let us know if you have any suggestions!

​Inés López-Dóriga

Join us in the Tisbury Parish Meadow on Sunday 19th December at 10 am to help plant more than 100 trees received from the Woodland Trust (Downy Birch, Crab Apple, Hazel, Goat Willow and Hawthorn) together, with some disease-resistant elms.

The trees are merely whips at this stage, so the planting won’t take long, but you need to bring a spade with you.

Debbie and Andrew Carter have kindly offered to organise mulled plum wine and mince pies for anyone who comes to help. To give them an idea of how many to cater for, if you’re planning to come along, please let us know.

Dick Budden, our Treasurer, has sent this update to all our members - but if you're not already a member, please join!  It's only £10 a year. Dick wrote: 

'So - July did indeed turn out to be an eventful month for the society and we managed to start making things happen again.

'The moth survey, went down really well. This was our first meeting aimed specifically at engaging young people with the natural world. Over thirty people turned up, roughly a third of them youngsters, and we gained a number of new members for the society and for the mailing list.

'Ines has put together a whole programme of further events aimed at children and young adults: next up is a butterfly walk on Saturday 22nd August. Please encourage any young people you know to read about it here or via our Facebook page, and sign up for emailing at youngtnhs@gmail.com. 

'Also on Facebook you’ll find a picture of jubilant volunteers celebrating the last ragwort being pulled from the community field. It took two sessions, but it was worth it: ragwort is poisonous to animals so it was vital to remove it to permit the annual hay cut without which the wildflowers we sowed a year ago will not flourish.

'And the members guided walk around Home Farm Teffont Evias also went really well (though sadly a few were forced to drop out when it was deferred by a day to avoid heavy rain). The 23 who came walked in socially distanced groups of five or six with our excellent guides, Jasper Bacon, Peter and Martin Shallcross (and the last two made the journey twice) and came away knowing far more about the geology, topography, history and natural history of the village and its surrounding countryside.

'Earlier the committee had been thinking about what we can do in the absence of indoor meetings to revive the society’s events programme, and this trip to Teffont seems to provide a template for the foreseeable future. So, in the first instance we are aiming to revive the Field Trip to Oysters Coppice and Gutch Common, starting at Semley that was postponed from earlier in the year, in a fortnight’s time.

'If you are interested and would like to join, please email treasurer.tisnathist@gmail.com and tell me which date and time you would be able to come:
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Field Trip to Oysters Coppice and Gutch Common, starting from Semley:
Saturday 15th August, a.m./p.m./either
and/or
Sunday 16th August , a.m./ p.m./either                      

'I hasten to add that it is unclear at present how many guides we have available to lead groups of 5 or 6 on this walk. And there’s a chicken and egg riddle here; the number we need depends entirely on the response. If you think you could take this on (with advice from Peter, Ines, Debbie etc.) do please let me know.

'I should also mention that Lizzy Paylan has left the committee, and we thank her for all her help, but that we’re delighted to welcome three new members; Laura Downer, Steve Flowerday and Ines López-Dóriga.

'Keep well.'