Jan 24, 2023
Londonthorpe Wood has been a haven for wildlife and people for 30 years. Colourful meadows and lush grassland open out amidst trees both old and new, where butterflies, grass snakes, wildflowers and woodpeckers all live. Now the Woodland Trust and National Trust are working together to make it even more appealing and accessible. Project manager Heather Cook tells us all about it, including what’s been achieved so far, how local people have been involved, prioritising nature, history and visitors’ wellbeing, and plans for the future.
We also hear from Edd, a volunteer wildlife monitor, on what surveying involves, which species he’s spotted and the excitement of seeing hundreds of butterflies in a single day.
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Transcript
You are listening to Woodland Walks, a podcast for the Woodland Trust, presented by Adam Shaw. We protect and plant trees for people to enjoy, to fight climate change and to help wildlife thrive.
Adam: Well today I'm going off to Londonthorpe Wood. And the
clue is in the name, it is a hop skip and a jump from London. In
fact, well it's very close to Grantham. In fact, I think it's the
closest woodland to the Woodland Trust headquarters in
Grantham.
Now the woodland is about 190 acres big. It's got wildflower
meadows, broadleaf and mature woodland. It's got a whole bunch of
wildlife and lush open grassland as well. So, it's a very mixed
site indeed. And part of the purpose of this site is that the
Woodland Trust has been working with the National Trust, supported
by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to link Londonthorpe Wood and
a place called Bellmount, which is the eastern part of the Belton
House estate, which is rather grand and very nice. And it really
gives a lot more accessible green space on the edge of Grantham to
help people experience nature right on their doorstep.
And what I'm really looking forward to – look – the place is filled
with an abundance of butterflies. There's grassland areas, you
might even see a grass snake. There's the great spotted woodpecker
and even, you might see, a kestrel. Interestingly, also cattle are
also put to work on the site as part of a program of conservation
grazing.
Of course, you don't see all of that at this time of year, but you
never know what I might find. There's ash, there's oak, there's
horse chestnut, there's beech, there's rowan, there's… oh I don't
know!... sycamore, there's a whole bunch of stuff and I'm going to
meet one of the Woodland Trust staff who's responsible for really
bringing the site together.
Heather: So, my name is Heather Cook and I am the project manager
on this, reconnecting Grantham to its historic landscape
project.
Adam: Right, so, Heather I have to say, I left London, it was
pouring down, I’m wearing my warmest clothes and get to Grantham
and the weather is lovely. So, I apologise if I'm going to be very
sweaty during this walk [Laughter], I’ve come overly dressed,
overly dressed. Anyway, we are in Grantham very near the Woodland
Trust headquarters, so this must be the nearest woodland to the
Woodland Trust.
Heather: It is.
Adam: Why is this so important?
Heather: So, well, because Londonthorpe Wood, as you say, is
closest to our head office, but it's also situated right next to a
beautiful historic landscape at Belton House. And erm so, the
project that we're working on here is really about reconnecting the
landscape. So…
Adam: So, what does reconnecting the landscape actually mean?
Heather: So, Londonthorpe Wood, Londonthorpe the site was
originally part of the original Brownlow estate. I mean it was sold
off years ago, Woodland Trust planted it up as a woodland, but it
was very separate then from the Belton Estate.
Adam: Right.
Heather: So, we are now working in partnership with the National
Trust on this project and opening up access for the people of
Grantham. So, they've now got access to the entire landscape to the
east of Belton House and Londonthorpe Wood.
Adam: And when you talk about reconnecting the landscape then, is
that reconnecting pockets of ecology so that nature has a bigger
place to thrive? Or is it about sort of connecting a lovely house
with a lovely bit of greenery so people can wander around?
Heather: It's a bit of both. So, it's mostly to do with the
physically reconnecting the two sites, so it's not actually
connecting to the Belton House park, it's a section of Belton House
that sits to the east of their estate where the Bellmount Tower is.
It's freely accessible, there's no paved area. People can come in.
So, it's a physical connection – we've opened up kissing gates and
put in a bridge and all of that between the two sites. But then
also very much around improving biodiversity, opening access from a
wildlife point of view as well.
Adam: And how long has that project been going on for then?
Heather: So, the development phase was a few years, but the actual
delivery of the project started just over two years ago.
Adam: And what have you managed to achieve then?
Heather: [Laughter]
Adam: Sorry, that wasn't my inner Jeremy Paxman [laughter] ‘come on
and justify what you've done!’ No, no, so what has actually
happened there?
Heather: So, I think one of the biggest things you can see
physically on the site is that we have majorly upgraded the car
park. It was a small, very wobbly, difficult-to-get-around, little
car park and we have upgraded that with a beautiful, big overflow
space for when we have events. But I think the most exciting part
for me is that we've been able to put the surface path in. So that
has opened up the site to a much bigger group of people. It used to
be that people would drive in, park their car, 20 minutes around
the park with their dogs, back in the car and off they went.
Whereas now we've got people in mobility scooters, baby buggies,
wheelchairs coming to the site because it’s surfaced and relatively
level. It makes, that obviously makes it a lot easier. And also, in
the winter this section that we're in now, it can get incredibly
muddy and that puts off a lot of new users who aren't used to that.
So, it makes it very much more accessible.
Adam: I mean, it's interesting. I mean, this is a very, you know,
well-kept path, a lovely path which we don't often see or don't
always see in woodlands and you've clearly gone to a lot of effort
to improve access. Is there a sort of tension between your duty to
safeguard the natural world and your duty to allow access, to
encourage people to engage with it?
Heather: Absolutely. It's, one of our big sort of priorities for
the project is to create, to find that balance.
Adam: Is there a trade-off? I mean, I mean, I just wonder whether
that's an easy balance to achieve or do you have to lose on one
side to gain on the other?
Heather: I don't think so. You know, Londonthorpe is not an ancient
woodland, it's… this we're walking through now was planted in the
early 1990s, so it's about 30 years old. So, it hasn't, you know,
we weren't doing any damage necessarily to anything. I can't say it
wasn't of value, it is of value, but it's not, we weren't losing
anything dramatic. It was… we were quite careful when we put the
paths in, they were all… these, you know, through the woodland
sections were no dig, so, it's not disturbing any of the tree
roots, you can see them right up against the path. So no, I don't
think it has been too much of a battle.
Adam: and encouraging people to engage in woodlands and places like
this – what is your hope? I mean, I mean, it's a very nice sort of
thing for people to do to wander around. There's no charge,
especially in these days – that's a lovely free thing for the
family to do… go in, you know, investigate a Woodland Trust wood.
But do you think there's a greater purpose in trying to encourage
that engagement?
Heather: I think so, I think one of the things that we found so
interesting was that, you know, our project actually got off the
ground right as the pandemic started. But during the development
phase we had done some number count… you know, some people counters
on the site counting how many people are coming through and during
the pandemic, those numbers more than doubled. And I think that
what we have found… you hear it all over the show… the value and
the benefit of wildlife to people's mental health and I think that
that has, that's a very big deal for us, is that, there's not a lot
of green space available in Grantham and it's, a big part of our
project is trying to tell people that we’re here, that it's free to
visit and that it's a huge benefit to them in so many ways.
Adam: Well, we've just come out of this woodland area very densely
packed woodland area to a lovely sort of open, open bit, which is
fantastic. I mean, tell me a bit about the landscape here and the
sort of different varieties we're seeing.
Heather: So, it's one of the things that I love so much about the
site is that every 10 minutes you walk into a different landscape
[laughter] it changes all the time. But just to our right on that
side of the site is where the Belton estate is and when we get
around the corner, you'll see that this landscape is very similar
to that and it was actually planted, as I mentioned in the 1990s,
to reflect that landscape. So that's why we've got these big open
grassland areas, some more densely packed woodland. Further on in
the south, there's a lot of scrubland. So very much trying to keep
it in keeping with the Belton estate.
Adam: And how important, you talked about trying to offer this as a
facility for the local community. How, how engaged are they?
Heather: Very much more since we've done the… made the changes to
the site. As I said, we've seen the numbers go up a lot. We've had
a really, really positive response to the changes. And our project
is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, so we've got two
full-time staff on the project, me being one of them. And we've got
a community development officer on the site as well. And a large
part of his job is to promote the project in the town, engage with
community groups, invite them out to show them what we've got and
so that, that's making a big difference, that people, more people
know about it.
Adam: And in terms of local volunteers, is there a sort of army of
people willing to come and help or is that is that just a hope at
the moment?
Heather: No, we've got a group, a couple of groups are really,
really engaged fantastic volunteers. So, we've got a group that do
guided walks for us. So, they do different themed walks. We do walk
from the Belton House to Bellmount Tower on a regular basis and we
do military history walks. And then we've also got a really active
group of wildlife monitor volunteers. So, they've been monitoring
birds, butterflies, doing transects all over the site.
Adam: And are we meeting someone who's one of those volunteers?
Heather: Yes, that's Edd! Edd Cullen. He's been with us now, I
think he'll probably have to tell you, but about a few months
now.
Adam: Right. So early start. [laughter] Early start. Fresh blood,
fresh blood. Well, look and to the left, well, that looks like a
golf course or something. It's a very well-manicured bit of land…
maybe not a golf course, is that just someone’s private garden?
Heather: No, that's also part of the Belton House estate. It is a
golf course. They’re on a long-term lease.
Adam: Right, okay. Fantastic. Well, I'm gonna go off and meet Edd
who is just lurching. He's not lurching. He's lurking. That was the
word I was looking for. He's lurking. He's lurking by a tree down
the path here. Edd, who is one of the volunteers. I’m going to talk
to him about the work that they do here.
Pause
Hi. So, you're one of the volunteers. Is that right?
Edd: I am yeah.
Adam: So, what do you volunteer with? What, what do you do?
Edd: Well so, currently this year we've been doing weekly butterfly
surveys and monthly bird surveys. So, each, each week we come to do
a butterfly survey. It's just the end of the season now that's
finished. But we carry on with the monthly bird surveys throughout
the year. Hopefully in the future when we get more volunteers,
we’ll look to expand that to dragonfly surveys or nesting birds,
breeding territories, and that sort of thing.
Adam: And how do you do those surveys? I mean, is it literally just
wandering around going oh that’s a nice butterfly? [Laughter]
Edd: For the butterfly survey we follow a set route around the…
transect around the site, made up of several legs, and we walk
along, and we observe 2.5 metres either side of us and monitor and
note any butterflies we see as we go along the, along, along the
transect. We walk at a steady pace and go all the way around and
see what we find in each leg.
Adam: Butterflies are quite small. I mean, how difficult is it
[Laughter] I mean I do see a butterfly, but I think if I went out
looking for one, I probably wouldn't find one. How hard is it
actually?
Edd: It's quite tricky to begin with. But then you sort of after a
while, you know what to look for certain flowers they like to be
around and certain movements you see near the vegetation. So, after
a while, you do sort of get the hang of it.
Adam: And did you know this site before the Woodland Trust sort of
got heavily involved.
Edd: I've been here quite a lot before, before I became a
volunteer, and I really liked to, enjoyed walking around it. So now
I'm a volunteer here. It's quite good to be able to have a reason
to visit every week. And even if we don't see many butterflies,
it's still a nice walk.
Adam: Have you noticed much of a change in the landscape here in
the past few years or indeed how many butterflies and birds you've
managed to see?
Edd: Well, I've just been doing it, this is my first year
volunteering. Volunteers tell me this year butterfly numbers were
lower than they had been in previous years. So, I'm not quite sure
if that's due to the climate or, or something like that, but in
peak season, when we were doing the surveys, I think the most we
saw was a couple of hundred on the transect, but it can be much
more than that.
Adam: Wow, sorry, I thought you were going to go, oh I saw ten!
Over a couple of hundred butterflies!
Edd: Yeah, we can do on the busiest days. Yeah.
Adam: Okay. That's very cool. Why did you get involved as a
volunteer? What attracted you to that?
Edd: Well, my goal is to work in the conservation sector, and I
recently graduated from doing a master’s degree in biodiversity
conservation. So, I was looking to get some more experience doing
some sort of hands-on survey work.
Adam: What would you say to other people who are listening to this
and say oh I quite fancy spotting butterflies? I mean, what would
you say about the joys of doing that or whether that's something
you'd recommend?
Edd: Oh yeah, I definitely recommend it! It's really, really
enjoyable, and it's always exciting when you see a species you
haven't seen before. There's quite a few different ones. Yeah, it's
always really exciting.
Adam: And how did you apply then? You just went to the website, or
you stood outside headquarters?
Edd: Well, I saw information about the reconnecting project on
social media. So, I emailed to find out more, see if there's any
volunteering going on. And I got an email back saying that there's
a wildlife monitoring team and I thought that sounds great. It
sounds just like I want to do. So yeah, I got, I got involved.
Adam: So, if you're interested, have a look at the website and
follow them on Twitter and…
Edd: Yeah, absolutely
Adam: Brilliant. But in terms of butterflies then are there any,
any special to this site, or do you have favourites?
Edd: I'm not sure there's any that's special to this site, but my
favourite I've seen is the painted lady. I've seen quite a few of
those this year. They're really really, really vibrant. Really
really nice to see. I saw quite a few species though… about… I
think about a dozen species I’ve seen so far. We’ve had small and
Essex skippers and common butterflies, red admiral, common blue.
So, lots of different kinds.
Adam: Did you have to learn what those butterflies were? Did you
come fully armed with butterfly knowledge?
Edd: Well, my butterfly knowledge… didn't have… wasn't extensive
when I started. But luckily I'm paired up with a more experienced
volunteer and was able to learn a lot from them and learn more as I
go as I spot them, and doing it every week you see the same
butterflies every week, and you sort of pick up what species they
are.
Adam: Brilliant. Well Edd, thank you very much. I'm gonna leave Edd
there and go back to Heather for, sort of, a final word really on
what she hopes the future for this site will hold.
Heather: So, the project runs for four… is gonna run for four
years. We've got another two years left on the project and we hope
that by the time we get to the end of the National Lottery Heritage
Fund funding that that will, we will have engaged really
successfully with a number of community groups in the town. So, my
hope really is that that will continue indefinitely after the life
of the project and that this will become a really special valued
place for the people of Grantham.
Adam: Well, it's lovely, lovely. And lovely weather as ever on
these walks. I'm always blessed with good weather… shouldn't jinx
it. But thank you Heather, that's brilliant. Thank you Heather,
thank you very much.
Heather: Thank you.
Adam: Do remember you can find a wood near you by looking at the
Woodland Trust website, which is woodlandtrust.org.uk/findawood, or
indeed you can just type in find a wood into your search engine of
choice and it will direct you to that Woodland Trust page. But
until next time and another wood somewhere in the country I look
forward to walking with you then. Until then, happy wandering.
Thank you for listening to the Woodland Trust Woodland Walks.
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