One of the reasons we are being overwhelmed by plastic pollution is that plastic offers us cheap and easy solutions to problems that sometimes we didn’t even know we had. It’s Plastic Free July: time, perhaps, we dog owners contemplated some changes.
Continue reading “Plastic free dog ownership”
Common spotted orchids photographed in the reserve by Gillian Newbury.
Email from Clive: This plant has been slowly developing, it’s about a metre high now. My app says Wild Carrot but we all know it’s is not reliable so over to you. If you need more pics let me know.
Read on for our answer
One of our early-risers has sent us a picture of a small red tent pitched just inside the main entrance, right next to the noticeboard on which the NO CAMPING sign is displayed. It may or may not contain the person/people who lit a fire in the picnic place last night.
Message and video from Simon Henstock.
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While the noisier wing of the media has posted loud banner headlines about Bank Holiday Litter Louts, you have kept our reserve pristine. Yesterday, when the Friends met for their Wednesday work party, even the car park was litter-free. Thank you.
Sign Up with the Wildlife Trusts to do at least one wild thing every day throughout the whole month of June.
Let’s focus on the environment this summer; let’s learn a little, make a contribution of some kind. Here are some ideas.
Continue reading “Things to do”
by David Feather
Did you know that this week is Mental Health Awareness Week? I didn’t until recently. You might well ask how it connects with the Park?
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Wiltshire Police’s Rural Crime Team have asked us to remind you to keep your dog under control when there is livestock nearby. Letting your dog chase or attack livestock is a criminal offence.
The park has been so important to so many during this last locked-down year. People have come here for permitted exercise, to run their children and their dogs, to walk off their worries or just to stay sane in an increasingly insane world. Now that we are promised an end to the craziness, it is the park that needs a little help.
Continue reading “We need volunteers”
In the last week or so somebody been seen flying a drone in the nature reserve. Please don’t do this.
Continue reading “No drones please”
There have been several incidents of dogs worrying livestock in and around Southwick over the past month.
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by David Feather
A walking organisation in Scotland, called “Paths for All”, has introduced the term micro-volunteering. So, what is micro-volunteering?
Continue reading “Micro-volunteering”
This is Pat, our champion litter picker; yesterday was her 91st birthday.
Continue reading “Happy Birthday Pat”
by David Feather
Unfortunately, what is clear about the proposed development at H2.6 and the other two proposed housing sites (here and here) in the South of Trowbridge Community Area is that the original studies done for the Wiltshire Housing Site Allocation Plan (WHSAP) proposals were woefully inadequate. Now Wiltshire Council is involved in a poorly evidenced defence of the selection of this site and others in the area, and the developers are taking full advantage of this fact.
Continue reading “Lambrok at Risk”
Archaeological Sites in Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve
by Barbara Johnson
When researching the history of Southwick for our Neighbourhood Plan, I contacted the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, where the Data Manager provided details of numerous archaeological sites throughout Southwick and also a map giving the position of each site.
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Wiltshire Council has initiated an eight week period of public consultation to inform the preparation of the Wiltshire Local Plan Review; the consultation began on Wednesday 13 January and will end on Tuesday 9 March 2021.
Continue reading “Local Plan Review”
The park is full of water; there are deep puddles everywhere. Everything is wet and muddy and the paths are flooded.
Continue reading “Rain!”
by Simon Knight
It was lovely to see the covering of snow on Sunday morning. It never fails to bring back those childhood memories of excited anticipation about getting out outside and playing in it, but maybe that’s just me! I got over to the park at around 8:30am, and although the light was dull, it was lovely to see the park covered in a blanket of white.
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by Chris Seymour and Ossie Jones
Header picture by Chris Seymour
A message from a reader:
Apparently there is this guy trying to steal people’s dogs; it is doing the rounds on Facebook groups in Trowbridge. He is asking the dog’s breed and then waiting for them to get back to the car park to steal them. The people he is approaching are older and on their own.
My aunt walks her dog in the park and I would hate to think someone approached her in the park and stole her dog. It would be awful! Could you warn people this is happening?
Thanks x
This is the damage in Village Green, caused by what is obviously a child’s motorbike. This is an area where the Friends of Southwick Country Park have focused on increasing biodiversity, encouraging vetches, vetchlings and tares as food plants for the caterpillars of increasingly rare butterflies. We have also planted Fritillaria meleagris corms in this area.
Do you know the parents of the child or children who are riding motorbikes around Village Green?
More pictures, from a member of FoSCP, of the damage to Village Green and Cornfield, taken late this afternoon.
There have been reports of motorbikes being ridden in the park’s fields. The tyre tracks are mostly in Corn Field, Kestrel Field and Lambrok Meadow and seem to show that the bikes enter and leave by the bridge into Lambrok Close. The only motorised vehicles allowed in the park are those maintenance vehicles authorised by Wiltshire Council, and mobility vehicles.
Continue reading “Please: no motorbikes”
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 