|
|
|
Countryman Diary - April 2009
There was a request placed in my parish magazine recently asking for anyone with suitable spare land to give it up for allotments. Not that it would be of interest to me … I have enough trouble finding time to look after a garden the size of a kingsize bed. But this move back to allotments is interesting.
In the 1940s there were 1.4 million allotments in the UK, utilised to help feed a nation coping with war. Today there are around 300,000 but it is thought that around 100,000 would-be Toms and Barbaras are on the waiting list to join the Good Life. This time, though, the reason is not due to food shortages but mainly a combination of people’s mistrust and dislike of today’s food and cost.
What is also interesting is a shift in demographics. Allotments were once mainly the domain of the working classes — now the shout for more plots also rises from ‘middle England’. Maybe it takes the double-barrelled title of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to stir them into action, via his TV series.
Joining in is the National Trust which will create a thousand allotments at forty locations around the country. Each of the new growing spaces will be created on communities’ doorsteps, and will be registered through the Landshare website www.landshare.net set up by Fearnley-Whittingstall. Basically it’s a ‘match-making’ database of keen growers and those who have land available.
Fiona Reynolds, director general of the National Trust, explains:
“More and more people want to grow their own fruit and vegetables. This isn’t just about saving money — it’s really satisfying to sow seeds and harvest the fruit and veg of your labour. By creating new growing spaces the National Trust can help people to start growing for the first time.”
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall adds: “I’m thrilled with this pledge from the National Trust to offer a thousand growing spaces to Landshare. This pledge alone has the potential to make a difference to many thousands of people — not just those who grow, but those with whom they share their wonderful produce.
“These kinds of initiatives offer immeasurable benefits to communities across a whole host of areas — from good health, to helping minimise our impact on the environment, to simply bringing people together.”
The trust is aiming to have all of its new growing spaces available by 2012, and will seek to encourage schools, community groups and charities to make use of the new sites, as well as individuals.
Help for rare butterflies
Devon Wildlife Trust is overseeing the clearance of seventy-five acres (30 ha) of sitka spruce plantation in North Devon. The work is part of the charity’s Working Wetlands project which aims to recreate rare culm grassland across the region.
The areas at Lutworthy and Cuddenhay Moors, near Chulmleigh, have been clear-felled over the past few months. The project was initiated by Butterfly Conservation to recreate new habitat for many rare species, particularly the marsh fritillary butterfly.
Dr Caroline Bulman from Butterfly Conservation explains:
“The marsh fritillary is one of our most threatened butterflies. The important culm grassland that will be created here will help to support this rapidly declining species across Devon.”
Only 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) of such grassland remain and Devon holds the majority of what is left. The habitat has seen major declines over the past few decades, and half was lost between 1984 and 1991 alone.
The trust’s Peter Burgess adds: “We used Second World War aerial photography to help us target sites that could be restored. They might look a bit of a mess now but, given a season or two, we expect these sites to revert to wildflower-rich grasslands.”
Securing the crane’s future
A spectacular bird that has not bred in the West Country for over four centuries is a step closer to returning thanks to a £700,000 grant from Viridor Credits. The money has secured the next phase of the Great Crane Project — a partnership between the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, the RSPB and Pensthorpe Conservation Trust — which aims to secure the future of the crane as a British breeding bird.
This three-foot (1 m) high wetland bird was extinct in the UK for four centuries. Since 1981 cranes have nested or attempted to nest in East Anglia, but the population only has a tenuous foothold in the UK. The reintroduction project will give this wonderful wetland bird a much brighter future in Britain.
The funding means work will begin on building a chick rearing facility at WWT Slimbridge. The cranes will be brought from a wild population in Germany as eggs, and incubated, hatched and hand-reared at Slimbridge.
Dr Mark Avery, the RSPB’s director of conservation, says: “The crane is one of our most spectacular birds, and its disappearance from our countryside creates a large vacuum. We hope that, in time, the bugling call of the crane will once again echo across large swathes of the UK countryside.
“The crane reintroduction project closely follows major successes at restoring the red kite and white-tailed eagle to our islands.”
Competition winner
The winner of our Loch Fyne Valentine competition was Tracey Brookshaw of Stalham, Norfolk. Runners-up prizes of a Stalkers Lunch and Fireside Selection Box went to L Sherwood, Earley, Berkshire, and Jean M and W Brooke Sidebottom, Southwell, Nottinghamshire.
A proper wind-up
Norman Smith tells me that, many years ago, a blacksmith in a nearby village had a very dry sense of humour.
One afternoon when he was very busy, an unwanted salesman arrived.
“Good afternoon,” he said, “I notice you haven’t a clock in your forge.” He waffled on, “I have the very latest one here. Do you know it goes eight days without winding?”
“Well,” said the smith, “there’s a thing. Eight days without winding, eh? Makes you wonder just how long it would go if you wound it, doesn’t it?”
Exit salesman.
Paul Jackson |
|
|
|
|
