November 2009

Netteswell Plantation footbridge completed
Grassroots Grant for HCV
Greenteam Volunteers
New "Forest Funtasia" Officer
Story-telling seating area at Parndon Wood
Green Flag status for Parndon Wood
Stort Water Meadows ditches restoration
Stort Valley Meadows – Access for All
Linking Parndon and Hospital Woods

April 2009

Netteswell Plantation footbridge
60 Years Wood update

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November 2009

Netteswell Plantation footbridge completed

Click picture to enlarge; back button to return.

After an intensive period of effort involving HCV, GreenTeam volunteers, Kier Harlow's tree gang, and support by Wildspace! staff, by the middle of May the new timber footbridge over the Toddbrook in Netteswell Plantation had foundations, main beams, deck, and parapets up to the lower handrail installed. The bridge, although not quite up to the full specification, was functioning, essentially safe, and in daily use by the many residents who walk through the area. There had been a couple of attempts to set fire to the beams, but they are so thick they were barely affected. However, some time over the spring half-term holiday somebody carried some extreme timber strength testing with a point load on a section of parapet. The damaged section was not over the water, so we decided not to risk an escalating battle by responding immediately, but rather let the bridge bed in over the summer.

In September a digger was brought in to create earth ramps on the banks up to the deck. Then in October we repaired the damaged section of parapet using Parndon Wood oak in a deeper section to provide extra strength. The top rails, being supplied as green oak, had warped over the dry summer, so we put them into soak in one of Parndon Wood's ponds for a few weeks in an attempt to soften them before fitting them in place. It seemed to do the trick, because with some serious clamping they went on without cracking. Finally this month we fitted some revetments to stop the earth ramps from slipping into the stream and removed a blockage downstream which should reduce the chance of the bridge being overtopped under conditions heavy flow in the brook.

The completed footbridge at Netteswell Plantation
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Grassroots Grant for HCV

HCV has made a successful application to a new grant scheme for local community groups called Grassroots Grants, funded by the Cabinet Office of the Third Sector, receiving the maximum grant of £5,000 "for equipment, volunteer training, insurance, and publicity for a conservation group." Money spent on tools and training has helped on many tasks. Other items of expenditure have included a print run of the group's publicity leaflet with colour photos and some BTCV publications.

Greenteam Volunteers

The GreenTeam mid-week volunteers group will be one year old later this month. The group was set up by the Wildspace! team at Parndon Wood with some help from HCV, to tap into the increasing number of people who are free during the week and prefer to come out then. The focus is to carry out conservation tasks on the County Wildlife sites around the town – these site include the local nature reserves (LNRs) but also other sites recognized at county level for their conservation value – supporting the Council's aim of bringing these sites into "positive conservation management"; tasks have taken place at Latton Woods and Netteswell Plantation and tasks are also programmed for Brenthall and Barnsley Wood.

Since the first task tree planting at Timberland Fisheries last November, volunteer numbers have grown to regularly a dozen or more. Initially tasks took place together with work being undertaken by offenders doing community service with Probation Services, but this has now ceased. From this autumn the frequency of tasks has increased to twice a month — see the GreenTeam Programme. At the moment the activity is fully supported by Council staff, but it could become more self-supporting in the future.

New "Forest Funtasia" Officer

This project, to encourage children into the woods for both organised nature discovery activites and informal play, has been going well since starting in 2008. Leanne Block, the first Forest Funtasia Officer and Nature Reserve warden, has now moved on. The new officer is Becky Naman. The project is funded till March 2011. For further details and events see the Wildspace! page.

Story-telling seating area

Parndon Wood now has a story-telling seating area with capacity for 30 children. Built by HCV for its 600th task in August, it is now in regular use for visiting school groups. The seating is made from slices of oak felled in Parndon Wood as part of thinning operations to open the canopy to improve the growth of the hornbeam coppice underneath. So successful is the seating that consideration is being given to a carved story-teller's chair and adding further sections to increase capacity. HCV will install a similar seating area at Holy Cross school in the Spring.

Green Flag status for Parndon Wood

Parndon Wood has won a Green Flag Award for 2009/10. The awards recognise the best parks and green spaces in the country, a bit like blue flags for beaches. Previously run by the Civic Trust, the Green Flag Awards scheme is now run by Keep Britain Tidy with GreenSpace and BTCV. This was the first year an application had been made and so it was bit unexpected to win first time round. Parndon Wood is the only site in Harlow to have achieved this award.

Stort Water Meadows ditches restoration

The Stort water meadows (also known as Town Park stage IV meadows) are a series of meadows next to the Stort separated by wide ditches lined coppiced/pollarded willows. Up till about ten years ago HCV used to do a task each winter maintaining these willows. Since then they have grown hugely, overshading the ditches with limbs falling into them. Last winter the Kier Harlow tree gang started the restoration of these ditches by clearing the way for a digger to dredge accumulated debries and silt. HCV then did a task to clear up and burn the logs pulled out so they couldn't be thrown back in again. The tree gang also fully coppiced/pollarded the willows by the ditch near the orchid area. This year they have continued, as part of a regular cycle, with the ditch by the zig-zag bridge.

Stort Valley Meadows – Access for All

Harlow Wildlife Projects is seeking funding for the redevelopment of the footpath network on the Stort valley water meadows. The present footpath network has fallen into disrepair and parts are typically under several inches of water for half the year. The idea is to re-route them away from the boggiest patches; at one point a new footbridge would be required over one of the ditches. The paths would be resurfaced thoughout including ramps on the approaches to the existing concrete bridges for wheelchair access. At a later stage it is hoped to fund a section of new raised boardwalk, widening of some of the ditches in places into reedbeds, a picnic area, and interpretation boards.

Click plan to enlarge; back button to return.

Linking Parndon and Hospital Woods

Harlow's "60 Years Wood", alas, didn't survive much more than one year, a victim of the end of agricultural set-aside. The objective of making a continuous wooded link between the two woods, both part of the Harlow Woods SSSI, is still important. It is understood there are plans to establish a link further down the hill at the top of the current cemetary.

April 2009

Netteswell Plantation footbridge

planned footbridge - from CAD drawing elevations
Click on picture or here for larger wide view or elevation (use back button to return).

This project was entered by HCV for the 2008 Harlow Hotspots! Competition at last year's Town Show. The proposal was to build a footbridge across the Toddbrook roughly half way along the stretch running through Netteswell Plantation. This is one Harlow's County Wildlife sites and is just to the south-east of the town centre. The footpath running down the valley of a small side stream from the cycle track is shown on OS maps as crossing the brook and on the ground there are traces of a ford. The only other crossing between the cycle track at the western end and Tripton Road to the east are the rather hazardous stepping stones across the weir where the wood meets the small meadow at the eastern end of the site.

The proposal was narrowly pushed into third place behind Wildspace! (see below) and the Town Park sculpture. Since then funding has been been found by Darren Fazackerly, Harlow Landscape and Biodiversity Manager, for the materials on the basis that volunteers would build it. The span is 8 metres and the construction is heavyweight timber throughout except for the concrete foundations. The design is based on a standard design by the Paths for All Partnership. The last serious bridge HCV built was the little bridge at Marshgate Spring on the route to the zig-zag bridge to the Stort Meadows back in 1995.

The programme to build it is pretty ambitious:

• Sat 4th & Sun 5th April: foundations
• Sat 11th - Sat 18th April: prepare wood for deck & parapets at Parndon Wood
• Sun 19th April: Install main beams
• Mon 20th - Wed 22nd April: Install deck and parapets

60 Years Wood update

In November 2007 HCV started planting trees on a strip of land at the top of the cemetary, which in time it was hoped would form a new wood linking Parndon Wood with Hospital and Risdens wood, with all the benefits to wildlife of a joined up habitat. Unfortunately with the end of agricultural set aside last year it was discovered that, although Harlow Council owned the land, it is leased out as farmland. The area planted has been allowed to remain, but there is no prospect in the foreseeable future of extending it as originally intended.