Cwmtalwg Local Nature Reserve

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A History of the Cwmtalwg Local Nature Reserve from 1988 to 2004  by Anne Bryan

This is the text of article titled 'Holding on to Nature' which appeared in Natur Cymru Magazine in Spring 2004. It has been adapted slightly.

Holding on to Nature

In 1987 the Council planned to remove an old hedge near my home in Barry. Holding on to this hedge has brought many people closer to the nature of our place.

It all began in the hairdressers, where I read about the plans to fill in a hollow, demolish an overgrown hedge and culvert a small stream. Nothing special in those days, but this hedge was behind our house. It refreshed me to walk along this little remnant of 'the wild and the wet' that remained in the middle of the expanding housing developments. I went straight to the Council Offices to look at the plans.

The Council officers explained how excellent their scheme was: it would put to good use some subsoil left over from making a new bowling green, it would get rid of the untidy hollow and the overgrown hedge and boggy ditch, and they'd plant a line of standard trees by the road and be able to mow the grass tidily. The more they explained the more convinced I was that this 'improvement' would be vandalism. I phoned the Glamorgan Wildlife Trust for advice.

Help from the Wildlife Trust

The Trust’s officer, Nigel Ajax Lewis, encouraged me to object, and to speak to other residents and local Councillors. I soon found other people who felt as I did, including  Councillor Reg Dunkley who lived opposite the hedge; he played me a tape of a wonderful dawn chorus that he’d heard from his bedroom window. Another key person was Phil White, who walked his dog in by the hedge, he became our first Chairman. Our hedge was marked in an estate map of 1779, and included twelve species of trees and shrubs. The Wildlife Trust’s officer explained that the older a hedge was the more species it included and this hedge was likely to have been a mediaeval field boundary. We also showed him two small woods nearby which contained a similar mix of trees and shrubs, oak, ash and field maple with a rich understory including holly, hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn, crab apple, spindle, dog rose, wayfaring tree and guelder rose. The ground flora included primroses, violets, wood sanicle and a profusion of the uncommon goldilocks buttercups, which are indicators of ancient woods.

Even if the hedge was ancient, I did wonder if it was it worth fighting for such a small thing? I ‘d certainly miss it if it was bulldozed away, as I’d miss my neighbour if she was run over by a truck. I’d surely try to save her even though her death would have a tiny effect on population statistics. Why shouldn’t we try and save this place? Did we need to? There’s a country park a couple of miles away, Council officers suggested this was enough green space, there was no need to keep our bit of waste ground. But we liked having somewhere near enough for an impromptu walk. Why couldn’t we have nature close to home, particularly for young children and old people without cars? We also felt it was worth challenging the Council’s perception that a line of trees and flat mown grass was a satisfactory replacement for a wildlife rich area, even if our challenge was only perceived as an irritating flea bite.

Inspiration from Northampton

The Wildlife Trust officer gave us a leaflet from the Royal Society for Nature Conservation (RSNC) about the Pocket Park scheme pioneered by Northampton Council. This suggested that local people, supported by conservation organisations and the Council, could care for overgrown and vandalised copses, ponds etc. on the edges of towns and villages. Problem sites could be transformed into places which would benefit local people and wildlife. This idea positively inspired us.

It was very hard to battle with the Council, but it was invigorating to meet other like minded people and be part of this group activity. It was very satisfying when we discovered a technical irregularity in the way the plan had been drawn up and the Council had to withdraw it. We had by this time formalised ourselves into a Group with a committee, constitution etc., and the Group proposed to the Council that we should manage the woods and hedge with the support of the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV Cymru), the Prince of Wales Committee (now the Princes Trust), and the Wildlife Trust.

The idea of partnership between the community, conservation organisations and Local Authorities is now familiar, but this was 1988 and Agenda 21 wasn’t formulated until 1992. The Council had seen us initially as a nuisance and it wasn’t easy for them to believe that we could be useful. They couldn’t ignore us though, because our campaign had received a lot of publicity in local newspapers. After a few months the Council gave way to our persistent public pressure and allowed us to manage a small area of the woods for a trial period of five years.

In spite of past differences the Council gave us £500 to plant a hedge at the edge of the wood to deter people from dumping rubbish, and early in 1989 the Mayor started the planting which was later completed by scouts, guides, army cadets and local people. Later the agreement between the Council and the Group was extended to cover the old hedge and the woods, just under 3 hectares in all, and is now for a 25 year term. Money is raised from various sources, and teams from BTCV (Cymru) and other volunteers have helped Group members to improve the site which was designated as a Local Nature Reserve in 1996. The Group pressed for this designation after there was controversy concerning a housing development adjacent to the project. The web site <www.cwmtalwgwoods.co.uk> was set up in 2003 to inform people how the project works, what’s going on and what organisations are involved.

The Wildlife Trust did a survey at the beginning of the project and found 122 plants. The present  Group chairman, Tony Colbourne, is an expert bird watcher, has noted 45 species of birds. As more houses have been built around the woods some species have been lost, the cuckoo used to be heard each spring, but is no longer. But the site has also been enriched: a barren area of swampy mud, cleared of rubbish and overhanging trees, has became a pond alive with frogs in the breeding season. Surveys continue , click  here to see the current species list.

In our town any unused land is likely to be developed, so from the first we’ve encouraged people to use and enjoy the site. Regular newsletters give notice of nature walks, work parties, talks, a teddy bears picnic and a senior picnic in a glade accessed by a path especially built with the disabled in mind. The Group is involved with several schools which bring children here for environmental studies or to help with tree planting and other activities.

Many people naturally value it as a place where they can put their worries aside and admire the brilliant delicacy of leaves opening in Spring, or relax in the welcome summer shade or walk among the frosted fallen leaves. Though the place feels tranquil, it is also intensely dynamic, alive with insects and birds, which are another source of pleasure.

Things often go wrong of course. It’s a constant challenge to balance the needs of wildlife and people, and to engage with people of all sorts. This summer someone set fire to a stolen motorbike, contractors and householders often dump rubbish, litter is a constant problem and some dog walkers perversely put their dog mess in a plastic bags and then fling them into the bushes where they hang like gruesome decorations. Children throw sticks and stones at the mating frogs and have even thrown frog spawn at passing cars (apparently it sticks like glue). On the other hand people are the strength of the project: there are wonderful teenagers who have worked hard with us, delightful young children who write lovely thank you letters saying how great it was to see a leopard slug or a millipede, there are helpful dog walkers who pick up litter, residents who tell us how much they love the woods and who act as eyes and ears and forestall trouble, and the local firm that recently made the Group a new notice board for a token price.

Many things have changed for the better, there’s now a welcome emphasis on biodiversity, and much more support for urban nature conservation, but some changes make life more difficult. Paperwork is more oppressive than in the past. Groups are now expected to have formal equal opportunities policies, risk assessment policies, and, if they work with children, child protection policies. All very worthy, and sometimes necessary, but so much regulation damps down spontaneity and causes anxiety. Grants are also more complex to apply for, and the right buzz words must be used, the correct hoops jumped through.

I feel uneasy too with an increasing tendency to try and quantify nature conservation in terms of money from tourism etc. The value that we put on our place, that made us fight to keep it, and work hard to look after it, can’t be expressed in monetary terms. It’s the value of having, near our homes, the opportunity to be uplifted by the speckled wood butterflies chasing each other in their territorial disputes, the value to a child of the chance to be touched by a millipede’s hundreds of legs, the value of being able to open the window on the dawn chorus. The natural world is vital to us in ways that we are only just beginning to understand, and to feel a close connection with the richness of this world is priceless.
 

Over the years the Group has received a number of awards and prizes. Here are a few of the most notable.

The Group has won a number of awards for the management of the Local Nature Reserve, the picture shows the chairman and members of the committee receiving the certificate for the People section winner of the Forestry Commission's Woods for Wales Award 2001 from Steve Hunt of the Forestry Authority.

UK MAB Forum Award in 2003 

Group members with members of the MAB forum, and the Mayor and her consort

Green Pennant Award  for Cwmtalwg Local Nature Reserve

The picture shows (L to R) Chris Dodd, Anne Bryan, Ruth Tipping (Green Pennant Judge) Tony Colbourne, Phil Beaman (Vale of Glamorgan Council) and Dilys Colbourne at the inspection of the site by the Green Pennant judge on 13 May 05.

They are standing on the newly contructed ramp at the entrance to Severn Avenue wood. This will make it easier for the disabled to access the middle of the wood and was financed by a grant from 'Awards for All Wales'.

The Green Pennant award is part of the Green Flag Award scheme, which is run by the Civic Trust and is supported by the office of the Deputy Prime minister and various organisations including the Countryside Agency and the Countryside Council for Wales. The  Award is designed to recognise standards of excellence in green spaces managed by voluntary groups.  Cwmtalwg was one of the first sites in Wales to have received a Green Pennant Award and the Group received the award for second year in 2005/6 and again in 2006/7, 2007/8 2008/9 and  2009/10

 For more details on the award go to www.greenflagawards.org.uk on the R top click on Green Flag and then select Green Pennant, select Wales then select Vale of Glamorgan and then Cwmtalwg

For further Information on Awards for All Wales or to obtain an application pack call 01686 611 740 or visit www.awardsforall.org.uk (It's a grant with an easy application form and a quick response and 100% funding, definitely recommended).

August 2005 - a mural  transforms the scene until 2009

The project to paint a mural on the sports changing rooms at the Severn Avenue fields  has been a great success thanks to the hard work of ten young people and the artist Emma Baird-Murray, who was assisted by artist Dave Symons. Emma worked on the designs over four days with young people at Area 41 Youth club and the mural was painted over four days the following week. The fields are used by the Barry Bluebirds Club so two of the sides had a football theme and the other two sides a nature theme to celebrate the Cwmtalwg Local Nature Reserve which adjoins the fields. Members of the Cwmtalwg Group and Area 41 youth workers also helped with the painting, and people of all generations enjoyed working together on the project.

 On the last day of the project, 18 August, the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Janice Charles and her consort Holly Charles came to present certificates to the ten young people who had taken part. Councillor Charles praised the young people for the wonderful result that they had achieved. Parents, friends and other members of the community also came to the presentation and to a picnic organised by the Cwmtalwg Woodlands Residents Group. After the picnic a crowd of young people enjoyed an energetic game of baseball supervised by the youth workers from Area 41 club.

 A dog walker remarked, ‘the shed was something I passed as quickly as possible, now it makes me feel good to come and look at something so bright and cheerful.’

 The project was organised jointly by the Cwmtalwg Woodlands Residents Group, Area 41 youth workers and the Barry Bluebirds Football Club and was funded by a Kick Start Grant from the Vale Centre for Voluntary Services.  

          For 4 years any graffiti that appeared were cleaned off by members of the Group, but in 2009 it became impossible to clean the large number of graffiti that appeared, and also some of the paint began to peel from the top of the building. The committee felt that the work of keeping the mural going was taking more time than we could afford from the main purpose of the project, which was to manage the nature reserve. Rather than let the mural deteriorate further we asked the Council to help, and a team from the Youth offenders team came and repainted the changing rooms green.