Issue 13 - October 2011 (PDF - Chipping Norton Times

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LOCAL WALKS WITH THE COTSWOLDS VOLUNTARY WARDENS – OCTOBER Celebrate British Food Fortnight – Sunday 2 October – Easy Along the Sudeley Valley to Newmeadows Farm. Farmer Duncan will talk about his rare breed herd which supplies beef to local restaurants. Pub lunch available at White Hart Inn (local beef!) 3 hours, 5 miles. Start: 10 am Winchcombe Back Lane car park. OS Map ref 023 284 From Neolith to Nouveau Riche – Friday 4 October – Easy Straddling 3 counties and countless centuries. From an ancient cattle enclosure to modern leisure facilities and everything in between. Optional pub lunch. 3 hours, 6 miles. Start: 10 am The Greedy Goose at junction of A44 and A436 between Chipping Norton and Moreton-in-Marsh. OS Map ref 270 289 Walking from Longborough 1 – Thursday 20 October – Moderate. A series to celebrate Longborough’s new “Walkers are Welcome” status. Westwards across the highwolds to Ford and back. Pub lunch available. 5 hours, 10 miles. Start: 10 am Cotswold Food Store car park, Longborough (on A424). OS Map ref 170 296 A Victorian Rector and Nine Old Maids – Saturday 22 October Easy. Short walk, true story about life in the high cold Cotswolds. Pub lunch available at end. 2.5 hours, 4 miles. Start: 10am Lamb Inn car park at Great Rissington. OS Map ref 200 173. Postcode GL54 2LP Both sides of the track - Saturday 29 October – Moderate A figure of 8 centred around the parishes of Campden and Ebrington. 5.5 hours, 10.5 miles. Start: 10am Market Hall, Chipping Campden. OS Map ref 151 392 Chipping Gem Stones – Sunday 30 October – Moderate From Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire’s highest market town, to the unique Rollright Stones through rolling countryside views. Please bring packed lunch. 5.5 hours, 8 miles. Start: 10am Chipping Norton Town Hall steps. OS Map ref 313 270. PLEASE use appropriate footwear as some walks may be steep and muddy in places. MODERATE - includes some hills and rough ground. Sorry, no dogs allowed except guide and hearing dogs. Walks are free although donations help to fund our conservation work and improvement projects. The Wardens run a full programme of guided walks throughout the Cotswolds. For more information see www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk or Tel: 01451 862000, also for any changes to arrangements such as due to bad weather. 30 NORTH COTSWOLD RAMBLERS GROUP information on any walk or a copy of the Group’s current walks programme can be obtained from the Secretary : Tel. 01386 700847, email at salmonoldwell@hotmail.com or online under “Local Groups” at www.gloucestershirearearamblers.org.uk The Cotswold Voluntary Wardens service was established in 1968. Anyone can join and, today, there are over 340 full time members. The wardens are part of the Cotswolds Conservation Board and volunteer their time and skills to help keep the Cotswolds special. Warden work parties help conserve and enhance the AONB, taking part in a range of projects from drystone walling, hedge laying, and tree planting to installing kissing gates. The wardens work with parish councils, farmers and local residents to help keep footpaths open and identify local features in need of restoration. When they are not taking part in conservation work many wardens conduct hundreds of guided walks, throughout the Cotswolds AONB. Some voluntary wardens also help out at shows and give talks about their work and the AONB to local groups. Support, training, equipment, travel expenses and a sense of achievement are offered in return for volunteers’ valuable time. For further information on joining the Cotswold Voluntary Wardens contact the Volunteer Coordinator rebecca.jones@cotswoldsaonb.org.uk Tel. 01451 862008. Conservation work and achievements of the Cotswold Voluntary Wardens Nearly 300 Voluntary Wardens continued to play an important role for the Board by volunteering their time and skills to help keep the Cotswolds special.2010-11 was another successful year achieving a record total of 43,772 hours work by 280 active volunteers, worth over £300,000. This represents an increase over the previous year despite many work parties and guided walks being cancelled due to bad weather. Voluntary Wardens’ conservation and access work during 2010-11 at a glance: • 19 bridges constructed • 107 kissing gates installed • 173 finger posts installed • 187 trees planted • 835m of fencing erected • 905m of hedgerow laid • 921m of dry-stone walls built • 171m of streams and ditches cleared • 413 steps in banks constructed • 800 hedge trees and shrubs planted • 1131 contacts with parishes, landowners and the public • 4,266 path miles patrolled • 9,681 sq m of woodland coppiced and 16,588 sq m cleared • 23,291m of paths and bridleways cleared • 118,409 sq m across 23 grassland sites cleared Almost 70% of wardens’ hours were spent on conserving and enhancing the countryside and its features, and improving access to it.
The Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty North Cotswolds Hedgelaying Competition Saturday 19 November 8.30 to 3.30pm Hitchen Farm, Ford. 10th Cotswolds annual Dry-stone Walling Competition at Adam Henson’s Cotswold Farm Park Sunday 2 October Organised by the Cotswolds Conservation Board, in partnership with the Cotswolds branch of the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain (DSWA), the competition will see four classes of competitors - beginner pairs, novice, amateur and professional - vying for the prestigious walling trophy and up to £120 cash prize under the expert eyes of Master Craftsmen judges from the DSWA. There is an additional prize for the best waller under age 21. Depending on which class competitors enter, they will have to strip and rebuild a limited length of wall to the correct specification. The rules associated with the competition are strict with marks awarded for quality of foundations, cope stones, sides, middle filling, batter and straightness. The draw for stints starts at 8.45am with work completed by 4.15pm. Prizes awarded at 4.30pm. Anyone wishing to enter the competition can phone Cotswolds Conservation Board on 01451 862000 or register online at www.cotswoldsruralskills.org.uk Cotswold Farm Park Ltd, Bemborough Farm, Guiting Power, Cheltenham, GL54 5UG Every year the Cotswolds Conservation Board runs the North Cotswolds Hedgelaying Competition with the support of the National Hedgelaying Society. Winners in each class receive prize money and a trophy and 2nd-3rd places receive prize money. The competition is free to enter and has the following classes – Open, Intermediate, Junior and Beginners, Veteran. For more information please contact David Molloy, our Rural Skills & Grant Officer on 01451 862002 or online: www.cotswoldsruralskills.org.uk/competitions/northcotswolds-hedgelaying-competition/ Spying on our river wildlife GREYSTONES FARM NATURE RESERVE AND THE COTSWOLD RIVERS LIVING LANDSCAPE By Will Masefield - Community Wildlife Officer, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust Using a motion-sensor camera to sneak footage of secretive wildlife seems like a good idea until you realise just how much motion there is out there. And yet having to watch through endless snippets of grass moving, water moving and shadows moving only makes it more exciting when, eventually, there’s a bona fide animal moving. With an eagerness born more of naiveté than experience, I set about watching through 218 one minute snippets of footage from a motion-sensor camera set on one of our mink-monitoring rafts on the river at Greystones Farm Nature Reserve last month. The varnish was wearing thin on my eagerness as early as clip 16, and by clip 80 it had been almost entirely eroded away. Two clips of a wood mouse leaping up onto the raft and running around with a feather temporarily resuscitated it, before my beleaguered eagerness was fully restored by the appearance of one of our least-known river mammals. This diminutive character entered stage left, bustling around the raft, snaffling up aquatic insects as if its life depended on it. In fact, its life probably did depend on it, for this is an animal that lives life at a hectic pace. The Kurt Cobain or James Dean of the animal world, shrews live fast and die young (although it would probably be safe to assume the similarity ends there). Their metabolisms run so fast, in fact, that they can die if they go three hours without sustenance. This particular shrew, with black fuselage and grey undercarriage, was a water shrew, a species that we had not seen here before. They spend their time fossicking around the banks for insects, diving underwater for caddis-fly larvae and shrimps, and occasionally tackling fish or frogs, which they immobilise with venomous saliva. With my eagerness gauge now fully charged, I watched through the last hundred and forty clips until finally, on clip 216 of 218, a much larger and rarer denizen of our waterways made its cameo. Having spent so much time watching the tiny mouse and water shrew, it came as something of a shock when the blunt, bewhiskered snout of a much larger animal hove into view. A chunky round body followed (thankfully – disembodied snouts don’t half give me the willies), with a shortish, hairy tail in tow. We know we have water voles at Greystones Farm, but it was thrilling to see this one in the flesh, if only for a few seconds. You can see it too, as well as the mouse and water shrew, at www.facebook.com/gwtcotswolds. Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Cotswold Rivers programme, kindly supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, is working with local communities and landowners to improve these mammals’ chances of survival. The water vole, especially, is on a knife edge. If you are interested in joining us (however little time or experience you have at your disposal) please contact me at will.masefield@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk, or ring me on 07793 307056. You can also reach us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/gwtcotswolds. 31
Page 1 and 2: CHIPPING NORTON TIMES Issue 13 Octo
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Page 7 and 8: CLOSING DOWN SALE ALL CARPETS REDUC
Page 9 and 10: tHe CotswoLd FestivaL Love History?
Page 11 and 12: I know where that is! Where was tha
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Page 19 and 20: CHIPPING NORTON TOWN COUNCIL MEETS
Page 21 and 22: THAMES VALLEY POLICE www.police.uk
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Page 47 and 48: A toe on the green…’ It’s not
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