The usual maintenance tasks, hedge trimming, lopping and strimming in the Jubilee Wood. We do this to keep the open areas free of incursion and creep. 9.30am with the tools you favour plus stout gloves and eye protection. Refreshments!
Saturday 1st December 2018 from 9.30am
April was quite a month of extremes in terms of weather, but nature has a way of forging on regardless whilst most of us humans are struggling to cope.
The great crested newts are a good example, having overwintered near to the pond under stones or vegetation, they returned to the pond in Jubilee Wood to mate and lay eggs. If you were lucky enough to see them earlier on in the month, you might have been surprised at just how many there were, but if you didn’t get to see them we’ve attached some photos taken at the pond. Apologies for the quality but you have to take the opportunity when you can and although these photos taken with a phone may not be the best, they give an idea of their form and colour.
Spotting the newts may take a couple of minutes before you recognise them as they tend to look like dark bits of small vegetation floating under the water’s surface until you see them suddenly shoot along, splaying out their legs and waggling their tails. The males have more of a crest during the mating season and females lay individual eggs on plant leaves and carefully wrap them up to protect them. Two to four weeks later larvae (sometimes called newt tadpoles) will hatch out with feathery gills around the head, distinguishing them from frog and toad tadpoles. A couple of months after they hatch the larvae start to grow their front legs followed by the back legs. Later on in the summer they’ll leave the pond but will stay close by to find a place to overwinter, and next Spring it will all begin again…….wonderful!
The Woodland Walker.
Along the eastern boundary hedgerow of the Jubilee Wood is a large gap in the hedge deliberately maintained so as to provide a “window” for the view beyond the hedge.
Here’s the gap, all you have to do is take your digital photograph(s) standing closer to the hedge (examples below) and then send it to the website editor and if suitable it will be uploaded into the gallery that accompanies this page
We are looking for changing season’s, weather, field activity, the moon, the sun rising anything you see through this gap. Zoom, standard or wide angle lens, it doesn’t matter.
A short description would help.
Submit your picture here
As the summer seems to have gone on its own holiday we had better consider the autumn harvest of fruit and specifically apples. Last year the community apple juicer and press was put to good use creating home pressed apple juice and at least one demijohn of quite acceptable cider. If you are a village resident then you can borrow the kit for free. To be honest the whole process works better if you can team up and process bucket loads of apples as a group. Slicers, pressers, pourer’s. There’s a task for all the family.
The internet is full of guidance but the savvy householder will know that cleanliness is the watchword in any food processing. Don’t be put off, the taste of home pressed apple juice is worth the effort and if your a little more patient then home made cider/scrumpy is deliriously better than a shop bought fizz.
To borrow the community apple pressing kit please speak to Michael Trolove.
A screenshot from the community apple pressing from last year.
Everyone is encouraged to make sure though, that they are clearly visible to motorists. Hi-Viz jackets or waist coats are ideal & lights if you cycle. It is a misconception that these are only needed in the dark or fog!
Main Street now has triangular warning signs for equine riders, to help towards your safety. It would be really polite to see our riders fully aware of the Highway Code as it applies to them. This is most encouraging for motorists, if you expect them to respect your needs.
Gt.Gidding welcomes its dog walkers, old & new. Lots have been seen out & about recently. Just a reminder to bin the waste & not leave behind in the bag!
We have a lovely selection of footpaths for you all to explore, also bridleways & byways. Please riders, remember that footpaths are for walkers only. If you use a farm track that is designated a footpath, please be sensible. Walkers have priority & if it’s wet please don’t use it, as it cuts it up for everyone.
So we hope you enjoy the fresh air this spring. There is plenty to experience in & around our lovely Parish.
Enjoy!
Rachel Giddens (on behalf of the Parish Council)
A photographic essay of how Chapel End pond was reclaimed back to an attractive environmental pond from being an unloved, overgrown shallow pit.
A pond has probably always featured in Chapel End as long as people have been around. It may have been created after clay was dug out for bricks or its just a shallow depression where water has lain.
In our first photograph we see the edge of the pond without a fence this was probably to allow cattle and all other farm livestock to drink from. Its quite easy to forget that mains water was not available until the late 1940’s so water was either well drawn, harvested from roof’s or accumulated in ponds.
As an aside the photograph above shows a curved 4 rail fence, this was replaced with post and wire and then back to post and rail (evolution) The cottages adjacent to Woodway farm were demolished in the late 1960’S. Now we are crying out for small rural housing.
Chapel End pond as it was at 8.40am on September the 10th 2009. Anyone not familiar with the area would be hard pressed to suggest there was a pond there. Overgrown with willow and scrub and the road drains blocked even on the wettest day no water could drain into the pond, instead we had a flow of water all the way down Chapel End to the cross roads on Main Street and a lot of disgruntled villagers complaining about the drains.
As the pond came under the auspices of the Parish Council it had been suggested a few times that some form of reclamation should be undertaken but each time budgetary constraints ruled this out. It then came to the notice of the Parish Council that Huntingdonshire District Council were offering environmental grants for schemes on a points basis.
We made our case and were lucky enough to be awarded a grant to proceed with works. Quotes from contractors were sought andwere chosen to complete the works. Lattenbury Services were chosen and the job commenced in October 2009.
A specification for excavation and remedial work was drawn up, it was agreed that all the green material around the front of the pond would be lost and the backdrop of the hawthorn hedge and ash trees would be retained subject to some trimming back.
Removing the old concrete fence post’s
Midi digger and Midi dumper (not mini) Excavating the years of silt and associated rubbish from the pond. It was suggested on the initial survey that the pond had a hard base, this proved to be the case with a graduated cobbled bottom in excellent condition. So someone years back put a lot of effort into creating a pond where the mud wouldn’t stir up to much when livestock drank. There is also the suggestion that cart horse would have had their legs washed down after a days work in the field particularly if it was muddy going.
Chipping the green material, this was then excavated with the spoil.
The above picture shows two things, first the completely silted up drain that stopped any road surface water from entering the pond and secondly the cobbled base of the pond which was in excellent condition and allowed the contractors to profile the pond to its original depth.
The pond cleared out to the stone base without too much damage.
The shape of the pond on complete excavation and trimming of green materials.
Laying out the fence line.
The completed project, just add water.
The first drop of rain on 31st October 2009
Two years on almost to the day and the aquatic life is thriving. The pond holds a good level of water and the drains work well both for filling and preventing overflow and consequently we have an environmental area that is attractive and functional. Bringing the story right up to date, the pond supports a thriving population of Great Crested Newts. Chapel End pond is now part of the Great Gidding Newt Trail.
An evening photograph of a newt survey underway.
Searching for Newts 19th March 2012
Time we had another Pagan adventure in the Jubilee wood to celebrate a Wassail. This is an old English custom of celebrating the imminent arrival of spring. As the days start extending in daylight so thoughts turn to how to prepare for spring seeding whether in the cereal fields or the fruit orchards. The Wassail is an expression of looking forward and banishing the winter blues. In the Great Gidding version of a Wassail we mix and match in a modern terminology. We give a nod to the fruit orchards of the south west where Wassailing is still practised in alight hearted way and we also adapt our celebration to include the mixed farming areas of the eastern regions.
Timeline
Light the bonfire of trimmed hedge clipping at 19:30hrs, feel the heat and warm up.
19:45hrs find an unsuspecting apple tree and perform a Gidding Wassail.
20:00hrs assemble by to the bench seat at the entrance to the wood to hear any prose, rhymes, tales written especially for the event. The theme “Enjoying the Jubilee Wood”
It can be serious, light hearted, mischievous, rude, coarse (after all we are being Pagan)
Retire to bonfire for warm up.
The Wassail will conclude at the Fox & Hounds at your convenience. As it is a Thursday you are invited to bring a food item befitting a Wassail to be consumed after light hearted judging at the pub. This will be the weeks “Foodie Thursday” theme that is so popular at the Fox & Hounds. Sweet or savoury, it doesn’t matter and if its not your thing please don’t worry about it.
And……….fancy dress or pagan attire or just a silly hat or a mix of all three.
An excellent turnout for the annual trim and tidy of the pathways and hedges around the Jubilee Wood. Another is planned for next week, 30th January from 9.30 am.
The first cycling Tour Of Cambridgeshire took place in June 2015 The route on public roads that were closed specifically for the race to happen. Around 5000 cyclists were reported to have signed up to take part. So on a stunningly glorious day we watched and waited to see what 5000 cyclists looked like speeding through the village. What a spectacle apart from the heads down first few hundred who were on a mission to win the great mass of riders responded in kind to the roadside cheering and reserved clapping that Brits do so well. It was a grand spectacle and is to be repeated in 2016 on the same route. A Gran Fondo is a cycling event on closed roads for mass participation.
It should be noted that there were a few grumbles and the notification process before hand could have been more robust. The idea of the roads closed for 12 hours was a nonsense and should never have been allowed to be displayed, despite rectification the die had been cast. Hopefully the organisers will take this on board and make bigger efforts to contact affected buisnesses on route and make it clear that nobody is trapped in their homes.
The plus side of all this is Gidding is on the map and not some backwater beyond Sawtry and Stilton. It provided grand entertaiment on the roadside at no cost and no doubt charities were the biggest winners.
Winter maintenance is required in the wood to keep it visitor friendly and safe.
If you can spare a couple of hours on the morning of Saturday the 23rd January to trim overhanging branches or nip arching bramble runners off at ground level or litter pick (there’s not much but it looks unkept) Branch loppers, pruning shears and stout gloves are all that are required. Tea and coffee will be provided.
Start anytime after 9.30am until lunchtime.