February 2021 Newsletter

HELLO

A warm welcome back to our Friends of Bartonsham Meadows newsletter. Thank you so much for supporting our campaign.

Last night flood warnings were issued for the Wye which is a pollution concern as the meadows appear to have been sprayed recently. Please take care.

This month…

  • We were informed by the Church Commissioners (the landowners) that the farm house, buildings, and higher paddock have been sold.
  • The Church Commissioners invited us to partner with a grazier who shares our vision on an annual basis.
  • We wrote a land management proposal for the Church Commissioners that sets out a vision for long term restoration of the meadows to species-rich floodplain management.
  • We reached out, with Herefordshire Wildlife Trust, to potential grazing partners through the Hereford Green Network. 
  • We have shared our management plan for the long term transformation of the meadows with Hereford Council, Jesse Norman MP, and the Bishop of Hereford.
  • We have continued to share all of your wonderful pictures, videos and related events.
  • Reached 100 followers on Instagram and in our Facebook group! Thanks for the support, if you haven’t yet, you can follow us here for Instagram and here on Facebook.

UPCOMING PLANS…

  • We’ve got an exciting feature on a Virtual Tour of the Meadows this coming Tuesday (7:30pm) with Bartonsham History Group. Featuring a full bridge-to-bridge tour, discover hidden historical nuggets and an update on the meadows from us at FOBM. See the flyer below and email web@bartonshamhistory.org.uk to register. 
  • We have further meetings scheduled over the next few weeks with the Church Commissioners and Hereford Council.
  • We’re continuing to develop our campaign and communication strategy for 2021. Shout out any suggestions or ways in which you could help us.

We are always keen to support similar initiatives in the area. Here’s a list of events (and one TV programme) that might be of interest to you coming up in March…

  • 2nd March 10am-1pm: Towards Net Zero Using Nature Based Solutions in Floodplains  – “The aim of this workshop will be to invite senior and informed speakers and participants to debate how we can optimise land use in floodplains to deliver nature based solutions to flood risk and diffuse pollution, the loss of biodiversity and human health crises.”  Contact Olivia Nelson to attend Olivia.nelson@open.ac.uk   
  • 3rd March 1pm-1:30pm: Say Yes to Life: The Forgotten Problem – with Ruth Valerio “What does it mean to be human? What is our relationship with the world that we live in? What does our future look like?” Book here
  • 17th March: Herefordshire Wildlife Trust City Branch Talk: Putting Herefordshire’s Wildlife into Recover: What do we need to do to create a county rich in wildlife? Nature Recovery Networks, Biodiversity Net Gain and the 30 by 30 campaign. Book here
  • Available online now: Joanna Lumley’s Home Sweet Home Episode 3 includes a clip about a former dairy farm that has been re-wilded. 
Credit: Lisa Stevens

AS ALWAYS, PLEASE COULD YOU…

  • Record images and footage of the meadow, and share with us to keep a record and for use on social media.
  • Share this newsletter with friends, family and anyone who could support us.
  • Encourage friends to sign up to our mailing list and our social media feeds.
  • Consider becoming a member of Herefordshire Wildlife Trust.
  • Consider making a donation to our campaign here .
  • Get in touch with feedback and ideas via email or social media

All the best

Friends of Bartonsham Meadows

January 2021 Newsletter

HELLO

Firstly, if you’re new here (and we’ve had a few new sign-ups, up to 135 of you!) – a very warm welcome to Friends of Bartonsham Meadows. Thank you so much for choosing to support our campaign.

It’s been a busy month:

  • We’ve spoken again with the land-owners, the Church Commissioners, alongside Herefordshire Wildlife Trust. We have set out our vision for how the land could be managed to transform it from intensive agriculture to outstanding natural habitat delivering broad social and environmental public goods. Our proposal centres biodiversity and regenerative land-management practices which we are endeavouring to establish on a long-term basis.
  • Herefordshire Wildlife Trust City Branch kindly hosted a presentation about our project on Thursday 21 January. We were blown away by the turn out – a total of 64 of you! Thank you to everyone who came along. If you were unable to join us, you can view the recording of the presentation here.
  • Anna Gundrey, Charlie Arthur and Ruth Westoby were interviewed by Nicola Goodwin of BBC Hereford & Worcester Radio which was broadcast Monday 18th January. Here is the recording. The interview and topic post on their Facebook page received some great feedback and lots of support which was really great to see. 
  • Working group member and consultant ecologist Anna Gundrey has written a wonderful piece on the environmental case for a floodplain meadow at Bartonsham. It will be up on our website soon, but you can also read it here.

Of course, we’ve also been keeping our eye on the floods and the snow this month, see below some of the images we’ve gathered.. a huge thank you to the contributors!

Credit: Will Steel
Credit: Christine Earl
Credit: Elaine Underwood
Credit: Anne Dodwell

UPCOMING PLANS…

We’ve been consulting with our working group on our 2021 priorities and strategy. If you would like to feed into this process please email us with suggestions for us to work on and any ways in which you could offer support through volunteering your time or expertise, or making a financial donation.

From our online event with Hereford Wildlife Trust.

AS ALWAYS, PLEASE COULD YOU…

  • Keep sending us your images and footage of the meadow, so we can keep a record and for use on social media.
  • Share this newsletter with friends, family and anyone who could support us.
  • Encourage friends to sign up to our mailing list and our social media feeds.
  • Consider becoming a member of Herefordshire Wildlife Trust.
  • Get in touch with feedback and ideas via email or social media.

All the best

Friends of Bartonsham Meadows

A PDF Version of this newsletter can be downloaded here

December 2020 Newsletter

HELLO

Thank you for supporting positive ecological management of Bartonsham Meadows.

This month we have:

  • Continued our discussions (online)with the Church Commissioners, with our next discussion scheduled for mid-January
  • Improved our Stronger Towns Fund bid, lead by Herefordshire Wildlife Trust, and re-submitted it to the board
  • Presented (Ruth) to the Community Association (online) introducing our project and giving an update on progress
  • Planned to gather our finest ecology heads together for a walk-round and assessment of the state of the meadows with a focus on wildlife populations
  • Reached 100 supporters!

COMING UP IN THE NEW YEAR…

We’re excited to have an online introductory event in January. Herefordshire Wildlife Trust City Branch are kindly hosting us to give a presentation about our project. There’ll be short talks from Andrew Nixon (Herefordshire Wildlife Trust), Anna Gundrey (ecology consultant), Bill Laws (historian), Ruth Westoby (FOBM convenor) and plenty of time for Q&A.

It will take place on 21st January at 7pm – sign up below! It would be great if you could spread the word and join us.

PLEASE COULD YOU…

  • Record images and footage of the meadows, especially now the floods are up, and share with us to keep a record and for use on social media
  • Donate to help our project grow (get in touch if you would like to make a donation)
  • Encourage friends to sign up to our mailing list
  • Consider joining Herefordshire Wildlife Trust
  • Get in touch with feedback and ideas

This project has only been kicked around since February 2020 and since then we have been bowled over by the encouragement, engagement and support it’s received. In the teeth of an extraordinary and difficult year it has felt important and powerful to get active for positive change right on our doorstep. We’re so grateful for the generous donations which have enabled us to cover costs and develop the project. A huge thank you to everyone who has supported us, got involved and enabled this project to get off to such an awesome start.

Wishing you a peaceful 2021,

Friends of Bartonsham Meadows

November 2020 Newsletter

Hello

I hope this newsletter finds you well. Thanks for your continued support of our grassroots project.

This month we have

  • Discussed our vision with Jesse Norman MP alongside Jeremy Milln, Councillor for Hereford Central Ward, and Andrew Nixon, Senior Reserves Manager, Hereford Wildlife Trust
  • Submitted a speculative funding pitch to the Stronger Town Fund
  • Maintained contact with the Church Commissioners, owners of Bartonsham Farm
  • Hit a record 89 registered supporters
  • Continued to talk with potential partners organisations

Please look out for

  • Our blog on the Herefordshire Wildlife Trust site https://www.herefordshirewt.org/blog/friends-bartonsham-meadows/introducing-friends-bartonsham-meadows
  • An online information session with Herefordshire Wildlife Trust City Branch in January 2021
  • Possible media coverage!

Please could you

  • Share this newsletter with friends and family
  • Send us images, film clips and recollections of what the Meadows mean to you for us to use on our social media
  • Consider joining Herefordshire Wildlife Trust (Ruth – convenor – has just asked for membership as a birthday present!)
  • Get in touch with feedback and ideas

All the best

Friends of Bartonsham Meadows

October 2020 Newsletter

Hello

Thank you for supporting Friends of Bartonsham Meadows. Your support has enabled us to take forward our project of working to support a transition to ecological and socially beneficial land-use practices at Bartonsham Farm, Hereford.

This project brings individual action and insight to bear on crucial questions of belonging, biodiversity, and climate change.

Here’s an update on our activities. We have focused on maintaining a dialogue with the Church Commissioners and developing our networks with local supporters and local and regional stakeholders. 

Specifically we have:

  • Secured the support of over 60 people who have signed up at http://www.friendsofbartonshammeadows.org.
  • Distributed 2000 leaflets to local residents and businesses to introduce our work and seek support.
  • Secured the ear of local government and the interest of the administration on Herefordshire Council.
  • Raised over £2000 in funds to cover our current activities and support further work.
  • Received financial support and endorsement from Healing Herbs, alongside the support of organisations such as Hereford Wildlife Trust, Bartonsham History Group, Growing Local and the St. James’ and Bartonsham Community Association.

Our focus has been to develop our expertise and professionalism should the opportunity arise to support the Herefordshire Wildlife Trust in a bid to manage the Meadows in line with its objectives as a conservation organisation.

We are now developing our communications capacity in order to reach out to residents and stakeholders both locally and regionally.

Please would you:

  • Spread the word – ask your friends, colleagues and networks to sign-up to support our objectives and receive our newsletter http://www.friendsofbartonshammeadows.org
  • Get in touch to volunteer your skills info@friendsofbartonshammeadows.org. The more volunteers we can get on board to help with the project will make a huge difference to meeting our group objectives, both short-term and long-term. Get in touch to find out how you can do your bit!
  • Follow us on social media – we have just launched (today!!) brand new pages on Instagram, Twitter and a Facebook group to keep you up-to-date on the project and gain more support locally and regionally. It would be great if you could follow us using the links at the end of this email.
  • Share with us your images and stories of the meadows for us to use to promote our campaign info@friendsofbartonshammeadows.org. We’d love to build a collection of photographs sent in by our supporters to share on our new social media pages. Your experience of these meadows matters.
  • Donate to support our activities. Make cheques payable to St. James’ and Bartonsham Community Association, noting ‘Friends of Bartonsham Meadows’ on the back. Please post to 19 Nelson Street, Hereford HR1 2NZ.

All the best

Friends of Bartonsham Meadows