As restrictions are lifted and we are able to meet more friends and gradually visit favourite places, it is possible fewer people will visit our forum.
I hope not and that it will continue to be a place where members can air their views about our lectures and events. Offer suggestions and follow -up ideas for us to enjoy.
Meanwhile have a good week-end and if it is the first time you will be seeing loved ones have a great time.
Nikki Edwardes is responsible for the Wood Wardens in Sherrardspark Wood and has contributed this fascinating article.
Sherrardspark Wood is one of England’s foremost Ancient sessile oak and hornbeam woodlands. Its 74 hectares is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Local Nature Reserve. Less than a mile from Welwyn Garden City town centre, it is a much-loved local amenity, enjoyed by many.
Sherrardspark Wood Wardens Society is a group of volunteers who have worked since 1966 to protect and conserve this vital resource, managing the woodland for the benefit of wildlife and the local community.
A 20-year Plan (2005-2025) was developed by Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council, the Wood Wardens, Natural England and the Forestry Commission. Its aim is to maintain a diversity of woodland habitats that foster a wide range of locally important species including birds, small mammals and invertebrates. This requires a balance of mature trees and young growth, open and shaded areas, thus encouraging a diversity of species suited to the different soils and ground conditions found across the wood. The Wood Wardens use a combination of traditional coppicing and the planting of new trees to meet this aim. Other activities include the monitoring of various species to inform us as to the effectiveness of our management strategies, footpath maintenance and public education.
The Sherrardspark Wood Wardens are committed to preserving this historic coppiced woodland and improving the diversity of wildlife supported by its plants.
A plan of work in the woods is decided annually to create coppiced woodland habitats suitable for wildlife diversity. Work parties meet twice a week to implement this. Activities vary depending on the time of year and include: hornbeam coppicing; beneficial tree thinning; removing invasive species e.g. rhododendron and bracken; planting new saplings; watering. Traditional methods are employed using hand tools and chainsaws. Good oak, ash, cherry and rowan trees are retained as sources of seed for new trees. After a few years the coppiced areas become dense thickets of vegetation ideal for birds and small mammals. Natural regeneration of trees is preferred but in some areas saplings from UK growers are planted to increase the stocking rate or the diversity of tree species – e.g. in coppiced areas managed for prospective dormouse habitat, planting hazel, a dormouse food source.
Managing the woodland for the public involves work to ensure that footpaths and bridleways are well maintained and signed. They need to be kept in good condition, well drained and clear of encroaching vegetation so that access to and through the wood is safe and to discourage the public from leaving the pathways and potentially harming the nature reserve. Our programme of guided summer walks encourages the local community to appreciate and respect our SSSI.
Some statistics
In 2019, 52 volunteers worked over 3,500 hours in 138 morning shifts, nearly 3,500 hours.
Around 4000 saplings have been planted in the last five years consisting of: 1,000 hornbeam; 1,000 hazel; 800 sessile oaks; 700 hawthorn; 125 field maple; 100 honeysuckle and 75 blackthorn.
Recent projects demonstrate the range of our work.
300 Prime sessile oaks from Sherrardspark acorns, nurtured at home by Wardens, planted by 2028.
Creating ‘scallops’ by selective felling and strimming on the sides of rides increases floral and butterfly diversity.
Constructing a path on a Herts Health Walk route, reducing plant trampling.
Monitoring: muntjac deer, invertebrates, birds, bats, butterflies, moths, flora.
Monitoring effect of coppicing height on plant regrowth.
Supporting Rothamstead Research and Forestry Research on control methods for Acute Oak Decline.
We engage with the community to show what a treasure we have and explain what we do.
8 Guided Walks in 2019 - foraging, fungi, birds, invertebrates, geology, tree identification, flowers, butterflies, moths.
Late evening moth trapping.
Local businesses team-building conservation events: Pay-point, Roche and Tesco.
Activities for Applecroft and Harwood Hill Schools, and home-educated children.
Helping other volunteers: Mardley Heath, Northaw nature reserves; St Peter’s church yard; Isabel Hospice.
Preparing paths, signage for Welwyn Garden City Centenary 2020 Walk.
Tree planting with local cubs.
Two-day bio-blitz for Welwyn Garden City 2020 celebrations - unfortunately postponed by Coronavirus.
Sherrardspark Woods won the Anglia in Bloom Gold Award for Best Woodland and a Gold Certificate.
The Wardens’ dedication to the environment employing a wide range of skills, and their willingness to support the local community, makes them worthy of consideration for a CPRE Hertfordshire award.
Quote from a wood warden: ‘Monday mornings are much easier to face if I have been working in the woods on Sunday morning’
Working with Tesco.
Chris James, Ecology Officer at WHBC, said “This project, master-minded by the Wood Wardens, was a great way of bringing together lots of enthusiasm, energy, skills, planning and organisation to provide a solution to a problem. The utilisation of woodland produce from Sherrardspark Wood made complete sense and the willing and happy co-operation between volunteers and community groups to achieve a successful outcome added the icing to the cake.”
As more of us venture out and our diaries begin to slowly fill up again, I will still monitor our forum and look for your views and suggestions but on a less regular basis.
I am looking forward to our first online lecture and hope to host some discussion groups on Zoom if enough people are interested to take part.
Information about all our upcoming Zoom activities will be on The Wire, so please open it and read it there's lots of interest to be found.
Best wishes to you all and I hope that we can all have a pleasant summer.
It has been a lovely hot day today and I have in front of me.....not a Pimms.....but some pictures of Summer scenes.
One is by Laura Knight the first woman to be elected Royal Academician. It is called "Lamorna Cove,1917" and a picture can be found easily on the internet, it evokes long summer days. The painting depicts sunlight on the sea near Penzance on the Cornish coastline. She said that the bay had been " turned to gold by the reflection on the sun shining on the cliff above". Just before lockdown I visited a small exhibition of Laura Knight's work at the Royal Academy as I admire her style and skill.
Those of you who receive the Royal Opera House emails, will know that last night they screened The Magic Flute. This was the first opera I saw when I was a teenager and it has had a place in my heart ever since. I did not watch the performance last night but plan to do so tonight, so a treat in store. Some years ago I saw an Old Vic production.
Mozart's score becomes one for an orchestra of marimbas, drums and township percussion. The musical, set in contemporary South Africa, changes the story to one from a South African perspective. It was adapted by Mark Dornford-May and was certainly different, I loved it. It had vitality and enthusiasm and I remember leaving the theatre feeling elated.
Reading about our theatres now and their uncertain future is very sad and I do hope that funds are found so theatre land can rise again once more,
We are looking forward to our newest venture, our online lecture on the 8th July. I hope as many of you as possible will join us to view our own private lecture given by Sandy Burnett.
Please get in touch with me if you would like further information.
Meanwhile I am sure the gardeners among you will be sighing with relief as the rain pours down. Time to get on with all those inside jobs that have been patiently waiting !
We have just bought two chairs for our patio so I suppose I will have to wait to try them out.
AIMEZ VOUS H.M? Written by David Tabraham-Palmer
In these dog days of June, while we sit out this pandemic, and perhaps the most exciting notes in our diaries are to check the correct recycling collection and remember the next click-and - collect date for our supermarket, we can at least receive some balm from the B.B.C. One such moment for me was his granddaughter's wonderful documentary on Henri Matisse. Perhaps, like me, you saw and were inspired by this very moving programme about his early years as an artist
I have to confess that I came relatively late to Matisse. Living in faraway Cumbria, my art diet was limited to the minor eighteenth century paintings in Kendal's Abbott Hall Gallery and the nineteenth century collections in Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery. It's true that the Edinburgh Festival which we visited offered successive years of French artists exhibitions, but these were Georges Rouault (now largely passed over) and Andre Derain ( a favourite of mine.) So although I may have caught glimpses of Matisse in my sparse London visits, he did not really impinge on my consciousness until a very hot summer in Leningrad in 1973. Rushing her privileged British tourists through highlights of the Hermitage Collection, our Intourist guide tried to avert her eyes and comments from one painting. Her curled lips almost murmured "bourgeois, Western, decadent smears", but I registered something else. Matisse's "Les Danseuses" hit me between the eyeballs, and awoke me to a whole new sensibility in French art. When it was lent to the Royal Academy a few years ago, it excited me even more, but, of course, I had received more exposure to his output by then.
The B.B.C. documentary focussed on his early years, and one of its final glimpses was of his studio interior, painted in 1903. It commenced a vogue which followed him through his creative life. Of course, he was following in great forebears' steps in depicting interiors against a window, - Jan Steen, Rembrandt, Vermeer and Caspar David Friedrich. Yet what he achieved in his own numerous "rooms with a view" was a kind of visual alchemy which energised painting after painting. Shirley Neilson Blum has published a beautifully illustrated book on this subject, and it is a pity that it is currently out of print. Beg or borrow it if you can: it will reward the effort.
As for my own journey into the extraordinary narrative of Matisse's life, its highpoint arrived in 1987. We were on holiday in the South of France: a heady mix of sun and sand, powerful wines and glorious cuisine. But there was time and space for culture, and I shall never forget two successive days when we pointed the car eastwards, and traversed the Cote d' Azur. Day one took us to St. Tropez and the wonderful celebration of modern French art which is the Musee de L'Annonciade. In a typically French way, a sixteenth century religious foundation had been transformed into a secular celebration of French culture. Signacs, Dufys, Derains and, yes. Matisse jostled with each other in a beautifully clean, white interior. The pure blue of some of the artists' palettes was only outdone by the glistening blue of the Mediterranean outside, glimpsed through the open windows. Was art imitating life, or vice versa?
Then, on Day two, we travelled to Vence, and I need say no more. Entering that chapel was one of the most moving experiences of my life. As I gazed in wonderment at its purity of vision, its ineffably spiritual conception, I could feel the tears trickling down my unembarrassed face. Here, finally, was the summit of Matisse's achievement. We just settled silently into a pew to absorb the overwhelming impact of its presence all around us, and felt uncomfortably unworthy of the privilege we had enjoyed on that sultry, perfect, afternoon.
For those who may not be able to visit the chapel in person, there is always the option of consulting the beautifully illustrated Royal Academy book on the subject ( happily still in print.) Beyond that, of course, there is the whole span of his life to immerse yourself in, and what better way to do this than to read Hilary Spurling's brilliant two volume biography. To return to where I began, in that B.B.C. documentary, there was Hilary, as alert and super intelligent as ever, sharing her remarkable knowledge and enthusiasm for the man and his oeuvre. I may have come late to his creative legacy, but be in no doubt that my affection for his work burns as brightly as ever. Oh those lucky nuns in the Chapel at Vence!
Printed below is an interesting article by David Tabraham-Palmer about his discovery of Matisse and appreciation for his art.
I visited the chapel in Vence that David describes and it was a wonderful experience. It was only slightly marred by the dull weather, it is when the sun shines through the glorious yellow and blue windows that the reflections come to life.