Community, Parish Council & Village
Friends of Hillhouse Wood
The Environment & Highways Committee of West Bergholt Parish Council met on 8th September 2022 with topics including:
Steve Hallam reports on the 2022 Dawn Chorus walk.
The 2022 Dawn Chorus walk at Hillhouse Wood took place in the midst of a run of warm sunny days, with cool nights. Except for the morning that we chose, which was cloudy and dull but mild. Nevertheless, the publicity team had done an excellent job, resulting in a very pleasing 30 people turning up. I was particularly pleased to find that Jonathan Jukes, the Woodland Trust Regional Manager responsible for the wood, had dragged himself out of bed at such an uncivilised hour, to join us. With the cloud cover, the night was still fully dark, and thus the birds were relatively slow to get going.
Continue reading “2022 Dawn Chorus Walk – Where’s the Song Thrush”
Steve Hallam reports on the 2022 Spring Flower Walk.
This took place on a day of sunny intervals and a strong breeze; 12 people came along and off we went. Except that we did not go too far, to start with, as the first few yards of the track hold a variety of flowers to be discussed.
… may not set everyone’s pulse racing – but they all contribute to a rich flora and they each have a story to tell. In the hands of a knowledgeable and articulate expert guide, these can weave a fascinating spell.
Unfortunately for the group, however, they had me – you get what you pay for!
Continue reading “2022 Spring Flower Walk – but no pea shooters”
After a gap of three years, guided walks return with two great walks to enjoy with Steve Hallam in the next few weeks.
The last Spring Flower walk took place in 2019 in the company of Storm Hannah! Despite the weather, 22 folks assembled for the walk and thoroughly enjoyed themselves; the comic highlight possibly being when Steve was pretty much blown over by the force of the wind! The walk is normally conducted at a gentle pace (storms permitting).
In a typical year you are likely to see the following flowers:
Continue reading “The return of guided walks at Hillhouse Wood”
The first guided walk at Hillhouse Wood since 2020 takes place on Saturday 26th February when Steve Hallam leads the Winter Bird Walk 2022. Walkers should meet at the Old Church at 10 am (weather permitting), wearing stout footwear and warm clothing & with a warm drink in a flask. They can expect to see a range of resident woodland and meadow species as well as some winter visitors, the Woodland Trust lists the following as the top-15 winter potentials:
Continue reading “Winter Bird Walk 2022 – will you see a Waxwing?”
This Easter 2021 update from St Mary’s starts with a message from Revd Anne and also includes:
… and the usual listings of services and contacts but first:
You may be reading this article around Eastertime, or a little earlier. It’s at Easter that Christians the world over celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection, and are reminded of God’s free gift of forgiveness and love. In the Bible we read,
Continue reading “Easter 2021 at St Mary’s”
Day 23 and the sun continued to shine down on us. Wonderful with a bit of a but. Each year our popular Hillhouse Wood becomes an attraction as the spring flowers create carpets of colour. The paths, though, are rather narrow and social distancing will become a problem if the same numbers come along this year.
If you are not a local resident can you please put off your visit until next year when, all being well, there will be no lockdown. In other news:
Old Church RefurbishmentThe last update on this project left us with the conservators planning how to deal with the Mediaeval Paintings discovered during refurbishment works. Well, the plan now is to complete the refurbishment of the interior walls but leaving the paintings Continue reading “Day 23 of Lockdown – Don’t Go Down To The Woods”
The first guided walk of the year at Hillhouse Wood takes place on Saturday 29th February when Steve Hallam leads the Winter Bird Walk 2020. Walkers should meet at the Old Church at 10 am (weather permitting), wearing
Continue reading “Winter Bird Walk 2020 – will you see a Waxwing?”
25th AGM of Friends of Hillhouse WoodThe 25th AGM of the Friends of Hillhouse Wood is on Wednesday 11th December 2019. Starting in the Orpen Hall at 7.30 pm, refreshments will be served from 7.00 pm. The Friends will welcome members and non-members alike.
Following the conclusion of formal business, there will be a talk given by John More, Essex Wildlife Trust’s Living Landscapes Co-ordinator.
2019 has seen 4 organised walks; some snippets and links to the full articles are shown below: Continue reading “25th AGM of Friends of Hillhouse Wood”
Autumn Fruits in the RainIt appears in recent years, that the Autumn Fruits Walk tends to act as a magnet to rain. This year was no exception. However, the weather forecast gave plenty of warning and so the 7 participants came prepared.
As for the walk itself, we again saw how the presence, location and abundance of plants vary from year to year. This time there were lots of the Continue reading “Autumn Fruits in the Rain”