Ludlow P3 spent a day in Stanton Lacy making a huge difference to an extremely overgrown section of path which was originally on the Shropshire Way and also used for a World War 1 anniversary walk in 2015.  From the bank of the River Corve, the footpath runs for just over 300 yards as a fenced off piece of land between a field, used as pasture by the Earl of Plymouth Estate, and the hedge bordering a lane. Because of its flood plain aspect the footpath has been slightly banked up above the field and also has two short bridges over branches of a gully, used to drain the land in the event of flood.

This section was inspected by a Ludlow P3 member who found it to be thoroughly overgrown and unusable however some help was given by the Plymouth Estate to roughly clear it and make it just about passable but this revealed the poor condition of aforementioned bridges. 

This is how it remained until the last couple of years, needing regular attention to clear the vegetation to keep it open.  The P3 Group spent well over 60 hours by 2015 on the whole route with just a few improvement jobs elsewhere.  The Council decided to replace the bridges and make it possible for a flail mower to maintain the surface.  This plan came to fruition at a P3 group meeting in October this year. Group Members cleared the footpath with brushcutter and hedgecutter and two Council Officers with members of the Outdoor Partnership team replaced the bridges with wider ones.  The pictures below show before and after the work. 

The route has been added to, with footpaths from Ludlow to make a route from Ludlow to Onibury, using an hourly bus service to return and promoted in a tenth leaflet in the series, "Ludlow Country Walks".

The Bishop’s Castle P3 are going from strength to strength regularly going out on work days and improving the network in and around the town, they have already volunteered 125 hours since June 2016.  One significant improvement was to install a self-closing bridleway gate on the Shropshire Way which has been mutually beneficial to both users and the landowner who had problems with stock escaping as the former gate was often left open.  The group have negotiated many access improvements and have upgraded a number of stiles for gates, where appropriate, with training from Shropshire Council staff.  The picture, left, shows the first kissing gate undertaken without assistance from SC staff on a route linking the Clun road to the Montgomery road and below is another gate installed on the same route making this an easy access and useful link.  Many thanks to Glynn, BC P3 Coordinator, and the group for all their hard work.

Trefonen & Treflach P3 Group now meet on the first Friday of the month, usually at 10.00am at the Trefonen village playing field car park. We often walk the paths to check their condition, finding that these walks take twice as long as they should do due to the attention paid to manicuring hedges around stiles.

Just as enjoyable are work parties, when we tackle identified projects such as stile repair, bridge building and major clearance: one of our priorities is the paths in Shropshire used by the Trefonen Hillwalk. We have a website TTP3 which has contact details and photos of recent days out. Let us know if you would like to join us.

Mark Leather - T&T P3 Coordinator

The Condover P3 helped to address some safety concerns at Dorrington after a report of a young mother with a toddler and dog struggling to get over a stile on path crossing the busy stretch of railway.  As a result of this near miss six stiles on three paths crossing the railway close to the village have been replaced with kissing gates. This should enable users to get across the railway much quicker and more easily, particularly with dogs and young children. Working adjacent to the railway can only be done with close consultation with Network Rail, often involving one of their staff acting as an observer to reduce any risks with trains.

Over the last few months the volunteer group at the Severn Valley Country Park has been successful in obtaining awards and grants thanks to their hard work and dedication. In November our Senior Ranger, Ed Andrews, went to Kew Gardens in London to collect the Bees Needs Award for creating over 12 acres of pollen-rich hay meadows The decline in bees and other pollinators is one of the most worrying problems facing humanity. These insects play a vital role in pollinating the crops that we depend on for food production. Staff and volunteers at Severn Valley Country Park are leading the way in creating habitat to allow these important insects to thrive. Their efforts have now been recognised in a national award scheme that celebrates the National Pollinator Strategy. The Minister for Rural Affairs and Biosecurity, Lord Gardiner, presented the award to the local authority at a high-profile event at Kew Gardens in London on Tuesday 8th November. Areas of coal spoil at Severn Valley Country Park have been transformed into species-rich hay meadows covered in native wildflowers. These provide a bumper nectar-source for pollinators. Volunteers have also installed bee hives and trained as bee-keepers, producing local honey. They have also put up nest boxes for solitary bees such as red-mason bees.

Our volunteers have also been busy making reindeer from wood sourced on the park and these have been sold to help fund projects on the park. Our events volunteers helped run a wonderful Christmas wreath making day in December and the wreaths that we made were wonderful!

In the New Year we will be starting a second day for regular volunteering which will be held every Thursday, to find out more email James Brookes or call on 01746 781192 for more information.

The small committed group at Donington Pool LNR has increased in number recently which is great news. They have recently replaced all the wire netting on the bridges with fibre glass anti-slip strips which has made a long lasting improvement to the site. Also three memorial Black Poplar trees have been planted in St Cuthbert’s Meadow. One of these trees is in memory of Brian Jones who was one of the original volunteers of the Nature Reserve.  His son Ian came with his wife to plant the tree in Brian’s memory. Future dates for volunteer days are: Thursday 5th January, Thursday 9th February and Thursday 9th March, all 9.30am – 2pm.  If you are interested in helping email James Brookes or call on 01746 781192.

A new group has been established at Lyth Hill, a beauty spot near Bayston Hill which, arguably, boasts one of the best views in Shropshire.  The group is proving to be a great success, most recently volunteers have been opening up old footpaths that were over run with brambles, cutting back and widening path edges for visitors and making many repairs to fencing around the site. More monthly volunteer days are planned for the New Year. Please phone 01746 781192 for dates and more information.

A big thank you to all our volunteers at our sites for all their hard work. If you would like to join any of our groups or would like to find out more please contact the staff at Severn Valley Country Park by calling 01746 781192.

The winter is coming for the Shropshire Wild Teams and the heavy work has begun! These past couple of months the teams have been felling, chopping, sawing and shifting trees, shrubs and brash and there have been one or four roaring fires too.  The teams have been working up North with the Shropshire Wildlife Trust at Llynclys Common and Llanymynech and down South in the steep woodlands of Brinneddin and there’s been a bit going on in-between too.  The Wild Teams now have their own hazel coppice to manage for the National Trust on the Wenlock Edge and have also returned to the Montgomery Canal to continue with the hedgelaying for the Canals and Rivers Trust. In fact, last year’s hedge was spotted by a local judge and has, on his recommendation, been entered into the Oswestry and District Agricultural 2016 Hedge Competition, not bad for the team’s first attempt!  

The teams have also returned to Darwin’s Garden to join the Wildlife Trust in planting a hedge alongside the riverside path and in Shrewsbury the teams nearly made it into the local press whilst working with Matt Wilcoxson and his Shrewsbury Town Council team, laying a wood chip path in Copthorne Park.  Can’t remember the front page but there must have been something big on that week.  As well as working with all our other old chums at Carding Mill Valley, Stiperstones & Corndon Hill LPS, the Shropshire Hills AONB, Caring for God’s Acre, the Limees , Cambrian Railways, Wyldewoods, Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre (deep breath), we’re hoping to make a few new ones too.  Fingers-crossed there are hopes for exciting opportunities with the NT’s Dudmaston Estate, Natural England and the Stiperstones and Limekiln Woods. Plans are also afoot to offer the Wild Team volunteers the chance to obtain the John Muir award in the new-year. 

As predicted we now have a new Bridgnorth Team, the “Bridgnorth Zombies”! The team is going strong and has a good turn-out every week.  The Shrewsbury "Green team" has now assumed a new identity and will be called “The Hornets” from here on in.  The “Alpacas” of Craven Arms (and thereabouts) and the “Elites” of Oswestry are still elite.  The last day of 2016 work calendar will be on the 22nd December for the Wild Teams, when they plan to all meet up together and go for a walk from Cardington and up between Caradoc and Hope Bowdler.   All the teams will be back in business criss-crossing the county and carrying on their good work from the 9th January.

Volunteers and walkers celebrated after their Christmas Walking for Health walk with a wonderful festive meal cooked by the young people and staff of the Foyer, Ludlow.

The Foyer kindly supply a meal for the walkers every week after the Station Drive Surgery walk, the walkers pay a small amount each to cover the food costs. The Foyer do a superb job in providing this opportunity for walkers to enjoy a wonderful social end to the walk.

Thanks to the WFH volunteers and the Foyer, everyone enjoyed the Christmas walk and meal as you can see from the photographs below: