Friend's Chair Harry Mycock on progress and next steps at Winchester's St Giles Hill Park
PHOTO: Several of our Trustees on the Hill. Left to right: Mike Thorpe, Mike Biden, Harry Mycock (chair) and Charles Radcliffe.
The Friends of St Giles Hill Park was established as a Charity with great ambition on 24 April. At the grass roots end of this the Charity aims to get volunteers out on the Park and begin the process of making improvements alongside the major tree scape works planned by the Council and needed, most notably, to address ash dieback.
I can report that we are in the final throes of approval as a volunteer group by Winchester City Council and we will soon be able to start volunteer activities. Initially the aim will be to concentrate on clearing invasive undergrowth in the less sheer slopes and clearing routes and pathways. Once we can clear the path edges and along the fences the Probation Service is pencilled in to provide working parties to start fence painting. Once we have been out with loppers, secateurs, shovels and brushes we then aim to step our work to wider matters of scrub clearance, paintwork, minor repairs and then larger and more aspirational projects. The important thing is that we are now set to begin to reverse the decline and improve our treasured green space.
September should be busy with, I hope, several working parties under way. Also that month contractors are due to undertake “cut and removal” work on grassed areas alongside Magdalen Hill (compartment(C) 1), above The Viewpoint (C 16B), in the naturalised area on the right as you enter from Bridge Street (C 6) and in the South part of the Park up from the Quarry Road entrance (C 8,9).
October should be busier still with considerable tree work scheduled in the area between the Quarry Road entrance and the The Viewpoint (C 10, 11, 12B, 12C). Considerable numbers of originally self seeded ash will be felled as they are diseased, dying or dead, though the odd one may be left standing to around 4-5 metres in height and left as if as if a veteran to ameliorate the removal of many established trees at one time and disturbing the natural cycle.
As well as ash removal the October plan includes the removal of much scrubby growth in the area in question opening up pathways and views. One area to benefit is the area near the large beech tree set on its own platform in Section 10. Alas, this tree, some 120 years old, is showing considerable disease and decay and below it the seats have been removed for safety reasons. Whilst some safety work on the branches is needed it won’t be too long into the future that this tree is taken lower and left as a veteranised tree too. The good news, for the beech, though, is that it has several offspring in the vicinity and during the clearance work in October those suitable for retention can be retained. This clearance should expose similar trees to retain when in a suitable place and of suitable type. For instance in this area are trees like the Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) and walnut (Juglans Regis) which are already established and now just need the space the mature.
PHOTOS: Areas in the park where tree work is scheduled for this autumn.
The area to be addressed in October also has a couple of Corsican Pines (Pinus nigra) which are looking pretty sorry for themselves and at some point decisions need to be made on these and suitable replacement. These Pines are an important tree in the Park with around 60 trees in the Park itself and others at strategic points on the Hill such as at the junction of Quarry and Alresford Road or opposite the end of Stratton Road. Ongoing and painstaking research through numerous sources and archives is beginning to piece together the development of the Park and there is no doubt of the hand in development of the area (and the role of the Park) significant influence on layout was by Lord Northbrook and Mayor Stopher in the period 1870-1920.
After the major works in October, which may take contractors two weeks or more, then we volunteers will be able to add fine detail to what will deliver considerable change to the area. We should have the scope to get on top and keep on top of this area before focussing on more on other areas of the Park. With co-ordination and a big enough body of volunteers built then in 2024 we could envisage subsets of volunteers taking and feeling ownership of certain areas within an overall umbrella, plan and strategy.
Before we get carried away though, after a lot of felling and clearance, then on December 9 we volunteers can get into the renewal stage. It is planned to plant up to 80 trees on that date, these trees being young hawthorn and hornbeam, both of which are under represented in the Park given that it is essentially chalk downland where you would expect to see more of them, this perhaps due to the former rampant self seeding of asks and sycamore.
Once planted then volunteer nurturing will need to come into play to reduce potential losses which through post-planting neglect is too often the case. Planting in biodegradable tubes and with wood chips surrounds will help protect from the sun, animals and water loss. After that we volunteers can nurture the trees by clearing weed and caring for saplings should we have a drought, say, as we had in June this year.
Although not yet funded 2024 may well see further major works driven by the need to remove ash from The Viewpoint to the North (C 12 B, 12 A, 13 and 14). The ash dieback is not going to stop and as diseased trees develop to become potentially dangerous tree work is inevitable in the none too distant future. This again, will lead to a somewhat starker tree scape especially when viewed from the grassland (C 15, 16 A) and the important thing is to seize the opportunity it creates.
Looking to the long term then it is crucial for everyone who possible can to provide input to consultations, especially the Council’s Community Engagement planned for October. This way we can influence the Management Plan into one more strategic and long term for our Park.
In all, after several years of neglect for various reasons, with change driven by the natural phenomena of ash dieback and a management plan in place setting up the Friends Charity is appropriate and timely in terms of seizing opportunity and achieving change.
As a final note, if you would like sign up to be a Friend and if possible volunteer then www.friendsofstgileshillpark.org is the place to visit. Events, history, blogs and plans are all on the site, too. The WCC 5 year Plan is also accessible there, as is a link to report issues relating to the Park to the Council, which is crucially important. They need to know.
ABOVE: Plan of St Giles Hill Park showing park management compartments, extracted from Winchester City Council's Park Management Plan 2023-2028.
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