Local firm T and M Hardy have been carrying out excavations in the Millennium Green and they have exposed yet more of the rich archaeological heritage of Whitchurch.
Flint is a part of our heritage and much remains hidden in the earth below us.
Ancient water bottle
They have exposed another example of the early Stoneage Bicycle. One was discovered on the same site in 2008 but the recent discovery is more modern. The first discovery had a square wheel at the rear but this one has evolved closer to the one we are familiar which has two round wheels. Local volunteer archaeologist Gareth Evans was present when the detail was exposed after the contractors had left the site.
There is a clue that cyclists did get hot and take an early form of water bottle with them. Near to the bicycle we believe an old farming cyclist left a branded bottle designed to appeal to ploughmen as it has the word OXO on its side.
Stoneage Bicycle and a cat flap
Local Cycle Training expert John Buckley noticed the absence of brakes , pedals and lights and said how much safer cycling had become since these later innovations had been invented .
Another discovery is made from porcelain with a beautiful wooden door on the front and is thought to be perhaps some form of cat worship and the origin of the design of later but simpler cat flaps.
They will remain in position for the weekend as archaeologists may insist on them being removed to a local or national museum.
The first stage of the Lottery Funded works has been completed. The Dog Proof fence is in place and the area around the Ogham Circle, where the ground has been consolidated by plastic mesh and hard stuff, has been surfaced with fertile soil and sown with grass seed.
Seeded!
In the second week of April the Electricity Board will erect a pole and bring power to the Millennium Green and the access points installed ready to take the boxes with their plugs.
Access plinth
With the contractors departed from the area near the Fish Gate a new line of screening shrubs has been planted and Child Minder children planted wildflowers.
Children planting flowers
Jeff Geary whose dog tested our dog-proof fence and found it could get through the far gate volunteered to raise the level of the path inside it so his dog must stay with his owner all the time he is in the meadow.
New shrubs
All the work has been done to a very high standard and it is a credit to local workers.
It will soon go but the temporary pipe stuck out of the ground ready for the electric supply is a wonderful thing for children to shout down as an echo returns.
Temporary pipe ready for the electric supply
Hardys are coming full circle on the Ogham Circle.
The finishing surface is going smoothly into place. Next grass seed will be sown.
New dog-proof fence has been completed by Hardys!
Disabled bay cleared
New fence near the footpath gate
Taking care of the tree during the fence construction
It was with some symbolic significance that we installed The Ogham Circle in 1999. Its diameter is 19.99 metres to celebrate the year.
Like the peripheral paths round the meadow a base of skelpings (crushed stone) lies beneath a layer of gravel and grass so we have a surface that people can walk on all year round without getting bogged in.
The Ogham Circle was put in place so we could firmly define an area for events where long grass is not ideal. The Ogham Circle is kept mown and sometimes in the shape of a Classic Maze.
The path around the outside has not proved wide enough for the increasing numbers of small vehicles bringing things on site for events. The mobile laboratory also needs more firm ground beneath.
So we are widening this and a layer of crushed stone will be overlaid with gravel and then special plastic re-inforcement into which special compost and grass seed will be placed. A local contractor working as part of our recent Lottery Grant is doing the work which by mid summer will be totally hidden.
Plastic sections to be laid flat and filled with top soil so grass can be sown in it
Ready to go!
Things are beginning to grow but why ? The plants are not looking at the calendar but they are sensing two important things. One is the temperature of course and it is getting warmer but there is something else that the plants sense and that is the day length. Responding to just one could be risky as we see from the records of temperatures over the years, they go up and down for the same time of the year although there is the underlying gradual rise that hints at global warming. If for some crazy reason it is very warm early and the day length is not right the plants hold back as a safety precaution. If the poles shift again we are in deep trouble.
Horticulturalists have known about this for ages and it is used in the horticultural industry to promote flowering. Plants in greenhouses can be given artificial light mixes so that instead of growing their stems up to a great height, too big to prevent flopping over when they flower, they produce lovely flowers on short stems saleable in the florists.
So having got an acceptable set of signals that say “grow” the plants prepare to grow but first they have another important question “What to grow ?”.
In the previous year as the sun shone and shone it hit the leaves and branches and a chemical called a flowering hormone was produced inside the plant. This chemical is positively affected by gravity to some extent so it tends to gather in buds and stems. If a stem is really vertical the general reason is that it is so because the plant is aiming to get as high as it can. Flowering hormones tend to run down and into the root system where it does not work. So these stems are not subject to the same signals that come from the more level branches or ones that have been exposed to hormones for years. The flowering hormone gathers in such places.
So when the plant gets the signal to grow the next question is “grow what ?” If there is flowering hormone present the new shoot will be a flowering shoot, if not it will be a leafy shoot.
Look at the shoots on the meadow. Flowering buds are swelling but not generally near the tips as this part of the plant is more vertical and did not get sun for a long period last year. On some plants shady inner parts do not bear flowers. The messages are being sent as we read this and those messages are being sent night and day.
The flowers we will see in abundance this spring will have been made possible by the rays of the sun hitting the plants last year.
Those who understand pruning prune their plants to optimise the benefits provided by nature.
By Graham Burges
Matthew starts the works
Hardys will be starting work today on the fence along Winchester Road; they
will be clearing vegetation along fence line (chipping as necessary)
removing old fence and taking offsite (some recycled) and replacing with new
starting at Fish gate completing one section at a time so as not to leave
frontage open except where working.
Large ash tree across boundary to
remain: fence to abut either side.
Trustees have been working hard for over a year on a grant application to carry out improvements to the meadow and have just heard their bid has been successful. The Millennium Green project has been awarded up to £47K through the Community Spaces programme. The Community Spaces grants programme is being managed by Groundwork UK as an Award Partner to the Big Lottery Fund. Community Spaces is part of the Big Lottery Funds Changing Spaces Initiative.
Walk through the gates and you can let your children, your dogs and yourself run free. A problem arose with dogs chasing rabbits out onto Winchester Street so a new timber and wire fence will prevent dogs getting out onto the road. The grant will also fund an independent power supply for the Meadow which will replace the existing link to a local neighbour’s supply, which is inadequate to meet the needs of larger events. This will be put in place by Scottish and Southern Energy and a local electrician. The existing picnic tables have been very much used so the need for increased capacity and greater resilience will be satisfied.
Local support has always been good; donations of over £2000 have been received towards a sculptural seat to be placed around three special trees planted last year, celebrating three Whitchurch ladies, now sadly passed on, but key contributors to the legacy we all enjoy. The grant will provide extra funds for the seat to be purchased this year. Some ground reinforcement will also be introduced to assist stall holders and local events. It is years since probation workers made the early discoveries of the old sluice and sheep dip and smaller grants since have enabled further progress to be carried out on the restorations. This grant will allow the work to be completed providing an important heritage feature associated with its former use as a water meadow. New signage information boards and funds for improved management of the meadow to protect vulnerable native species and flora are also covered by the grant. Graham Burgess, Chairman of the Trustees, says ‘ the Millennium Green journey is a substantial staircase and once more we reach an important landing. We can, from here, look forward to an even better future’.
Improvements are due to start in the spring so that everything will be completed for the summer school holidays with an official weekend launch to celebrate. Local firms will benefit from the work so a low carbon footprint will further subscribe to the meadow’s environmental policies. Any volunteers wishing to help with this project will be most welcome!
Millennium Meadow together with the White Hart would like to invite couples of all ages for a very special Valentine’s Day Ribbon Hunt. Bring your Valentine to the Meadow on Sunday 13th February and find two colourful ribbons. Couples presenting a pair of ribbons at the White Hart on 13th or 14th February will get a prize. 100 ribbons will be tied to the tree brunches the night before (all will be visible from the main footpaths, no need to get into the bushes!)
Prizes include: Chocolate Oranges, Tea or Coffee (or squash) for two people with biscuits, bottles of house wine (red or white) for over 18 or puddings for two for under 18. The ribbon colours determine the prize…but which for what we won’t say, it will be a surprise for you! Remember, you must bring a couple as a couple.
If you walk out on The Millennium Green you will see molehills. That is more than the moles see, as they are almost totally blind. They may be able to see the difference between light and day but not much more.
In their dark habitat underground they may be burrowing all day making the narrow tunnels. Worms and other small creatures find their way into the burrows and the moles catch them. They may not eat the worms straightaway but paralyse them and keep them in their underground larders. Stores of thousands of worms have been found.
Before the mole eats the worm it squeezes out any soil that may be in the worms body. They also eat nuts such as the hazelnuts we get on the meadow.
The burrows may or may not be visible but the molehills are very obvious. If you want a lawn or sports pitch they are a pest but in a natural meadow they add something quite interesting and that is a habitat for new seeds of plants where there is no competition. Another interesting aspect of mole evolution is linked to the survival of plants in their presence. Moles do not eat plant roots.
The burrows are 5cm wide and 4cm wide and whilst a baby mole is born without fur it is ready to carry out adult activities when it is 35 days old. If a mole does not get food every few hours it dies. They can turn in their tunnels easily because their bodies are cylindrical and their fur move sin any direction unlike most other hairy creatures. If you see molehills and tunnels an idea of how many moles there might be may be revealed if you know that one mole tunnel may be 70metres long.
Tawny and brown owls may catch them but many other creatures find them distasteful.
They occur in America, Asia and Europe but strangely not in Ireland.
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