GVCV October 2022 Tidenham Chase Residential –
Heathland restoration work at its best.
On the 9th / 10th October 2022, GVCV spent a weekend at Tidenham Chase.
Located just outside Chepstow and a stone’s throw from Offa’s Dyke, Tidenham Chase contains the largest remaining fragment of lowland heathland in Gloucestershire. Gloucester Wildlife Trust, in partnership with Forestry England, manage the site’s heathland restoration project.
The heathland is an important habitat for small birds and some of the UK’s rarest reptiles, including adders. Tidenham is also well known for the wide range of mushrooms found onsite including the distinctive Fly Agaric. The heathland is maintained through conversation grazing and tree clearance.
Over two days a group of 12 from GVCV cleared tree saplings from an area targeted for restoration. As well as being important to habitat management, tree clearance results in large bonfires which were thoroughly enjoyed by the group and bought out the competitive nature in some individuals.
After several hours of enjoyable work in the October sunshine the group also invented a new term ‘doing a Dave’ or ‘dave-ing’ to describe trees that wouldn’t be easily felled.
Staying locally the group enjoyed some social time together in the evenings and got to try out the local Gurkha restaurant – the Woolaston Inn.
Fly Agaric in Tidenham Chase
The group hard at work
Heading back after day 1
Tree mid ‘Dave-ing’
Roger showing how its done 😊
