Residential work weekends are a great opportunity to work on a site over two days and socialise in the evenings.

This year GVCV visited the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust site at Woorgreens, Forest of Dean.

Woorgreens | Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust

The 42-acre nature reserve is a mix of lake, marsh and heathland habitats. The group spent two days helping to clear former plantation trees and saplings from the heathland.

The group were surprised to find the heard from long horn cows encountered on at last years residential at Tidenham nature reserve has now been moved to Woorgreens. Fortunately these gentle giants were good company and didn’t prevent the work progressing.

The group stayed for two nights in a nice local pub and enjoyed live music and a community raffle on the Saturday night.

GVCV many years ago agreed that a Christmas Party in January was a nice to look forward to after the festive season and provided a good opportunity to regift that unwanted present.

This year the GVCV social took place on a cold Thursday evening in Stroud. The group enjoyed warming pre-drinks in the Ale House followed by a great Italian meal at Sorrentos. Sorrento even provided Christmas crackers despite it being January.

The entertainment for the evening included some ‘interesting’ secret santas, end of year awards for GVCV members and a particularly good poetry recital from Richard.

Bring on 2025….

On Sunday 12^th January 2025, six volunteers from GVCV braved the cold conditions to clear the two of the ponds in the Chruchdown pocket park wildlife area. These ponds are part of an urban drainage system but also an important habitat for Great Crested Newts. The clearance of the ponds annually helps maintain the summer habitat for this protected species.

After breaking through the ice, the group cracked on with clearing the ponds with ditch rakes.

The group also did a spot of bramble clearance and enjoyed post-Christmas biscuits to the energy levels up.  

On Sunday 17^th November 2024, a merry band of volunteers from GVCV joined Chris & Paul from the Stinchcombe Hill Trust.

Stinchcombe Hill, just outside Dursley, is on the Cotswold Way and is part of the Cotswold National landscape (formally the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). The hill is rich in wildlife and includes three Sites of Special Scientific Interest (S.S.S.I.) on its banks.

Like many areas in the Cotswolds, the ash trees in the wooded areas on the Hill have been hit hard by ask die back.

Small trees and scrub also encroach on the valuable limestone grassland areas so need to be kept under control.

The group spent the day helping clear scrub and debris from ash die back works on a rare ‘flat bit’ of the hill. We enjoyed the surrounding scenery and the excuse to have a winter bonfire.

On Sunday 3^rd November 2024, GVCV volunteers met at the Resthaven Care Home in Pitchcombe, near to Painswick.

The owners of the home (Lilian & Faithfull) are keen to increase biodiversity onsite, for the benefit of wildlife and the residents at the home.

Local resident David Pugh contacted GVCV for guidance and help establishing a wildlife pond onsite near to the dining room for residents to enjoy.

Pond digging as a winter task can be challenge given the short hours of daylight but fortunately our highly efficient team of volunteers delivered a pond in record time. Marking out, digging, lining, edging, and filling the pond in less than 5 hours!

The pond will now have winter to settle and finish filling up with rainwater before planting in the Spring.

An enjoyable if tiring task…

On Friday 1^st November 2024, GVCV convened in Rodborough (near Stroud) for a social to celebrate bonfire night.

Dave carefully constructed a bonfire in the paddock (yes, the one cleared at Hay Day) which he manged to light with a single match.

The group enjoyed home brew, dinner, hot chocolate around the fire. With sparklers of course for those that wanted them.

On Saturday 31^st August 2024, GVCV convened in Rodborough (near Stroud) for the annual Hay Day Social.

16 volunteers spent a sunny morning raking to remove cut grass from a limestone meadow. This is important to maintain the low nutrient levels needed by rare plant species found on meadows in the local area. The group also cut back encroaching tree branches and brambles which can easily smother the meadow – alongside of spot of blackberry collection.

With many hands the day was also an opportunity to harvest local hops which were donated to Stroud Brewery as part of their Hop Club.

For their efforts, the group we treated to a free lunch time BBQ including local Winstone’s Ice Cream.

Hay day raking in the sunshine

Group after a morning of hard work

Hop picking for Stroud Brewery …. many hands make light work

On Sunday 14^th July 2024, GVCV joined fellow volunteers from the Cotswold Canal Trust to help clear footpaths near to the Sapperton Tunnel entrance and vegetation from around the historic Coates roundhouse nearby.

Coates roundhouse

Sapperton Tunnel Entrance or Portal

Credit: Cotswold Canal in Pictures.

The Sapperton tunnel and roundhouse are both on the now disused section of the Thames & Severn Canal.  The section is an important footpath connection route between the Thames Path National Trail and the Stroud Canal. In its disused state the canal is a a haven for wildlife including a large colony of bats roosting with the tunnel.

To read more about the area please visit: https://www.cotswoldcanals.net/

The despite the warm conditions the combined group has a good day powered by homemade cake.

Jon and Candy after a hard days work at the roundhouse.

On 18^th May 2024, GVCV explored the walking route from the new Clavell and Hind brewery outside Cheltenham to the Coombe Hill Nature Reserve – highly regarded for its wading birds and butterflies.

The group bravely navigated muddy puddles and a few outgrown spots to reach the reserve. After the pitstop for a drink/ice cream the group returned to the brewery for lunch and a well earned pint.

On Sunday 25th February 2024, GVCV volunteers met Tim & Nola Lea at their farm in Emley Castle. 

The farm is managed under ‘higher level stewardship’ a government scheme that provides funding to farmers and other land managers in England in return for delivering environmental and wildlife benefits on their land. Tim and Nola have transformed their farm over several years into a haven for wildlife.

The group helped on three key tasks and in reward were treated to an excellent cooked lunch of venison and veggie lasagne.  

The first task was replacing native trees which has died. This involving shifting metal tree guards and replanting new trees in a new location to increase their chances of survival.

Second task was removing ties from the trees that had survived.  This isn’t as simple as it sounds as the photos shows.

Third task was a spot of pruning of the orchard planted by GVCV many years ago. It was rewarding to see how quickly the trees have grown.

Thanks to Tim and Nola for a great day and for taking some photos.