We’re teaming up with Arnos Vale Cemetery to deliver 2 training sessions on Oral History! Are you interested in local stories? personal histories? Green space and digital media? This is your chance to get involved and help shape an exciting project and exhibition!

The trainings are both the same so you only need to do one (10th March or 24th march 10:30am 0 4:30pm). See more info below and contact Rowan if you’d like to book a place!

Lovely licheny sign at the entrance to Nightingale Valley!

Today I visited the site with an amazing man called Justin from Bristol City Council (yes there are some) who works in habitat management. He gave me a whirlwind tour of the valley from a fungi, lichen and moss’s point of view. Well to be more precise we were actually identifying work that community groups can get involved in (such as copicing and bramble bashing) and the mossy friends were just an added bonus.

This sign is an incredible habitat; Jason managed to identify 20 different types of lichen and moss which have colonised it. The sign acts as a surface for the misty air which enters the valley to condense on making it a perfect home for these wonderful organisms. A symbiotic relationship between a fungi an algae and an old park sign. Incredible.

If you’re interested in volunteering to do conservation work have a look at the role description and fill out an application form on the volunteering page http://discoverbrislingtonbrook.wordpress.com/volunteering/ we will be running a range of activities such as invasive weed pulls and litter picks over the Spring/Summer and starting heavier conservation work in the Autumn.

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful festive season and are looking forward to the year ahead. The Discover Brislington Brook project is gearing up for an action packed Spring and Summer with plenty of events, walks, volunteering opportunities and activities for people of all ages…The New Year’s Calendar will be winging it’s way to you shortly as soon as I’ve done the last few finishing touches: IN THE MEANWHILE…

…An exciting opportunity for you to get your historical teeth stuck in to (see info below). Please email rowan.matthiessen@bristol.gov.uk or call me if you’d like to book a place and feel free to spread the word amongst your networks.

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Know Your Place workshops
Thursday 19th Jan 4 – 5:30pm AND Thursday 26th Jan 6 – 7:30pm @ Brislington Enterprise College

Do you have any old images of South East Bristol or new images of historical points of interest in the area?
Want to learn how you can archive them for the whole community to use?

Come along to one of these interactive sessions at Brislington Enterprise College and Learn how to:
- scan in and upload photos
- upload images to the Know Your Place website
- access historical information and images from across Bristol

Meet at Visitor’s Reception – Brislington Enterprise College, Hungerford Road, Brislington, Bristol, BS4 5EY

Wednesday’s bat funday and evening story walk was an absolutely awesome success thanks to the hard work of lots of brilliant volunteers. Over 200 people attended the event (many of them under the age of 10!). The feedback from the community was tremendous so I think I’ll just let the people of Brislington do the explaining for me!

“Lovely, Brilliant”, “Kids really enjoyed it (and adults too:)”, “It would be good to have more events like this in the community”, “Bat-tastic”, “Excellent fun!”, “So much to do”, “We enjoyed the apple pressing most of all”, “Lovely music and crafts”, “More cakes please”

And here’s some photgraphic evidence:

I’ve been getting excited about decorating the hall halloween stylee – after agonising about whether to buy a whole load of ugly rubber bats I discovered Origami! Check this out!

In the UK, we are lucky enough to have 17 species of breeding bats - almost a quarter of our mammal species! Bats need shelter, a good water supply and a constant supply of insects to survive, which is why the woods around Brislington Brook are an ideal location for them. Bats are a vital part of our native wildlife and are protected by law; populations have suffered severe declines during the past century and need all the help they can get.

Activities include bat hat, puppet and lantern making, apple pressing, face painting and outdoor games; you’ll also be able to get practical and make a bat box at a hands-on drop-in workshop sponsored by White Design. The Community café will be serving teas, coffees and cakes so bring yourselves, your children, your grandchildren and if you’ve got any apples bring them along too! The evening walk will leave Wicklea at 5:15pm returning around 6:30pm – wrap up warm, wear strong shoes and bring torches if you have them.

In all honesty though, having to go down to the Brook at that time gave me a really great insight that otherwise I quite possibly would never have got. It was so beautiful and tranquil at that time in the morning with the birds singing and the light filtering through the trees. I recommend it…just make sure you don’t all go at once!

As we set off from the entrance near Allison Rd, Andy pointed out a hidden and overgrown path slightly higher and to the left of the modern path – apparently all that remains of the ancient pillgrimage route. The rest of the route is no longer visible having been used as a bit of a rubbish tip including tons of old glass from the bristol brewing company W. J. Rogers Ltd, which shut in 1963.

You can also still see the remains of hundreds of barrels of tarr, now almost completely overgrown and looking like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. According to Andy, the environment agency assessed whether they posed a hazard a few years back and they are fine. If you look at them in the right light and believe the nostalgic hearsay that they were dumped there by a US Army camp after the 1st world war, then they could almost add a certain romantic character to the area!

Andy, his son and a group of enthusiasts have organised rubbish clearups, built picnic benches, removed invasive weeds, repaired steps and dug out a wildlife pond over the years. Now the group has disbanded but Andy seemed keen to get involved again if other local residents wanted to organise similar actvities. As part of this project my aim is to find people interested locally and set up a wildlife group which could also get involved with some practical conservation tasks…Watch this space!

At the end of the valley we came to the Boat Screen; a grating which collects any rubbish washed downstream and siphons off the main bulk of the flow into a large culvert.  A lot of rubbish ends up here because it’s washed into the woods from the concreted section further upstream. Part of the brook was concreted in the 70′s and designed to take water away as fast as possible from the built up urban area into the woods where it’s not so important if it floods. Andy said that in the winter the brook could get to be several metres deep with a very fast flow and that it’s not uncommon for several trolleys to get washed down all the way from Tesco on Callington Rd!

It was here, amongst all the debris of a recent storm that we saw a flash of blue; my first kingfisher – not just on the brook but ever! I was so excited I almost couldn’t speak (which is unusual for me). Lets hope it’s the first of many!

The  Forest school is an idea formulated by local play worker Ian Sawyer who works for St Anne’s Children’s Centre. Having recently qualified as a Forest School Leader he wants to put some of his skills into practice and has support of local residents including and enthusiastic bunch of young dads who he works with every Saturday. The Centre manager is also incredibly supportive of outdoor play and learning and the team aim to get the Forest School up and running by late October!

Watch this space