Newsletter Articles

Roadside Trees:the Landowners’ Dilemma by Hugh Warmington

April 2008

It is huge, it is old, it is beautiful and it is full of lovely creepy crawlies. The problem is that it is a hazard. One windy Winter night, or one scorching hot Summer’s day, its life will end in a few seconds of crashing noise, and someone might be injured.
What does the prudent landowner do?  He has a tree hazard survey done by someone qualified. He looks at it critcally. He instructs a contractor to fell all trees identified as being dangerous. And then he can sleep easily at night. The danger, and therefore the liability, have been removed.
It’s not quite that easy. Although no felling licence (from the Forestry Commission) is required to fell a dangerous tree, a licence may well be required under The Habitats Directive if there is a danger of disturbing a European Protected Species, in this case one of our seventeen species of bat. But as human health and safety is one of very few valid reasons, a licence should be forthcoming.
What is the dilemma? It is that, whilst the landowner owes a duty of care to motorists and walkers on footpaths and riders on bridleways, he is also concerned about the landscape. And felling lots of large and very old trees in full public view is not top of his list of good things to do. The courts have decreed that without commissioning a tree survey a landowner can hardly claim to be prudent. And if that landowner then ignores the survey’s conclusions he will definitely be culpable.
What is the risk? Very small. Every accident involving fallen trees is reported because it is so unusual.  But the consequences in terms of loss of life and financial damages can be huge. There is another small irony in this story. The trees most at risk are those standing alone, or in an avenue. They have no protection from strong winds. And these are the trees that would be most missed because they are individuals. Trees within, or even at the edge of woodland, have the protection of their neighbours, and if they were to be lost there is another tree standing nearby.
There is a further disincentive to fell dangerous trees. It is expensive. By definition they are well past their prime in terms of timber value, and perching next to a road adds difficulty and expense.  Let me just say that it makes very expensive firewood.  But the butt is too big for firewood, and too rotten for timber, so we can leave it to quietly decay and continue to provide a living for all those nice creepy crawlies. Oh, and we will continue to plant trees to replace those we might lose as well as those already lost.

Posted in Newsletter Articles No Comments Yet

Book Review - A Special Place?

April 2008

Many of us think that the Quantocks are a special place and this is the title for the first chapter of a book entitled “The Historic Landscape of the Quantock Hills” published by English Heritage. The author is Hazel Riley, who has already done a similar service for Exmoor, and there are forewords by Lady Gass and Chris Edwards of the Quantock AONB Service.
This is a fascinating book for anyone and especially for those who know and love the Quantocks. It examines the changing face of the Quantock landscape from earliest times to the 20th century but particularly explores the impact that man and his activities have had on the hills. Hazel is well versed in the archaeology of the area and takes us through the evidence of early hunter-gatherers from before the last ice-age, through the Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements and standing stones, and the barrows and earthworks that litter the hilltops, to historic times. The Middle Ages were a period of deer parks and the origins of most of the settlements that we know today with the ancient track-ways and early buildings. In more recent times she writes of the enclosure movement, industrial archaeology and big estates of the last two hundred years.
It is a fascinating read and a mine of information. If you have been intrigued by the Trendle Ring or Dowsborough Camp, by the barrows on Wills Neck or the statue of Jupiter at Terhill, you can learn all about them in this book, although I am sorry that Hazel does not explain the derivation of Wills Neck.
However well you think you know the Quantocks you will still find new information about features that you may often have passed but not recognised for what they are. The illustrations are superb with many aerial views that show the hills in a new light, maps, old photographs and drawings.                   

Posted in Newsletter Articles No Comments Yet

Quantock Wells and Springs by Audrey Mead

April 2008

Friends of Quantock have a special interest in St Agnes Well at Cothelstone. They had it restored in 1987 - the European Year of the Environment - and endeavour to make periodic onslaughts on the encroaching vegetation. A beautiful old well house, it lies N E of the Manor, reached by a stile from the road and then up through a wet patch of ground. Reputedly the water is good for sore eyes and sprains and it has also long been associated with unmarried girls seeking husbands. St Agnes is commemorated on 21 January and they visited on the eve of that day whispering their desires, and probably dropping in a pin or small coin, hoping to dream of future lovers. In Ruth Tongue’s  ‘Somerset Folklore’ she tells the tale of an older maidservant who longed for a man and children to love. But ‘not liking to worry St Agnes over one so on in years’, she went ‘in the dimmit’ to Seven Wells Combe, though the well there was hard to find. Within a year she was happily wed to a dear old fellow from Aisholt way. A century ago Gresswell described the combe: ‘‘The slopes are closely covered with slender trunks deep in leaf mould… Some distance up there is a little sacred well, stone covered and mossy but whether there were originally 7, I do not know. It does seem to be an extremely  ancient name for the valley.
Easier to find is St David’s Well, a path to it is signed from Great Wood car park. It lies below Quantock Farm and was restored by Quantock School some years ago.  Near the bottom of the path northwards through the woods from Deadwoman’s Ditch towards Lady Combe is Lady’s Fountain in Bincombe is another well, its name seems lost, struggling to exist. Certainly there are plenty of springs on the hills, invaluable for livestock and from one near Buncombe a Taunton doctor used the water to make up prescriptions. But why did some have a special significance lasting over the years so that a small structure was built over to protect them? Look for a W on a big scale 0S map to find others now lost or forgotten. It would be lovely to restore them.
Those wells in Quantock villages are better documented and are generally holy wells such as St Peter’s at Over Stowey and St John’s at Holford. St Andrew’s, Stogursey, reached by a lane from near the old cross, is worth a visit, fed by a copious supply of water. It has been used for drinking and laundry rather than curative powers, but the name Blindwell for a house at Nether Stowey tells of its supposed properties, also associated with one near Quantock Barn, Enmore. Another, St Sativola’s, near Wick Barrow and Hinckley Point, was good for both eye and skin problems.
     Somewhat different is the Devil’s Whispering Veil, not far from Bishops Lydeard church, where curses can be whispered. Was that once a holy well acquired by Satan? And there used to be a well in Pardlestone Lane, Kilve, where apparently a covey of witches met and from which locals feared to let stock drink.
Many of the old houses in the area had their own water supply giving beautifully cold water to drink and also useful to store perishables in their depths before the days of fridges. But although they rarely did the owners any harm a lot would not pass to-day’s tests for drinking, often they were not far from the outside privy!
Audrey Mead.

Posted in Newsletter Articles No Comments Yet

Deer Management on the Quantocks

April 2008

[The following is an edited version of a letter from Dr Jochen Langbein, Secretary of the Quantock Deer Management and Conservation Group, which appeared in the West Somerset Free Press. It does not necessarily represent the views of Friends of Quantock].

The Quantock Deer Management and Conservation Group have called for more female deer to be culled in and around the Quantock Hills. I would like to explain the reasons that have led the very broad array of individuals and conservation organisations, which make up the QDM&CG, to ask local landowners to move towards culling in a more collaborative, selective and sustainable manner.
A visual spring (pre-calving) count of red deer on the Quantocks has been organised annually with the help of 50 volunteers for the past 17 years. Deer are difficult to count accurately, but this standardised count enables at least minimum numbers to be confirmed and trends to be monitored. The average of counts obtained during the five years from 1993-1997 was 555, rose to 745 from 1998-2002 and has averaged 830. The count records merely the annual minima before at least 350 calves are born during the summer, taking the total to somewhere near 1100.
Culling of deer on the Quantocks is nothing new, 200 to 250 deer will have been culled in most recent years but this has clearly not prevented the increase in deer numbers and the proportion of adult females culled needs to be greater.
 For appropriately qualified and experienced stalkers, red deer are not an especially difficult species to cull. The more complicated task lies in getting the many individual landowners to work towards maintaining a healthy and sustainable herd as a valued part of our wildlife and asset to local tourism, but without unacceptable levels of damage to farm and timber crops or detrimental impact on semi-natural habitats.
 The QDM&CG is fully committed to the long-term conservation of a substantial population of red deer on the Quantocks. However, its members (which include Quantock landholders, as well as other interested bodies) have jointly reached the conclusion that concerns about damage to farmland, forestry, and woodland biodiversity make the current size of deer populations unsustainable in the longer term particularly relative to the conservation of the ancient semi-natural oak woods on the Quantock, which are a ‘Special Area of Conservation’ of international importance. The group has therefore asked local landholders to liaise in a gradual reduction of the population over the coming five years, and then retain a population nearer 500 head. To accomplish this, an extra 50 to 100 mature females will need to be culled annually to initiate a more significant reduction in the breeding herd.
Whilst the optimum deer population level for the Quantocks remains debatable and will always require compromises between landholders and other interest groups, in the absence of any natural predators, direct management intervention does become inevitable at some point.
Therefore as a biologist and wildlife enthusiast I have no problem in accepting the need for culling as part of deer management. The more important issue is that deer culls should be undertaken in a humane, professional and highly selective manner and that a significant and healthy population is retained which remains valued as an asset rather than perceived as a pest by landholders.

Posted in Newsletter Articles No Comments Yet

Wood Pigeons on the Quantocks by Philip Radford

May 2007

Over most of the year, it must be difficult to walk in a Quantock wood without hearing the song of a male Wood Pigeon, and the same applies to the villages, at least those with a few trees around. Wood Pigeons are Somerset residents, but in autumn large numbers migrate into England from northern and eastern Europe, so the winter population is often considerably increased. Wood Pigeons are common birds and it is easy to overlook the beautiful, soft, blue-grey plumage, with white patches on the side of the neck and, when in flight, a white bar can be seen on the top of the wings. Wood Pigeons are bulky and portly birds, perhaps seen at their best when a male displays to a female on a branch or on the ground, with the cock showing his puffed out, pinkish breast and a well fanned tail.

Understandably, the repeated musical song of the male Wood Pigeon or Ring Dove has given rise to many country names, although they are mostly not in general use nowadays. Hence, there is ‘too-zoo’, ‘cushiedoo’ and ‘cushat’, as examples. Now some people consider that the Wood Pigeon’s song is melancholy in nature and this has led to the name of ‘quist’ or ‘quest’, which is derived from the Latin word ‘questus’, meaning complaining.

Many people enjoy listening to the cock Wood Pigeon’s rhythmic and five-noted song, ending with a single ‘coo’; this is often repeated, especially if there are rivals near the territory who will take up the challenge. Wood Pigeons go in for display flights in their territories, mainly in spring and summer, with the male rising steeply in the air and clapping the wings at the zenith, before gliding down on stiff wings. In addition, Wood Pigeons will utter short, gruff cooing notes, often unseen, from cover in the nesting tree and, further, the mechanical clattering of wings as birds rise from the ground or from tree branches is one of the characteristic sounds of the countryside.

However, other pigeon or dove sounds can be heard over the Quantock Hills. In mature woodland, with tree holes big enough for nesting, there is the smallish and mainly resident Stock Dove; here, the male’s song is a repeated, monotonous and double-noted coo. Then there is the now scarce Turtle Dove, which is a summer migrant; I used to hear it in May and June on scattered hawthoms or hedgerow trees. Middle Hill, Lydeard Hill and Aisholt Common were once good places to listen to the soothing, purring phrases of the Turtle Dove’s song which, somehow, seemed to set the scene for the midday heat of a summer’s day. Further, in contrast to the declining numbers of the Turtle Dove, there is the success story of the Collared Dove, now to be found nesting in most local villages and farms. The song of the resident Collared Dove is the familiar repeated three-syllable ‘dec-oct-oo’, which a few people still mistake for the call of the Cuckoo! Collared Doves also make harsh, loud flight calls, rather like the scream of a Black-headed Gull. On the Quantock coast, there are Rock Doves, at least where there are rocky cliffs with fissures or recesses for nesting sites. Male Rock Doves give an undulant cooing, with a moaning quality, rather like that of some domestic pigeons. Indeed, it is likely that the various strains of domestic pigeons were originally bred from wild Rock Dove stock.

Anyway, returning to Wood Pigeons, some people consider its flesh to be delicious and will pass on their favourite recipes for pigeon pie or even squab pie. Even so, the flavour of pigeon meat must depend on their food. I understand that Wood Pigeons which have fed on turnips in winter taste very unpleasant; indeed, Gilbert White, curate of Selbome wrote in the 18th Century that such birds were rejected by the ‘nicer judges of eating’. Yet the meat flavour is excellent after the pigeon has been feeding on grain, weed seeds or clover and, as the bird was often shot for food, as still occurs, the crop and its contents often get examined. Old records, as examples, list 33 acorns, 44 beech-nuts, 87 beans and even in one case half a pint of holly berries! In the past, I understand that if the crop was stuffed with fresh spring greens, turnip tops or some other brassica, the thrifty housewife would boil this up for supper. Obviously, this saved a journey to the garden or village shop on a stormy day, and I expect Wood Pigeons would select the choicest pieces. Without doubt, they  can be terrible pests to the farmer when flocks take grain or attack the root crops; gardeners too are understandably annoyed when their well-grown brassicas or beans are shredded up.

Wood Pigeons themselves are favoured food for Peregrines, and it is quite common to come across their feathery remains on a walk along the coast, as at Kilve. Sparrowhawks too favour Wood Pigeon prey, but only the female is able to carry the relatively heavy bird away, held by a talon; the much smaller male has to pluck his victim on the spot, eat his fill of the flesh, and then carry off portions to feed young or for future use. Perhaps increasingly, we come across Wood Pigeon remains in our gardens, usually resulting from attacks by Peregrines or Sparrowhawks; not long back, a lady telephoned me from Watchet and gave a running commentary on the behaviour of a Peregrine which had killed a Wood Pigeon and was then plucking it on her lawn outside her lounge window. Another bird which will seize Wood Pigeons is the Tawny Owl, which will take one at night from its tree or bush roosting site. Amongst mammals, Red Foxes will surprise the occasional Wood Pigeon at its roosting site, or else pounce on one while it is feeding on the ground. With their large, powerful breast muscles, Wood Pigeons make excellent meals for most carnivores. They are abundant in Somerset, in spite of providing meals for their several predators; what will reduce their numbers, however, is a severe winter, with the ground hard frozen or else with prolonged snow cover. When will this next happen over the Quantocks?

The Wood Pigeon’s nest is often a flimsy platform or lattice of twigs, although sometimes the structure is quite substantial. The female builds the nest, with the male bringing in the building materials; the nest is sited at varying heights on a spreading branch of a tree or large bush. From the ground, the nest can be confused with that of a Jay or even a Sparrowhawk; building can occur in any month of the year, but normally it is in the summer months. Only two eggs are laid, but two or three broods are often reared. As the eggs are a glossy white, they can be a tempting target for Magpies or Carrion Crows which love an egg meal; however, the eggs are normally covered as both male and female pigeons sit on the clutch. The young pigeons are fed on ‘pigeon milk’; this is a nutritious fluid, formed as a crop secretion and really a kind of soup, although the idea does suggest a music hall joke! Of course, pigeons are a bit out of the ordinary for, in addition, they suck up water, rather than swallowing it by bill tilting.

Posted in Newsletter Articles 2 Comments

The Fun of the Fair by Audrey Mead

May 2007

The day was remarkably fine, and the picturesque appearance of the ground, being on a slope and affording an animated view of the whole Fair with its rustic booths, open fires and busy groups, was enlivened by the cheerful sounds of the church bells. Upwards of 1,800 sheep were penned, just 50 bullocks, some good plough horses that sold well and some rather poor hackneys and ponies.

This was in November 1834,  but the name of the field opposite Broomfield Green has long been the only reminder of a day eagerly anticipated annually for more than six centuries. In 1259 the charter to hold the Fair was granted to John de la Lynde, Lord of the Manor, by Henry III and it continued into the 1890s, although declining considerably in its latter years. The church being dedicated to All Saints the date was chosen, as was generally the custom, to follow the celebrations on that special day, so the Fair was held on November 2nd, “the morrow upon Allhallowstide”. The 1751 change in the calendar moved it forward to November 13th.

A Somerset county historian writing in 1791 said that the fair was ‘for coarse cloth and all sorts of cattle’; the latter would have included sheep and “lean stock” (bullocks) for fattening. It was always a popular venue for horse dealers, some honest, some less so. Many frauds were perpetrated, even painting the animal if it had been stolen: there was a long court case about a dark bay mare with ‘but one eare and a white tayle’, said to have been exchanged but more likely to have been acquired illegally. Another case concerned sheep, alleged to have been bought at the fair and paid for at the toulsey (where dues payable were entered in a toll book) but actually stolen and re-sold some miles away.

‘All the parte of the Waste Ground commonly called Broomfield Green or Broomfield Street together with the profits of standings to be sett up there during the time of the faire’ was let for the annual rent of one shilling in the 1700s. Lengths of material - since few ready made clothes were then available - hats, boots and shoes would have been on sale, as well as ribbons and trinkets, sweetmeats and gingerbread, which the young men bought as ‘fairings’ for their sweethearts. Refreshments were an essential. An Enmore Rector recalled the traditional fare as ‘toasted biscuits and cider’, the drink probably spiced with ginger. ‘Cold day! Mind ‘ee of Gin and Cider Fair’ was still a familiar saying in the district in the 1920s referring to Broomfield’s often chilly Fair Day.

Cheap jacks and a gypsy fortune-teller, a quack doctor and various amusement booths would have added interest to the proceedings. Visitors came from a wide area, often riding upon donkeys - one year two animals died after eating yew while tied up nearby.

The fair provided a popular occasion for meeting old acquaintances, exchanging news, farming talk and so on but, as at most similar gatherings, rogues and pickpockets were among the crowd. In 1843 the Gazette reported: ‘A mob of 20 villains assembled, to the terror of the peaceable inhabitants of the place, and after beating and abusing them in a shameful manner, they broke the windows and also the furniture of those houses which provided refreshments for visitors. Mrs Jenkins, a respectable widow (she lived in part of what is now Fyne Court Cottage) has been a great sufferer, not only in having her furniture smashed to pieces but she found that she had received 19 counterfeit half-crowns from the same desperate gang of swindlers.’

A sad end to a long awaited day.
  

Posted in Newsletter Articles No Comments Yet