St Saviour's Parish in the news

This Saturday, 23rd February, we will be holding our first meeting about starting up a new parish newsletter and anyone who is interested in this venture is invited to come along to the Parish Hall at 11 am. We have had some good responses already and the makings of a very good editorial team is in hand, so if you feel you would like to take part, even if you only have a few hours to spare, do join us. The more we have, the more we can share the work involved and it won't become too onerous a task for any one person. I would also like to see parishioners getting out with their cameras, sketchbooks, paints and pencils to record the parish through the year and I would like to hear from anyone with any ideas for improving our community, especially if they are offering to help as well! You can contact me at the Parish Hall or via this website, at info@peterhanning.com
We have already received some suggestions for what to call the newsletter, and the final decision will rest in the hands of the newsletter committee.

If you went down to the woods on Saturday...

There was an enthusiastic response to the call to clear the little woodland below the Parish Hall last Saturday. In a short time, logs and branches were being cleared to make way for the rotavator that will come in to prepare the ground for the special woodland grass and wildflower mix than is going to be sown there. I would like to thank everyone who turned up: we were certainly lucky with the weather, which was sunny and bright and, although it was cold, we soon warmed up. For those who ventured down towards the bottom of the valley, there was the joyous sight of wild violets blooming in the cleared spaces. There were some violets here last year, our Parish in Bloom co-ordinator Graham Langlois tells me, but the opening up of the woodland has allowed more light into the area and the violets have certainly responded. Mike Stentiford popped down to share his cold with us...thanks, Mike...but soon popped off to, I hope, a warm fire and some hot lemon and honey. We have begun collecting names for our proposed group of Parish wildlilfe and woodland volunteers and I would like to invite anyone with a few hours to spare a couple of times a year to contact me at the Parish Hall so we can add your name to the list. Just a thought: does anyone know what that little valley is actually called? I am going to try and find out so that it can have a proper name attached to it and become part of our parish community amenties, just like Patier Park.

St Saviour’s Parish in Bloom: “Park”ing a priority

A WILD wood with squirrels and nesting birds is developing in hidden parkland tucked away below St Saviour’s Parish Hall. Work began on this peaceful haven between Government House and busy St Saviour’s Hill last February when the area’s overgrown trees and undergrowth were thinned, bird boxes put up and paths made to allow access.
The Parish has been greatly helped in doing this by Mike Stentiford and his team of volunteers, but they now have plenty to do as part of the National Trust and we must make our own effrt to make this little wildernness attractive and accessible. Now it is time to continue the project before the birds begin to nest again and I am calling for volunteers to meet outside the Parish Hall on Saturday 16 February at 10 am to go down to the area and work for a couple of hours or so on creating an idyllic woodland park where the community can enjoy the area’s burgeoning wildlife.
It’s a wonderful area that is both wild and accessible and we think it provides an opportunity for people, especially youngsters, to feel that it is a really valuable part of their parish, to come and help the site develop and to encourage wild life to come down and live and nest in the woods. As many people as possible are invited to help and no gardening skills are needed, just strong shoes and a pair of gloves are recommended to bring a forgotten area of the parish to life and create an outside classroom for youngsters in our parish.”
The scheme is ambitious and aims to develop three separate areas, each progressively wilder, and help is needed to clear the remaining logs and branches. “We’d like as many parishioners to come as possible,” said Graham Langlois, of St Saviour’s Parish in Bloom. “We’d also like to start a volunteer group that can be called on a couple of times a year in spring and autumn when we need to tidy up the area.”
With their help, the walled woodland will make a perfect small nature reserve which could be linked by natural planting through to other wildlife areas in the parish.