On Saturday 16th November 2024 we held our ‘Festive Crafts’ event at Accrington Cricket Club! The session was led by the talented Gareth Muir of Crag Moor Bushcraft. Participants learned safe knife handling skills, proper whittling techniques, and crafted their very own Winter Wonderland display! Participants used whittling knives to make different tree models from […]
Tuesday 12th November 2024 – Huncoat East
On Tuesday 12th November 2024 the Hyndburn’s Woodlands Volunteers were back at Huncoat East woodland continuing with the pathway maintenance started in September. This involved using spades and shovels to clear back vegetation that had encroached onto the paths. The vegetation covered around 3/4’s of the entire path! We are happy to say the paths […]
Tuesday 5th November 2024 – Jubilee Meadow
On Tuesday 5th November the Hyndburn’s Woodlands Volunteers were back at Jubilee woodland to continue with the meadow maintenance that we started the week prior. Much of the scything had already been carried out, so this session primarily focused on raking off the cuttings to reduce the nutrients present. Once the last bit of scything […]
Tuesday 29th October 2024 – Jubilee Meadow
On Tuesday 29th October the Hyndburn’s Woodlands Volunteers were hard at work at Jubilee woodland continuing with the meadow management that has been going on for 3 years. This involves using scythes to cut as much of the grassy material as low to the ground as possible, the cuttings (arisings) are then raked off the […]
Friday 25th October 2024 – Fairy Door Making
On Friday 25th October The PROSPECTS Foundation held their first ‘Fairy Door Making’ activity at Accrington Cricket Club. Participants used natural material such as bark, berries, wood chippings and twigs to create their very own fairy doors and fairy houses, with accompanying furniture! Everyone crafted some spectacular creations that our mystical friends will no doubt […]
Tuesday 22nd October 2024 – Butterfly Glade Maintenance
On Tuesday 22nd October the Hyndburn’s Woodlands Volunteers were back at Whinney Hill woodland carrying out some maintenance work on the butterfly glade located at the top part of the woodland. The glade has a good number of pollinator-benefitting wildflower species, such as cowslip, Marsh mallow, and eyebright. Maintenance involves using scythes to cut the […]
Saturday 13th October 2024 – Fungi Walk
On Saturday 13th October, Hyndburn’s Woodlands Officer Brandon Cherry and Irene, of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, held a fungi walk at Whinney Hill woodland! (Livingstone Road) The walk was very well attended, with 21 people turning out for the walk! Irene, a professional mycologist, strolled through the woods while attendees scouted for fungi. The attendees […]
Friday 27th September 2024 – Baxenden Bat Walk
On Friday 27th September 2024 The Hyndburn’s Woodlands project held their second bat walk of the year at Woodnook Vale LNR! Participants were led by Roger, the Batman, Cunliffe who took them for a light stroll through the vale, with detectors in hand, to search for our nocturnal friends! It didn’t take long to spot […]
Tuesday 8th October 2024 – Site Maintenance
On Tuesday 8th October the Hyndburn’s Woodlands Volunteers were back at Whinney Hill carrying out some maintenance jobs in the area. Initially, we re-established the information board that had been torn down a few months prior. The information board can now be used to publicize events for the local area. We then used scythes to […]
Monday 10th June 2024 – Jubilee Meadow
On Monday 10th June the Hyndburn’s Woodlands Project engaged with the Great UK WaterBlitz. The Great UK WaterBlitz is a national citizen science scheme aimed at assessing how clean the UK waterways are. For the scheme, we measured the quality of two parameters, that of nitrates and phosphates. We are happy to report that both […]
Thursday 30th May 2024 – EcoFest Prep
On Thursday 30th May The Hyndburn’s Woodlands volunteers had a much drier session in The PROSPECTS Foundation’s tool store! Here we prepared ‘Wood Cookie Key-rings’ for our annual EcoFest celebration! This involved using a miter saw to first cut lengths of logs into small ‘cookies’. Cookies were then, very carefully, hand drilled using a corkscrew […]
Tuesday 26th March 2024 – Cotoneaster and Litter Picking
On Tuesday 26th March the Hyndburn’s Woodlands Volunteers were back at Whinney Hill woodland carrying out some INNS (Invasive Non-Native Species) management, in the form of removing Small-leaved Cotoneaster which had likely escaped from one of the neighboring allotments. Small-leaved Cotoneaster can be quite tricky to remove, it needs to be dug out with the […]
Tuesday 19th March 2024 – Hollins Hedgerow
On Tuesday 19th March the Hyndburn’s Woodlands Volunteers once again teemed up with the TreeACTION Project to plant a hedgerow on our sites. This time, we planted a mixed species hedgerow at the Hollins wood. This hedgerow will act as a natural barrier for the site, while providing habitat and forage for birds, small mammals, […]
Sunday 3rd March 2024 – Whinney Hill Hedgerow
On Sunday 3rd March 2024 the Hyndburn’s Woodlands Volunteers teamed up with the TreeACTION Project to plant a 60 metre long hedgerow bordering between the Whinney Hill entrance ginnel and the Cricket Club. We planted a Hawthorn hedgerow to act as a barrier for the cricket club, while providing winter forage for birds and small […]
Tuesday 27th February 2024- Coppicing and Dead-Hedge Repair
On Tuesday 27th February the Hyndburn’s Woodlands Volunteers were at Huncoat East carrying out some coppicing work. Coppicing is an ancient form of woodland management that dates back to at least the Neolithic period of the UK. Coppicing involves felling a tree back to it’s base to create a ‘stool’. From the stool, new shoots […]
Saturday 24th February 2024 – Whinney Hill Helpers
On Saturday 24th February 2024 the Whinney Hill Helpers were carrying out a litter pick across the woodland. An extensive amount of litter and fly-tipping was removed from the woodland, including the front bumper of a car. Around 5 bin bags worth of litter were also removed along with the fly-tipping. Thank you to our […]
Tuesday 23rd January 2024 – Cotoneaster and Bamboo Removal
On Tuesday 23rd January the Hyndburn’s Woodlands Volunteering were back at Whinney Hill carrying out some Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) management. This time, we were tackling Small-leaved Cotoneaster which had likely escaped from neighbouring allotments, this shrub has a tendency to spread and grow very large, thus occupying woodland space that native species could occupy. […]
Friday 12th January 2024 – Rishton Art Installation
On Friday 12th January 2024 Hyndburn’s Woodlands Officer, Brandon Cherry, assisted with the installation of an art piece at Rishton Railway Station. This job took multiple days and first involved creating a sturdy network of supporting frames to hold the artwork, which itself required the digging of multiple, measured, holes to hold them. Art pieces […]