Footpath work 12th January 2025

BCV was last here in 2015 when we did a bit of a clean up and restored a pond as best we could. The pond, which is very prone to silting up, dates back to around 1990 but the clough itself is much older.

Captain’s Clough was named after a Captain James Dewhurst sometime in the late 1700s, the Dewhursts owned Halliwell Hall bewteen 1716 and 1806 but records of the clough’s existence goes back even further. Documents from the Emglish Civil War (1642–51) note that a Celtic cross once stood in the area, but was pushed over by one of the warring factions to make a footbridge , across the stream. The stream itself, Captain’s Clough Brook, flows from Doffcocker Lodge. The lodge itself only dates back to 1846 so the stream would likely have been part of Doffcocker Brook before that. Incidentally, the original Celtic name for the Doffcocker was dubh cocr meaning the dark winding stream.

Captains Clough was one of the first sites surveyed by the Bolton Wildlife Project, the 1989 branch of the then Lancashire Wildlife Trust. The survey found that the site was once home to a large number of elm trees but they were wiped out by Dutch elm disease. The Project began work to restore the site by planting native trees and flowers, and cleaning up all of the rubbish left by flytipping which is a continual problem in the area.

More recently the site have been looked after by the Heather Berry and the Ivy Road Community Project. It’s Heather’s team we were helping out this time by cutting back scrub and over hanging branches to try to make people’s visits to the site more pleasant.

As well as looking after the clough the Ivy Road team also run community gardening sessions for local residents. Many thanks to Heather and the team for asking us to be involved with their excellent project, we hope to team up again over the coming years.

It’s been a busy year, so busy that the last 4 tasks didn’t get a mention. So here’s a quick rundown.

Doffcocker Lodge LNR – 17/11/24 – Preparing part of the site for the willow tit project.

Entwistle Reservoir – 01/12/24 – Repairing damage to a hedge following contractors operations to remove diseased trees

Jumbles Country Park – 15/12/24 – Coppicing to encourage regrowth that can be harvested for stakes and willow weaving materials.

Firwood Fold – 29/12/24 – Tidying up overgrowth and storm damage.

That’s all for now, see you in the new year when we’ll have more great tasks to do. Happy New Year!

On 27th May 2024 Bolton, and the nation as a whole, lost one of it’s legendary sons.

Born on 9th September 1950 Richard ‘Rick’ Parker became interested in conservation after watching a pond being destroyed by a bulldozer when he was a child. After studying at University he went on to work for the Bolton Hospital’s pathology lab to make a living, but his real passion was wildlife and in the 1980’s he joined the fledgling Bolton Conservation Volunteers, becoming the group’s co-ordinator/chairman in 1985/1986, a role he held until his passing. For anyone to lead a volunteer group for 38 years is an outstanding achievement, but to do it with the same commitment and passion throughout that time is extraordinary, and is what made Rick such a legendary figure.

Rick took BCV to new heights of success creating hundreds of ponds, establishing reed beds, and planting tens of thousands of trees throughout his leadership. Along the way both Rick and BCV won multiple awards, Bolton Councils Golden Elephant Award, Certificate of Merit from Britain in Bloom, Bolton News Green Hero Award (twice), The Cabinet Office’s Points of Light Award, to name a few. Rick was an acknowledge expert on amphibians and dragonflies and not only has gave lectures to the great and learned he also appeared on the radio, wand wrote chapters for books. Rick was a great communicator and could talk conservation all day to people of all ages and backgrounds, inspiring new generations of conservationists who themselves have gone on to their own successful careers.

After retiring from the hospital’s path lab he started a new career as a freelance hedge layer and in 2008 was the first National Hedge Laying Society Accredited hedge layer in Greater Manchester. But the work he was most proud of and enjoyed the most was teaching Bolton’s school kids about nature and wildlife. Even while in hospital he said he was looking forward to getting back to teaching the year 4 kids.

Over the last few months Rick hadn’t been in the best of health and on 24th May was admitted to hospital for tests. Throughout the 25th several of our volunteers spoke to him and he appeared to be in good health and good spirits, asking about the swans on Doffcocker Lodge, cygnets at Eatock lodge and upcoming tasks. That evening he went to sleep and during the night suffered a catastrophic stroke, he remained unconscious until he passed away peacefully on Monday 27th May.

To say Rick will be missed is an understatement, our world will never be the same. Rick was the bedrock of Bolton Conservation Volunteers, he was the cornerstone of Bolton’s conservation community. Rick was a force of nature, and a force for nature. We’ll miss his old jokes, his tall stories, and his ‘Rickisms’, most of all we’ll miss his energy and enthusiasm. Although he’s gone BCV will continue his legacy, and his immortal spirit will remain at the heart of BCVs goals and aspirations.

Rick was laid to rest at West Pennine Remembrance Park on a fine and sunny 8th July 2024, the service was attended by nearly 100 people many wearing BCV T-shirts. The attendees included Rick’s family, friends, BCV members from the early years to the present, members of The Wildlife Trust, Rick’s friends from the allotments, and many others all came to pay tribute. The were 7 tributes read out by Rick’s family and friends, including the poem below written by Carol’s son, read by Carol

Perspective Of An Element
I am a tree, as an acorn I fell onto the floor of an unknown forest, I sprouted.
I grew and grew, over the ages, over time immemorial. I am now a mighty oak,
A testament to my resilience and longevity. Birds nest in my branches, squirrels live in my trunk.
I am a giver of life, part of the cycle, and there I will remain for evermore.

Richard J. Astley

After the service we all retired to the Strawbury Duck to tell tales of Rick’s life and remember everything he was and everything he gave us . Rest in peace, Rick, and thank you for everything. Thank you to everyone who attended to celebrate Rick’s life, and his passion for wildlife.

Please feel free to leave comments, comments go through a moderation process so won’t appear instantly, I’ll try to approve in the mornings and evenings. If you don’t have access please email comments to bcv.queries@hotmail.com and I’ll add them. May thanks in advance.

In addition to photos and messages on this page the Bolton and Bury Swifts group have also posted a tribute. and the Friends of Eatock also posted this. Thanks everyone.

May 27th 2026 – Rick in hospital

As some of you know Rick Parker has been unwell for the last few months and recently has been experiencing tiredness and anaemia and was admitted to Bolton Hospital for tests on 25th May. On 26th May Rick passed away following a stroke, Rick’s family was by his side. More information can be found HERE

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February 2024 – Neil Harris

Some sad news for 2024; Neil Harris has passed away after a long fight with cancer. Many of our current members won’t know Neil, but he was responsible for planning and leading many of the great and memorable walks we had when the BCV waling group was still running. Neil was the devoted partner of long time BCV volunteer Trish Calderbank, and was always there for her for many years. All our love and best wishes to Trish along with our heartfelt condolences; your loss is our loss.

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August 2022 – 20+ Not Out

Well done to Rick, Francis, Claire, Neil, Carol, Lynn, Colin, Elaine, and John on being recognised for 20+ years of volunteering with BCV. The achievement was marked by a bit of a do on the 13th August at the Sweet Green Tavern in Bolton attended by around 50 friends and well wishers. The awards for the troops were handed out by Rick and Rick’s award being handed out by Francis. There was a buffet, drinks, and karaoke (for those who like that kind of thing), bunting and other stuff. Many thanks to Francis for sorting out the awards themselves (a picture of one attached but with the name removed to avoid favouritism), Caroline for organising the food, Tom for ferrying stuff, and to everyone who attended. A special thanks to our Officer for Fun, Jane, for putting it all together. Two thumbs up.

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April 2022 – Community Hero 2022

Congratulations to Rick on winning the Bolton News Community Heroes award’s environment category. This is not the first award Rick has won, over the years he has been awarded Bolton Council’s Golden Elephant Award, Bolton News Green Hero Award, and The Cabinet Office’s Points of Light Award. Find out more at Community Heroes 2022.

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June 2021 – Fan Pit Cottages

We had an email from Anne at Fan Pit Cottages, I’ve shortened it slightly but the full version has been sent to Rick.

Just wanted to update you about my little project to attract more wildlife to our area. You might remember laying a hedge and clearing some of the land adjacent to our house at Fan Pit cottages. We were fighting a battle with Japanese Knotweed, which we have almost won!

In 2015 you created a pond for us, which has been very successful, attracting newts and toads almost immediately. Unfortunately this year a pair of mallards have decided to trash it, ripping weed out and feeding on the occupants of the pond, so I have covered it. I would love to create more ponds! We have planted a variety of trees, wild cherry and Rowan, with a few others. Sadly some of our mature trees have been affected by ash die back, so I did quite a lot of research to find trees that were suited to our clay soil and resistant to diseases.

We have a lot of marsh orchids this year and I am slowly adding more wild plants that survive the conditions. We still have hares living near the big pond, at the bottom of the field and deer have been spotted there too. Please pass on our good wishes to Rick and all the volunteers who remember coming to us. I can’t thank you enough for all your help and wish you could come again. Kindest Regards, Anne.

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Moses Gate Country Park, Bolton, Sunday 23rd July 2023

Bolton Green Umbrella was formed in 2016 to bring together all of Bolton’s green groups, individuals and businesses in a network to further their mutual goals of protecting green spaces, encouraging wildlife, and improving the environment in and around Bolton.

To celebrate the group’s success a grand green festival was organised with different groups showcasing the work they do in the areas where they work at numerous sites around Bolton. Bolton Conservation Volunteers chose to highlight the work done at Moses Gate Country Park. Our bit of the festival would include pond dipping and a treasure hunt. People following the treasure hunt would have a map that showed the locations of 6 letters to collect to make the name of an animal when put together. The six letters were located at sites where we have planted trees, managed ponds, created reedbeds, managed wild flower meadows, and various other projects. The problem was nobody told the weather that we wanted sunshine, and what we got was rain.

The wet weather highlights one of the reasons BCV and Green Umbrella do what they do: climate change. One of the predicted results of increased global temperatures was indeed wetter UK summers, which is what we have while the rest of Europe is literally burning. The wider consequences of global warming go beyond ‘rain stopped play’ and include crop failures, flooding, famine, melting ice sheets and glaciers, sea level rise, loss of productive land, habitat loss, and species loss to give you the short version. For wildlife our new ‘normal’ affects hibernation, migration, species viability, water quality and oxygen saturation, and habitat stability. Wildlife is facing more competition for survival, both against other species and against humanity as habitats are lost through climate change and human expansion. As more land becomes uninhabitable human migration and movement is likely to increase, pressuring wildlife even more.

Global warming isn’t a hoax, it isn’t a conspiracy of scientists it is very real and we are seeing the results NOW. The use of fossil fuels is having a very significant impact on our planet. Anyone who still believes climate change isn’t a problem should read the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2021 Summary for Policy Makers, at 40 pages this is the short version of the full report and still makes scary reading. The beginning of the report states:

“It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land. Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred.”

“Human-induced climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe. Evidence of observed changes in extremes such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts,
and tropical cyclones, and, in particular, their attribution to human influence, has strengthened since AR5″. AR5 was the IPCC’s 2013 report.

These are the reasons why Bolton Conservation Volunteers, Bolton Green Umbrella, and all of its member groups, do what they do. What we need is for everybody else to also take a stand, to do everything possible to reduce human impact on our local and global environments: drive less, fly less, be less wasteful, make do and mend, reduce-reuse-recycle, and be less selfish, sharing the world with all species.

But this article isn’t meant to be a thesis on climate change causes and consequences, so back to the festival day. Although we did have a green gazebo an actual green umbrella would have been very useful, but having said that many brave souls came out on the day to fight the BCV corner. As well as volunteers we had several families that liked taking walks in the rain and walked around our treasure hunt route to spell out BADGER and win a meat free hot dog.

Many thanks to Barb and Trev and Bolton Green Umbrella for co-ordinating the festival, Tom and Caroline for organising BCV’s bit, Lynn and Gill for looking after the food tent, the meet and greet team, Rick for pond dipping, and everyone who turned out to lend a hand or take part.

You can read the IPCC report through this link. PDF 3mb

Duke of Edinburgh Award for BCV’s Nathan

Congratulations to one of our Bolton Conservation Volunteers, Nathan who originally joined us in 2016 as part of his volunteering task for the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award. After completing all his tasks over the following three years he successfully completed his Gold Award in 2019. Because of the pandemic he was unable to celebrate his achievement, but last week he finally got to celebrate the award at Buckingham Palace attended by the HRH Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Great to see that the volunteering bug hasn’t left him and, 7 years on, he is still a regular member of the team on our Sunday tasks, happy to get stuck in (sometimes literally).

If you too are looking for somewhere to complete the new skill section or volunteering section of your Duke of Edinburgh Award, please come along to one of our tasks (see the relevant section on our website for more details).

Words and pictures by Katrina