Darcy Lever Marshes: New Frontier

Pond Management 9th March 2025

Darcy Lever Marshes is a new site for Bolton Conservation volunteers. The site is hidden between housing estates near Hollycroft Avenue, playing fields and Radcliffe road and if one of Bolton’s secret wildlife havens.

The marshes provide habitat for great crested newt and other amphibians, and potentially could benefit dragonflies. About 20 years ago Dave Orchard and the Amphibian and Reptile Group for South Lancashire developed the site but willow trees are now starting to take over and threatening the site’s usefulness, a process know as succession (to find out more about succession see this earlier post).

We were last here in November 2023 when BCV and Dave Orchard removed willow trees that shading ponds deeper in the marshes. As this is privately owned land we had permission to burn all of the material we cut down, on this particular site this method of disposal was preferable to making habitat piles.

This time we were working on a different pond. Trees were shading out the pond and needed cutting back, the brash produced was used to create a linear habitat pile along one edge of the pond to deter intruders

Many thanks to the site’s owner for allowing us to work on this site, Tom and Caroline for organising and everyone who took part. Photos from both tasks below.

Doffcocker Lodge: Willow Tit Conservation

23rd February 2025

This task was carried out with the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, as it’s a bit of a long name we’ll just call them Wildlife Trust for short. We’ve work with the Trust previously on willow tit conservation, that time it was Darcy Lever Gravel Pits using techniques devised by the Trust’s Dr Mark Champion. We also used the same methods at Moses Gate Country Park. This time we’re at Doffcocker Lodge Country Park.

Willow tits have been present at Doffcocker, to some degree, for a number of years but not in any significant numbers. Willow tit’s, including sub-species, have an extensive range covering Europe and other sub-arctic areas with estimated numbers of 175-253 million. However, since the 1970s the population sizes of these birds in the UK has fallen by around 83% and were Red-listed in in 2022. Habitat deterioration is thought to be the main cause of these changes; competition from other similar species and predation could also be a factor.

A couple of months ago we began prepping at area of the lodge in anticipation of the project getting underway, but unfortunately other circumstances meant the main part of the work had to be delayed.

So, what does willow tit conservation involve? Willow tit’s like to create nest holes in rotten trees in wet willow carr and fen like habitats. But there aren’t enough rotten trees around for them. To give them a hand we took some old, dead branches and attached them to living trees, partly burying the ends of the branches in the ground. Over time the attached branches will rot and soften and the willow tits will be able to excavate nest holes in them. The photo at the top of the page shows a willow tit and the nest it created at Doffcocker a few years ago.

We also did some dead hedgeing, and some tree planting on this task.

Thanks to Emma and Phil of the Wildlife Trust and to everyone who took part.

Anderton Centre: Winter Resi

8th-9th February 2025

When we first came to the Anderton Centre on Lower Rivington Reservoir in January 2007 the site was dominated by rhododendron. It took us 4 years to bring and end to this sea of green, using bow saws, mattocks, winches and brute muscle power. Over several years we returned to do other work to help both improve the site for wildlife and as an outdoor education centre by planting trees and hedges, repairing walls, building footpaths and habitat management. This year we returned again for our Winter residential, or resi as we call it. Our work this season would involve repairing dry stone walls, clearing some scrub, and trimming hedges. This was also the last winter resi we do here, although we will still be doing the summer resis.

The first task of the weekend was to clear an area large enough for a shipping container to be installed. This involved removing a couple trees and some scrub, and also moving a pile of brash.

The wallers repaired several sections of wall along the front of the reservoir. Why the walls had collapsed is anyone’s guess: livestock rubbing against them, people climbing over them, tree and root growth, land movement, or a combination of factors.

Well that’s the work bit done, but the other reason people go on resi’s is the social angle. For those staying over-night there was plenty of time to fill, and most of that time was filled with beer, banter and being silly. After work on the Saturday we hurried through the cold and dark to The Bay Horse. Like Hobbits at the Prancing Pony we sampled the ales, but thankfully there were no hooded figures with pointy swords. After much merriment we rushed back for Lynn’s evening meal. Meaties and veggies both being catered for.

The morning came and kicked everybody out of bed into the kitchen for breakfast and second breakfast. Between breakfast and dinner, or lunch if you prefer, we finished off the walling and finished the day by trimming the hedges we planted in previous years.

Many thanks to Tom, and Caroline for organising, the Anderton Centre staff for having us back, and to everyone who attended the weekend. Special thanks to Lynn and Trish for catering, doing a great job as always.

Chew Moor: Hedge Laying

Hedge laying at Chew Moor Lostock 26th January 2025

Click the link to find the site on what3words – blunt.frogs.beyond

Hedgerows are not a naturally occurring feature of the landscape, they are a consequence of human land management. The oldest hedgerows date back to the Bronze Age and were originally remnant woodlands left around land that had been cleared for farming or settlements. Over the centuries these leftovers became an established method of creating field boundaries and an important feature of our landscape, increasing in usage through Roman times and the Medieval era.

As farming became more mechanised, and post-war intensive farming practices were implemented to feed a growing population, hedges were destroyed to reclaim a few extra yards of farm land, in doing so they changed a landscape that had endured for generations. What wasn’t fully appreciated was the impact this had on wild life. Wild life had taken advantage of this human creation; nesting birds, pollinating insects, wild mammals all found a home or sanctuary in hedgerows. As hedgerows were systematically destroyed biodiversity and species populations fell. By the mid 1990s the loss of hedgerows had largely stopped, but by then many hundreds of thousands of miles of hedge had been lost.

Thankfully, the conservation value of hedges has been recognised and hedges are making a comeback.

If left alone hedges will start to fail within a few decades, individual shrubs become thick and woody and gaps appear in the hedge as they die, the hedge soon loses its form and function. Hedge laying is the best way to manage a hedgerow. Hedge laying prolongs the life of the hedge, improves its function as a field boundary and provides increased habitat for wild life. There are many styles of laid hedge, BCV use a Lancashire style which, while being a bit rustic in appearance, is very effective. The methods of laying a hedge are also varied. On today’s task two methodologies were used: using a bill hook and using a saw.

Generally the process for both is the same: decide which way direction the hedge is being laid, if the land slopes upward that’s the direction the stem or pleach should go. Next clean up the side branches of the stem you’re working on. If you are using a saw make a cut two thirds of the into the stem several inches above the ground on the opposite side of the stem to the direction you want to lay it; if you’re using a bill hook slice downwards to that point from a point a foot or so up the stem so that the cut tapers inward. Then the stem, or pleach, is bent over in the direction you want it to go. Repeat with each pleach until the hedgerow is complete. Hammering stakes as you go along gives the newly laid hedge support.

Today’s task was at Chew Moor and led by Francis and Nathan. Well done to both for doing a great job and to everyone who turned out.

Find more hedgelaying tasks here

Captain’s Clough: Captains Courageous

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.

Year End Round Up

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!