June 2018

After the Bluebell Walk!

It was a relief that, in spite of such a cold and miserable start, the weather turned for the better and so did the numbers of visitors. This meant we were able to exceed our target of raising £1,000,000 for local charities since 1972.   It is always rather an anti-climax once we have closed, after all the preparations during March to ensure everything is ready, followed by being open every day for five weeks - all quite demanding on energy levels but I love it! My task now is to continue to publish the monthly blog on what is happening in Beatons Wood and the preparations for the next Arlington Bluebell Walk in 2019.

Cleavers

This pernicious weed https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/solve-problems/cleavers/ has been mentioned before as it appears to be insidiously establishing itself around Beatons Wood. This year I wanted to try and beat its apparent progress. Being an annual it has to be removed before any seeds are shed, so once the Walk closed I started to methodically clear areas.

This image shows the results about halfway through the blitz but, as it involved painstaking hands and knees work, towards the end of the task a few seeds had started to ripen and fell off. We will see next year how many germinated!

Orchids

We are fortunate that during the Bluebell Walk some Early Purple Orchids (Orchis mascula )  can be seen along the North boundary of Beatons Wood on the White Walk.  Recently we found some Common Spotted Orchids (Dactylorhiza fuchsia) have established themselves elsewhere, which cannot be seen from any of the Walks.  To rectify this we are going to try and scatter their dust like seed along existing Walks and this photo, taken by Helen Proctor who is the coordinator for the Sussex Botanical Recording Society, shows we have a small wooded area well away from Beatons Wood where they are growing like ‘mustard and cress’!

Botanical Survey

In June 1988 Tony Whitbread, who recently left the Sussex Wildlife Trust where he had been their CEO for several years, did a detailed survey of Beatons Wood.  elen isHel Helen says she will ask her Sussex Botanical Recording Society if they would like to record Beatons Wood next year, an interesting exercise to see what changes have occurred over 31 years!

Bates Green Gallop

Last year we were approached by a local running club, We Run They Run I Run http://www.weruntheyrunirun.co.uk/bates-green-gallop/who organized a run through Beatons Wood and along several of the Farm Trails used by the Bluebell Walk on Peter Appleton’s farm. It is 3.78 miles long, so if seven are completed that is a marathon! Last year was so successful they asked to repeat it so last week the 2018 Bates Green Gallop took place with 78 runners. Competitors are of mixed abilities thus some completed one lap, but over 40 covered a marathon, with 2 runners going on to cover over 40 miles in the 6 hours of the event! Each entrant receives the special medal featuring a cows head and bluebells (see image).

My aim is to try and have the next blog posted at the end of July.

John McCutchan

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This message was added on Saturday 30th June 2018