Ashridge Volunteers

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This article is not about credit cards, although they do have a part to play, it’s a plea for a New Years resolution to help solve the plastic proliferation problem. Please prioritise plastic purchases.

The statistics are frightening – a million plastic bottles a minute are sold worldwide, British companies have shipped more than two and a half million tons of plastic waste to China since 2012, and we are getting through more than three hundred and twenty million tons of plastic each and every year.
Unsurprisingly for a material that can remain in the environment for more than a thousand years, plastic has wreaked havoc on our once pristine planet. We have become increasingly addicted to acquiring vast quantities of stuff wrapped in plastic , with little thought spared for what happens to it when it is discarded. Recycling rates in the U K have flat-lined for the last five years with just fifty seven percent of all plastic bottles collected for recycling. Recycling will never offer a durable solution to the plastic crisis – we simply have to use less plastic in the first place. It’s a question of changing a mind-set and the dependency on plastic. The average time for a plastic bottle to degrade is at least four hundred years, ensuring the food and drink we consume now will taint the environment for centuries. But this is not just about aesthetics – plastic kills. Death by plastic packaging has become an increasingly realistic prospect for the very flora and fauna that make our planet so special. About a third of fish caught off the coast of the UK now contain traces of plastic. Some plastics contain toxins which are thought to be carcinogenic.

Not surprisingly the BBC’s Blue Planet program on the world’s oceans by David Attenborough has provided the catalyst for change – it has been a wake-up call for the Government, businesses and consumers alike.

Mr Gove the environment secretary was so shocked by the revelations that he has ordered an immediate review of current legislation and has outlined a four-point plan with a view for change. This follows the successful ploy of charging for plastic carrier bags resulting in a reduction in demand of eighty five percent within six months, showing what can be done through Government intervention. It is now likely that a refundable deposit scheme on single-use plastic bottles will be implemented next year. The Mayor of London is now planning a series of water-drinking fountains in the Capital to cut out the use of single-use water bottles, and it will not be long before the supermarkets introduce a plastic-free aisle for shopping much like the gluten-free or organic sections. This will not be for altruistic reasons but will help them retain their market share in a competitive marketplace – so the end justifies the means!
The UN is now poised to move ahead with a landmark treaty to protect the high seas.

Helen Gosh in her Christmas message said that the Trust were talking to the Government on matters of national importance – let us hope that plastic proliferation is on the agenda. In the meantime it would seem sensible for the N T to take a lead by eliminating plastic from their shops. No more plastic Christmas trees or decorations, no more plastic carrier bags – twisted paper alternatives may be more expensive but they are environmentally friendly. Penzance in Cornwall is the first town in England to be awarded “plastic-free status”, so if they can achieve it so can the Trust.

Apparently new year’s resolutions have a long history. The Babylonians pledged to return borrowed objects and repay their debts at the start of each year, while the Romans kicked off January by making a vow to the god Janus (from whom the month takes its name). That’s centuries of potential for broken promises.
It seems that the main reason why new year’s resolutions fail is that people are unrealistic, and another reason is people are not necessarily ready to change.

Challenging ourselves to avoid plastic is fun and it is amazing what we can do if we put our minds to it.
You might like to consider reinstating your local milkman and have your daily pinta delivered in those shiny glass bottles, untainted by plastic. Don’t think of it as just a drop in the ocean!

P.S Check out Ellen MacArthure’s fight against plastic – then take a look at the reader comments following.

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The annual end of year get-together for the Thursday volunteers was held at five-ways corner, on Old Copse Drive deep in the woods at Ashridge with some forty people attending. Collecting and burning brash was the order of the day, following the work of the Countryside Team with their handy chain-saws, followed by the customary exchange of seasonal eats.
It was was mild and gloomy in a lifeless mist, with the fires flames rising dramatically like a rocket and falling back like a stick once the brash was consumed. So intense was the heat that the embers were still warm days later. It was the complete opposite to the previous weeks heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures which had resulted in the cancellation of the work party – only the third time in as many years.
The day in question was the 21st December – the winter solstice. Every day from now on there will be a little more light to taunt us that the gentler times are still miles off. January to March feels like a grim endurance test to come, with only the faintest dreams of bluebells to sustain us till April.
A heavenly peace settled over the carriageway between the intermittent sounds of the chain saws gnawing away at the wood. The sombre yews and Scots pines were standing black against the leaden sky, but the fresh green moss clinging to decaying timbers, the big-leaved laurels, and the hardy wayside hollies saving the countryside from the monotony of a leafless winter. Their greens may be dark or even dingy compared with those of spring, but they are really greens; when the mists sweep over, as they did last week, or the snow melts on them they shine as if polished. The red berries are all the redder for the wet, and even the withered grass is invigorated by the mists which make us shiver. The tall beech stood gaunt and defoliated silhouetted against the sky, and the wet earth was treacherous underfoot.
Following on from work started last July the Trust are hoping to restore this once beautiful drive to it’s former glory. Built in 1813 by the 7th Earl John William it was the main entrance to the Mansion from Aldbury, for his aristocratic visitors coming from Halton, Tring and Waddesdon – the Rothschilds. The Shah of Persia passed this way in July 1889.
And it came to pass in the 1920’s with the demise of the aristocratic property that the carriageway fell into dramatic decline. A hundred years ago the members of a work party would have put down their tools and deferred to the Lord and Lady by doffing their caps, in thanks for their annual joint of beef given to all the cottagers at Christmas time.
The Swedish whitebeams which were planted by the NT in 1934 in an attempt to revitalise the drive-way before opening it up to the public, have now been felled being past their sell-by-date. They had been disfigured by pollarding and some succumbed to rot, and being non-native they were ready for the chop!

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The volunteers have been busy at the Visitor Centre supporting staff in their annual act of festooning. From hand-made paper chains to floral fascinations – all in a days work for the staff. A tasteful ensemble in a quiet and peaceful setting.

When we were children most of us were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time creating the excitement that went with the occasion – a few nuts, an apple and an orange and perhaps a small toy! No special events in those days.

Now, as the older generation in the time of plenty we can be excited by the festive events seen all around us, and appreciate the simple activities played out at Ashridge with the children’s trail, the the children’s crafts, Santa Paws and pudding walk , and the Jingle ponies. The V C staff have been planning these event for months and it is a credit to their creative skills in staging ever more inventive attractions year on year. The recent winter weather may have appeared festive but it has meant the cancellation of some of the events and resulted in a reduced footfall at the V C.

In the wider world some say the season is soulless and abrasive – Christmas consumerism has hi-jacked the reason for the season. We are bombarded with the need to buy – its good for the country’s GDP and shopping keeps the nation happy! It all starts with Black Friday in late November and is then ramped up by the media with their emotional blackmail. You know the approach – if you don’t buy this or donate to that you are a pariah at Christmas – Christmas humbug! Private Eye magazine had it spot on some fifty years ago, when they wrote – ‘Lo, a great profit has come over the land.’

Now there is the piped music. There is nothing joyous about being made to listen to endless Christmas music against your will, in some of the public spaces you visit, even if you are a Christian. The point of this incessant music is to install a sense of discipline to a higher power – the unfortunate face of late-capitalism.

So thank you to the Visitor Centre for your message of peace and goodwill, and to our volunteers for their unhurried giving of time – the real reasons for Christmas. And what of next year – a large Norwegian spruce would be nice to rival the tree in Trafalgar Square!

A very Merry Christmas to us all.

Credit to Steven Thrasher for some observations.

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Despite the bad weather, the volunteers have been learning the ancient seasonal art of hedge-laying. This is part of the N T policy of encouraging volunteers to take on skilled work normally carried out by paid operatives, like gate building, fencing or flint walling.

Skilled hard labour like hedge laying usually gives a single-minded tranquillity to workers in a job well done – a trade which has Royal patronage!

The hedge fronting the privately owned Old Dairy farm on the Ringshall to Northchurch road is a rare artefact on the Ashridge estate probably dating back some five hundred years and hardly touched by the wood-mans tool over the centuries.

In 1556 Elizabeth I when still a princess, leased the Old Dairy farm for twenty one years to a Richard Combe of Hemel Hempstead so the hedge no doubt dates from that time, planted on the customary raised bank. Like today the adjacent deer park was unfenced, so the hedge was an important barrier to keep the deer from grazing the pasture and arable crops.

When the Ashridge estate was put up for sale in 1925 the family of the present farm owner purchased the property, apart from the large meadow which they could not afford at the time – it passed into the hands of the Trust.

The “open” field system of farming dating from the Norman Conquest largely dispensed with hedges, walls and boundaries. Situated in the parish of Aldbury which was an “open” village never enclosed by hedging, although parliamentary enclosure was common place in adjacent parishes, the Old Dairy farm is a rare throwback to the Middle Ages. The hedge has never been laid merely trimmed during the years of plentiful cheap labour, while today farmers instead rely on the mechanical flail to control the hawthorn bushes with the addition of a wire fence to keep the boundary stock-proof. A laid hedge will remain stock-proof for decades and is the hallmark of a well-ordered farm.

The dead hedges which have been created by the volunteers around the Estate are a reminder of times past when they were commonplace. William Ellis the farmer from Church Farm in Little Gaddesden writing in volume 1 of his The Modern Husbandman of 1744:

For the better securing the Safety of new-made Hedges against Cattle, there is generally a Covenant inserted , in almost all Chiltern Leases, for defending them with a Dead-hedge, or Rails, &c. The Dead-Hedge is made by driving down Stakes of four Feet and a Half long, about four or six Inches into the Earth, at two Feet asunder, and then by weaving in long Thorn, Bush, Hasle, Sallow, Ash, Maple or other Hedge-wood, it will last two Years, and then may be made into Faggots, for Burning.

Hedges have a massive visual and aesthetic effect on the landscape compared with fences, and provide an invaluable “corridor” for birds and small mammals – healthy hedges are a great conservation feature and the work at the Old Dairy farm will showcase the efforts of the volunteers at Ashridge.

All you ever wanted to know about hedge laying;- The National Trust in Buttermere

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Last Friday some forty volunteers, friends of Ashridge and former staff members met  for a festive gathering at Hill Farm – Bob Davis travelled down from Norfolk to join in the camaraderie.

With the constant stream of so called bad news postulated by the British media, it is no wonder that we Brits worship the Christmas festival for the feel good factor – with so much choice available overindulgence is such a temptation!

Not surprisingly, spending time with family and friends (76%), giving presents (63%), and food and drink (57%), were the three things defining Christmas for most people in Britain, according to a recent survey by a leading market research group. The research showed that 91% of the British population celebrate Christmas in some shape or form, but that only 22% said that celebrating the birth of Christ makes Christmas an important time, suggesting that Christmas has become a fundamentally secular festival for most in the UK.

Why should you feel cheerful? Apparently our gross domestic product is down (GDP), we owe trillions to the banks and our productivity is low! So why this fixation on growth and consumption when we know that an infinite economic pursuit simply is not compatible with a planet of finite resources, and that it is environmentally damaging. Perhaps we are ready for a real conversation about what makes for a good life, rather than worshipping the god of growth and consumption. We need a new set of indicators that better reflect genuine well-being. Reducing working hours would be a start although it is anti-growth, but it would increase the amount of positive leisure time people have , giving us more choice about time in our communities for friends, family and neighbours, and of course volunteering.

The ancient Hill Farm barn, originally for storing and processing grain was decked out with Christmas decorations giving a moment of festive cheer and reasons to be cheerful, with it’s faded rural charm of old timbers, horse harnesses and straw – a past world only vaguely remembered as slow but sustainable.

Over at the Visitor Centre the volunteers had been busy creating the decorations. The Christmas survey found that 48% of people considered putting up decorations to be the defining aspect of the festival. At Ashridge the hallmark of the NT shines through – tastefulness. Seasonal decor is often tarnished by tackiness. We know it when we see it: An overly colourful display of themed pieces are showcased, each item clearly purchased at different times. The styles are a smorgasbord, each one clashing with the next. There is no doubt in your mind that there is a holiday on the horizon, not that you needed reminding!

So greetings to all our followers, both past and present.

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There is a sadness around the Ivinghoe hills at the moment. Something is missing – the affectionately named Belties. The twenty or so Belted Galloways have moved on, leaving the scrub and rough grass for the Volunteers to deal with. One of their number succumbed to bovine TB so the herd was put down – bovine TB can affect deer, dogs, badgers but rarely humans. The breed is known for its grazing ability, longevity and hardiness along with a placid nature and they always represented the contented face of Ashridge, being no trouble standing out in all weathers and sometimes annoying car drivers by congregating on the road!
November was always the traditional month to send cattle for slaughter. The Martinmass festival on November 11th was the date by which most cattle were killed and salted away for the winter months because of a lack of fodder – beef was often smoked in the farmhouse chimney. There was little unsalted beef to be had during the winter months until the advent of commercial refrigeration some one hundred years ago.
All cattle are descended from as few as eighty animals that were domesticated from wild ox or the auroch in Iran some ten thousand years ago, according to genetic studies. This was not long after the invention of farming. The history of farmed cattle in England is more recent, with the first domestic cattle arriving here about six thousand years ago. They made an immediate impact on the earth of Albion – the dung beetle population increased exponentially! Cattle had one great advantage over sheep – they could be used for ploughing and hauling. A cow of course is also an ox, and over the years selective breeding made domestic cattle smaller and easier to handle than their wild counterparts. The original “long-horns” have morphed into today’s “short-horns”. Cattle were originally folivores, happy in a woodland setting browsing on the tree and shrub vegetation in wood pasture as well as eating grass. In winter they browsed the holly tree leaves which are surprisingly nutritious – it was only later that they were kept in fields as grazers. Breeding cattle for beef was a more recent invention but a wholly English one. It has been a national symbol for centuries and the “Roast Beef of Old England” penned in 1731 was once a national anthem sung by the audience in theatres.
The good news is that the Belties will be replaced in January, so these oversized teddy bears will be available again next year for the public to photograph in their selfies and they will take up their normal grass cropping duties.

Credit to John Lewis-Stempel for his snippets.

The Volunteers have been out and about on the Estate along with staff members engaging with the visitors on the dos and don’ts at Ashridge – handing out information cards to bikers, horse riders and dog-walkers.
A sensation of panic sets in when the unexpected happens and a dog takes to deer-herding as in the video in Richmond Park in 2011. Will the dog come back?…. mind the traffic! Ironically the deer are descendants from a herd which was shipped to Richmond from Ashridge in 1925.
Deer- chasing happens regularly on the Ashridge estate and the volunteers and staff have been reminding the visitors of their responsibilities towards the public at large. A force of twelve staff and fifteen volunteers went walkabout on four Visitor Engagement sessions during November. It is the legal responsibility of owners to keep their dogs under control at all times and to do so they must know the temperament of their pet. If a dog is out of sight , it is deemed to be out of control and could cause distress to wildlife. Should a dog take off and give chase to deer or sheep road accidents are likely to occur – deer casualties run at one a week at Ashridge. Dog- walkers are arriving more and more as a quarter of all households now own a dog – it is fashionable with some eight million in the U K. The problem is being compounded by bans or restrictions placed on dogs in more than three thousand parks and open spaces over the last two years forcing their owners to take them into the countryside more frequently.
The Trust could introduce a dogs-on-lead policy throughout parts of the Estate which would need to be balanced and proportionate to ensure dog-walkers still felt welcome. The City of London have already issued Dog Control Orders on their Burnham Beeches site near Slough, restricting dog owners to some sixty percent of the Estate.
It is an offence to allow a dog to worry sheep – which includes both attacking and chasing them. SheepWatch UK said sheep attacks are devastating for farmers, who lose the value of the livestock killed and future earnings from those animals and their offspring, as well as having to pay for the carcasses to be removed. Sheep worrying is on the increase with an estimated fifteen thousand sheep killed across the UK in 2016.
As volunteers we should not let sleeping dogs lie!

Friday the 10th of November was a good day for bees, living in the U K. There was good news for the hundreds of thousands of people who had been calling on the government to endorse a ban on neonicotinoids, the main culprit for the precipitous decline in the world’s bee population. Michael Gove, the responsible government minister, has finally confirmed that the UK will support an extended E U ban against the use of these pesticides. It has been a long time coming – and has taken years of effort from campaigners all over the UK. Make no mistake: this ban will do much to limit the damage done by these dangerous chemicals. Some issues are above party politics and this is one of them – previously the Government had opposed the legislation.
The UK will back a total ban on insect-harming pesticides in fields across Europe – there are three arable farms on the Ashridge Estate. The decision reverses the government’s previous position and is justified by recent new evidence showing neonicotinoids have contaminated the whole landscape and cause damage to colonies of bees. It also follows the revelation that 75% of all flying insects have disappeared in Germany and probably much further afield, a discovery which Mr Gove said had shocked him.
These pesticides when incorporated into the soil or coated on seeds may kill soil-dwelling insects, including the bees that are exposed to the leaves, fruit, pollen or nectar of the treated plants.
Neonicotinoids are the world’s most widely used insecticide but in 2013 the European Union banned their use on flowering crops, although the UK was among the nations opposing the ban. The European commission now wants a total ban on their use outside of greenhouses, with a vote expected in December, and the UK’s new position makes it very likely to pass.
“The weight of evidence now shows the risks neonicotinoids pose to our environment, particularly to the bees and other pollinators which play such a key part in our £100bn food industry, is greater than previously understood,” said Mr Gove. “I believe this justifies further restrictions on their use. We cannot afford to put our pollinator populations at risk.” Mr Gove said: “As is always the case, a deteriorating environment is ultimately bad economic news as well.” He said pollinators boost the yield and quality of UK crops by £400m-£680m every year and said, for example, gala apple growers are now having to spend £5.7m a year to replace the work of lost natural pollinators.
Michael Gove is to be congratulated for listening to the experts on this issue and backing tougher restrictions,” said Friends of the Earth’s chief executive Craig Bennett. “But lessons also need to be learned – we now need to move away from chemical-intensive farming and instead boost support for less damaging ways of tackling persistent weeds and pests.
“We warmly welcome the UK’s change of position,” said Matt Shardlow, at insect conservation group Buglife. “Brexit will give the UK more control over the health of our ecosystems and it is essential in doing so that we apply the highest standards of care.”
Honey from across the world is contaminated with potent pesticides new research shows, clearly revealing the global exposure of vital pollinators for the first time. Almost two hundred samples of honey were analysed for neonicotinoid insecticides and 75% contained the chemicals, with most contaminated with multiple types. Bees range over many miles to collect nectar and pollen, making the honey they produce an excellent indicator of the pesticide pollution across their local landscape.
Bees and other pollinators are vital to three-quarters of the world’s food crops but have been in serious decline in recent decades. The new analysis joins a growing number of highly critical reports on pesticides, including research showing that most farmers could slash their pesticide use without losses, a UN report that denounced the “myth”that pesticides are necessary to feed the world, and a UK chief government scientist stating that the assumption by regulators that it is safe to use pesticides on industrial scales across the landscape is false.
John Lewis- Stempel the award winning author in his book The Running Hare, provides the human aspect. “If the chemicals dousing the land are so fantastically safe why do crop-sprayers have sealed cabs with an air filtration system? If pesticides are dangerous to farmers, they are dangerous”. Just a thought!

Thanks to Damian Carrington for his contribution.

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It’s one of those late season sunny Sunday afternoons, when Ashridge visitors take in the fading English countryside – time to engage with them as volunteers.

Arriving at the Beacon car park, it’s full to over-flowing with cars, but few people – they were off perambulating around the Ivinghoe Hills on a regular Sunday walk. Dropping down into the coombe, striding across the arable fields cultivated by Mr Leach from Town Farm, rising up to Gallows Hill, and returning along the ridge to the Beacon – a one hour energetic stroll, walking in the footsteps of ancient drovers, pilgrims, traders, royalty and the clergy.

A party of young walkers were gathered around the new information board looking for a route back to the Monument – we would help them on their way. They were intrigued by the white blot on the hillside at Whipsnade. The lion’s head now showing up as a chalk hill figure following a make-over, and glistening in the late Autumn sunshine. They were from Switzerland and Czechoslovakia living in London, and found the Chiltern landscape different.

Time to move on to the next stop-over, to collect the litter from Steps Hill. Pulling into the car park a column of smoke could be seen across the road rising up from behind a large people-carrier. As this is a no-fire zone it needed a look. Two families with a toddler in tow had come prepared for a late lunch with their barbecue. The hubble bubble pipe is a giveaway. The lamb chops and naan bread are simmering on the embers and a delicious smell wafts across the grasslands. It seems rather churlish to talk about prohibiting fires at this point especially when they offer up a tasty treat! It’s a proper barbecue unit, not one of those disposable aluminium ones which burn the grass and end up in the hedgerow because it is too hot to handle. They are Persian, a proud people who left when the Shah was deposed – culturally different from present day Iranians.

It’s getting late so we move off to the car park at Pitstone Hill. This is a pleasant enough spot as car parks go, with a built-in picnic area surrounded by hedges. Aylesbury Vale District Council regularly cut the grass but they don’t touch litter – the Trust maintain the rights of way and remove any fly-tipping.. A regularly used area for dog-walkers because of the open access on the farmland where Mr Roe from Down Farm leaves some fields in winter stubble for the birds, and provides wide field margins encouraging wildlife and the dogs. The resident corn buntings had moved off to join the winter roost at Marsworth reservoir and all is quiet. Lots of day-walkers pass through this way, following the Ridgeway. A late lone walker is captivated by the resident kestrel swinging in for his last look before nightfall. Kestrels are birds of habit and the car park edge is on his daily round. He centres his last hovering at the bridleway gate in the corner. A bird of many names- hoverhawk, windsucker, windhover are among the country names to identify his distinctive hunting style. The short-tailed vole is the staple food – a luckless creature which unwittingly marks it’s path through the grass with urine. This reflects ultraviolet in the evening light that’s detectable by the windhover. The kestrel slips forward but the wind drops and he drifts homewards.

The sun is now dipping down behind the hill, as we spot movement on the summit – strange figures silhouetted against the sky, and there is music in the air. The Sundown Dancers from Ivinghoe are revelling – what a delight apart from one member flying a drone!

The volunteering shift is now over so we designate the Ivinghoe Hills as a litter-free zone!

To be continued….
Thanks to John Lewis- Stempel for his snippetts.

Like a gift from the east, Ashridge has seen avian fireworks over the Chiltern Hills during the past week or so – an irruption of Hawfinches. According to Lawrence T hawfinches nested in Sallow Copse until a decade ago, before the squirrels plundered their nests. Hawfinches are now a rare and threatened species in this country and are on the Red List of birds of maximum conservation concern, because of a seventy six per cent fall in the population between 1968 and 2011. This contrasts with the rest of Europe where the population is relatively stable and with large numbers in Romania, Croatia, Poland, Germany and Russia.
Local birders have been falling over themselves in the early morning to witness the migration of hundred of birds every day flying west over Steps Hill, courtesy of ex-hurricane Ophelia. While this huge storm was spinning anti-clockwise off the west coast of Europe, it was sucking a stream of warm air northwards towards Britain, and presumably, bringing in the birds. They are likely to be birds heading from breeding woodlands in Eastern Europe travelling to the Mediterranean, but were then pushed towards our shores.
This natural event is currently taking place across much of Britain and is genuinely exceptional, and rather exciting for anyone with an interest in birds. Every birder or “Twitcher” is well aware of the difficulty of finding and seeing a Hawfinch – they are infamously one of the shyest and scarcest of British breeding birds and even a fleeting glimpse of one is noteworthy. This is a shame as they are one of the most beautiful birds to live in these isles; with a soft plumage consisting of various shades of orange, grey, peach, black, white and even a hint of metallic blue. They look like no other British bird, being large finches with enormous metal-grey bills set on big heads that makes them look very front-heavy, a feature accentuated by their short, stubby tails.  This iruption is a very special experience, and one not likely to be repeated any time soon.
Hawfinches are birds of the tall tree-tops, or found at the base of trees where windfall fruit seeds collect. They are particularly attracted to the seeds of the hornbeam and their hefty beaks powered by strong jaw muscles can exert pressures that make the cracking of seed cases or even cherry pips a cinch.

Thanks to Stuart Winter for his contribution.