This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Volunteers will be pleased that for the first time Ashridge has published a long term woodland management plan for the Estate allowing public comment. The draft twenty year plan is being displayed at the V C for a few weeks but if you miss it you can view the details by accessing the report on the banner headline.
Hoping for public input the Estate are asking for comments with three questions in mind;
What do you value most about the woodland at Ashridge?
What would help you enjoy the woodland more?
What would you like Ashridge to look like in twenty years time?
With two thousand acres of woodland Ashridge boasts the largest N T area cared for in-hand, comprising ancient woodland, coniferous and broadleaved plantations, five registered commons, remnant wood pasture and large areas of secondary birch woodland, most of which is designated as a Special Area of Conservation for lowland beech woodland and as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The Estate also includes Grade 2* registered Parkland.
Management of woodland introduces more sunlight by opening up the canopy As a general rule, woodlands which are structurally diverse and have a wide range of micro-habitats tend to have more biodiversity. Structural diversity means that there are, for example, trees of different ages which is not the case in a beech or conifer plantation, but also different physical ‘layers’: leaf litter and soil, ground vegetation, an understorey of saplings and shrubs, taller coppice and young trees, and then the woodland canopy. Microhabitats include standing and lying deadwood, damp and shady areas, sunny, sheltered glades, scrub, ponds, single stem timber trees, veteran trees, pollards and coppice stools. Research indicates that many species prefer to live in the first thirty feet from a woodland edge, where there is more sunlight. Coppicing and creating rides and glades can enhance the biodiversity of a woodland by increasing the levels of light, rejuvenating individual trees and allowing shorter vegetation and shrubs to grow, thus creating more structural diversity and micro-habitats leading up to the edge of the taller trees. An untidy wood is a healthy wood.

Look forward to coppicing glades and rides.

Species which benefit from coppiced woodland, rides and glades will include dormice and other small mammals, dragonflies which forage for insects along woodland rides, birds such as nightingale and chiffchaff, and reptiles which like to bask in the shorter, warmer grassland areas with scrub and tall grassland for cover nearby. Butterflies and moths will benefit from an increase in wild flowers and grasses, since many species have very specific larval food plant requirements like the caterpillars of the silver-washed fritillary which feed on common dog-violet and others that are reliant on nectar for food. Other species such as bumblebees will also benefit from an increase in nectar and pollen-rich plants. Bats forage for insects along woodland rides but some species prefer closed canopy and dense under-storey and will not benefit from the opening up of woodland.
Both coppicing and the creation of rides and glades mimic natural processes of fires and storms like the 1987 hurricane, which open up expanses of woodland to sunlight, allowing ground flora to flourish, taller grassland areas to thrive, and fallen trees to rot down. Eventually, scrub takes over, saplings grow, and the woodland canopy closes up again. All of these areas provide unique habitats for an array of species
Ashridge woodland is of course for nature conservation and public access – not timber production – and once approved the plan will provide felling licences for the next ten years and will enable grant funding for works identified within the plan. It is the intention that contractors will be employed for large scale clearance work as with conifer removal, with in-house staff utilised for more detailed work with the support of the volunteer groups.
Work has already started at Rail Copse, and other plantations have priority status having been neglected like Ringshall Copse, and the mixed plantation at Crawley Wood which is probably the oldest wood on the Estate – a waymark for early travellers on the Icknield Way being the highest point at 816 feet.
We can now see the woods for the trees so we must hope that we live long enough to appreciate the end results!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Bramblings are back from their travels in Scandinavia – they have moved in with their extended family the Chaffinches at the Beeches on the Beacon Road – SP963157. They plan to stay for a few months hoovering up the beech mast most mornings and late afternoons. They are a bold brash and bumptious lot compared to the Chaffs – a large family group with strength in numbers wearing flashy orange waistcoats.

The Bramblings don’t get on well with their country cousins the Greenfinches down at Ivinghoe. The Greenfinches prefer a quiet life so they keep well away lodging at Hawthorn Hedges on the outskirts of the village in Windmill Field – SP946161. The large flock normally get home about teatime and are quite friendly if you wish to visit them – they have suffered a few fatalities recently from infections picked up from eating stale and mouldy bread. They are on the mend now but have been given the silent treatment by the grumpy Bramblings who say that the constant wheezing of their country cousins gets on their nerves.

Family feuds!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The conservation volunteers have been helping to rejuvenate the boundary hedge at the Old Dairy Farm on the B4506, by having it “laid” – encouraging new shoots and new life into a hedge which has seen better days. At one point post and rails were added to reinforce the boundary which dates back to Tudor times when Elizabeth 1st owned the property. It is currently the only laid hedge on the Estate and an ancient one to boot. Other farmland hedges on the Estate have been laid in previous centuries but probably not during the Trust’s tenure.

Hedge laying is a country skill practised mainly in the UK and Ireland, with many named regional variations in style and technique – Midland, Devonshire, Derbyshire, Somerset. Practised for centuries a well laid hedge looks appealing but the main aim is to create an impenetrable boundary or enclosure for sheep or cattle. Positioned on the edge of the main road, this is an ideal spot to showcase this rural craft – an Ashridge artefact worthy of restoration – it needs a haircut!

An artefact in need of restoration

A walk along a hedgerow is always full of delight for anyone who takes time to walk slowly and observe. No two stretches of hedge are ever quite the same, though they tend to fall into types based on the soil, acidity, moisture levels, climate and age, and what was originally planted and whether or not there is a ditch and a bank. A hedge is a similar habitat to a woodland edge but it lacks the the potential for any interaction between the hedge itself and the woodland depths. A hedge is an edge habitat that has two sides – a hedge is all edge. It is different to a woodland edge being more exposed, often drier and sunlit and therefore more nutrient rich, and attractive to wildlife – a home to the declining hedgehog. As a barrier it throws up some interesting fault lines with a badger run here or a deer gap there which can be spotted by the observant walker, especially in winter when snow covers the ground.
It will take many years before we see a bushy boundary emerging as a haven for birdlife. This appears to be a long term project offering plenty of future work for the volunteers, since it could take another five years to complete based upon present progress. There is only a short window of time in the year when the work can be carried out – hedge-laying should be carried out between January, when the berries have been exhausted by the visiting thrushes and blackbirds, and April at the start of the bird nesting season.
All you ever wanted to know about hedge laying;- The National Trust in  Buttermere

Get out and about as a Volunteer or Visitor.
Spring into action on one of these planned events on the Estate.
You will need to check on the event details before you sign up at helping.ashridge@nationaltrust.org.uk for one, or two or three! There is one more event this year in the Easter break.

Monday 18th – Friday 22nd February Half-term Trail and Crafts 10.00am- 3pm
Head into the Visitor Centre to complete your craft before following the hedgehog trail.

Saturday 30th March Citizen Science Exhibition 11.00am
Opening of the new yearly exhibition this time focusing on wildlife surveying at Ashridge.

Monday 8th – Friday 12th April Easter Crafts 10 00am- 4pm
Make and decorate an Easter craft at the Visitor Centre.

Wednesday 10th April  Gentle Stroll – Signs of Spring 10.30am – 12.30pm
A volunteer – led guided walk looking for Spring wildlife.

Monday 15th – Thursday 18th April  Early Bird Easter Egg Offer 10am – 4pm
Look out for the birds on the Easter trail.

Friday 19th – Monday 22nd April  Easter Weekend Trail 10am – 4pm
Complete the woodland trail to claim a prize Easter egg.

Saturday 27th & Sunday 28th April Watercolour Workshops 1pm – 4pm
Create your own image of bluebells – materials and refreshments provided.

Saturday 27th & Sunday 28th April, Saturday 4th – Monday 6th May Dockey Wood
Learn about the creation of this iconic bluebell wood.

Wednesday 1st May Gentle Stroll 10.30am – 12.30pm
A volunteer – led look at the bluebells.

Thursday 2nd May, 6-7.30pm & Saturday 4th May, 10.30 – 12.30pm Bluebell Walks
Join the rangers and volunteers for a walk to see the best of the bluebells.

Saturday 4th May Dawn Chorus 5-7am
Experience early morning bird song with the rangers – breakfast included.

Monday 27th – Friday 31st May  Half Term Trail  10am – 4pm
Spring trail with matching tree craft.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Standing unloved for half a century Rail Copse is now attracting attention from the foresters and the conservation volunteers. The wood, opposite the Bunkhouse on the Aldbury road has been worked over the centuries. Originally known as The Little Copse since time out of mind, the twenty seven acre wood had a name change when the cartographer arrived from the Ordnance Survey to map the area in the 1830’s.
Rail Copse – an enclosed area of small trees for coppicing – was laid out by the Lord of the Manor with under-storey trees of hazel and hornbeam probably in the 1600’s, embanked and given a protective hedge of quickthorn to exclude the local commoners. Situated on the edge of Aldbury common the local residents had, and surprisingly still have rights of pannage and wood collecting. It was probably acquired for the Ashridge Estate by the 7th Earl Bridgewater (1803-1823) as part of his land grabs when the family set out to become landed aristocrats in the fist half of the 19th century.
When the family succession was questioned in the middle of the 19th century the Estate was in limbo, and according to Lady Marion Alford the occupier at the time writing in 1852, – “ you may imagine the condition of any large landed property beyond the Park gates which has been neglected for the past 20 years”. The practice of coppicing had probably ceased by this time and the acreage developed into a mixed wood of beech, oak, holly, hazel and hornbeam.
A ground-breaking change took place some one hundred years later in the 1960’s when the western side of the copse was clear-felled and planted up with hundreds of Scots pine, sourced from the plant nursery on the Estate. This was undertaken under the stewardship of John Wilson the head ranger who was a forester first and foremost and who was dedicated to growing timber for the Nation. It was somewhat out of character because he considered coniferous woodland as “bloody boring”, but he was in good company, with the Forestry Commission laying down a carpet of conifers across the land. They even went as far as producing a guide to recognise the various types of softwood conifers in their tree portfolio. Biodiversity was not a consideration in those days.
Regimented rows of plantation pines are disliked because they cast an acidic shadow across the forest floor shading out the understorey, and destroying the soil invertebrates. The present work to thin out the Scots pines which will take place periodically, will increase the light levels and reverse the decline in biodiversity. Replanting hornbeams and a quickthorn hedge would be  aspirational  restoration.
Coniferous woodlands still have considerable biodiversity value in their own right as they enter their mature stage, as they attract a range of different species to those found in broadleaf woodlands. The bird population could include Siskins, Crossbills, Goldcrests and Firecrests, while Sparrowhawks prefer to nest in conifers. Curiously Scots pine have a greater number of associated insect species than all of the broadleaf trees apart from the Oak and Birch.
There is much seasonal work to be done so the volunteers can look forward to many bonfires burning brushwood!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Hidey-holes at Ashridge are normally put together by visiting children, but now in the season-of-goodwill the volunteers have built some dens – twelve dens for Christmas – this years nature theme for children at the Visitor Centre. The dens offer a refuge for the make-believe creatures of the woods.
Country walks are a great way to get the family out in the fresh air and away from all the TV adverts – the buggy-friendly trail around Meadleys Meadow has pulled in the crowds helped by the fair weather.
From Chatsworth House to the Brighton Pavilion, Kew Gardens to Westonbirt, tourist attractions offer an expensive winter time experience for the family – twinkling trees, carols, and illuminations.
The inexpensive winter trail at Ashridge is a much more down-to earth and meaningful experience attracting well over a thousand children this year. A memorable Christmas experience for them all.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Apparently Christmas is now about garlands – wreaths are for funerals!
Never mind the term , the volunteers have been using their creative skills to deck the V C with festive spirit, and support the garland making workshops.
Plants are integral to Christian celebrations at Christmas – it is the only time of year when the Trust choose to adorn the place with plants from the Estate. A place that isn’t strewn with something evergreen and glossy just doesn’t feel festive. Christmas Eve is traditionally the date on which to deck the halls, and bringing evergreens indoors any time before that is said to produce quarrels.
When you grab your secateurs and head out for that desirable foliage your thoughts may be firmly on Christmas Eve – but an older and quieter moment for celebration precedes it: the winter solstice on December 21 , also called Yule or midwinter. The plants that we now associate with Christmas are in fact remnants of this older celebration of the longest night and the shortest day.
That may sound gloomy, but ancient midwinter celebrations were bountiful, fire-filled and optimistic, concerned with the cycling of the seasons and the returning of the light. Although it does not feel like it now, after the solstice the days begin to get incrementally longer, warmth starts to return, and the growing season slowly turns from faint memory to pressing reality.
At a time when all around seems dead, evergreens become integral to this festival of continuity and reassurance. The Victorians believed in everlasting life and planted up their graveyards with laurel, yew and pine. Berries represent fertility, and so were also revered at this most barren of moments. Holly was thought a female plant and mistletoe male, and they were often hung together, hence the kissing. Christmas garlands themselves are also extremely ancient, dating back at least to Roman times when they decorated homes during Saturnalia, the Roman festival of midwinter. So garlands may well have been around at Ashridge some two thousand years ago ornamenting the nearby Roman villa at Moneybury Hill.
There is a restrained feeling with the decor and piped music at the V C – all very tasteful with the managers’ guide book ensuring that the places are all singing from the same song sheet. You can tell when you are at a NT place as soon as you enter the building.  The Trust is aiming to become plastic free by 2022, so no more plastic decorations. The real Christmas tree and floral plant materials are all sourced locally which helps to reduce their carbon footprint and are all biodegradable – a fake fir from faraway China has the same carbon footprint as a car journey of 135 miles!
The garland making workshops run by Janet are many-splendoured things and are very popular – always sold out – again using plant material gleaned from the Estate.
A very merry Christmas to us all, and Lia Leendertz in particular.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Like birds following the plough, the volunteers have been returning to Dockey Wood to clear up the debris left by the loggers. It is a quiet spot at this time of year with the bluebells hibernating ready for their moment of glory next Spring. Whilst the bulbs are building up their strength underground for the new season , overground the volunteers were using their strength to move heaps of brushwood for beefing up the dead hedges – it cannot be burnt insitue without damaging the dormant bulbs so it goes for hedging or more importantly for habitat heaps for invertebrates and wildlife.
Dead hedging dates back to a time in pre history when it was employed to corral cattle and sheep before live hedges were planted. Commonplace in the Chilterns since Tudor times with William Ellis writing later in 1744 “For the better securing the safety of new-made hedges against Cattle,there is generally a Covenent inserted, in almost all Chiltern Leases for defending them with a Dead- hedge……………it will last two Years and then made into Faggots for Burning.” The original twee path edging put down in the wood serves a different purpose – to secure the safety of the flowers from any vain visitor tip toeing through the bluebells. Some say that the path edging adds to the overall appearance of a manicured municipal park rather than the charming wild conditions normally associated with the woods at Ashridge.
But there is hope, as rewilding which is the driving force in landscape change for most environmentalists is already taking place. No sooner than the trees in the plantation are thinned out nature takes hold, using the increased light levels to produce new clumps of bramble and bracken for the important understorey. – the English addiction for being tidy and orderly, with concern about boundaries is swept away.
The visitors will be back next Spring in record numbers to enjoy the viewing whatever the style of presentation, many making an annual pilgrimage to tick off progress in their lifespan, and others will stay permanently. The current trend for direct cremation and the scattering of ashes in the landscape is evident at Dockey. The N T do not have a formal policy as yet but there are rules to be met. Their slogan  “for ever and for everyone” is an invitation to this place, and rather apt.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Of all the conservation tasks undertaken by the volunteers , working on the chalk hills to remove scrub and gather grass cuttings appears to be the most popular – probably because there is a bonfire involved!
There is now a new weapon available in the armoury to fight invasive hawthorn scrub, and provide justifiable satisfaction to volunteers – the Tree Popper.
No vegetation is more maligned than scrub, and it is often underrated as a bird habitat. Scrub clearance might encourage the appearance of butterflies and wild flowers but it is detrimental to some birds, so a balance needs to be struck. The essential features of scrub are that it is composed of woody shrubs or small trees, and that it is a transitional stage between the open land and woodland. Only rarely in our region does scrub form a relatively stable vegetation – the mature thickets around the Beacon fall into this category.
On the open hillside, leaving the stump and roots of the hawthorn to regrow after cutting is not a good result – the stumps and roots are a nagging nuisance and need to be removed. Enter the tree or root popper which is big business in the USA but relatively new to the UK. Clamp and engage the stump with the metal hand-held popper and lever it out roots & all – job done. Some say it is very addictive – once you pop you can’t stop!
This is also good news for grazing cattle which suffer damaged feet when stepping on stumps – the tenant farmer regularly called out the vet to tend to torn trotters. Now this is where the irony comes in – there are now no cattle on the hills. Despite being immensely popular and photogenic, this visitor attraction has been banished from the hills following concerns by the PC brigade  about possible public safety. The rural scene has been diminished by their removal after years of quiet grazing on the rough grasses in areas unsuited for machine cutting. Their footprints would break up the sward which allowed the delicate wild flowers to take hold. The original Belted Galloways were lost to TB some two years ago – they were very docile – to be replaced by young Lincoln Reds which turned out to be timid and easily frightened. Will the cattle ever return? – it’s very unlikely.
Popping should now make work on the hills even more rewarding for the volunteers.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On Sunday the Nation commemorated the ending of the First World War in 1918: four years of fighting; ten million soldiers dead in a foreign field, including almost one million from the British Empire. In Britain alone about three million people lost a close relative.
Ashridge played its part with a sombre remembrance for the lost lives of local lads from the nearby villages with a bonfire on the Beacon, along with some thirty individual  plaques handwritten by the volunteers for the fallen.
The armistice that brought the war to an end was signed at 5am on the morning of 11th  November 1918, one hundred years to the day. But to give time for the news to reach the front line, the ceasefire did not come into force until 11am. On that last morning, nearly three thousand men on all sides lost their lives.
Ashridge has been an embracing location for military activity since the turn of the 19th century when William Buckingham the Estate Bailiff volunteered as a corporal in the Ashridge Troop of Cavalry. In March 1860 the Ashridge Volunteer Rifle Corps was formed with a dedicated firing range on Berkhamsted common – the range extended to nine hundred yards and the butts can still be seen today.
The Inns of Court Officer Training Corps trained over twelve thousand men at Ashridge to serve as commissioned officers in the Great War. Colonel Errington writing in 1920 said: “The situation of our camp at Berkhamsted was ideal, pitched in the field on the north side of the station and sloping gently up to Berkhamsted Place. The Squadron, both men and horses, were in the Brewery. Lord Brownlow placed at our disposal his private waiting-room at the station and also a covered-in shelter, both of which were used for Quartermaster’s office and stores. The proximity of the station did away with all transport difficulties. On the west side, we had ample room for expansion, and on the east side another large field, subsequently given the name of “Kitchener’s Field”, made an admirable drill ground.  The surrounding country was the best imaginable for training, being so varied … To the north lay the big common, later intersected by some 13,000 yards of trenches, then Ashridge Park, undulating and beautifully timbered, placed entirely at our disposal by Lord Brownlow, and so away to the open downland of the Chiltern Hills. We went where we liked, and did what we liked. The big landowner, the small landowner, and the farmer were all equally ready to help. If there was any trouble, Major Mead at once got on his horse, rode over, and smoothed things out. As soon as we moved into billets the Rector, Mr Hart Davies, placed the Court House at our disposal for an Orderly Room …  Through the kindness of Lady Brownlow we were able to begin by using her hospital at Ashridge.” The reclaimed trenches can be seen south of the car park at TL002093.
The later and last invasion of the Estate took place in the Second World War when the American Army were billeted in Thunderdell Wood in preparation for the D Day landings in June 1944, and left their marks as graffiti on the trunks of the beech trees.