This project encourages and supports community in relearning how to work, rest and play together, co-operatively with nature, for the great good.

Orchard Barn Environmental Education Community Interest Company (OBee CIC) Registration Number 6379982 - Wildfire Designs 2007 - Photographs by Richard Smithson

COMMUNITY COMMUNITY COMMUNITY

A Tour of Staverton

Jean Routledge (OBee CIC Company Secretary) writes: 'It was a lovely afternoon on Sunday June 7th when we gathered at Staverton Park, near Butley. Gary Battell, who has been associated with this park for many years, regaled us with its history – which is known to go back to the 12th century, with the earliest surviving map dating from 1600, and remaining privately owned to this day, with deer still roaming the woodland.

We then embarked on a tour of this ancient land, with its amazing oaks, which are variously between 200 and 1000 years old. There are a few silver birches, one as old as 120 years, and some holly, especially down in The Thicks, where the deer are kept out. But by and large all that can be seen in all directions are these wonderful old oaks, with their gnarled trunks, including ‘Nine Yard Oak’ which has marked a parish boundary for hundreds of years, the nine yard referring to its girth!

We also saw where birds had dropped the seeds of holly into an oak, with the holly growing in its trunk, and thus being protected from the sharp teeth of the deer, and a huge mass of honeysuckle swathing ancient boughs.

A truly magical experience in a park and woodland with echoes from many generations past.'

A BIG thank-you to Gary Battell for organising the visit and guiding the walk.

Return to Community Projects page