Greensand Trust Quarterly Report April to June 2025

Education

This quarter saw the education team, supported by our wonderful education volunteers, working with nearly 800 young people. We have been extremely busy and privileged to work with such a huge range of pupils from many different areas and deliver on such a variety of topics!

Riverbank Primary School returned for their annual visit to the Working Woodlands Centre and Maulden Wood, with year 1 pupils from Luton visiting to look for clues of animals who live in the wood and to learn about habitats.

As spring arrived, small select groups of students form Henlow Academy enjoyed wellbeing walks as an introduction to the Woods to build their confidence. Some of these pupils will go on to join us again for our WISE wood programme later in the year.

Working within schools, we returned to Southcott Lower in Leighton Buzzard with Year 3s as part of their rocks and soils topic delivering our ‘Sandtastic’ workshops and at Beaudesert Lower School we worked with the EYFS pupils in their classroom and school grounds, with the popular ‘Minibeast Gardens’ programme (pictured).

At Rushmere Country Park, we hosted visits from Glastonbury Thorn School with pupils from Milton Keynes, from Dundale School (Hertfordshire) and from three local schools Dovery, Clipstone Brook and Rushmere Park Academies returning for habitat adventures.

Heath and Reach Beaver Scouts also joined us in the park for a nature walk and will return to volunteer on site litter picking after the Sumer Fayre weekend to gain a badge.

On behalf of The Bedfordshire Swift Group, we delivered assemblies to raise awareness of this fascinating, but declining bird, in both Barton Lower School and Great Denham Primary.

We have been excited to host our first Guided Walk (Birds, Bingo and Binoculars) and first educational visits at Clophill Lakes Nature Reserve. We worked with every class in Clophill St Mary’s Lower, to introduce around 100 pupils to this wonderful reserve on their doorstep.

We have also been able to lead our first groups of Cubs (Barton Falcon Cubs) to the reserve for bird watching and bug hunting and have a number of others booked in and planned soon.

 

 

Partnerships & Development Projects 

A new interpretation panel for the Stockgrove Sundial has been installed thanks to our long-serving Countryside Ranger Bob Hook (right) and Greensand Trust volunteer Sheila Meekums (second left) and sponsors Holcim.

Representatives from Holcim, plus Ben Mayhew from Redfoot Design, joined us for a photocall to mark the occasion in May. 

The Sundial itself is almost as old as the Trust, having been installed at some point around 2000, and the original interpretation had faded and reached the end of its useful life. 

After several years of haranguing Development Director Jon Balaam, Bob’s efforts were rewarded – volunteer Sheila Meekums took the matter into her own hands and contacted Aggregate Industries (now Holcim), who had taken over the sponsors of the original panel, and her powers of persuasion worked right away! 

If you haven’t visited the Sundial Meadow and stood on the correct month-marker to become a ‘gnomon’ for the Sundial (that’s the technical term for the pointer!) you really should – it’s a tranquil, beautiful space not far from the Stockgrove Visitor Centre

Sites we maintain

Western SLA Sites

Linslade Wood:
- No official action days due to proactive warden efforts.
- Volunteer group installed benches and cleared woodland areas.
- Den building and fires becoming an emerging concern.

Knolls Wood:
- No tasks, but three site patrols were completed.

Studham Common:
- Three action days for bracken removal, hedge trimming, and scrub/ivy clearance.
- Damaged car park bin noted but still usable.

Tiddenfoot Waterside Park:
- Weekly patrols and occasional daily checks during heatwaves.
- One work party for path clearance; next event planned for June 25 (Canal Fest prep).
- Quarterly walkaround identified future winter projects.

Clipstone Brook:
- Three patrols to monitor watercourses and site infrastructure.

Heath Wood and Meadow:
- Three site visits; ongoing vandalism of 'no cycling' signs noted.

Riverside Walk:
- Annual Balsam pulling completed.
- Three routine site checks.

Rushmere:
- Heathland restoration across Lords Hill, Oak Wood, and Nightjar areas.
- Deer protection, dangerous tree removals, and play area maintenance.
- Picnic bench repairs carried out; replacements anticipated.

Rushmere Country Park

Parking tariffs and Annual Parking fees were increased from the beginning of April. The charges now stand at:

• Up to 20 min Free
• Up to 1 hour - £3.00
• 1 – 3 hours - £5.00
• Over 3 hours - £7.00
• Annual Standard - £77 / Annual Gift Aid £85

 

We successfully retained our Green Flag status pending a mystery shop later in the year. Congratulations to the team of staff and volunteers in maintaining our high standards.

Heron Watch wrapped up with 12 successful fledglings. There were around six nests that were predated by the Ravens. This annual occurrence was very well received as usual and our Heron Watch volunteers did a fantastic job of engaging with our visitors and recording the information.

Volunteering supported all areas of Rushmere Country Park including Visitor Services, Heron Watch, Conservation, monitoring, litter picking and many other things.

We held our Trust Summer Volunteer BBQ at Rushmere in June which was a great opportunity for the staff and management team to say a big thank you for all the hard work that our volunteer team do.

Volunteering

A busy quarter for the volunteers! As well as business as usual which includes weekly practical and conservation tasks in both the east and west regions, we came to the rather grisly end of Heron Watch ’25 and finalised our recruitment and training for the new Clophill site warden volunteers, of which there are over 30. The Clophill Lakes site wardens have performed a dual role, in completing site warden checks to assist the on-duty ranger, but equally important they also were an extremely effective ‘welcome team’ for the new site. Their positive engagement with members of the public has been extremely well received and helped to communicate the rules of the site to new visitors.

In April we hosted a volunteer ‘artist in residence’ for a month-long placement to make a fibre glass model of the Cainhoe site, which has already proved invaluable for interpretation activities. In June our grazing sheep arrived at Clophill, and three volunteers stepped forward to be sheep wardens also.

Two ‘walk ‘n’ talk’ events with our senior ecologists were held for volunteers across the trust, as well as our annual Summer BBQ, which attracted over 70 volunteers.

We hosted two out of our three work experience students for 2025 in June, across multiple departments, and helped a number of students achieve their volunteering section for Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award. Further to this we visited the Bedford College art department to brief their students on an interpretation project for Cainhoe Castle, providing valuable real-world experience. During this quarter we applied for and were successful in a funding bid to BLCF’s Whitbread fund for our Rushmere Volunteer Leadership and Engagement fund.

 

Greensand Country

May saw the return of the annual Greensand Country Festival: a celebration of the distinctive landscape and holding events and activities across the Greensand Ridge to encourage local communities to enjoy the outdoors. Local businesses and charities held a wide variety of events, from guided walks and craft activities to wellbeing activities. With the support of fantastic volunteers, we led 3 days of guided walk along the Greensand Ridge Walk, from Gamlingay to Leighton Buzzard.

Planning continues for the celebration of the Greensand Ridge Walk’s 40^th anniversary in 2026, working with local groups and organisations to celebrate Bedfordshire’s premier walking route.