Weekley Hall Wood, Boughton Estate.

As a small group of like-minded naturalists, under the Save Weekley Hall Wood team banner, we venture out to record the flora and fauna of the area. We are, Wildling, Bushboy and Troglodyte, AKA Helen, Adam and Simon.

We’d been having a lot of success finding water bodies containing newts and were hoping to stumble upon the sight of a Great Crested or a Palmate newt, even. This would put a bit of a ‘spanner in the works’ for the Duke and his hideous warehouses!
We’d heard there was a 4×4 event being held soon across the wooded areas and had discussed the pros and cons of them ploughing through the water bodies,…we all had different opinions.
Ironically, the 4×4 vehicles had originally created most of the water bodies, now home to dragonfly nymphs, water beetles as well as the newts but I was sure they didn’t want 2 ton of steel on their heads with no notice whatsoever!

We ventured out a few days after the event and were devastated to see the areas all churned up but worse still, fuel had been spilt where the newts were living. We scratched our heads and discussed our possible action to help. In the meantime, we reported the spill to Boughton Estate, who sent a wishy-washy reply thanking us for reporting it. We also informed the Environmental Agency but unfortunately, whilst the newts were being subjected to contaminated water, all the relevant agencies lacked action.

Action!!!!

Bushboy then got onto our Whatsapp group, he’d devised an Operation Clean Up! In true A-Team style he’d engineered some squeegees and fixed Pot Noodle pots on long arms to collect the spilt diesel.

So we teamed up, headed out to the contaminated water bodies and set to work. We quickly realised Bushboy’s efficient engineering as we pulled the offending surface sludge together and removed it with our Pot Noodle pots.
After 5 minutes we could see the newts clearly once again then we moved off to the other areas affected and in very little time we made a difference for up to 20 little Amphibians that had been suffering because of some people’s thoughtless action.

This, was us, taking control and making a difference on land taken from local people in the 1607 enclosure of common land.
Look up the Midland Revolt and the Newton Rebellion where 50 locals were butchered for daring to oppose “the land owner” and fighting for what was taken from them.

We left with a spring in our step, knowing we’d made a difference as well as a connection with the creatures that live on the land. After all, who owns what, and, what does a piece of paper with a signature really mean anyway?

Wildling on a previous trespass before we discovered the spill.

Wildlife Not Warehouses!

Who’s Land? Our Land!

Whose Meadow? Our Meadow!

Save Weekley Hall Wood!

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Troglodyte and my staff.