A massive thank you to our volunteers!

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MWN would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who attended our volunteer event at St Mary’s Churchyard on 2nd August. This goes out to those who were there on the day and also those who helped in other ways such as lending us equipment. This was the first stage in enacting the ecological management plan that has been drawn up for the site by Caring for God’s Acre.

A dozen organisations took part in some way inclusing Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT) #TeamWilder, Grahame Construction Ltd, ERYC, Molescroft Parish Council, St Mary’s Church, Beverley in Bloom, Beverley Urban Gardeners (BUG), Bleach Yard Stables, Beverley Minster Eco Church, Molescroft Grange Community Allotments and Beverley Wombles. Thank you for spreading the word about the event. 

Over 30 Volunteers came from all over Beverely and Molescroft and collected 2 trailer loads of arisings (vegetation left after ERYC cut). It was hard work, the networking was great fun. This was real community in action.

Molescroft Grange Community Allotments visit

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Molescroft Wildlife Network accepted a kind invitation from Molescroft Grange Community Allotments to visit their allotment site.

Molescroft Grange Community Allotments was set up on a four acre field on Molescroft Farm Estate that was too small for the large machinery used in modern arable farming. The allotments are managed by the not-for-profit arm of the main farm, Molesfarm Community Projects. This business also receives funding for transport to Open Farm School Days for disadvantaged children, and the initial startup funding came from the National Lottery’s “Awards for All” in 2012.

We discussed how the allotment community are working to improve biodiversity on the site, whilst keeping the allotments productive and showed an impressive wildflower meadow area, and a rapidly establishing pond ecosystem that was buzzing with inverterbrate activity. MWN members old and new had a fantastic walk around the allotments, and look forward to working with the Molescroft Grange Community Allotments in future.

A big thank you to the Smile Hull Vault

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Molescroft Wildlife Network, recently put on a Hedgehog Highway Event at the Molescoft Pavilion, Beverley. We invited every household in Molescroft through a leafletting campaign. On the day we had several stalls which included Molescroft Wildlife Network, Wolds Hedgehog Rescue, the National Hedgehog Monitoring Project, HEY Smile Foundation Green and Blue Social Prescribing, hedgehog hibernacula construction, a display of emperor moths and childrens activities.

Throughout the day we had short presentations which were very well attended. This was our first event and we were all delighted how it went. We received many positive comments. One hundred and fifty people attended the day which was amazing. It was encouraging to see lots a happy, enthusiastic people enjoying conversation about hedgehogs and nature.

However, this would not have been possible without the help of Smile Hull Vault. We were loaned two collection boxes and were able to raise £40. Alongside this two display boards and an easel to provide information about the Molescroft Wildlife Network were provided by the Smile Hull Vault, which were amazing for community engagement.

However the biggest impact was the loan of a large projection screen and projector for our very well attended programme of presentations from the groups that also had stalls at the event. These were high quality items loaned, and in excellent condition and there’s no way that as a small group with limited funding so we would have been able to deliver an event as well as we did without these loans from Smile Vault Hull. The Vault is easy to use and collectionand return of items is straightforward.

A big thank you to The Vault and we look forward to out next event 2025!

MWN recieve the Jubilee Award from MPC

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The Jubilee Award is a silver cup presented by Molescroft Parish Council to individuals or organisations that have made an outstanding contribution to our community. Only ten presentations have been made from 2000 toi 2023.

It is also referred to as the Millennium Cup because it coincided with the creation of the Millennium Park in 2000.

This made the presentation to Molescroft Wildlife Network particularly memorable because of our present work at Millennium Wildlife Haven.

MWN and Molescroft Grange Community Allotments

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Molescroft Wildlife Network met with representatives of Molescroft Grange Community Allotments.

Molescroft Grange Community Allotments were set with help from the Lottery’s “Awards for All” in 2012 by the not-for-profit arm of Molescroft Farm Estate, called Molesfarm Community Projects.

We had interesting and entertaining conversations and very much look forward to to working together in the future. 

#TeamWilder Empowerment Day at the Streetlife Museum

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We were invited to run a stall and to give a talk for this event run by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. It was a showcase for the communities supported by #TeamWilder, and an initiative to promote nature restoration in the region.

For us, it was a great opportunity to network and have fun. We made useful contacts, and our game, Guess the Invertebrate, challenged visitors to learn about some intriguing creatures among our declining insect population.

It was also a chance for us to publicly thank Andy and Jo at #TeamWilder for all their great support over the past two years.

Molescroft Hedgehog Highways Project Day

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We were delighted with the success of our event on the 6 th April at the Molescroft Pavilion. 150 people showed up supported by 20 volunteers. There were nine stalls and activities, and five talks. Several hedgehog winter nests were built by Grant and Andy with the help of visitors. We will use these on our sites and donate to local schools. Many new volunteers came forward to join our group.

Ann from The Wolds Hedgehog Rescue Centre was our key speaker, explaining how to care fo hedgehogs, and over £300 was made on their stall. Jo from #TeamWilder told us all about wildlife gardening, and one of our volunteers, Nigel, enchanted everyone with his magnificent home-reared Emperor moths. Lucy from NEYEDC (North East Yorkshire Ecological Data Centre) taught visitors how to use iNaturalist to record local wildlife, and plotted hedgehog sightings in Molescroft. Anthony from Smile Foundation Green and Blue Social Prescribing explained the role of nature in improving
everyone’s mental and physical health.

We are especially grateful to the Hey Smile Foundation and East Riding Council for their Communit Action Grant which made this event and our publicity leaflets possible. Thanks too to the team from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust who designed the leaflets and to the many volunteers who helped deliver these across Molescroft, including the Beverley Wombles.

A huge thankyou from us, to all our volunteers, speakers, and especially all of those who came to the event, we can’t wait to see you again for another event in 2025!

Contribute to our iNaturalist projects!

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MWN have set up a number of projects on iNaturalist to help us monitor biodiversity across the parish, and at some of our sites of special interest. If you are an iNaturalist user your observations in the area will automatically fall under these projects, but we’d welcome active participants to join the groups!