Category: MWN in action

The History and Natural History of Molescroft Parish a walk led by Molescroft Wildlife Network

Our community group of volunteers was formed in 2022 with the aim of restoring nature and its heritage in the parish. The walk will look at some of the history and wildlife of the ancient parish of Molescroft, now a suburb of Beverley. Included in the walk are a disused railway line, a historic footpath, a 19th century graveyard, the sites of two medieval manor houses and wildlife corridors well loved by locals. 

Your guides will be Karyn and Helen. Start time: 3pm Meeting Point: Beverley Braves Club House, Molescroft Playing Field, Thurlow Avenue, Beverley. HU17 7QJ.

Booking is essential: via email please (between 1st and 12th September only) Molescroftwn@gmail.com

Cost: Free

Additional Information: Unpaved footpaths and may not be suitable for those with restricted manoeuvrability

For other walks in the series please see the guide!

Molescroft Wildlife Network is arranging a working party to clear the vegetation at St Mary’s Graveyard on Thurs 14 Aug after it has been cut by ERYC.

This enables native flowers to thrive. We will rake the arisings, wheelbarrow them to a flatbed truck, and they will be taken to a local compost heap.

If you would like to come along and help, please send us an email as soon as possible, or by Friday 8 Aug, to Molescroftwn@gmail.com. This is so that we know how many people are coming to be able to borrow enough equipment and get enough fruitcake in. 

A while ago, Karyn was interviewed for Country Life. The article has now appeared in press! “The life that thrives among the dead: How wildlife finds a home in the graveyards and churchyards of Britain”.

It’s a wonderful read, and it’s appeared online too, so see Karyn’s quote, and the work of MWN and our partners at St Mary’s Church, Caring for God’s Acre and the Parish Council in context!

https://www.countrylife.co.uk/nature/the-life-that-thrives-among-the-dead-how-wildlife-finds-a-home-in-the-graveyards-and-churchyards-of-britain

A few members of MWN got together on Saturday to work on Postbox Pocket Meadow. The plan for the day was to do a late cut on the grass, and clear away the debris, and particularly the leaves that have accumulated on the spot. These provide too much nourishment to the ground, and discourage the succession of the plants we’d like to see growing.

The mow went surprisingly well given the damp grass, and the area was very vigorously raked, with the intention of disturbing as much of the grass as we could, in order to the the next phase. Which was adding some of our saved and donated yellow rattle seeds over the area and tamping them down with some very coordinated stomping! It was also great to engage a number of dog walkers and passer’s by to tell them what exactly we were up to.

We were incredibly lucky with the weather, as it was dry on the day, and nice and wet the next, ensuring that the seed would get a great chance to bed in. Be sure to keep an eye out from March to see how the patch is going!

Molescroft Wildlife Network is pleased to announce that we had our first working group meeting with Molescroft Parish Council. We’ve been incredibly grateful to MPC for their support so far, and have enjoyed attending Parish Council meetings. This was the first opportunity we had to meet our new councillors and explain our goals around the Parish. It was an incredibly productive meeting and we look forward to many more to come!

Left to right: Cllr Adrian Costello, Steve Parkin (MWN), Cllr Mac Fleming, Angie Norman (MWN), Cllr Elaine Aird, Sharon Stone (MWN), Cllr Pam Lockyer

We are incredibly grateful to the Beverley Area Community Trust for a grant awarded to Molescroft Wildlife Network.

The Beverly Area Community Trust is funded through the use of clothing collection bins (the one in the car park at Molescroft Pavillions is one of these!), fundraising events and collection buckets, and provides small grant’s to local groups and organisations within the Beverley Area. (Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire) covering Beverley, Molescroft and Woodmansey.

We will be using the grant to procure more equipment and materials for running wildlife focused events.

Below: Steve, Sharon, Karyn and Sheila from MWN receive the award from Cllr Elaine Aird

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 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.