Save the Date – Bisley Chestergate Allotments 2026 BioBLITZ
Saturday 15th August – more details to follow
A message from Julian Arthur
3rd June 2026; 7.30 – 9.00 – Update on Funding for Land Management
- A re-cap of funding opportunities for land management and the current status of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), and how it works
- Had a Habimap survey? – what to do next
- Advice for different habitat management options (grassland, hedgerows, herbal lees, etc)
- Answers to other questions that came out of the questionnaire
8th June 2026; 6.30 – 8.00 – Get to know your grasslands: introduction to grassland botany
2026 March – Tree Planting at King George V Recreation Ground, Bisley
On Monday 23rd March, Councillor Lesley Greene was joined at the KGV recreation ground by pupils and a teacher from Thomas Keble School, to plant hawthorn, silver birch and hazel whips, with some crab apple trees; they were given excellent support by Eddie Butler, Eastcombe allotment warden.
Thank you to James Whitestone for the close-up photographs
2026 March – Meeting notes
Please see the meeting notes from the March meeting at The Lamb Inn
2025 July – August moth survey on the LNAP site; ref Chestergate Allotments.
Please see the Bisley Moth Survey Results here. This is the fourth year of moth surveying, so an excellent database is now developing. The records have been sent to the County Recorder. We would like to give our very grateful thanks to Tony Perry, and to this years allotment holders Rob and Elena Davies who have joined Tony on the trapping surveys. (No moths were harmed during these surveys)
Species Rich Grassland Visit to Far Oakridge Land of Roger Budgeon (June 25)
(Photo of glow worm courtesy of Kirsty Budgeon)
Summary of main points:
• SFI and the future – while it is currently paused, Government has committed to continued funding. Likely to re-start early next year.
• We talked about grassland payments predominantly. For species rich grassland the payment is £650 + £150 if hay cut, so £800/ha. There is a lower restoration payment if your grassland is not of that quality, but could be restorable, informed by soils and botany data. Low input grassland payments are £151/ha. These SFI rates are not likely to decrease.
• To obtain SFI you need some baseline data on your existing habitats. You can get this FOR FREE via Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. See details for Holly below, or ask Katy Craine (CC’d) or me for help.
• We are currently at the best time for assessing habitats but this window is closing soon (end July). So, if you are even slightly interested in SFI, it makes sense to ORGANISE A SURVEY NOW to take advantage of SFI when it reopens early next year. Otherwise you will be looking at towards end of next year.
• Tim from GWT can assist with SFI application, if needed – very kind of him!
• If we can share our experiences and collaborate we can help each other with applications
• Management – Roger shared how he has managed his land the same way since 1997. Hay cut in late July followed by cattle grazing (small numbers) in Oct – Jan. We discussed how finding a grazier and someone interested in hay cuts of small sites is a challenge. There is scope to share contacts and resources via this group, again, to help each other
Many thanks to Julian Arthur
And to Roger and Tim Bevan GWT
2025 April – Notes from a Local Meeting with members of the farming community and LNAP members from a neighbouring parish
A meeting was organised by Bisley LNAP members Julian Arther (Eastcombe) and Katy Craine (Oakridge), with some Chalford LNAP members, to meet with a representative group of famers and and landowners in Bisley and Chalford to discuss ELMS and also available farming nature grants. This took place on 30th April 2025.
Roger Budgeon attended in the absence of Lesley Greene and Martin Brown. Below are links to documents from that evening:
The history of the ELMS system – Rise Of ELMS
Notes from the evening’s talk – Landowner Info Evening Final 30.04.2025
Maps of the LNAP area – LNAP 29.04.2025
Appreciative thanks to Julian for driving this meeting and Katy for her mapping work.
Notes from the January LNAP Meeting LNAP Meeting 23 01 25
Waterlane Community Orchard – tree planting event on 17th November
On a lovely sunny Sunday in November, a band of local residents and Councillors held the first planting party from 11am – 3pm. Earlier this year, Kim Barber (Allotment Warden) and her team secured donations for hedgerow and fruit trees. The hedgerow has been supplied by the Woodland Trust and numbered 420 plants, all of which were planted on the Sunday. The volunteers were even provided with soup and a bbq lunch.
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The November LNAP meeting took place on 11th November; notes from the meeting can be found here: LNAP November 2024
Amongst the items discussed was the success of the installation of swift boxes at Thomas Keble (left) in the new building extension. Thanks to the pupils of Thomas Keble & Kier Construction for their support.
Bisley BioBLITZ
The Bisley BioBLITZ took place on Saturday August 10th at the annual Allotment get together where Biodiversity was the allotment theme. To the delight of Megan Amadou of GWT and the other attendees, circa 60 people attended over the day from 8.30am to 9.30pm. The survey results have now been formally compiled, and a full verification report can be found here Bisley BioBlitz Complete Records Report. Some rough numbers were 30+ moth species (including a rare one) , 50+ other invertebrates, 20+ birds (including a peregrine and a hobby), several dozen wildflowers, and 3 – 4 different bat species, as well as the beginning of some dormouse research.
To see details of all of the species recorded on the day, please look at this excellent document Species recorded which also contains some more lovely photographs.
The Community Orchard Information board was officially opened too – lots of tea and cakes and thanks to the Parish and County for their financial support. Saturday was chilly-ish to start then beautiful by the evening. The following photos were taken on the day:
| 1. The bird survey when we saw a peregrine falcon | 2. The “Sweeping” workshop – sweeping the meadow grasses for invertebrates | 3. and 4. The “award” to one of our Eco Warriors; her name is Wren. she in her last year from Oakridge School, given a bottle of Days Orchard Organic Elderflower Cordial at the finale of the talk and animated discussion on Local Nature Action Plans by Rebecca Charley Strategic Lead for Nature Recovery and Biodiversity Stroud District Council | 5. The Community Orchard unveiling by Clare Garrett, one of the CO’s original volunteers and stalwarts |
Every Garden Matters – read this fascinating article on how even the smallest garden can make a difference to the local biodiversity Every Garden Matters Report
PROGRESS July 1st 2024!
- Thanks to Caroline, find us on Instagram@bisleybioboost. If you have any local sightings/ photos or nature related info you can send to Caroline at this email bisleybioboost@gmail.com.
- A handy easy to see one stop shop guide from West Midlands “Greener Together” to a Local Nature Action Plan from Julian A – YOU CAN DO IT! Top tips for increasing biodiversity
- Katy has been doing amazing work on our mapping from the data provided by the Magic website and OS looking at features that can be steered by the vision and LNAP objectives. These include
- Parish boundary
- Field boundaries, buildings, roads, tracks, paths
- Contours
- Water courses and standing water, water catchments and points of known pollution sources
- Broad habitat types with land use, and target notes regarding protected species sightings / known roosts etc. – using local knowledge, GWT data, UK Habitat Classification, aerial data and data collected and published online such as the NBN Atlas, iRecord and iNaturalist
- Reserves and designations
- Neighbouring habitat features of importance to connectivity – identified by GWT
- Habitat data (woodland, enclosures) from earliest OS maps
- Our June Wildflower survey on the Chestergate Allotments and Community Orchard has been completed: see report Wildflower Survey June 2024
- Thanks to the hard work of the Oakridge Parochial School Eco-Warriors, Oakridge School achieved its Eco-Schools Green Flag with merit award – CONGRATULATIONS!
- A third year of moth surveys on the Chestergate Allotments Bisley was disappointing – moth numbers are down all over the county we are told. However, a Triple Spotted Grass Miner was caught – there are very few records of this moth in Gloucestershire and none at all from 2023 – here is a snap of this beautiful creature
- Julian J has done three watercourse visits and will be reporting soon. He has also sourced a 1903 map that will help determine Bisley’s hydrological baseline
Meeting Notes