Cold Aston Nurture Nature
Cold Aston is a wonderful place for nature, with rare and special things. We are blessed to have some important and special kinds of habitats on our doorstep. Out and about in the local countryside, if you look closely, you can see wildflowers, veteran trees, hedgerows and lots of creatures. However, as many of these species are in serious decline, some Cold Aston residents set up the Nurture Nature group to improve the local environment to help reverse this decline by looking at opportunities to provide habitats and resources for our local flora and fauna.
We look for opportunities to help our local nature to flourish in our gardens, fields, roadsides and footpaths. Members are also happy to share their expertise. Along the roads in the parish we have identified verges that merit special conservation through enrichment planting and special management. Already the number of wild flowers is increasing and other parishes are following suit. Also, a bulb and wildflower lawn is being developed in the village. To get involved, seek advice or help, please call Diana on 01451 820274.
Please contact the group (using the "contact us" at the bottom of this page) to share your plans for wildlife, including photos and videos of wildlife, and the facilities which you provide in your own garden - we will post them on this page!
A meadow in midsummer is one of our most iconic, but now rare, wildlife spectacles, providing a wealth of life, colour, scent and sound. A healthy wildflower meadow can play home to a riot of diversity and could support over 700 wild flowers and over 1000 species of insects. There is so much we can do to create small areas of meadow in our gardens and on our local verges or plots of land. They are not only brilliant for local wildlife, but they provide us with ever changing beauty to enjoy throughout the summer months.
On this page you will find information, images, contributions and ideas on how to improve the conservation and nurturing of flaura and fauna in your part of the village. It is quite easy to make a start in your own garden, even on a small area, and lots of things you can do to encourage wildlife. Local farmers are also providing habitat areas for wildlife.
Currently, in the public areas of the village, there are four areas where consideration is given to nature:
- the verge between the footpath and the wall outside The Old Vicarage
- the verge beyond Elm Bank Barn
- beside the stream outside Spring Cottage
- the verge opposite The Old Roost on the lane towards Northleach
There is always more we can do to provide habitats for many species of flora and fauna. If you would like to add to this page with your ideas, or nature projects you have started in your own garden or plot of land, please use the contact form below. Thank you.
We look for opportunities to help our local nature to flourish in our gardens, fields, roadsides and footpaths. Members are also happy to share their expertise. Along the roads in the parish we have identified verges that merit special conservation through enrichment planting and special management. Already the number of wild flowers is increasing and other parishes are following suit. Also, a bulb and wildflower lawn is being developed in the village. To get involved, seek advice or help, please call Diana on 01451 820274.
Please contact the group (using the "contact us" at the bottom of this page) to share your plans for wildlife, including photos and videos of wildlife, and the facilities which you provide in your own garden - we will post them on this page!
A meadow in midsummer is one of our most iconic, but now rare, wildlife spectacles, providing a wealth of life, colour, scent and sound. A healthy wildflower meadow can play home to a riot of diversity and could support over 700 wild flowers and over 1000 species of insects. There is so much we can do to create small areas of meadow in our gardens and on our local verges or plots of land. They are not only brilliant for local wildlife, but they provide us with ever changing beauty to enjoy throughout the summer months.
On this page you will find information, images, contributions and ideas on how to improve the conservation and nurturing of flaura and fauna in your part of the village. It is quite easy to make a start in your own garden, even on a small area, and lots of things you can do to encourage wildlife. Local farmers are also providing habitat areas for wildlife.
Currently, in the public areas of the village, there are four areas where consideration is given to nature:
- the verge between the footpath and the wall outside The Old Vicarage
- the verge beyond Elm Bank Barn
- beside the stream outside Spring Cottage
- the verge opposite The Old Roost on the lane towards Northleach
There is always more we can do to provide habitats for many species of flora and fauna. If you would like to add to this page with your ideas, or nature projects you have started in your own garden or plot of land, please use the contact form below. Thank you.
The Dark Green Fritillary
Butterflies – the dark green fritillary
If you catch a glimpse of a large, bronze-brown butterfly flying in sunshine along the footpath to Farmington, beyond the old Dutch barn, you have almost certainly just seen a dark green fritillary. A powerful flyer, it settles to gather nectar from purple flowers such as hardheads and greater knapweed, common in the conservation verges bordering the path. Although it is very active in warm weather, not settling anywhere for long, on cooler days it becomes torpid and can even be handled, when the intricate patterns on the upper wing surfaces and the green smudges on the underside of the hind wings that give this beauty its name can be appreciated to the full. Many of our local butterflies live entirely in one habitat. For example, caterpillars of the brown family such as the ringlet and gatekeeper feed on grasses and the adults visit the summertime flowers of grassland. But caterpillars of the dark green fritillary feed on violets such as the common dog`s violet - a plant of hedgerow bases and the woodland edge - and the adults feed on the nectar of grassland flowers. All this means that the dark green fritillary depends on wildflowers, not just in one, but in two habitats, and needs mixed farmland in order to thrive. Jo Kirby, 26/7/22
If you catch a glimpse of a large, bronze-brown butterfly flying in sunshine along the footpath to Farmington, beyond the old Dutch barn, you have almost certainly just seen a dark green fritillary. A powerful flyer, it settles to gather nectar from purple flowers such as hardheads and greater knapweed, common in the conservation verges bordering the path. Although it is very active in warm weather, not settling anywhere for long, on cooler days it becomes torpid and can even be handled, when the intricate patterns on the upper wing surfaces and the green smudges on the underside of the hind wings that give this beauty its name can be appreciated to the full. Many of our local butterflies live entirely in one habitat. For example, caterpillars of the brown family such as the ringlet and gatekeeper feed on grasses and the adults visit the summertime flowers of grassland. But caterpillars of the dark green fritillary feed on violets such as the common dog`s violet - a plant of hedgerow bases and the woodland edge - and the adults feed on the nectar of grassland flowers. All this means that the dark green fritillary depends on wildflowers, not just in one, but in two habitats, and needs mixed farmland in order to thrive. Jo Kirby, 26/7/22
The generational amnesia of Gloucestershire's flora
Isabella Tree, in her book Wilding: The return of nature to a British farm, writes plangently of the declines in our wildlife that pass us by, unnoticed, as a consequence of a little known but important phenomenon blessed with the unlovely name of shifting baseline syndrome. The phrase describes how long-term changes in our wildlife are missed because scientists habitually take as their starting point the situation they find at the beginning of their careers, and work from there. It was coined in fisheries science but a wider term, generational amnesia, has been used in ecology for many years to describe how each new generation redefines `normality` on the basis of their early experience and ignores – or at least fails to take into account - the experience of earlier generations.
Generational amnesia pops up everywhere in wildlife studies. By way of a small example, one of the grandchildren recently mentioned to me how much she liked red campion, but then went on to say that it was not very common and she hoped that it could survive. Fifty years ago, at her age, I saw red campion everywhere. To her, it is an uncommon plant to be saved; to me, it is a formerly ubiquitous wildflower that has undergone a precipitous decline.
The field naturalists of old, usually punctilious parson-naturalists or gentleman scientists, often compiled enormous bodies of information that we can use today to pinpoint the effects of generational amnesia. One such parson-naturalist was the Reverend Harry Joseph Riddlesdell (1866-1941) who in 1908 took on the epic task of compiling the Flora of Gloucestershire. His work was more or less done by the start of the Second World War but Riddlesdell himself died in 1941 and the Flora had to wait until 1948 for publication. This work, a classic of British botany, gives us a picture of the wildflowers of Gloucestershire immediately before the agricultural intensification of wartime, the coming of the age of pesticides and the 1947 Agriculture Act; more than that, it gives the county its own unique baseline.
In Riddlesdell`s Flora, we discover that the beautiful pasque flower, now a national rarity, once grew in our parish at Gilbert`s Grave by the Fosse Way as did the bastard toadflax, now extinct in the county. Without Riddlesdell, how would we have known? The Flora also allows us to see how even formerly common plants have declined. Meadow cranesbill, considered by many to be the iconic wildflower of the Cotswolds, was abundant in Riddlesdell`s time; `many of the roads are bordered for miles by large quantities of this beautiful species`. Today, it is infrequent in the parish.
The good news is that it probably won`t be for much longer because the change to the county council`s verge-mowing regime from twice a year, in May or June and again in the autumn, to a single late autumn cut (excepting areas where road safety is an issue) will help meadow cranesbill enormously. The earlier cut always set it back before it could flower and although it was able to regrow and produce a little blossom in early autumn, seed could be set only if the weather was mild and even then the second cut would often intervene.
Given its head, meadow cranesbill is highly competitive. Seed germinates easily amongst grass and the foliage forms a thick cover, suppressing other species. Plants are long-lived and blossom profusely, producing five seeds per flower. Ripe seed is dispersed explosively, by a sprung lever and trigger system exactly the same as that employed by the Romans in their siege engine the ballista, and is thrown about two metres. Unsurprisingly, that is exactly the rate at which meadow cranesbill spreads through the countryside except along roads where muddy tyres and vehicle slipstreams hurry it along. As well as adding great beauty to our parish, this species may even help the county council in its perennial battle against roadside vegetation; its thick cover could suppress weedy species and may even help to control the verge cutter`s curse, false oat grass. The county council has set up experimental verges to investigate new methods of vegetation management.
By Jolyon Kirby
Generational amnesia pops up everywhere in wildlife studies. By way of a small example, one of the grandchildren recently mentioned to me how much she liked red campion, but then went on to say that it was not very common and she hoped that it could survive. Fifty years ago, at her age, I saw red campion everywhere. To her, it is an uncommon plant to be saved; to me, it is a formerly ubiquitous wildflower that has undergone a precipitous decline.
The field naturalists of old, usually punctilious parson-naturalists or gentleman scientists, often compiled enormous bodies of information that we can use today to pinpoint the effects of generational amnesia. One such parson-naturalist was the Reverend Harry Joseph Riddlesdell (1866-1941) who in 1908 took on the epic task of compiling the Flora of Gloucestershire. His work was more or less done by the start of the Second World War but Riddlesdell himself died in 1941 and the Flora had to wait until 1948 for publication. This work, a classic of British botany, gives us a picture of the wildflowers of Gloucestershire immediately before the agricultural intensification of wartime, the coming of the age of pesticides and the 1947 Agriculture Act; more than that, it gives the county its own unique baseline.
In Riddlesdell`s Flora, we discover that the beautiful pasque flower, now a national rarity, once grew in our parish at Gilbert`s Grave by the Fosse Way as did the bastard toadflax, now extinct in the county. Without Riddlesdell, how would we have known? The Flora also allows us to see how even formerly common plants have declined. Meadow cranesbill, considered by many to be the iconic wildflower of the Cotswolds, was abundant in Riddlesdell`s time; `many of the roads are bordered for miles by large quantities of this beautiful species`. Today, it is infrequent in the parish.
The good news is that it probably won`t be for much longer because the change to the county council`s verge-mowing regime from twice a year, in May or June and again in the autumn, to a single late autumn cut (excepting areas where road safety is an issue) will help meadow cranesbill enormously. The earlier cut always set it back before it could flower and although it was able to regrow and produce a little blossom in early autumn, seed could be set only if the weather was mild and even then the second cut would often intervene.
Given its head, meadow cranesbill is highly competitive. Seed germinates easily amongst grass and the foliage forms a thick cover, suppressing other species. Plants are long-lived and blossom profusely, producing five seeds per flower. Ripe seed is dispersed explosively, by a sprung lever and trigger system exactly the same as that employed by the Romans in their siege engine the ballista, and is thrown about two metres. Unsurprisingly, that is exactly the rate at which meadow cranesbill spreads through the countryside except along roads where muddy tyres and vehicle slipstreams hurry it along. As well as adding great beauty to our parish, this species may even help the county council in its perennial battle against roadside vegetation; its thick cover could suppress weedy species and may even help to control the verge cutter`s curse, false oat grass. The county council has set up experimental verges to investigate new methods of vegetation management.
By Jolyon Kirby
Restoring Wild Flowers on a Roadside Verge (courtesy of Jo Kirby)
Those who say we should have more wildflowers in the countryside are often, or even usually, dismissed as the worst kind of woolly green, but there is an enormous body of hard, scientific evidence to show that wildflowers play a vital role in the health of our
environment. They provide the energy-giving nectar and protein-rich pollen that enable many insects to lay eggs and complete their life cycle. The boost to diversity helps to generate the structural complexity and resilience which promotes environmental stability,
and Lord knows we could all do with a bit more of that right now. Local farmers have begun to do their bit. The areas given over to wildlife on farms is rising - from around 3% to 8% - as a result of the 2016 Pywell report from the Centre for Ecology
and Hydrology. With the higher figure, crop yields are higher, more than compensating for the loss of productive acreage, and the diversity and abundance of wildlife increases too. It`s a win-win for both farmer and wildlife, and local farmer and TV personality Adam Henson has announced on Countryfile that he has adopted the 8% figure.
Some local authorities have a bit of catching up to do. Although the management of roadside verges for wildlife is a popular idea among conservationists and it is acknowledged nationally that roadside verges are important habitats, the number of verges in
Gloucestershire that are actively managed for the benefit of wildlife remains disappointingly tiny, and especially so when weighed against the total mileage of verges in the county. Dorset County Council has, for example, developed wildflower verges along the Weymouth by-pass and saved hundreds of thousands of pounds in the process. Starting in 2008, we began to encourage wildflowers on one small section of roadside verge in the village, with the permission of the parish council. Importantly, we kept back half, to be mowed as usual by the contractor, as a `control` so that we could see what effect our change of management would have. The `trial` half was cut by hand once a year at the traditional time for meadows of late July/August to allow seed set. Cuttings were left on the ground for a week before removal, to allow seed to be shed, and then composted elsewhere. Early progress was painfully slow, `accidental` cuts were – and still are - a regular occurrence, but with time more and more wildflowers have appeared. To help things along, we sowed the hemiparasite yellow rattle which has thrived ever since. Astonishing differences between the verge and the mown control became apparent early on and have persisted. On June 1st the restored verge peaked at nearly 38,000 flowers from 18 species of wildflower compared with a peak on July 20th of 99 flowers from just 4 species for the control. Expressed in terms of the number of flowers per unit area, 850 flowers per square metre compared with about 2 psm on the control area - a 400-fold difference. Carder bees, solitary bees and honey bees are now a frequent sight over the wildflower verge, as are ringlet, meadow brown and large skipper butterflies, and these are just the insects we can see.
environment. They provide the energy-giving nectar and protein-rich pollen that enable many insects to lay eggs and complete their life cycle. The boost to diversity helps to generate the structural complexity and resilience which promotes environmental stability,
and Lord knows we could all do with a bit more of that right now. Local farmers have begun to do their bit. The areas given over to wildlife on farms is rising - from around 3% to 8% - as a result of the 2016 Pywell report from the Centre for Ecology
and Hydrology. With the higher figure, crop yields are higher, more than compensating for the loss of productive acreage, and the diversity and abundance of wildlife increases too. It`s a win-win for both farmer and wildlife, and local farmer and TV personality Adam Henson has announced on Countryfile that he has adopted the 8% figure.
Some local authorities have a bit of catching up to do. Although the management of roadside verges for wildlife is a popular idea among conservationists and it is acknowledged nationally that roadside verges are important habitats, the number of verges in
Gloucestershire that are actively managed for the benefit of wildlife remains disappointingly tiny, and especially so when weighed against the total mileage of verges in the county. Dorset County Council has, for example, developed wildflower verges along the Weymouth by-pass and saved hundreds of thousands of pounds in the process. Starting in 2008, we began to encourage wildflowers on one small section of roadside verge in the village, with the permission of the parish council. Importantly, we kept back half, to be mowed as usual by the contractor, as a `control` so that we could see what effect our change of management would have. The `trial` half was cut by hand once a year at the traditional time for meadows of late July/August to allow seed set. Cuttings were left on the ground for a week before removal, to allow seed to be shed, and then composted elsewhere. Early progress was painfully slow, `accidental` cuts were – and still are - a regular occurrence, but with time more and more wildflowers have appeared. To help things along, we sowed the hemiparasite yellow rattle which has thrived ever since. Astonishing differences between the verge and the mown control became apparent early on and have persisted. On June 1st the restored verge peaked at nearly 38,000 flowers from 18 species of wildflower compared with a peak on July 20th of 99 flowers from just 4 species for the control. Expressed in terms of the number of flowers per unit area, 850 flowers per square metre compared with about 2 psm on the control area - a 400-fold difference. Carder bees, solitary bees and honey bees are now a frequent sight over the wildflower verge, as are ringlet, meadow brown and large skipper butterflies, and these are just the insects we can see.
The Wild Daffodil (courtesy of Jo Kirby)
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o`er vale and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils…
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
William Wordsworth
And the daffodils! I get nauseated with every village being awash with yellow.
Wild and scattered is one thing, but these regimented rows…
Joanna Trollope
Whatever happened to the wild daffodil?
Richard Mabey
Our only species of wild daffodil is now a rare plant across great stretches of England and Wales but
in the late sixteenth century it grew 'almost everywhere through England' according to John Gerard and grew in profusion in the meadows around London. It was common or abundant until the
Victorian age, when it slipped into a rapid and mysterious decline to become the plant that people
today make pilgrimages to see.
I may have helped a little in its decline; as boys we gathered armfuls to sell for a tanner a bunch. We
told ourselves that picking them didn't matter because the bulb was unharmed, but we know better
today - a clump of wild daffs lives for only 10-15 years and seed production is vital to the species'
long-term survival.
A few lonely clusters survive hereabouts, on grassy banks in Caudle Green, in the churchyard at
Eastleach St Martin and dotted about on stream-sides in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. In Cold Aston
parish, one farmer reports a few on his land and some daffodils, looking very close to the wild type,
appear every year in a tiny patch of secondary woodland by the path to Farmington.
And here lies another problem for our daffodil: cross-pollination with cultivated daffs and hybridisation. We can't know if the remnants left in our parish are the true species. In 2010, a hundred bulbs of perfect provenance were collected (with the owner`s consent) from an SSSI in the Forest of Dean and planted on the roadside verge by the Town Well outside Spring Cottage. The following spring, 63 emerged to produce 28 flowers. Since then, the clump has slowly expanded, mostly by seed, and this year (2022) 276 blooms and hundreds of seedlings have appeared. Last year, for the first time, the Nature Nurture Group felt that the clump was sufficiently well established for seed to be collected, and about 2,000 were harvested (a single ripe pod holds about 50 shiny black seeds) and scattered on another NNG project, the bulb lawn by the school. From now on, small quantities of seed should be available every year for anyone interested in re-establishing this beautiful, charming and classy species.
Jo Kirby
That floats on high o`er vale and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils…
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
William Wordsworth
And the daffodils! I get nauseated with every village being awash with yellow.
Wild and scattered is one thing, but these regimented rows…
Joanna Trollope
Whatever happened to the wild daffodil?
Richard Mabey
Our only species of wild daffodil is now a rare plant across great stretches of England and Wales but
in the late sixteenth century it grew 'almost everywhere through England' according to John Gerard and grew in profusion in the meadows around London. It was common or abundant until the
Victorian age, when it slipped into a rapid and mysterious decline to become the plant that people
today make pilgrimages to see.
I may have helped a little in its decline; as boys we gathered armfuls to sell for a tanner a bunch. We
told ourselves that picking them didn't matter because the bulb was unharmed, but we know better
today - a clump of wild daffs lives for only 10-15 years and seed production is vital to the species'
long-term survival.
A few lonely clusters survive hereabouts, on grassy banks in Caudle Green, in the churchyard at
Eastleach St Martin and dotted about on stream-sides in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. In Cold Aston
parish, one farmer reports a few on his land and some daffodils, looking very close to the wild type,
appear every year in a tiny patch of secondary woodland by the path to Farmington.
And here lies another problem for our daffodil: cross-pollination with cultivated daffs and hybridisation. We can't know if the remnants left in our parish are the true species. In 2010, a hundred bulbs of perfect provenance were collected (with the owner`s consent) from an SSSI in the Forest of Dean and planted on the roadside verge by the Town Well outside Spring Cottage. The following spring, 63 emerged to produce 28 flowers. Since then, the clump has slowly expanded, mostly by seed, and this year (2022) 276 blooms and hundreds of seedlings have appeared. Last year, for the first time, the Nature Nurture Group felt that the clump was sufficiently well established for seed to be collected, and about 2,000 were harvested (a single ripe pod holds about 50 shiny black seeds) and scattered on another NNG project, the bulb lawn by the school. From now on, small quantities of seed should be available every year for anyone interested in re-establishing this beautiful, charming and classy species.
Jo Kirby
Seedlings are hard to see: in their first growing season they look like chives (on the left), and in the second year become miniature versions of the adult (to the right). Bulbs take about four years to flower.
The wild daffodil has two yellows: a buttery trumpet with lemon petals that are twisted though a right angle towards their tips. Plant breeders, obsessed with the show bench, have removed the twist and increased petal thickness, producing symmetrical flowers with a less natural look.
The Village Well wild daffodils, now a mixture of large, old clumps and self-seeded singletons, fitting nicely into the landscape.
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust
WilderGlos Green Rewards Scheme
WilderGlos is all about taking action to reduce our impact
on the environment at individual and community levels.
We can all get involved in preserving and encouraging wildlife in our local environment. Gloucestershire Widlife Trust is promoting a scheme where points (and prizes!) are awarded to individuals and communities for the efforts we make to help wildlife. Points can be earned, for example, by going peat free, feeding birds, planting trees, growing herbs in pots, stopping the use of pesticides and starting your own nature reserve. You can also earn green points by pledging to change certain things in your life, for example, eating better quality, locally soiurced meat, by only taking four minutes to shower and buying and using eco-friendly products. The points you earn are allocated to you, the parish and the district - with league tables to show positions relative to other communities and individuals in Gloucestershire. It's easy to register here and you can find more information about the scheme here.
A few images from the Wildflower Lawn from 2021
Some of the plants to be seen in the Wildflower Lawn
Aconites
Bluebells, English native, Hyacinthoides non scripta
Chicory
Cow parsley
Cow slips
Cranesbill
Cream crocus, Chrys cream beauty
Daisy
Dandelion
Dock
Garlic Mustard
Geranium pyrenees
Ground Ivy,
Herb Robert
Ivy
Lesser Celandine
Marjoram
Nodding Star Of Bethlehem, Ornithogalum Nutans
Ox eye daisy
Purple crocus, Crocus de jager tommasinianus barrs
Red campion
Red dead nettle
Snakes head fritillary, Fritillaria meleagris
Snow drops
Speedwell
St John’s wort
Valerian officionale
Verbascum (mullein)
Violets (purple)
White crocus, Miss Vain, Chrys biflorus
White dead nettle
Wood anemones, Anemone nemorosa
Native daffodil seeds and yellow rattle seeds were scattered in 2021
Bluebells, English native, Hyacinthoides non scripta
Chicory
Cow parsley
Cow slips
Cranesbill
Cream crocus, Chrys cream beauty
Daisy
Dandelion
Dock
Garlic Mustard
Geranium pyrenees
Ground Ivy,
Herb Robert
Ivy
Lesser Celandine
Marjoram
Nodding Star Of Bethlehem, Ornithogalum Nutans
Ox eye daisy
Purple crocus, Crocus de jager tommasinianus barrs
Red campion
Red dead nettle
Snakes head fritillary, Fritillaria meleagris
Snow drops
Speedwell
St John’s wort
Valerian officionale
Verbascum (mullein)
Violets (purple)
White crocus, Miss Vain, Chrys biflorus
White dead nettle
Wood anemones, Anemone nemorosa
Native daffodil seeds and yellow rattle seeds were scattered in 2021
