News
 

PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS TO THE DONCASTER ROAD ENTRANCE

 

One of the projects funded from our Awards for All grant application in 2007 was for a landscape architect to develop a design study and detailed plans for an improved entrance to the site from Doncaster Road. The proposals were subsequently exhibited at the Forest Festival last summer and, more recently, at Southmead Library and the Customer Focus Point in Southmead Area Housing Office.

 

Feedback from these exhibitions has been favourable and various suggestions subsequently incorporated in the plans. The proposed plans can be seen by clicking on the links below:

 

Badocks Wood Entrance layout

 

Badocks Wood Entrance Sketch

 

Please feel free to add your comments by leaving a message on our ”FOBW Guestbook“ page.

 

In the near future, these plans will form the basis of an application for National Lottery funding through the Community Spaces awards scheme.


Interpretation Boards

 

Last year, FOBW was successful in obtaining Lottery funding of £10,000 through a Breathing Places Award. The majority of this funding was for the design, fabrication and installation of 3 interpretation boards. The design work has recently been completed and the boards are currently being fabricated. It is planned to install the boards in the near future and they will be located at the Lakewood Road entrance, the tumulus and the wildflower meadow.

Download Interpretation Board Design PDF

 

 

Planting Places Award 2009


In January this year, FOBW submitted a nomination to Sustainability South West for a ”Planting Places Award 2009“. The criteria for nominations covered any public greenspace in the South West of England and included everything from parks, community gardens and allotments to green routes (ie cycle paths), playing fields and even cemeteries and rooftops. Also, the greenspaces could be any size but they had to be free and accessible to the public and for public use and enjoyment.

 

Each nominated greenspace was entered for the ‘overall’ award and there were also specific awards to highlight best practice in the following individual categories: Community Engagement, Flood Risk Management, Biodiversity, Climate Change and Promoting Health & Well-being.

 

The overall winner was Penhill Orchard, Swindon and FOBW achieved a ”Highly Commended“ citation in the ”Promoting Health & Well-being“ section. The winner of the latter was St Neot Doorstep Green, Cornwall.

 

Full details of the Awards can be seen on the following link: http://www.sustainabilitysouthwest.org.uk/projects/planting_places/planting_places_awards/

 

The Certificate that FOBW received at an awards ceremony at the Architecture Centre in Bristol on 20 March 2009 is reproduced below:



 


New Local Nature Reserves for Bristol


Bristol Parks is delighted to announce that Badock's Wood, Eastwood Farm and Manor Woods Valley have all been newly designated as Local Nature Reserves. These beauty spots are all fantastic places to see wildlife in the city. With woodlands, rivers and meadows to enjoy, they are the perfect places to escape from the noise and commotion of urban life.

 

Local Nature Reserves are places that are important for both wildlife and people. There are over 1,000 Local Nature Reserves in England, all making a valuable contribution to the country's wildlife. The new designations in Bristol bring our total number of Local Nature Reserves to seven, with plans to extend the network in the future.

 

 

Sowing the seeds of the future

 

Children from Badock's Wood Primary School in Southmead sowed an incredible 15 millions seeds to create a new wildflower meadow at Badock's Wood in September. This is the second meadow to be sown at Badock's Wood, the first being created in 2005 with stunning results.  For two summers in a row the meadow has been a riot of colour, with over fifty types of plants delighting visitors to the nature reserve.

 

The Friends of Badock's Wood were keen to build on this success and funding for a second, larger, meadow was secured from Awards for All. We look forward to seeing the results next summer!

 


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Badocks Wood Officially Opens As Local Nature Reserve





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Forest Festival!

 

Over 550 people took part in a hugely successful Forest Festival event held at Badock's Wood Local Nature Reserve on Sunday 18th May. There was a fantastic range of activities available for all ages to enjoy including guided walks, woodcraft and art workshops, tree dressing, storytelling, river dipping, owl encounters, barbeque, demonstrations, information and much more! A key highlight of the event was an outdoor play performance by pupils from Badock's Wood Primary School.

 

The majority of participants at the Festival were from the local area and written feedback indicated that there is strong demand to run a similar event again in the future.  The festival was organised by the Forest of Avon, Bristol Parks (Nature in the City Project) and Friends of Badocks Wood in partnership with the Bristol and West Forest Education Initiative group who delivered the workshops and provided the funding.

 
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