East Keswick Art Show

Saturday and Sunday 18th and 19th November 10 – 4pm, East Keswick Village Hall

This year there will be a Wildlife picture section at the Village Art Show, along with other high quality paintings that will be for sale.

There will also be a children’s Wildlife drawing/painting competition, with all the materials provided.

Please come along and visit our stand and enjoy the art, tea and cake!

Hope to see you there.

Autumn Talk ‘Restoring a Walled Garden into a Community Garden’

Tuesday 28th November at East Keswick Village Hall, 7.30pm

Guest Speaker Andy Parkinson

Living Potential Care Farm are restoring an 1850s walled garden and transforming it into a community garden, an asset for all to enjoy. The aim is to start selling fresh organically grown fruit and vegetables by Summer 2024. Andy, the Head Grower, will give a talk on the site’s history and plans for the future.

All are very welcome

Bardsey Small Mammal Survey

This weekend we were joined by Ann and Robert from the Yorkshire Mammal Group to lay 50 humane mammal traps in Bardsey Field. We laid the traps on Saturday afternoon, making sure that any mammals caught had a cosy bed for the night and plenty of food. We then returned on Sunday morning to empty the traps, record and weigh the mammals and then release them safely. The weather was glorious and the event was very well attended. It was lovely to see the children lay the traps and then return the following day, remembering exactly where they were and so excited to see what was inside.

We recorded 1 common shrew, 1 field vole, 1 bank vole and 18 wood mice.

What is it going to be?
Ann weighing one of the mammals
A Wood mouse

Family Event at Bardsey Fields

We hope you can join us on Saturday 21st October at 4pm when we will meet the Yorkshire Mammal Group to put out 50-100 humane mammal traps. We will then meet again at 9.30am on Sunday 22nd to record, weigh and release them. We will be meeting outside Bardsey School on Woodacre Lane.

This event is suitable for all ages to attend one or both sessions – a great family event. Please bring stout footwear/wellies as the long grass will be wet. If you would like any more information, please email info@ekwt.org.uk

Bardsey Green Fair

East Keswick Wildlife Trust will be at the Green Fair on Saturday 9th September in Bardsey Churchyard from 1-4pm. Come along to learn about our local nature reserves and have your say on the newly acquired Bardsey Fields.

The Yorkshire Dales River Trust is loaning their table-top Sustainable Drainage Village for children to mimic rainfall and see where it goes!

We hope you can come along and help bring our communities together. There is a very varied programme of eco activities, stalls and refreshments.

Creating links with the Village Hall

The Wildlife Trust is excited to hear that East Keswick Village Hall’s offer for the Illingworth Field, which lies directly behind the Village Hall’s garden, has been accepted.

The Village Hall has our full support in acquiring the Illingworth Field. We believe it will contribute to protecting, improving and extending existing local multifunctional green corridors. It will enable an increase in connectivity to the existing local habitat network, including the Ellikers nature reserve to the north of Illingworth Field, and offer the potential for wider links around the parish and beyond.

East Keswick Wildlife Trust is committed to working with the Village Hall to preserve this green space and create opportunities for the local community and visitors to learn and play a central role in working with nature to address the causes and consequences of climate change.

Peter Guildford and David Wort from the Village Hall committee meet David Smith, Chairman of East Keswick Wildlife Trust, to discuss plans to improve biodiversity on the land behind the Village Hall.

A Great Family Day!

Last Sunday we enjoyed another great family day and even managed to avoid the storms! We had lots of activities and of course tasty pizzas.

All hands on deck to help load the 2 charcoal kilns
Debbie with her tawny owl explains the
importance of feathers
Paul emptying and identifying moths from his overnight trapping session
Fish and line willow weaving with Jinny
Izzy wizzy let’s get busy with frothy potions
Pizzas all round!

Many thanks to everyone who came and made the afternoon such a success

Family Day – Sunday 9th July

We will be holding our annual family day on Sunday 9th July from 2-4pm at the charcoal burn area in Oxclose Wood.

This year we won’t have the kilns lit, but will be loading them ready to burn – something that children love being involved with. We would recommend bringing gloves to protect your hands. It is a great opportunity to learn about the charcoal burns too, but without the smoke!

The pizza oven will be fired up and we will provide the dough. If you can bring tomato sauce and toppings that would be great. We won’t be able to provide seating, so please feel free to bring rugs or chairs.

There will be lots of fun for the children including willow weaving, scavenger hunt and drawing. Our Trust moth expert will have traps to show the children the variety of moths that live in the woods. There will also be the opportunity to learn more about the Trust, with talks on charcoal burns and how the woodland is managed.

This event is free for members or a minimum donation of £5 for non members.

We need to know numbers, to enable us to plan activities and prepare the right quantity of pizza dough. If you could let us know if you are coming and how many of you there will be, by Thursday 6th July that would be helpful. We are limited to the number of pizzas we can cook in the time available, so please book early to avoid disappointment. Please reply to thomasin@ekwt.org.uk, we hope to see you there!