Tag: birds

Summer Wildlife

by Helen Bovillin General, Wildlife4 Comments on Summer Wildlife

Summer Wildlife: July

What a month of contrasts July has been, going from torrential downpours earlier in the month to a heatwave in the middle of it!

It’s a relief to start this month’s report with some good news – Hull City Council has apologised for the cutting of the grass verge alongside the cemetery in early June, stating it had been done by their operator in error.

They do appreciate the value of such Summer wildlife habitats and as a result they are going to designate the grass verge as a ‘’no mow’’ area.  This means they will only cut the grass and the plants at the back of it at the end of Summer or early in Autumn.  They are also going to set some wildflower seeds in the bare area, so next year we should see some additional plants growing there as well as the usual ones.

The grass has started to grow back now, and luckily there are plenty of flowers on the Brambles at the back of the verge – an important source of nectar for Bees and other pollinating insects.

Butterflies and insects

Another quiet month for butterflies, with just a few Speckled Woods and Large Whites around.  I also saw a Small Tortoiseshell, but the best sighting this month was a Red Admiral, which kept me company while I was working in the Quaker Burial Ground.

Red Admiral 2

Whenever you see a butterfly fluttering nearby it’s always worth holding your arm out to see if it lands on you – this is one of the species that will sometimes do this.  It remained on my hand for half an hour, presumably feeding on the minerals on my skin.  (Polite description of sweat, an unlimited food source for the butterfly that hot day).

This gave the other volunteers an opportunity to observe a butterfly up close, and to appreciate the need to plant and maintain shrubs and flowers that attract and sustain them.

There were lots of Ladybirds of varying sizes and colours around.  In many cases it is not easy to identify which species they are because some species have colour and spot number variations within that species.

There are around a dozen native UK species, three of which are yellow.  I thought I’d found one of those, but this one is a Harlequin.

Harlequin Ladybird

Birds

There are still plenty of fledglings or juveniles around.  But sometimes it is difficult to tell which are the young ones and which are the adults because at this time of the year the adults start the process of replacing their feathers.

This can sometimes give them a rather scruffy look compared with the smoother look of the juveniles.

Blue tits

It seems to have been a good year for Blue Tits and Great Tits, with many of the earlier fledglings no longer being reliant on their parents for food.

There are young Blackbirds, Robins and Chaffinches around and I was lucky to have the pleasure of observing a family of five newly-fledged Goldfinches being fed by both their parents.

Goldfinches

Juvenile goldfinches

Juvenile Goldfinches are easy to identify because of the yellow feathers in their wings.

The black, white and red feathers on their faces come later.  Both sexes are similar.

Goldfinch

A regular visitor to the cemetery showed me some footage he’d taken on his mobile phone of a female Mallard walking through the cemetery with some ducklings following behind her! I hope they made it safely to the nearest large body of water, which is in Pearson Park.

Mallards have been known to nest in some unusual places including balconies on high-rise flats.  They can then sometimes need human assistance to get them to safety.

Another bird I haven’t seen in the cemetery for a while is the Collared Dove, so I was pleased to see one this month.

collared dove

Flowers and other plants

The natural dying-off of the Cow Parsley and Hogweed has continued, and some Wild Carrot has now appeared.

When fully open it looks a bit like a shorter version of Cow Parsley, but it has some feathery leaves underneath the flower head.  The buds look a bit like Love-in-a-Mist buds.

Wild carrot

Not many plants are in flower at the moment.  There are the usual Buttercups, Daisies and Clover to see. There is now some Enchanter’s Nightshade, Broad-leaved Willow herb and Hedge Woundwort in flower.

Hedge Woundwort

Prior to the Stop Notice the volunteers had planted some species approved by the Council as being appropriate for the site in various places around the Cemetery.  The Foxgloves were doing well and had started to flower but some have been pulled up and others had their flower stems broken.  Why anyone would do this is beyond me.

The Stop Notice meant that the volunteers were not allowed to set any plants in the area we were hoping would become a butterfly meadow.

So rather than see them go to waste, we set the plants in two areas near the path behind Thoresby Street school.  These included Sunflowers, Cornflowers and other mixed wildflowers.  These spare areas of unused land are in a rather shady location but the Cornflowers are now flowering.

Cornflower and hoverfly

Mushrooms

It is sad to have to report that another beautiful specimen of a Dryad’s Saddle has been destroyed by someone.  At first large parts of it had been sliced off. A few days later the rest had been removed leaving no trace of it.  Vandalism?  Theft?  Either way this is very disheartening and disappointing, and there are no more large specimens left in the Cemetery now.

There are still a few smaller mushrooms around including these tiny Fairy Inkcaps.

fairy Inkcaps

Mammals

A regular visitor to the cemetery reported seeing a Hedgehog in there one evening. I know  one has also been seen in some of the adjoining gardens along Welbeck Street.  It would be nice to think that this increasingly scarce little animal might find a safe place to live and raise a family in the Cemetery.

One evening around sunset a group of volunteers met up to take part in a national Bat survey.  While we were waiting for the bats to emerge, we caught a brief glimpse of a Fox and two cubs in the distance.  We had two bat detecting devices with us, and we heard and saw a few Pipistrelles. The best sightings were just outside the boundary in Western Cemetery.

Conclusion

It has been a successful month for the birds of the Cemetery, with plenty of youngsters around the site.  But in Summer wildlife can be hard to spot; there are probably many other young birds and animals I didn’t manage to see.  The damage to plants and Fungi was disheartening, but the Butterflies continue to bring joy.

And after the heavy rains and high temperatures of the first half of the month, it ended with some much cooler and cloudy weather.

Let’s see what August has in store for all that call Hull General Cemetery home! Wonderful Wildlife

Next Month

by Pete Lowdenin Events, General, History, News, Volunteers, Wildlife

Hi,

Firstly, an apology. I was going to tell you the story this month of the very last board meeting of the Company and the extraordinary decision they had to make there.  This was to be the anniversary spot this month. Sadly, I’m a bit dense. It should have been last month because it happened in June 1972!!

However, people appeared to like last month’s anniversary item, so its swings and roundabouts. I promise I will write up that story for the future

Next month I’m going to be giving the bulk of the newsletter over to Bill and Helen mainly. Bill’s contributions are from Facebook and we’re attempting to archive them all on here so they can be found more easily. And preserved too. Helen I’m sure will show us more of the wildlife in the Cemetery and it’s changing faces every month.

I’ll finish off the story of Peter Hodsman’s sons. Both stonemason’s of the Cemetery Company. Stonemason of the Cemetery

By the time of the next newsletter we should be back to ‘normality’, whatever that term might mean now.

With that July 19th date in mind, who knows, we may be able to meet up with the powers that be and start asking some searching questions about what the Council want from us and vica versa. We’ll see.

 

Wonderful Wildlife

by Helen Bovillin General, News, Volunteers, Wildlife

Wonderful Wildlife

June

It is very disheartening to have to start a report with bad news.  At the start of June Hull City Council cut down the vast majority of the wildflowers growing in and behind the grass verge adjacent to the Cemetery on Spring Bank West.  An important resource for pollinating insects and in turn other wonderful wildlife has thus been lost, and in the middle of the bird nesting season too.

The Council has not at the time of writing this provided FOHGC with an explanation for their actions.  I also made my own complaint about the destruction in my capacity as a private individual.  The Council’s last email to me said they couldn’t respond yet ‘’due to the complexity of the issues involved’’.

I took the above photo just a few days before the destruction of this attractive and important wildlife resource.  The Council’s mowing also went back further than the grass verge and into the Cemetery itself.  This seems to be in direct conflict with the Stop Order the Council placed on the volunteers in April.

Birds

Now that the trees are in full leaf the birds are harder to see.  They can still be heard though – Chiffchaffs, Robins, Song Thrushes, Blackbirds, Chaffinches and many others’ songs filling the air as usual.  I once saw a report (I can’t remember where and therefore provide a link) that birds in urban areas sing up to 20% louder than their counterparts in the countryside.  This makes sense, as our birds have the traffic noise on Spring Bank West to contend with.

young blue tit

Some of the birds I did manage to see were busy gathering food for their chicks, many of which will now have fledged.  Young Blue Tits are the same size as the adults but are a lot paler in colour.  They have powder blue legs and the yellow gape is still visible at the sides of their beaks.

Butterflies and Other Insects

There were not many butterflies around this month.  The ones that emerged earlier in the year will have mated, laid their eggs and then died.  The period between that and the emergence of the next generation from July onwards is what has become known as the ‘’June gap’’.

There were still some Speckled Woods around though and I caught a brief glimpse of a Red Admiral.  I also found an Orange-tip caterpillar.  This will then pupate away from its food plant and emerge as an adult next Spring.

Speckled Wood butterfly

There are currently lots of these unusual little bugs around – they’re Ladybird larvae.

Ladybird larva

Flowers and other plants

Lots of Summer flowers are now starting to open inside the Cemetery, including a Rhododendron.  Opinions are divided as to whether this is a good or bad plant to have here, but it is small and not growing close to any of the headstones.  It adds an attractive splash of colour in a shaded area and provides a source of nectar for insects.

Bearing in mind the destruction of so many of the wildflowers on the grass verge, any source of nectar is more important than ever.

Rhododendron

The Cow Parsley, Hogweed and Wild Garlic has started to die back as expected.  There are plenty of smaller wildflowers now coming through including Buttercups, Speedwell, Wood Avens and Red Campion.

Some of the flowers planted by the volunteers prior to the Stop Notice are now starting to flower but I will talk about those in the next newsletter.

Campion

Mushrooms Wonderful Wildlife

Some more glistening Inkcaps were seen on a log, and I found some Common Inkcaps too.

Inkcap fungi

But the best find was a beautiful Chicken of the Woods!  It was the first time I’d seen one in the Cemetery but unfortunately a few days after I took the photo on the left someone removed most of it.  The photo on the right shows where the brackets have been sliced off.

Another sad, selfish and disheartening act, this time by an individual.  This has deprived other people of the change to simply enjoy looking at some beautiful and amazing specimens.

Chicken fungus

Mammals

A new sub-heading to reflect the very good news that the foxes have had at least two cubs!

Fox caught on camera

The foxes are rarely seen during the day so one of the volunteers placed their own trail camera in a secluded position away from the footpaths.  And the results were very encouraging to say the least!  The camera is no longer there; this was just a quick experiment for a few nights only.

Conclusion

Overall a month of mixed fortunes for the wonderful wildlife of our favourite cemetery.

We can only hope that the Council will allow the grass verge to recover so that we can once again enjoy seeing the wildflowers, butterflies, bees and other insects as we walk past or linger to take a photo or two.

The Reduced Activity of the FOHGC during April and May

by Bill Longbonein General, News, Volunteers, Wildlife1 Comment on The Reduced Activity of the FOHGC during April and May

As everyone should know by now, there has been a complaint made about the FOHGC. The Council are therefore holding an official enquiry. As a result there has been reduced activity of the FOHGC during April and May in HGC.

Here’s a summary of the reduced activity of the FOHGC during those two months.

April

The FOHGC received a couple of donations of £100 from Facebook members. This money was to purchase plants etc. The FOHGC also purchased a third Silver Birch and planted this, along with a mix of 15 hazel, crab apple and rowan trees donated by the Woodland Trust.

Since 2019 the FOHGC have planted well in excess of 300 native trees on the site.

The buzzard appeared to have left for a while but has since been sighted several times.

Pete Lowden continues to maintain the website. Helen Bovill’s monthly nature posts have been received enthusiastically.

Hull Civic Society do not contribute any funding to the FOHGC and now no longer pay the insurance. As a result the FOHGC have acquired their own insurance at a cost of £230 per annum.

Site visit

After the recent complaint to the Council, Andrew Wilson, Jennifer Woollin and Mike Tindall, council officers, met with the representatives from the FOHGC on site for a positive meeting. The notes of this meeting were distributed separately. Hull City Council request to the FOHGC

As agreed with Jennifer Woollin, the volunteers have planted the wildflower meadow with the special EW1 seeds recommended by Jennifer. We have however been prevented from planting the butterfly garden until the review is complete. A further planting will now have to take place in the autumn. As a result, and at the request of Andrew Wilson, Open Spaces manager, the wildflowers that were for the Butterfly Garden have now been planted outside the site on the Thorseby Street cut through.

Accounts

The accounts show that we have a balance of £4,705.25, although the monies for the insurance are not deducted as yet from that figure.

The volunteers re-erected the broken fence at the rear of the Princes Avenue shops. Sadly, it looks like more rubbish is beginning to pile up at the shop’s rear.

Several species of butterfly have been noted in the cemetery by Helen Bovill, particularly on the Spring Bank West frontage.

Many bird species, including blue tits, great tits, tree creepers, chaffinches and goldcrests have been seen in the cemetery this month. A tawny owl has been seen on the site. It has occupied one of the owl boxes erected by the group. We believe it mated and two owlets were seen in April in this box. They now appeared to have fledged. Wonderful Wildlife

The reduction of the activities of the volunteers has seen an increase in the amount of anti-social behaviour. This includes a fire, theft of litter bins and a proliferation of rubbish dumped. There have been an increase of people who have volunteered to litter pick on the site.

May

A few more donations were received from Facebook members.

Research was undertaken on several of the vases/urns that were recovered from the drain shaft in the Quakers section. Particularly the one of Ronnie Jackson who was lost on the St Romanus in 1968. Andy Lister has repaired the vase and mounted it on an oak plinth. It will be presented to Ronnie’s step brother during the next couple of weeks.

An English oak was donated from a teacher at Thoresby Primary. It was planted in the Workhouse Memorial area.

The two areas near the Thoresby Street cut through were tidied and the drains were cleared.

12 headstones that failed the Safety push test were laid flat by the Council.

The Quaker’s committee have asked the volunteers to help improve their burial section.

Conclusion

That’s a summary of the activities the FOHGC have done over the last two months. Not bad is it?

 

Wonderful Wildlife

by Helen Bovillin General, Volunteers, Wildlife1 Comment on Wonderful Wildlife

Wonderful Wildlife in May

This is the month when a big transformation takes place.  We don’t have to do anything though – just stroll around and enjoy the wonderful wildlife in May!

May started with plenty of sunny weather although it was colder than usual for this time of the year.  Towards the end of the month there was plenty of steady and much-needed rain and that transformation is almost complete.  April’s small green shoots are well on the way to becoming fully-fledged leaves. Wonderful Wildlife

Birds

The big news is that the Tawny Owls have raised two babies (known as Owlets, pictured above)!  I only saw them both together on three consecutive days at the beginning of the month and they proved very popular with visitors to the cemetery.  The last day I saw them one was perched at the entrance to the nest box and the other was sitting on the roof.  I saw them stretching their well-developed wings ready for fledging and I hope they have now done this successfully.

There is at least one family of recently-fledged Long-tailed Tits in the cemetery as I recently saw an empty nest in the centre of some Brambles. I caught up with this family just outside the boundary in Western Cemetery and counted at least ten of them in a Cherry tree.

Long-Tailed Tits

Butterflies and other insects

Four species of white butterfly were seen in the cemetery with Large White, Small White, Green-veined White and Orange-tip flying in decent numbers whenever the sun was out.  This was the dominant butterfly colour in May.  Several Speckled Wood and one or two Peacock, Brimstone and Holly Blue were also seen.

Orange-Tip female

                                                

Ladybirds have now emerged from hibernation and are plentiful and varied.  The UK actually has a dozen or so native species with the 7-Spot being the most common.  You should therefore never assume a strange-looking Ladybird is a non-native Harlequin!

                                             

 

Flowers

The Bluebells were in full bloom growing in beautiful carpets throughout the cemetery. Many of them are the cultivated Spanish variety, having quite upright stems and conical bell-shaped flowers.  They have blue pollen and no scent.

Bluebells in the Cemetery

Native Bluebells on the other hand have curved, drooping stems and narrower bell-shaped flowers with rolled back tips.  They are also scented.  Only Bluebells that have ALL these characteristics are true native ones.  Those with only some are hybrids of the native and Spanish varieties.  The ones in the Orange-tip photo are most probably native ones although it wasn’t possible to smell them to confirm this!

The Wild Garlic (also known as Ramsons) is now in full flower in several places and you can catch its distinctive smell as you walk by.  These along with many other plants seen this Spring have flowered slightly later than usual.

                      Wild Garlic field

                                Close up of Ransom flowerhead

Another white flower that can now be seen inside the cemetery and on the Spring Bank West verge is Cow Parsley.  Its lush growth lines the footpaths and covers the areas further back in the centre.  It provides a valuable source of nectar for butterflies and many other small insects.  Most visitors to the cemetery in May, even after an absence of only a week or so, will notice the transformation straight away.  This is completely natural and does not make the area ‘’overgrown’’.  The sight lasts for a few weeks and then the plants start to die back, leaving seed heads that provide more food for the birds.

Cow Parsley

A similar-looking plant is the native Hogweed.  It is sturdier and slightly taller than Cow Parsley and has large flat leaves.  It also has large clusters of white flowers although the buds are dark pink on the outside.

Hogweed

There are still a few Celandines in flower.  Quite remarkable considering the first flowers appeared back in January!  Buttercups are now in flower and there is Hawks-beard and Common Vetch on the Spring Bank West verge.

Several plants have tiny flowers and many of these tend to get overlooked or simply dismissed as weeds. But once you know their names they stop being weeds and become wildflowers.  Some of those smaller ones that can be seen at the moment are Hedge Mustard (not to be confused with Garlic Mustard, which I talked about last month),  Shepherds-purse and Herb-Robert.

                                                  Herb Robert

Mushrooms

A new sub-heading to reflect some excellent specimens that were found this month!  Mushrooms and fungi can be seen at any time of the year on fallen logs and on living trees.

Dryad's Saddle fungi

Mushrooms can be quite difficult to identify and can vary quite a lot between specimens. Some, like this Glistening Inkcap, deliquesce very quickly – these two photos were taken just 24 hours apart.

                                            Fungi

 

May has been a month of changeable weather and rapid transformation.  The wonderful wildlife that lives in the cemetery has continued to thrive and new lives are being nurtured in peace and security all over the site.  I hope to talk about these in the next newsletter.

 

 

Wonderful Wildlife

by Pete Lowdenin General, News, Volunteers, Wildlife2 Comments on Wonderful Wildlife

WONDERFUL WILDLIFE

Here is the latest posting from Helen Bovill of her series ‘Wonderful Wildlife’.

owl

April 2021

A rather cold month with several days starting at sub-zero temperatures. Despite the well-known saying about ‘’April showers’’ it was a very dry month with no significant rainfall. There was still plenty of warm sunshine though and the cemetery is teeming with wonderful wildlife.

Birds

This month’s star bird of prey is the Tawny Owl (pictured above). It was first photographed by a visitor to the site in late April and I was lucky to see it myself a few days later.  This stunning bird is slightly smaller than a Wood Pigeon.  Also seen was a Sparrowhawk but the Buzzard hasn’t been seen recently.  However there have been reports of two of them flying around the adjoining Western cemetery.

I also saw a Redwing earlier in the month.  It might have just been passing through but it landed in one of the cemetery’s trees so it counts!

redwing

The air is full of birdsong and the many Robins and Wrens provide some of the most beautiful woodland sounds.  Another bird with a fine voice is the Blackcap.  The birds’ singing reaches a peak in early May.  This is why International Dawn Chorus Day takes place on the first Sunday in May.  Why not get up early and have a listen?

blackcap

But it wouldn’t be Spring without the very distinctive sound of the Chiffchaff coming from high up in the trees.

chiffchaff

There are a number of Blue Tits in the cemetery and some are making good use of the nest boxes.  Blackbirds, Great Tits, Blue Tits and Coal Tits are gathering nesting material (other birds’ feathers seem to be quite popular).  Small groups of Long-tailed Tits can be seen darting from tree to tree and there are Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Goldcrests, Dunnocks and Treecreepers living in the cemetery as well.

blue tit

Butterflies and other insects

Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells and Commas continued to be seen.  Brimstones, Orange-tips, Speckled Woods, Small Whites and Green-veined Whites also started to emerge.  All have been seen inside the cemetery but the easiest place to see them is on the grass verge running alongside the cemetery on Spring Bank West.

Brimstones always rest with their wings closed and are a bright shade of lemon-yellow.  The females are much paler, almost white.  This is another butterfly that overwinters as an adult.

brimstone

Orange-tips started to emerge towards the end of April.  These rest with their wings open as well as closed.  The female lacks the orange markings.  They overwinter as a pupa so this one is brand new. The markings on the underwings are actually made up of yellow and black scales – it’s just the light that makes them look green.

orange tip

Speckled Woods started to emerge towards the end of April too.  They are the only UK butterfly that can overwinter as a pupa or as a later stage larva. Male and female markings have no obvious differences.

speckled wood

Hoverflies, Bees and other insects are now in abundance.  Several mounds looking like miniature molehills have started to appear on the ground.  These mark the entrances to the underground nests of Tawny Mining Bees.

tawny mining bee

Flowers

Celandines were abundant along the Spring Bank West verge up to mid-April.  Dandelions are now in abundance there, together with Daisies and other wildflowers.  These include Cuckooflower, an important plant for all life stages of the Orange-tip butterfly.

cuckooflower

Another important plant for Orange-tips is Garlic Mustard and this is now starting to flower.  This seems to be its best year yet.

garlic mustard

The Celandines are now in full flower inside the cemetery and clusters of them can be seen just about everywhere.  Other spring plants are now in flower including Periwinkle, Red Dead-nettle, Groundsel, Common Chickweed, Common Dog-violet and Yellow Archangel.

yellow archangel

April has been a great month for the cemetery’s wonderful wildlife and the ground is carpeted with greenery in most places.  Last month’s small green shoots are turning into fully-fledged leaves.  Cow Parsley and Bluebells are also starting to flower.  May will be their peak month so I’ll talk about those in the next newsletter.

Wonderful Wildlife

by Pete Lowdenin General, News, Wildlife1 Comment on Wonderful Wildlife

2021: The story so far

January got off to a great start.  The volunteers and visitors to the cemetery enjoyed some good and frequent views of a Buzzard. They’re not very common in and around Hull so to have one in the cemetery was an unexpected pleasure.  It’s not known whether it’s male or female though, but it is still being sighted occasionally.  February was a month of contrasts, with a week of snow and sub-zero temperatures at the start of the month.  It ended with a week of sunshine and higher than usual temperatures.  There was plenty of warm sunshine in March too.

Flowers

This winter was a bumper one for Snowdrops, with at least 3 different types in flower all over the site.  The sunshine and higher than average temperatures during that last week of February gave the Lesser Celandines flowering in the grass verge on Spring Bank West a welcome boost.  These low-growing bright yellow flowers open up in the sunshine and typically have between 8 and 10 petals although they can sometimes have as many as 12 or 13.

Lesser Celandines can also be found inside the Cemetery and these are now starting to flower, although being in partial shade they’re a little behind the ones on the grass verge and the stems of their flowers are noticeably longer as they reach for the sun.

The Blackthorn is already in flower – its white blossoms appear before the leaves do, unlike the Hawthorn which flowers slightly later in the Spring after its leaves have opened.

 

Butterflies and other insects

The Lesser Celandines provided a valuable source of nectar for some early butterflies emerging in late February.  I counted 8 Small Tortoiseshells one day, plus a Peacock.  Both species overwinter as adults in sheltered vegetation and will no doubt have been tempted out by the warm sun.

Small tortoiseshells

Butterfly sightings continued throughout March whenever it was sunny, with some more Small Tortoiseshells and 2 more Peacocks seen on the grass verge just before the Spring Equinox.

 

A Comma, another butterfly that overwinters as an adult, was seen later in March, again on the grass verge.  It gets its name from a distinctive white comma-shaped mark on the underside of its wings.

Comma butterfly on celadine

There were lots of other insects buzzing around the grass verge in late March too including a Bee-fly, the first time I’ve seen one there.  This small fluffy fly is harmless to humans and uses its long proboscis to get nectar from flowers.  When hovering its wings seemingly disappear in a blur of movement.

Bee-fly at rest

 

Birds

There are several Wood Pigeons living in the cemetery and these can be seen every day pecking around on the ground or flying noisily in and out of the trees.

There is also a pair of resident Stock Doves and these are usually seen together, sometimes with the Wood Pigeons.  Stock Doves are around the same size as feral Pigeons and sometimes hang around with them too.

The Stock Dove is on the left of the photo – its band of blue/green feathers is larger and more noticeable than on the Wood Pigeon and it lacks the white patch.  The Wood Pigeon is the larger of the two species although this is not apparent from the photo.

Pigeons and Doves

 

The smaller birds have started to pair up and look for suitable nesting sites, but I’ll say more about them in the next newsletter.

Overall a very good start to the year, and with many of the trees and shrubs already showing small green shoots there is the promise of much more wonderful wildlife to come!

Postscript: Helen Bovill

Helen Bovill is a member of the FOHGC. She is a gifted naturalist and photographer. Her photographs have graced the FOHGC Facebook site for a while now. It’s with great pleasure that we now have the chance to share in her knowledge and expertise here. Helen has kindly consented to write an article every month on the broad subject of nature for the website newsletter. This is the first of what I hope will be many such articles. So sit back and enjoy.

Rewilding

by Pete Lowdenin General, History, Wildlife1 Comment on Rewilding

This article follows on from the Nature v Nurture one. It involves the concept of rewilding and especially the rewilding of HGC. If you’ve read the previous article you’ll know that Bill Longbone and myself were congratulated by a young man on our efforts to tidy the cemetery of litter. He then said he supported rewilding of the HGC and then left us, leaving us both somewhat bemused. Were we doing that?

Neither of us were 100% certain that picking up the detritus of others was actually ‘rewilding’ except in its loosest sense. We both shrugged and carried on.

I’m also very sorry that this article is a bit technical and bolstered by footnotes and cited evidence. Unfortunately evidence must be used here as without it people make ludicrous claims without the slightest shred of evidence. For example ‘rewilding’.

History is bunk

I was thinking about the idea of the rewilding of HGC much later. Quite some time after I had met this young man. I thought how far fetched the concept of doing such a thing to the HGC site was. And this is where the historical aspect that I mentioned in the previous article comes to the fore.

I suppose I should say here what my problem with his statement was. I’m pretty sure that the young man’s idea of ‘rewilding’ went something like this. HGC is a cemetery but has been allowed to become a woodland. This should be encouraged by more trees being allowed to grow. If more trees grow the site becomes ‘wilder’ and therefore it encourages more wildlife.

Simple isn’t it?

Its a nice simple plan. I think I’ve addressed the problems you can have with simple plans in the previous article but I’m pretty sure that was the sum of his idea about ‘rewilding’ of HGC. So foresting is the way to go.  The more trees grown on the site will return the site to its pristine state before it became a cemetery. Great, let’s do it.

Well, its not quite that simple. Let’s have a closer look.

I’m pretty sure that most people who read stuff on this site have an interest in history. That interest may be small or large depending on the individual but it will be there. So what I’m going to say may be well known to some but not to others. For you antiquarian experts please be patient and let others catch up.

Fresh water

The history of Hull was shaped by many factors. Not least of them was the search for fresh water. Charles 1st laid siege to Hull in 1642 at the beginning of the Civil War. He thought that he could, if not starve the inhabitants into surrendering, he could bring them to heel by denying them fresh water. The vast majority of the fresh water that was drunk in Hull at that time came from Anlaby. Charles, in throwing a siege around the town, deliberately interrupted that source. We’ll discuss how this source came about later.

Charles, unfortunately for him, was told that his plan was stupid. Probably not as bluntly as that but just as clearly. Ex-Governor of Hull, Sir Thomas Glenham, said that the people of Hull need only dig down a little way for the hole to fill with fresh water. A little brackish, yes, but still drinkable. Charles was also told that at low tide the River Hull was a fresh water source and all the people needed to do was dip their buckets in it. Indeed Glenham went on to say that, ‘they cannot bury a corpse there but the grave drowns him ere it buries him.’ (1) A feature I know too well from past experience.

So, when it came to emergencies, like being under siege, the citizens of Hull could get by on the fresh(ish) water on site. However, when the choice was between fresh spring water and the brackish water, well, that was a different matter entirely.

Water courses

Wyke, later to become Kingston upon Hull, had a fresh water source about two miles to the west. This was at Springhead, known then as Julian Wells. This spring, followed a natural path to the emerging town. This water course was first recorded in 1293, some six years before the town of Hull was graced with attention from Edward 1st.(2) The spring was said to follow a circuitous course eventually reaching the town at what is now the end of Whitefriargate.

Map of Wyke and Myton about 1293 from J.Travis-Cook 1903

As can be seen from the above sketch map, made by Hull historian J. Travis-Cook in 1903, the ditch ranges from the top left of the map  until eventually emptying into the ancient moat.

Eventually, after many tribulations, the course of this spring was fixed in 1401 and a ditch was dug to a depth of five feet, five feet wide at its bottom and twelve feet wide at the top.(3)

Julian Dyke

This water course, known as the Julian Dyke, later Derringham Dyke, and later still Spring Ditch, emerged at Springhead. It then followed the course of the present day Spring Bank West, Spring Bank and Prospect Street. The dyke eventually flowed into a basin called the Bush Dyke. This was approximately where Prince’s Dock and the old Queen’s Dock would have met. This was the first primitive reservoir for the town and Bush-Dyke men went around the town selling fresh water from barrels that they carried.

Map of the Hull Valley taken from Sheppard 1958

Of interest in the above map, taken from Sheppard’s ‘The Draining of the Hull Valley’, is the line of higher ground. Cottingham, along the line of Castle Hill to Keldgate was probably the nearest high ground above the flooding of the River Humber. In fact, if you bother to stop at Keldgate today and look south, you can see the entire southern Hull valley, now occupied by a large city. A thousand years ago it would have  been a marshland with reeds and the odd misshapen tree as the tallest structures in it.

Farming

So, why am I telling you all this in the context of rewilding?

Because of a very simple reason. The presence of managed water courses, and the Julian Dyke was managed very thoroughly and efficiently by the Court of Sewers, suggests, that the land on either side of it was constantly being drained. In a predominantly wet landscape, a drained portion of land would not have been left long before humanity took advantage of it.

Farming would have been the role for the land that eventually became Hull General Cemetery, from the medieval period, up to 1846. Prior to its change to farmland it would have been marshland, used for pasturing in summer, and fishing and trapping in the winter. Due to its nature its highly unlikely that there were many trees in it. The consensus of opinion is that, after the last ice age, trees were initially abundant, but by 1000 BCE the forest coverage had been much reduced. This reduction has continued up to the present day.(4)

Evidence

The evidence all suggests that the site of the present HGC was firstly marshland up until it was drained sometime in the 13th and 14th century. After that it was farmland. It continued to be farmland until taken over by the Hull General Cemetery Company in 1846. It was at that time that forest trees were planted on the site. These were probably the first on the site since before Roman times.

The Company planted a lot of trees and shrubs. After it’s downfall those trees and shrubs best suited to proliferate without maintenance began to predominate. Thus we have the site as it is today. An urban woodland. That’s good.

Finally

Yes, I can hear your sigh of relief from here.

What the present state of the HGC is not is a return to how it ever was. Especially in the idealised past that the term ‘rewilding’ used here conjures up. It’s present state is not some happy chance that has returned it to its roots (pun intended). It is man-made.

If we want a true rewilding of HGC then we should destroy the site’s drainage system.  The Company dug this system 14 foot beneath the site’s surface back in 1846. We should destroy the woodland. We should eradicate the present woodland wildlife. After that we can re-wild the site back to its marshy status. Imagine the clumps of solid earth infrequently poking above a wet landscape populated by wading birds.

Lots of luck with that. If you don’t mind I’ll sit this one out thanks.

Notes

1 p.2, Mary Fowler, “River and Spring“, 1997

2. p.42, E.Aylwin & R.C.Ward, “Development and Utilisation of Water Supplies in the East Riding of Yorkshire.“, 1969

3. p.42-3, Edward Gillett & Kenneth A. MacMahon, “A History of Hull“, 1980. If you’d like to know all about the ‘tribulations’ mentioned above, one of which included the Pope becoming involved, may I recommend the three books cited and also “The Victoria History of the County of York, East Riding, Volume 1“, Ed. K.J.Allison, “Hull; Culture, History, Place“, Eds. Starkey, Atkinson, McDonough, McKeon & Salter, “Yorkshire from AD1000“, D. Hey, “General and Concise History and Description of the Town and Port of Kingston-Upon-Hull“, J.J.Sheahan, “ Becks, Banks, Drains and Brains“, The River Hull Valley Drainage Heritage Group, 2013 and of course the wonderful EYLHS booklets by June Sheppard, “The Draining of the Marshlands of South Holderness and the Vale of York” & “The Draining of the Hull Valley“. 1966 and 1958 respectively.

4. Numerous sources. pp-6-7, Eva Crackles, “The Flora of the East Riding“, 1990 states that the forest coverage was at its maximum ‘some 7000 to 5000 years ago’.

The River Hull Drainage Heritage Group, already cited, states on p.8, ‘This meant that spring fed right bank tributaries originating on the Chalk Wolds to the west of the pre-glacial cliff line all flowed out across low-lying carrs and ings to reach the River Hull (….) This landscape chaos was what the Norman conquerors beheld as they secured their conquest in the 11th century A.D. This was a tract of land to skirt, unless your business was wild-fowling or fishing.’

J.R. Flenley in ‘Vegetational History’ in “Humber Perspectives: A Region Through the Ages“, 1990, states that around 1000 BCE, Elms began to decrease, possibly due to a variant of the recent Dutch Elm Disease but more probably due to humanity chopping the young growth to feed livestock. He also states that, in the iron age, with the stronger plough, ‘The resulting clearance of forest in Holderness is beautifully demonstrated by the Roos Pollen count again suggesting mixed farming’.p.51. There are other accounts to validate this evidence. In essence forest land in the Hull valley from, at the very latest, the Roman period, was quite rare.

 

 

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust

by Adminin Volunteers, Wildlife1 Comment on Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
Wildlife Liaison Officer update:

On 24th February I met Andy a representative from the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to show him around the Hull General Cemetery.  He offered some suggestions which he believed would enhance the cemetery and improve the diversity of wildlife. 

Suggestions

  • Create a woodland glade where wildflower seeds can be sown. This will attract insects, bees, butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies.  A couple of potential areas were identified which had plenty of natural light (See main photograph).
  • Restrict access to some of the lesser used paths. Use barrier plants or woven natural fences of branches.  This would create larger, quieter spaces for wildlife habitat.
  • Replace some of the non-native shrubs with native species.  Remove all rhododendron before it takes over.
  • Pollard the holly to encourage a thicker base and better screening.
  • Plant native honeysuckle and only plant/sow native flowers.
  • Install two Tawny Owl boxes.
  • Extend area of brambles on workhouse mound.
  • Speak to the Council about free delivery of wood-chippings.
  • Do not to cut fallen trees into short pieces. Keep as much of their length of possible/practical.

Summary

Andy said he had never visited the Hull General Cemetery (HGC) before and admitted later that he was sceptical about what he would see.  I am delighted to tell you that he was very impressed with the site. He liked the wood-chip paths, our installation of bat and bird boxes, and the lack of litter.  He was delighted to hear that we had Pipistrelles (bats) visit HCG. As a bonus we also saw a number of birds including a Goldcrest during our walk around the cemetery. This was an excellent visit. We hope to build upon our relationship with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust for the future.

Karen Towner, Wildlife Liaison Officer.