Time to come a’wassailing

Get out those old pots and pans – because we’re hosting a wassailing event.

Traditionally the event involves groups of wassailers drinking lots of alcohol and moving from orchard to orchard – singing, shouting, banging pots and pans and even firing shotguns in an effort to make as much noise as possible to awaken any sleeping tree.

We’re not expecting our event to be quite so riotous – but it will be fun and is aimed at providing an afternoon out for the whole family.

It is taking place at Etton High Meadow on Saturday, January 26.

The site hosts a number of fruit trees and a recently planted community orchard with more than 70 fruit trees including local heritage varieties such as Lord Burghley and Peasgoods Nonsuch.

We hope the wassail will awaken them to bear bountiful crops of fruit next year. So please bring some pots and pans to make a noise.

The fun starts at about 3pm and will go on until about 5.30pm.

As well as the traditional wassail (in a more civilised form) there will be musical entertainment with Alan Wood singing traditional songs and various events for children including making bird feeders out of apples.

It is expected to be cold so we will be using the barn (basic, but at least sheltered) and we will be having a bonfire to help you keep warm. We’re also hoping to turn this year’s crop of apples into some  very drinkable juice. There will also be refreshments

Traditionally the celebrations vary from region to region.  

In some cases a wassail King and Queen lead the assembled group of revellers, comprising the farmers, farm workers and general villagers, in a noisy procession from one orchard to the next. 

In each orchard the wassailers gather round the biggest and best tree, and as a gift to the tree spirits, the Queen places a piece of wassail soaked toast into its branches, accompanied by songs such as:

“Apple tree, apple tree we all come to wassail thee,
Bear this year and next year to bloom and blow,
Hat fulls, cap fulls, three cornered sacks fills…”

The wassailers then move on to the next orchard; singing, shouting, banging pots and pans, and even firing shotguns, generally making as much noise as possible in order to both waken the sleeping tree spirits, and also to frighten off any evil demons that may be lurking in the branches.

The custom of apple tree wassailing is celebrated across the country, on either the new or old Twelfth Night.  An original house to house version before Christmas was designed to obtain gifts from the Lord of the Manor in exchange for a blessing.  This has evolved into what we now know as carolling.

How to get there

Etton High Meadow is on the Maxey Road just outside Etton.  

From the Helpston road go past the Golden Pheasant pub and through the village towards Maxey.  You will come to a small hump back bridge. Cross it and Etton High Meadow is about 150 yards on the right through a gate.  

There is parking on site but please drive carefully because children may be already there. It is advisable to wear warm clothing and a torch might be useful because it gets dark early.

Stroll into the New Year

Make a resolution to join our annual New Year’s Day walk – a gentle three-hour stroll through Langdyke countryside giving you the chance to shake off the old and get set for the new.

This year the walk will set off from the Hills and Holes car park, off Wittering Road, Barnack, at 1pm prompt.

The route has been planned by Langdyke member David Alvey who will also be one of the leaders and who knows the area well.

He says: “I’ve mapped out a route which I know well from multiple dog walks and will recce it a few days before to check for any specific issues, in particular muddy stretches.”

That said, it will be important to make sure that if you are taking part you wear the appropriate clothing and footwear.  

The route takes in several interesting nature sites across grazed grassland, typical arable fields (with two distinctly different forms of cultivation), some spinneys, hedgerows and even a spring fed pond and related stream/ditch. 

It provides a good overview of the Langdyke countryside.

Dependent upon the weather it is possible you could see  Red Kites, Buzzards, Yellowhammers, Skylarks and possibly Redwings and Fieldfares. 

Independent of weather it is likely you will spot corvids and, of course,  wood pigeons

The proposed route

Walk across Hills and Holes from the car park and out at the South-west corner along the public footpath that runs alongside Walcott Hall grounds.

Join the old Ermine Street route across the Western boundary of Walcott, past Southorpe Roughs SSSI and straight on to the southern end of Southorpe. Then back along the road through Southorpe  (a little narrow and with no footpath in places but is now a 20mph limit). 

We pass the Wildlife Trust reserve (SSSI), Southorpe Meadow and then continue out of the village towards Barnack picking up the public footpath along the old disused railway (through ‘Ufford Bridge Station’ which is potentially the only really muddy bit of the route). 

Turning left back into Barnack to enter near the cricket club and back across the road into the Hills and Holes. This takes about 1:30 hours walking the dog but that is at a brisk pace.

Short cut

There is a short cut across to the north end of Southorpe for those wanting a shorter walk (or weather is bad) and an extended route to take in a fourth SSSI (Southorpe Paddock) further to the south of Southorpe. This means a walk along a narrow unrestricted road and over a blind bridge so whilst New Years Day should be quiet on the roads I think it does present a more significant risk to participants.

  • Suitable walking footware is only really required if we have particularly heavy rain (or snow) or the local hunt or agricultural machinery has churned up sections of the path. The going underfoot is fairly dry and stable even in mid-winter.

Image of the month

 

Each month we select a photograph taken by one of our members. It might not be technically perfect – but it sums up the events of that month. Here are some  of them

April 2019

This is our April image – displaying the magic of early Spring at Barnack Hills and Holes.  Langdyke member Michael Jarman was one the first to  capture and load on to our Facebook page the first signs of the unique Pasque flowers together with cowslips.
Please note: Michael is responsible for the creation of this website, but it was the decision of the editor to choose this photo, not his!

The first Pasque flowers and cowslips at Barnack Hills and Holes

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 2019

This  Bank Vole pictured pinching a few scraps from under a bird feeder at the Swaddywell Pits reserve was our March image.  It was taken by Duncan Kirkwood and uploaded to the Langdyke group facebook page.

Bank Vole, Swaddywell: Duncan Sargent Kirkwood – Please click to enlarge

February 2019

This is our February image – capturing a bird rarely seen in Langdyke country.  This Coue’s Arctic Redpoll was seen at  Swaddywell on  February 2.  It was photographed by Sarah Lambert. This is only the second sighting in Peterborough of this small bird, which winters in very small numbers in this country.

Coue’s Arctic Redpoll – Please click to enlarge

 

January 2019

Its was cold, but it didn’t stop everyone having fun at a wassail event held at Etton High Meadow. Visitors banged pots and pans and enjoyed music by Alan Wood and friends. The aim was to wake up the sleeping fruit trees in the community orchard so that they will be full of fruit in the summer. Langdyke Treasurer and Trustee Brian Lawrence took the photo.

Click to enlarge

December 2018

The red berries which the Dunnock is perched on bring a seasonal touch to our December image captured at Swaddywell Pit by Andy Smith.  During his walk he reported seeing a green woodpecker, redwing, fieldfare, tree sparrows, goldfinch, red kite, kestrel, assorted tits and a pair of male bullfinches. A good day out!

click to enlarge

November 2018

Here is the image for November.  It is a spectacular view of the murmuration over one of the bird hides at the Etton Maxey reserve.  It was taken by Bob Titman.

click to enlarge

October 2018

This is the October image – just one of the finds at a small mammal survey carried our at the Vergette Wood-Meadow at Etton.  It was taken by Martin Parsons. Continue reading Image of the month

Happy Birthday – to us!

Pic: Pond Dipping at Swaddywell Pit NR

It is going to be a big year for the Langdyke Countryside Trust in 2019 with special events to celebrate our 20th birthday.

The celebration programme includes a series of events designed to appeal to anyone who has an interest in the countryside around where they live.

And many of the happenings are aimed directly at giving the whole family a chance to enjoy time together in the countryside.

The highlight of the programme is a 20th anniversary weekend of events in June next year.

Over the weekend of June 28-29  we will be celebrating twenty years of positive local action for nature and heritage across all of our reserves.

More details will be announced in the New Year, so keep watching this site.

Some observers have commented that Langdyke is an organisation just for bird watchers.  Not so.

The reserves it maintains and events it promotes for members – and non-members – gives everyone the chance to engage with nature in whatever form they want.

Whether it’s a family walk in the countryside, a summer picnic with wildlife, a chance to explore nature close up or the opportunity to burn off some of those calories by joining a countryside working party – there is something on offer for everyone.

Founded in 1999, Langdyke now manages six nature reserves – a total of 180 acres of land – has more than 300 household members and even its own flock of sheep.

It is a purely voluntary organisation committed to making a difference to the countryside around us all.

Trust chairman Richard Astle, who lives in Helpston, wrote in the recent annual report: “We want to live in an area where nature is at the heart of our lives. Where swifts and swallows are a central feature of our summer evenings, where otters continue to enthral people as they play in the Maxey Cut, where bees and other insects thrive, not decline, and where there are far more, not less, ponds, meadows, wild flowers, hedgerows and trees.”

Although the organisation’s membership is thriving there is always room for more.  Anyone interested in joining can make contact through this website or the Langdyke Facebook page.

There is also the chance to get your hands dirty and make direct contact with nature by joining one of the working parties which meet weekly at Swaddywell and fortnightly at the Etton/Maxey reserves. They involve helping with a variety of tasks (the work isn’t back-breaking), making new friends and having a chat over a cuppa with like-minded people. There are also working events at Castor Hanglands and Barnack Hills and Holes.

You can usually find details of forthcoming working parties on the Langdyke Countryside Trust Facebook page.

Full details of all of our 2019 events can be found on the website here:

Dark Skies

Picture: star trails over Barnack

There’s a very special and unique event for Langdyke in December when we host a dark skies evening, weather permitting, at Castor Hanglands.

What makes this event – starting at 7pm on Thursday, December 13 – more special is that it is timed to hopefully allow perfect views of the spectacular Geminid meteor shower. The shower will reach its maximum rate of activity the following evening on December 14, meaning the timing of the Langdyke event couldn’t be better. Some shooting stars associated with the shower are expected to be visible each night from December 7 to 16.

Annual meteor showers arise when the Earth passes through streams of debris left behind by comets and asteroids. As pebble-sized pieces of debris collide with the Earth, they burn up at an altitude of around 70 to 100 km, appearing as shooting stars.

Experts predict the maximum rate of meteors expected to be visible is around 100 per hour.

However, this assumes a perfectly dark sky and that the radiant of the meteor shower is directly overhead. In practice, the number of meteors you are likely to see is lower than this, but worthwhile all the same.

Perseid meteors and a satellite over Barnack August 2018 Click picture to enlarge

Numbers attending the event are limited. so if you would like to attend please book your place by email to Richard Perkins at rvynerp@btinternet.com

Don’t forget to bring a torch with you if you attend the event. Entrance is through the gate on the Helpston road.

Directions to Castor Hanglands.

From Ailsworth take the Helpston road north (over the Castor bypass). In about 1.5 miles turn left through the black, double metal gates and go down a track for 200 metres to the Forestry Commission part of Castor Hanglands. The track veers left, but keep going straight ahead for another 100 metres. At the gate are the Natural England buildings which is where cars can be parked.

Your contacts for the event will be Mike Horne and Richard Perkins

Castor Hanglands is a Natural England Reserve.