The Mill Meadows

The Mill is further enhanced by a varied riverside wildlife habitat which the Trust, in partnership with Teasel, the Stotfold conservation group, is developing in the adjacent 7-acre Mill Meadows, leased from the County Council. The Trust has planted many indigenous trees, added additional hedges and an osier bed, excavated lakes and ponds, and built an otter holt, all with the aim of eventually making the Meadows accessible to the public as an enticing place to delight future visitors.

Click here to view plan diagrams of the existing and proposed features.

Mill Meadows, taken from the top of Stotfold Mill's 65ft high chimney.

Teasel

TEASEL (ThE Astwick and Stotfold Environmental Link) is a voluntary group whose aim is to promote interest in countryside access and conservation in Astwick and Stotfold. Founded in 1995, we run a regular programme of events which includes guided walks, wildlife surveys, talks and practical footpath and conservation projects. If you would like to join us please email Mrs. Kathy Bird, telephone 01462 731753 or contact:

Membership of TEASEL is free and so we rely on grant aid organisations to pay for the materials we need to complete our projects. Recent work has been funded by Bedfordshire Parish Paths Partnership (P3). Our budget will increase in coming years, so fund-raising will become more important.

Teasel Activities

The continuing management of the Mill Meadows site makes up a significant part of our workload. This involves keeping the pathways accessible and managing the reed growth in the waterways, along with providing new information boards for the site.

A major project has been the planting of a 100m hornbeam hedge along the western boundary of Meadow 1. The water level in the river has increased in line with the rebuilding of the mill and we now have a significantly larger boggy area adjacent to the ponds. Although this area may look a bit disorganised it is, in fact, a valuable new habitat for the site.

With maturing ponds, we are now getting some structure from the willows, aspen and the open areas. The osier bed will provide whips for use in the construction of wattle fencing. There is much work in the routine maintenance of the site including mowing, willow management and removing encroaching vegetation from the sluice channel. Swans nest here yearly on the same site and raise a sizeable brood. The plan for the wood in Meadow 2 involves the introduction of more water-tolerant trees to take into account the increased water level near the river.

Walks

The condition of the footpaths has improved radically in recent years and we are now in a situation where only occasional maintenance/replacement work is required. For instance, the kissing gates near Ford Bridge need to be stabilised after the gate posts worked loose, mainly owing to ground shrinkage during recent dry summers.

We hold regular walks along the footpath network and these form a very popular part of our activities. The Boxing Day walk is always well attended, we organise a Stotfold Festival Walk every June, and we walked the Letchworth Greenway in October 2005. We shall produce further walks leaflets, and update and reprint our current ones.

We also organise occasional social events during the year.

Help a toad across the road!

We also organise the annual Toad Lift in early spring. Our toads start their migration to the breeding ponds a good couple of weeks before any other group in the area. The migration in recent years has started in the last week of February and ended sometime early April, but can be made even more unpredictable by a cold spring.

For details, contact Val Balderstone 01462 732971.

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