Monthly Archives: January 2012

North Leeds Life Article

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Click image to go to online readable magazine

The January 2012, North Leeds Life (Ilkley/Otley edition) has just published an article on Friends of Parkinson’s Park in their Community News section page 8.

They also give details of Bark in the Park, a sponsored dog walk, organized by St Gemma’s Hospice at the end of February in Golden Acre Park.  Otley’s new Word Feast event, celebrating the written and spoken word, which is running a writing competition for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.  And, entry information for the 2012 Jane Tomlinson Run events.

The article is  online, click the picture on the left, and scroll down to the Ilkley/Otley version with the green header.

Bird Watching in the Park

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Little Ringed Plover - (Source, Steve Leo Evans, Flickr)

Darren Shepherd of Nethercliffe Road, is a keen ornithologist, and has left this fascinating comment on the ecology page, which deserves greater prominence.

“I would like to add a few more birds to the list of those seen in the Park. The rarest of the bunch, in the past few years, has been the successful breeding of Little Ringed Plover on the building site.”  This is a wading bird, that likes gravel pits and river shingle beds.  “Another wading bird that I suspect has bred in the area is the Oystercatcher” a bird that is regularly found on the coast but has started to move inland.  “Another regular bird is the Redshank“, which likes damp habitats such as salt marshes and flood meadows.  The sightings of these birds would link in perfectly with the fact that the lower slope of Clapper Brow and Great Brow have many natural springs, and the land is quite boggy – the Kel of Kelcliffe, means spring.  When Crompton Parkinsons were in residence they controlled this water flow as best they could, but over the years nature has reasserted itself. Continue reading →

Swinging Gates

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New entrance 'doormat' for the Oxford Avenue entrance

A wild and windy week, (apparently the wind speed last night was 75 mph at Yeadon airport) but the men from Pudsey Landscapes have carried on heroically.   The top part of the park (Little Kelcliffe) has now been opened up, and is starting to look like a useable space again.  (We have plans for events to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee later in the year, and this will be an ideal area.)

A key focus of the work is now the entrances.  Jamie and Mark are hard at work on new gates and entrance ‘doormats’  for the Oxford Avenue, Greenshaw Terrace, and the Farm Gate entrance. Meanwhile, on the Hillside Avenue side,  the hole in the hedge, that has been used as an entrance for a number of year, has now been made into proper steps.  In addition,  we have managed to get the council to do some work on improving the bridleway access from that side, and work is underway. Peter is hard at work taking out the old barbed wire that surrounds the park on a number of sides – let’s hope none of it is too springy !! Continue reading →

Park Features To Be Registered as Historic Environment Records

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The bank is a potential rabbit warren earthwork

Good news to start 2012.   The West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service has told us that they will be registering both the milk churn stand, and Clapper Brow with historical environment records (HER monument records).

Because of the name, the lie of the land, the soil, and historic ownership in the vicinity, we believe that parts of Clapper Brow may be an ancient rabbit warren.   Clapper is a term meaning ‘rabbit’, and the field has three diagonal earthworks that could well have been deliberately made for the farming of our little furry friends. Continue reading →