Friends of Lyncombe Hill Fields

29/03/2026

Bulletin No 48 – March - April 2026
Welcome to our Latest Update

What to look out for in March and April

- Blackthorn bushes thick with small white blossoms.
- Trees coming into leaf, such as Ash with its hard black buds breaking and its pendulous flowers.
- Woodpeckers drumming and bluetits in the nestboxes.
- Birds singing defending territories such as blackbirds and summer's chiffchaffs.
- White pompom flowers of ramsoms, also called wild garlic, providing nectar.
- Bats emerging in the warmer evenings.
Peter McSweeney

Our YouTube Channel

After a lot of procrastination, we have, at last, launched out into YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/. Just a tentative dip so far, but watch out for regular new video material this summer. We will be uploading short pieces on what we are doing, and of course what you might be able to see, but we will be open to requests, with the usual caveats.

Everyone on any of our WhatsApp groups will get notifications of new uploads and links will be found on our website using the green button labelled "Short Videos".
Maurice Tennenhaus

The Nature Volunteer’s Companion

Almost from the very beginning of our adventure in these fields, we have been learning how to do things we have never attempted before. Just as important were the things we did, that we vowed never to repeat. With 5 years of mostly successful experiences, it seemed a good time to look back and scribble down what we did and how we went about it.

The vast bulk of our digital booklet involves the practical challenges of things like laying paths, building steps, mowing for wildflowers, planting trees, building benches and collecting and moving rainwater. There are a few construction projects which are explained step by step, with cutting lists and a list of the tools you might need.

Along the way we have bought an array of tools, most of which have been essential, and a few that are not so essential. There are sections on practical management and some of the legal stuff. We started with a very modest little booklet that soon ballooned into over 40 pages of A4. Hopefully other groups will be inspired to offer their experience, to ensure The Companion grows and develops.

If you want to find out more, go to our website (friendsoflyncombehillfields.co.uk) where you can find a green button labelled ‘Practical Manual’.
Maurice Tennenhaus

Our South Indian Connection

In our last Bulletin we told you about how one of our volunteers, Bharath Raman Ayyaraju (who recently completed an MSc in Advanced Wildlife Conservation in Practice at Bristol UWE), was setting up a volunteer-based nature recovery project in the South of India. He launched this with a seminar at Periyar University in Dharmapuri on 17th February, for which Maurice and Chris made a presentation by Zoom. This was apparently well received. Bharath calls this his Global Green Conservation Connect initiative (‘GGCC’).

GGCC now has acquired seven acres of land in Dharmapuri on which it proposes to create a Nature School (in a disused building) together with an initial tree nursery and wildlife pond, with potential to acquire a further 30 acres of land for a forest. In all of this he is drawing on FLHF experience, suitably modified for the circumstances, flora and fauna of South India.
Bharath has now returned to Bath but will divide his time in future between Bath and Dharmapuri. We plan to continue sharing our respective experiences, in the hope of achieving a productive collaboration.
Chris Kinchin-Smith

Photo Gallery

Please check out our website to view more photos selected by our Photo Team.

Donations to FLHF via Localgiving

If you’d like to support our work in the fields your donations are very welcome. Please do donate via Localgiving on our website friendsoflyncombehillfields.co.uk

Remember there is an option to donate via direct debit so you may give a small sum every month, for as long as you wish, rather than a single larger sum. Donations to FLHF via Localgiving from UK taxpayers also enable FLHF to benefit from Gift Aid payments.

Volunteering

Typically around 12 people join us in the Fields for two hours on Sunday mornings, with slightly smaller numbers on Wednesdays. Our sessions are from 10.00 to 12.00 on Sunday and Wednesday mornings.

You can come as often or as infrequently as you wish. In doing so you will do your bit to improve the local environment and community, and improve your health. We will teach you new skills, and you will find that this is a very sociable activity. There are no fees; all it costs is your time. If you or any family or friends are interested in getting involved, please contact us at [email protected]

We look forward to seeing you in the fields
Very best to you all

Chris and Maurice

Friends of Lyncombe Hill Fields
Our Wild Hilltop Paradise

Editor: Ruth Herrlinger

10/01/2026

Bulletin No 47 – January / February 2026
Welcome to our Latest Update

What to look out for in January and February
- Hard, black ivy berries providing important food for winter thrushes, blackbirds, wood pigeons and blackcaps.
- Male and female robins still defending winter territories with their strident song.
- The first green shoots of ramsons poking through the mud below the mature trees.
- Great spotted woodpeckers drumming as the weather warms.
- Hazel catkins extending and wafting pollen into the air, seeking the male red flowers.
Peter McSweeney

Who has been in the Inner Field?

As if we have been invaded by giant grass moths, you may have noticed some bare patches in the field that stretches almost end to end. The reasoning? To create floral diversity in the grassland. The National Trust provide us with something like 4kg (i.e. lots) of seeds collected around Smallcombe Vale. Of most interest in the general mix is the presence of Hay (yellow) Rattle. This plant, once established, predates on the roots of grass plants that surround it. The result is areas of bare ground in which wild flowers will (hopefully) grow. As an annual, it needs to flower and set seed each year if it is to survive.

In the past we have dug much larger areas, turned them over, weeded them and planted up with the same sort of mix. The results have been variable. It could be:
- The seed was not vernalised (subject to a prolonged period of cold).
- Soil chemistry was unfavourable
- Seed was not viable
We will be doing this in this one field for a number of years, as it is the one of our five fields that has the smallest natural profusion of wild flowers.
Maurice Tennenhaus

An International Partnership for the Friends of Lyncombe Hill Fields

FLHF has many links to other organisations, providing two-way flows of ideas, information and expertise. This now includes an international link, aiming to build connections between conservation efforts in the developed and developing worlds.

One of our most enthusiastic volunteers, Bharath Raman Ayyaraju whose family home is in Southern India, has set up an organisation called Global Green Conservation Connect (GGCC). This was launched at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution on 29th November 2025. Bharath has a professional background in biotechnology. He came to Britain to deepen his understanding of current conservation practices, completing an MSc in Advanced Wildlife Conservation in Practice at Bristol UWE, and working with the Friends of Henrietta Park and More Trees B&NES as well as with FLHF.

Bharath has now travelled back to India where GGCC will host a two-day conservation seminar, to which FLHF’s Directors will contribute an on-line presentation about our work.
Chris Kinchin-Smith

Willow weep for me

Willows are so common they often pass our notice. Born to be wild (but can take over a small garden), they really come into their own in the winter and spring. Autumn leaves having fallen, their colourful stems can brighten up the drabbest corner. In the spring their catkins are a delight and provide welcome food to insect pollinators. If you sit on one of the benches with your back to the allotments, once you have had your fill of the views looking towards Solsbury Hill, turn around and you will see a crescent shaped structure which should become more prominent in the years to come. Willows have both practical uses and were often associated with the cycle of life. They became the subject of songs. A list of ones mentioned here and others is provided below.

Maurice Tennenhaus

Willow weep for me - Billie Holiday
Autumn Leaves - Mel Torme
Born to be Wild - Steppenwolf
Catkins - Raveloe
Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel
Willow - Taylor Swift
Little Willow - Paul McCartney
Bury me beneath the weeping willow - The Carter Family
Willow - Joan Armatrading

FLHF Christmas Dinner

25 of our volunteers (including some partners) once again celebrated FLHF’s achievements of 2025 with an excellent three-course Christmas dinner at the Bear Inn in Bear Flat on Friday December 19th.

FLHF does not subsidise this in any way but it is a most enjoyable event – now in its fourth year. The original instigator and highly efficient organiser of this event is one of our Site Leaders – Dave Pegler.

Chris Kinchin-Smith

What is on the menu for the next couple of months?

- Completing the mowing and strimming of grassland slopes here and there before March.
- A large number of elder and buddleia that need to be pollarded to maximise flowering and to minimise disease.
- At least 2 more benches will be sited by the paths
- The blackthorn that threatens the path near Tiny Forest 2 will be cut back
- Laying the hedge in the Copse

Photo Gallery

Please check out our website to view more photos selected by our Photo Team.

Donations to FLHF via Localgiving

If you’d like to support our work in the fields your donations are very welcome. Please do donate via Localgiving on our website friendsoflyncombehillfields.co.uk
Remember there is an option to donate via direct debit so you may give a small sum every month, for as long as you wish, rather than a single larger sum. Donations to FLHF via Localgiving from UK taxpayers also enable FLHF to benefit from Gift Aid payments.

Volunteering

Typically around 12 people join us in the Fields for two hours on Sunday mornings, with slightly smaller numbers on Wednesdays. Our sessions are from 10.00 to 12.00 on Sunday and Wednesday mornings.

You can come as often or as infrequently as you wish. In doing so you will do your bit to improve the local environment and community, and improve your health. We will teach you new skills, and you will find that this is a very sociable activity. There are no fees; all it costs is your time. If you or any family or friends are interested in getting involved, please contact us at [email protected]

We look forward to seeing you in the fields
Very best to you all

Chris and Maurice

Friends of Lyncombe Hill Fields
Our Wild Hilltop Paradise

Editor: Ruth Herrlinger

18/11/2025

Bulletin No 46 – November / December 2025
Welcome to our Latest Update

"Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree."
by Emily Bronte

What to look out for in November and December
- Black ivy berries and red hawthorn berries attracting blackbirds and thrushes.
- Mixed flocks of small birds, calling to each other with high pitched tweets.
- The hard black buds of the ash and the hanging seeds (keys) revealed now the leaves have parted company with the parent tree.
- The occasional yellow hawkbit flower defying the season.
- The old flower heads of the tall h**p agrimony fluffy with seeds.
- Cobwebs revealed by the early morning dew or frost.
- Male and female robins singing on sunny days to defend their winter territories.
- A kestrel perched sentinel in a tree waiting for a vole to appear.
Peter McSweeney

It’s Your Neighbourhood Assessment – “Outstanding” Again

The Friends of Lyncombe Hill Fields have again been visited and evaluated for the annual RHS - Royal Horticultural Society and South West In Bloom ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ (IYN) assessment. This is based on three main criteria: Community Participation, Environmental Responsibility, and Gardening Achievement.

For the fourth year in succession, we have been judged to be in the highest category, “Level 5, Outstanding”. We were also short-listed “One of the best IYN groups” and “an outstanding area of nature conservation”. The judge’s report included particular praise for the nursery, tiny forests, and rainwater harvesting facility. While mentioning the potential benefits of achieving Local Nature Reserve status, it concluded “There is, in all honesty, little I can add to what is an outstanding space other than recognition and support!”.
Chris Kinchin-Smith

The Website Gallery and Videos

Hopefully many of you log onto our website Gallery regularly to see the new photos selected around the start of each month by our Photos Group. Up until now we have not been able to include videos on the website, so some of you will not have seen the wonderful composite videos of creatures great and small in our Fields, compiled by Jackie (Jack) Terrett using a motion-sensitive camera by day and by night. She sets this camera up around our various secret ‘tiny ponds’, capturing wonderful videos of badgers, deer, foxes, weasels, small rodents and many species of bird.

If you have a Facebook account you can now see one of these videos (around six minutes in length) from the green button called ‘short videos’ on the website. (also available on Instagram . We are looking into setting up our own Youtube channel for Jack’s videos, to be accessed from the website.

Bath Urban Treescape – Tree Trails

Lyncombe Hill Fields is featured in a new Tree Trail, formulated by the Bath Urban Treescape who comprise a small team of dedicated volunteer tree enthusiasts.

Supported by Bathscape and other organisations, they have devised around 15 walks in and around Bath all of which feature exceptional trees. Trail J, entitled ‘Beechen Cliff Clamber’ starts and ends in Widcombe Parade and climbs via Beechen Cliff, Alexandra Park and Lyncombe Hill Fields. Yes, many of you know all of these local paths, but the trail highlights 19 trees or groups of trees. The ones in our own Fields comprise a Field Maple, a Wych Elm and Tiny Forest no. 1.

It is worth logging onto their website for details of this and their other local Tree Trails. https://www.bathurbantreescape.com/
Chris Kinchin-Smith

Photo Competition 2025

We ran a photo competition again this summer. There were separate categories for those in primary school, those in secondary and the vast majority of us, no longer at school. It was FREE to enter and there was a first prize of £25 in each of the categories. Fewer entries than last year but as you will see there has been no drop in quality. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to our judges for all their hard work.
Maurice Tennenhaus

Photo Gallery

Please check out our website to view more photos selected by our Photo Team. https://friendsoflyncombehillfields.co.uk/gallery/

Donations to FLHF via Localgiving

If you’d like to support our work in the fields your donations are very welcome. Please do donate via Localgiving on our website friendsoflyncombehillfields.co.uk

Remember there is an option to donate via direct debit so you may give a small sum every month, for as long as you wish, rather than a single larger sum. Donations to FLHF via Localgiving from UK taxpayers also enable FLHF to benefit from Gift Aid payments.

Volunteering

Typically around 12 people join us in the Fields for two hours on Sunday mornings, with slightly smaller numbers on Wednesdays. Our sessions are from 10.00 to 12.00 on Sunday and Wednesday mornings.

You can come as often or as infrequently as you wish. In doing so you will do your bit to improve the local environment and community, and improve your health. We will teach you new skills, and you will find that this is a very sociable activity. There are no fees; all it costs is your time. If you or any family or friends are interested in getting involved, please contact us at [email protected]

We look forward to seeing you in the fields
Very best to you all

Chris and Maurice

Friends of Lyncombe Hill Fields
Our Wild Hilltop Paradise
https://friendsoflyncombehillfields.co.uk/

Editor: Ruth Herrlinger

02/11/2025

Our 2026 Calendar is now available.

This is our 3rd calendar.

We produce it to publicise what we do, encourage people to visit, enthuse new volunteers to join and to finance our work.

All the pictures have been taken by our volunteers and supporters, along with our trap camera (see the cheeky fox), sited by one of the tiny ponds.

It is A4 size that opens out to A3. This is the back cover, showing what you can find inside.

The calendar is available for £10.00. We will be selling it, along with our greetings cards at the Bear Flat Community Market, Bruton Avenue BA2 4QJ between 9.30 and 12.30 on the third Saturday of the month, starting Saturday 20 September and every 3rd Saturday of the month up until the new year. You'll also find us at Widcombe Association Christmas Market – 22 and 23 November, Widcombe Social Club and Natural Theatre Company, Widcombe Hill.

15/10/2025

Bulletin No 45 – September / October 2025
Welcome to our Latest Update

"The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town."

from Autumn by Emily Dickinson

What to look out for in September and October
- Green hazel nuts ripen, with empty shells dropping early
- Hawthorn’s berries (“haws”) also ripen into deep red jewels
- An occasional chiffchaff calls wistfully from a tree
- Voles are at their most numerous and attract swooping kestrels
- Small tortoiseshell and red admiral butterflies on the buddleia
- House martins chirp overhead, flying low when it's overcast
- Bush crickets and grasshoppers also chirp from the long grass
- The robins are singing once again, setting up their winter territories
- Ivy flowers, like golden lollipops, provide a critical food source for bees, hoverflies and even butterflies, and have a sweet honey scent
- As the weather becomes cooler, morning dew bedecks spider cobwebs rendering them useless
- Many sloe, spindle and hawthorn trees are laden with juicy berries
- Yellow leaves are appearing in the field maples as autumn arrives
Peter McSweeney

FLHF is now Five Years Old!

We were granted our Licence to manage and improve our lovely Fields by B&NES Council on 1st September 2020. This was of course the first year of the COVID pandemic. Following a successful launch meeting with potential volunteers by Zoom, we began our first working sessions with small groups the following month. It was actually a good time to be starting such a venture as people desperately wanted to get outside and do something congenial and useful.

We produce an Annual Report and Accounts for our Annual General Meeting and for B&NES. This year’s AGM took place on 22nd July. All of our Annual Reports (including the latest one) can be found on our website, under the ‘Reports and Policies’ tab https://friendsoflyncombehillfields.co.uk/flhf-reports.

This latest Annual Report includes a ‘Highlights of the Year’ section, and a mention of the possibility that at some future date we may become designated as a Local Nature Reserve.

Publish and be damned

Our 2026 Calendar is now available.

This is our 3rd calendar.
We produce it to publicise what we do, encourage people to visit, enthuse new volunteers to join and to finance our work.
All the pictures have been taken by our volunteers and supporters, along with our trap camera (see the cheeky fox), sited by one of the tiny ponds.

It is A4 size that opens out to A3.

The calendar is available for £10.00. We will be selling it, along with our greetings cards at the Bear Flat Community Market, Bruton Avenue BA2 4QJ between 9.30 and 12.30 on the third Saturday of the month, starting Saturday 20 September and every 3rd Saturday of the month up until the new year.
- Maurice Tennenhaus

Mowing notes
As anyone who has walked through the fields since the start of June can tell you, we spend a lot of time mowing and raking, and raking, and …..
Following a discussion with a local farmer, we embarked on an experiment during a very hot day in July. We wanted to see whether it might be possible to use a tractor to cut at least some of our grass. This showed what could be achieved. The cut was rapid and of excellent quality but the farmer was not interested in taking the hay, hence we would still be left with the manual task of raking it off the meadows. We hope to investigate this further next year.
- Maurice Tennenhaus

Photo Gallery

Please check out our website to view more photos selected by our Photo Team.

Donations to FLHF via Localgiving

If you’d like to support our work in the fields your donations are very welcome. Please do donate via Localgiving on our website friendsoflyncombehillfields.co.uk
Remember there is an option to donate via direct debit so you may give a small sum every month, for as long as you wish, rather than a single larger sum. Donations to FLHF via Localgiving from UK taxpayers also enable FLHF to benefit from Gift Aid payments.

Volunteering

Typically around 12 people join us in the Fields for two hours on Sunday mornings, with slightly smaller numbers on Wednesdays. Our sessions are from 10.00 to 12.00 on Sunday and Wednesday mornings.
You can come as often or as infrequently as you wish. In doing so you will do your bit to improve the local environment and community, and improve your health. We will teach you new skills, and you will find that this is a very sociable activity. There are no fees; all it costs is your time. If you or any family or friends are interested in getting involved, please contact us at [email protected]

We look forward to seeing you in the fields
Very best to you all

Chris and Maurice

Friends of Lyncombe Hill Fields
Our Wild Hilltop Paradise

Editor: Ruth Herrlinger

12/10/2025

06/07/2025

Bulletin No 44 – July / August 2025
Welcome to our Latest Update

"In every field, in every lawn and mead,
The rousing voice of industry is heard;
The haycock rises, and the frequent rake
Sweeps on the fragrant hay in heavy wreaths ."
From Hay-Making by Joanna Baillie

What to look out for in July and August
- Hear the growing hum of insects: chirping grasshoppers rub their legs together, called ‘stridulation’, although some sounds can’t be heard by us humans.
- Butterflies, whose caterpillars feed on grasses, are on the wing right now; meadow browns, small skippers, ringlet and the occasional marbled white.
- Brambles are profuse with pink-tinged flowers attracting bees and hoverflies.
- Bats, including Noctules and Pipistrelles fly most evenings, skirting along treelines hunting for moths and gnats.
- The tall black knapweed, and even taller h**p-agrimony and buddleia, all support pretty purple flowers attracting butterflies.
- Peter McSweeney

Queen Elizabeth Day – The Paragon School

Early in June we welcomed ten children from The Paragon School to Lyncombe Hill Fields for their third annual Queen Elizabeth Day. The day has been created to inculcate the joys of volunteering in different sectors at an early age.
Joined by staff and parents together with two volunteers, the children weeded and prepared an area in our small nursery bed ready to plant red campion and cowslip plugs. This was accomplished with much excitement and noise and a great time had by all with job well done! They had a tour of the fields and loved the Tiny Forests. In the afternoon they played a fun learning game; they had descriptions of species to be found in rich meadows pinned to their backs and through questioning, needed to guess what they were. Again, much hilarity ensued and they finished off by standing in a line in accordance to which species was highest in the food chain.

The weather treated us all kindly and we look forward to seeing the children next year.
- Anita Breeze

Our Sapling Nursery – Another year begins

Relatively well concealed in a corner of East Field is our sapling nursery. We don’t show it on our maps of the Fields, but after our meadows work and the creation of our three Tiny Forests it has been the biggest single project that we have undertaken. It now forms a key part of the annual cycle of our work.

It is one of 11 community tree nurseries championed by the More Trees BANES charity. We were keen to get involved because although we had planted nearly 4,000 trees in our first four years, these all came from remote parts of Great Britain. How much better to grow trees ourselves from seed collected from woodland locations in and around Bath.

Commencing in 2023 we grew nearly 1,000 saplings. Some of these (slow growing varieties such as oak and beech) are still in the nursery. Others have been planted at the edges of our Inner Field, or in the hedgerows. Then on 25th June 2025 we took delivery of more than 400 new baby saplings, (all grown by More Trees volunteers at their Central Nursery Hub in Twerton), and planted these in our nursery. The varieties comprise Spindle, Gelder Rose, Hazel, Dog Rose and Dog Wood.
- Chris Kinchin-Smith

Please check out our website, friendsoflyncombehillfields.co.uk, to view more photos selected by our Photo Team.

Donations to FLHF via Localgiving

If you’d like to support our work in the fields your donations are very welcome. Please do donate via Localgiving on our website friendsoflyncombehillfields.co.uk

Remember there is an option to donate via direct debit so you may give a small sum every month, for as long as you wish, rather than a single larger sum. Donations to FLHF via Localgiving from UK taxpayers also enable FLHF to benefit from Gift Aid payments.

Volunteering

Typically around 12 people join us in the Fields for two hours on Sunday mornings, with slightly smaller numbers on Wednesdays. During the summer period (from around mid-June) we meet 09.00-11.00 on Sunday mornings, and from 19.30-21.00 on Wednesday evenings, when temperatures are more comfortable, changing to 19.00-20.30 from late July.

You can come as often or as infrequently as you wish. In doing so you will do your bit to improve the local environment and community, and improve your health. We will teach you new skills, and you will find that this is a very sociable activity. There are no fees; all it costs is your time. If you or any family or friends are interested in getting involved, please contact us at [email protected]

We look forward to seeing you in the fields
Very best to you all

Chris and Maurice

Friends of Lyncombe Hill Fields
Our Wild Hilltop Paradise

Editor: Ruth Herrlinger

09/06/2025

The 2025 Lyncombe Hill Fields Photo Competition is open for submissions!

Everything you need to know is here >>
https://friendsoflyncombehillfields.co.uk/the-2025-lyncombe-hill-fields-photo-competition/

The competition closes Sunday 24 August.