Bugbrooke Environmental Working Group

06/09/2026

Thanks to everyone who came along to this afternoon's litter pick. It was especially good to see a number of enthusiastic young 'Wombles'. Today we collected 8 black bags of litter and various other items - West Northants Council will send a crew to collect it all in the next couple of days so please bear with the pile until then.
We litter pick every two months in a different area of the village each time - the next one will be on Sunday 1 November, meeting at 2pm outside Campion School.

30/08/2026

30/08/2026

A sunny Sunday hour spent raking cleared the whole of the Lime Grove patch this morning. It may not look like much, but the very big heap of clippings collected says otherwise!

24/08/2026

This is a lovely story about leaving nature to its own devices. This is what we are trying to achieve in Bugbrooke with our patches of long grass (obviously on a far smaller scale!).
Key takeaway from the article - this is a long term project.

Farmer Derek Sayer let a boggy field run wild and just one annual hay-cut has led to remarkable biodiversity

22/08/2026

An hour of hard work this morning at Homestead Drive cleared about 2/5ths of the area of cut grass. You can see how much we cleared in the piles of grass at the back of the plot.
As a reminder, the reason we’re doing this is to stop the cut grass rotting down and enriching the soil, which encourages more grass. Poorer soil will suit a wider variety of wild flowers.
More raking parties will be happening soon - we have spare rakes if anyone wants to join us.

16/08/2026

Another entry in our series on using your garden to protect wildlife during a drought.

If you’re tired of a dry, brown lawn, try white clover (other lovely varieties exist, but white clover fits with the lawn ‘look’).

It’s drought tolerant.

Keeps your lawn looking green.

Provides nectar to bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.

💙

16/08/2026

Bugbrooke Environmental Working Group members spent a warm hour this morning spreading bark chippings along the edge of Captain’s Close. This is mulch to keep nettles etc suppressed ready to plant a mixed native hedge this winter. Photos before, during and after!
If anyone would be interested in joining occasional work parties like this do let us know 😊

15/08/2026

Free training course on hedgerows

The Upper Nene Valley Wildlife Group has arranged a short training course in hedgerow surveying. The course will be taught by Dr Janet Jackson, who for many years lectured on Ecology at the University of Northampton.

The course aims to provide local people with the skills to assess the age and condition of hedgerows and identify what action might be taken to restore them where needed.

The course will be in two parts:
- Classroom session 7pm- 9pm Monday 7th September. Covering tree identification and theory of assessing hedgerows.
- Practical outdoor session on Thursday 10th September. Start time tbc but will last 2-3 hours.

Both sessions will be in Nether Heyford. The course is offered free of charge and there is a maximum of 15 places. Please comment below or email [email protected] if you are interested.
[Photo by Veronica White on Unsplash]

29/04/2026

An interesting court case going through currently.

BBC News - UK's biggest environmental pollution claim reaches High Court - BBC News

One of the UK's largest chicken producers and a water company accused of polluting three rivers including the River Wye