Friends of the Byes

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Friends of the Byes

The official Friends of the Byes was formed in 2010 with the aim to increase biodiversity in this large piece of parkland.

Working with councils, National Trust and other community organisations the group have overseen many changes over the years.

28/10/2026

Our volunteers spent the day with Ben Morgan-Brown from Wild East Devon starting work on creating a new hedge in the community orchard utilising two rows of hazel trees that were planted many years ago. The project aims to create a new habitat area for wildlife with new hedges, dead hedges and space to encourage new flora growth.
Ben's time today was funded out of the East Devon Community Hedgerows Project funding provided by The National Lottery Community Fund.

18/10/2026

Work had begun on the new wildlife pond in the rear grounds of Sidmouth town council offices. New volunteers are welcome to or Wednesday or Saturday group.
Enquiries via our Website:-
https://friendsofthebyes.org.uk/contact/

15/10/2026

Would you be interested in being part of a new section focusing on wildlife surveying and monitoring in the Byes?

Friends of the Byes (FOTB) community volunteers are setting up a new section which will run in parallel with volunteers working in the Byes on Saturdays. The wildlife surveying and monitoring section will meet Wednesday mornings with a focus on gaining knowledge and wider understanding of the ecology of the Byes. The new group will be led by Stuart Webster commented “volunteers will be hands on with surveying everything from bats, mammals, reptiles, flowers, ponds and hedgerows” Stuart added that volunteers will receive training as necessary, working with partners including Wild East Devon rangers & Devon Wildlife Trust. The new section will be embarking this week on a major project to create a pond in the grounds of Sidmouth Town Council.

If you would like to volunteer or perhaps want to know more about volunteering with Friends of the Byes, please complete our online volunteering form https://friendsofthebyes.org.uk/volunteer/
or message us via our page and one of the group will be in touch.

03/10/2026

Volunteers were doing a “walk around” to identify work that needs to be carried out over the coming months.

On the walk we found a very unstable bench by the river (looks like the badgers have had fun with one of the supports!). The bench has been removed for safety reasons

27/09/2026

Volunteers were busy working in the community orchard. We dismantled the willow arbors as they were sadly no longer living (the willows have struggled) and were in a very poor state of repair.

We would like to replace the arbors with some other living shelters (if something suitable would work) or another type of wooden structure that could be used in a similar fashion.

If you have any ideas or perhaps you have some skills to help us with this project to have something ready for spring/summer next year please message us.

06/09/2026

Volunteers were out on Saturday morning doing a variety of tasks in the Byes, including clearing the pathway of all the soil that had encroached the path (from Lymebourne bridge to Margaret’s meadow entrance).

10/08/2026

We noticed that at our base some industrious badgers have been doing some burrowing in the embankment - it’s exciting to see nature in action.

25/07/2026

Did you know by the entrance to the Community Orchard are 2 x arbors perfect to bring little people to sit,rest or have a picnic (depending on the time of day you may get some lovely shade).

19/07/2026

Another hot day for our volunteers who hand pumped and moved over 900 litres of water to help a number of trees that are suffering during this very dry weather.

02/07/2026

Anyone welcome to join this Sunday

Address

C/o Sidmouth Town Council
Sidmouth
EX109BB

Telephone

+447572923024

Website

http://www.friendsofthebyes.org.uk/, http://www.instagram.com/SidmouthFOTB, http://tiktok.com/@fotb_sidmouth

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