Newsletter

Forthcoming Events Summer 2025

Last update: 20th March 2025

On the Opening Day of the New Ferry Butterfly Park season Justin Madders MP will come and celebrate 30 years of the park being open to the public. There will be a broad range of roles to get involved in e.g. sowing seeds, BBQ, tea making, tombola, cake sales, etc. Contact Paul for details. It is a great chance to highlight this reserve and the work of the volunteers.

The next event is the first of the summer’s evening events. Tool maintenance at the butterfly park, honing scythe blades and sharpening billhooks. The herb garden and tree nursery will also receive attention. Thoughts can be given to installing the treadle operated sandstone wheel the volunteers acquired last year.

There will be an evening trip to Thornton Common to cut the centre of the woodland ride to benefit marsh orchids later in the season. Volunteers will remove competing vegetation from the recently laid hedgerows allowing the regrowth to come through. A social will be held at the Seven Stars, Thornton Hough, following this event.

The Cool Heswall Fair is to increase community understanding of climate change. Here the volunteers will have a WCV stall and display and will be sowing seeds in newspaper pots.

There will be a group meal and meeting in the Three Stags, Spital when plans for the autumn events programme and other improvements to the group’s activities can be developed.

June is balsam pulling season! Cover up well and bring some insect repellent. We will also remove the flowering heads of the pendulous sedge which is becoming invasive in Thornton Wood. At Entrance Coppice the bramble can be removed to enhance the hazel regrowth from the coppice stools. Thornton Wood is classed as being in an unfavourable condition and declining as defined by Natural England. The extensive presence of the balsam and other invasive non-native species contribute to this disappointing assessment, though the coppicing was mentioned in a favourable light.

At Poulton Hall there is a charity event. The quirky gardens will be open for viewing and cream teas served. The Volunteers will carry out a hedge laying demonstration with a mocked-up willow hedge. Plenty of other roles are required to make the event happen, contact Paul for details.

The next event is the annual circular cycle ride. This event is a 35 miles cycle trip starting at Hooton Station going further into Cheshire. There will be plenty of stops along the way at various points of interest. Bring some refreshments along. We are taking in a tea shop too!

In preparation for the forthcoming scything season there will be an evening sharpening scythes to get the season off to a good start. Path edges around the park can be cut back too.

The scything regime starts at New Ferry Butterfly Park mowing pondside and half the BBQ grassland. This will be followed at 2pm by Wirral Countryside Volunteers 40^th Birthday Party. a great chance to celebrate the success of the volunteers and how they have grown over the years. It would be great to see new, current and former volunteers. There will be a bring along a contribution BBQ and a rolling PowerPoint presentation of the WCV over the years. Please send any photographs you want included to Paul. The Mayor of Wirral has been invited to slice a ceremonial cake, in WCV style, with a billhook. Remember there is only disabled parking at the park that day.

It is a year of parties, NFBP celebrates 30 years of being open to the public with a party at Windsor Close Community Centre, New Ferry starting at 2pm. There will be a rolling slide show of the park over the years bring along a contribution to share.

WhenWhereEventMeeting PointTime

Paul Loughnane BEM
Hon. Secretary,
Wirral Countryside Volunteers
0151 645 8937
jpl@liv.ac.uk

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When	Where	Event	Meeting Point	Time
MAY
Sun 4th	New Ferry Butterfly Park	NFBP Opening Day, BBQ and stalls	New Ferry Butterfly Park, Howell Road, New Ferry	09:30
Thur 8th	New Ferry Butterfly Park	Tool Maintenance	New Ferry Butterfly Park, Howell Road, New Ferry	19:30
Thur 15th	Thornton Common	Cutting the centre ride & hedge weeding, followed by group social at Seven Stars, Thornton Hough	Thornton Common, Thornton Common Road. Park in Wirral Rugby Club car park	19:30 21:00 at pub
Sat 17th	Cool Heswall Fair, behind Heswall Hall & Library	WCV stall at Cool Heswall (a fair raising environmental awareness)	Contact Steve for details via e-mail: steve@wcv.today	09:30
Mon 19th	Three Stags, spital crossroads	Group Meal (not funded by WCV), followed by a Group meeting	Three Stags, Church Road, Bebington. CH63 3EA	18:30 for meal 19:30 for meeting
June
Thur 5th Thur 12th Thur 19th Thur 26th	Thornton Wood	Removal of Hymalayan Balsam and removal of bramble from Entrance Coppice	Thornton Common Road, where the bridge crosses over the M53	19:30
July
Sat 5th	Poulton Hall, Poulton cum Spital	Garden party, hedge laying demonstration and plant propagation	Poulton Hall, wildflower grassland	12:00 noon
Sat 12th	All day Cycle trip (taking it easy)	Heading down to Cheshire at a leisurely pace taking in interesting sites and tea shops	Hooton Railway Station	09:30
Thus 17th	New Ferry Butterfly Park	Scythe Maintenance	New Ferry Butterfly Park, Howell Road, New Ferry	19:30
Sun 20th	New ferry Butterfly Park	' am' Scything and 'pm' 40th WCV Birthday Party, bring along a BBQ contribution, open to the public, WCV stall/display	New Ferry Butterfly Park, Howell Road, New Ferry	am: 9:30 pm: 2 - 5
August
Sat 2nd	Windsor Close Community Centre	30th NFBP Birthday Party, bring along a contribution to share	Windsor Close Community Centre, Windsor Close, New Ferry, CH62 5BZ	2 - 5 pm