Staff from the Cotswolds Conservation Board have been busy capturing the 102 mile Cotswold Way National Trail last summer for Google Trekker to feature on their maps.  It’s a journey that started in

Chipping Campden in August walking with a series of 16 cameras mounted in a green shell, carried like a rucksack. The Trekker sparked some interest by visitors as it approached the centre of Bath, completing the journey. 

Google Trekker is the next generation of ‘street view maps’.

You can view each section of the Cotswold Way National Trail by following the links below:

• Chipping Campden to Broadway

• Broadway to Crickley Hill

• Crickley Hill to Stonehouse

• Stonehouse to Wotton under Edge

• Wotton under Edge to Tormarton

• Tormarton to Bath Abbey

Over 50,000 hours of conservation and wildflower restoration work by volunteers, creating 11 new jobs in local businesses and engaging 1,500 young people with nature are just some of the success stories in the recently published Annual Review 2016/17 by the Cotswolds Conservation Board.

The Cotswolds Conservation Board, which looks after the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) marked its 50th anniversary of being designated as a protected landscape in 2016. This gave the Board a huge opportunity to increase awareness to an ever increasing and diverse audience of stakeholders of the special qualities of this nationally important landscape: Rich in farming, tourism and nature but hugely important for the UK’s economy.

2016/17 Success stories:

•  2,536 hours of restoration work by volunteers at 36 wildflower grassland sites,
•  48,338 hours of conservation work by voluntary wardens equated to an estimated value of £322,000,
• 553 people trained on over 70 rural skills courses,
• 402,994 unique visits to the Board’s websites,
• 44,523 visitors to the Cotswolds Discovery Centre,
• 4833 people enjoying free guided walks,
•  Over 12,000 people following the Cotswolds AONB on social media,
•  2,000 visitors to the Cotswolds Living Landscape Festival.

As well as reviewing the past year, the Annual Review also looks at the year ahead and the future priorities for the Board, which include reviewing and consulting on the AONB Management Plan and protecting and investing in the natural capital of the Cotswolds.

The Board’s Chairman Liz Eyre said: “The Board has been working to deliver real benefits for residents and visitors – and indeed for the country as a whole.

I am delighted to present this excellent record with sincere thanks to all those who have helped to deliver these benefits”.

The Board are proud members of the national family of Protected Landscapes, incorporating both National Parks and AONBs and are third largest of those special places after the Lakes and Yorkshire Dales. The Cotswolds Conservation Board offers exceptional value for money and the economic activity and jobs linked to the Cotswolds landscape mean that the area is so much more than just a lovely view.

The Annual Review summarises the work undertaken by the Board’s staff, members, volunteers and partner organisations during the last financial year.  Despite economically challenging times, the support and partnership working across the area has continued to bring a wide range of benefits to the Cotswolds AONB and its local communities.

You can view the Annual Review by clicking here or download the info-graphic to see how the Board has made a difference in 2016/17.

Saturday 1 July 2017  #NationalMeadowsDay

• Save the date: National Meadows Day to take place on 1 July 2017
• Wildflower meadows are vanishing; 97% have been lost since the 1930s
• A single healthy meadow can be home to over 80 species of wild flowers

National Meadows Day (1), dedicated to celebrating and protecting our vanishing wildflower meadows and the wealth of wildlife they support, will take place on Saturday 1 July 2017. This year’s National Meadows Day will be the biggest yet, with over 100 events (2) taking place across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

From barefoot walks and scything workshops, to picnics and bug hunts, people will have the opportunity to experience first-hand the petalled-paradise that is a meadow in summer.
Hucclecote Meadows on the outskirts of Gloucester was rescued from development and remains an oasis of wildflowers and insect life. To celebrate National Meadows Day, the Cotswolds Conservation Board and Gloucester City Council  have organised a medicinal herb walk from with Max Drake from the Urban Fringe Dispensary, natural sculpture making sessions with artist Alan May, as well as wildflower and butterfly ID sessions and pond dipping! All are welcome – come and find out why meadows matter, from 1pm to 4pm.

For a full programme of events taking place in the Cotswolds visit; www.magnificentmeadows.org.uk.

National Meadows Day is the headline event of Save Our Magnificent Meadows (3), the UK’s largest partnership project transforming the fortunes of our vanishing wildflower meadows, grasslands and wildlife. Plantlife, supported by money raised by National Lottery players with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) (4), is spearheading the project.

Claire Parton, Save Our Magnificent Meadows Project Manager, said:
"Meadows, once a feature of every parish in the Cotswolds, are now an increasingly fragile part of our national heritage but all is not lost. National Meadows Day is the perfect way to explore and enjoy the flowers and wildlife of the Cotswolds magnificent meadows and understand their special place in our shared social and cultural history".

"Beyond being a quintessential sight of summer, meadows’ value to our wildlife cannot be overstated – a single healthy meadow can be home to over 80 species of wild flowers, such as cuckoo flower, yellow rattle, orchids, knapweed and scabious, compared to most modern agricultural pasture which typically  supports under a dozen species."

Eleanor Reast, Conservation Officer for Save Our Magnificent Meadows in the Cotswolds, said:

“Just 100 years ago there would have been a meadow in every Cotswold parish, supporting a way of life that had gone on for centuries. They provided grazing and hay for livestock, employment, and food and medicine for the parish and were part of a community’s cultural and social history. Today, just 3% of the meadows that existed in the 1930’s remain (5) – that’s a loss of 7.5 million acres of wild flower grassland”.

•    1) National Meadows Day is the headline event of Save Our Magnificent Meadows, the UK’s largest partnership project transforming the fortunes of our vanishing wildflower meadows, grasslands and wildlife.
•    2) For more information about the events taking place on National Meadows Day please visit www.magnificentmeadows.org.uk.
•    3) Led by Plantlife, the Save Our Magnificent Meadows partnership is made up of 11 organisations and is primarily funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The partnership consists of Cotswolds Conservation Board, Medway Valley Countryside Partnership, National Trust Wales, Northumberland Wildlife Trust, Plantlife, RSPB (working in Scotland and Wiltshire), Scottish Wildlife Trust, Somerset Wildlife Trust, Ulster Wildlife, and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.
•    4) Thanks to National Lottery players, Heritage Lottery Fund invest money to help people across the UK explore, enjoy and protect the heritage they care about – from the archaeology under our feet to the historic parks and buildings we love, from precious memories and collections to rare wildlife. www.hlf.org.uk. Follow HLF on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #HLFsupported.
•    5) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/18/losing-97-percent-britain-wildflower-meadows-matters-butterfly

A celebration of the innovative fundraising scheme that helps to keep the Cotswolds beautiful also marks a new phase to attract more tourism businesses to sign up.
 

On Tuesday 16 May, a special event is being held to celebrate the innovative Cotswolds visitor giving scheme now called ‘Caring for the Cotswolds’.

The event taking place at 6:30pm at Adam Henson’s Cotswold Farm Park will provide an opportunity for new tourism businesses to join the scheme to help to maintain the area’s outstanding beauty for all to enjoy. The event will also showcase some of the inspiring projects it has already funded across the AONB and to thank tourism businesses – ‘the members’ – who have helped to make it a success so far.

Are you a business in the Cotswolds? Reserve your place at our ‘Become a Member’ event

Since the launch of the visitor giving scheme in 2013, over £16,600 has been raised by 19 local tourism businesses, providing grants towards a wide range of environmental and landscape projects: including woodland coppicing and site interpretation at Kites Hill Nature Reserve; the reconstruction of an historic railway halt near Hailes Abbey on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway line; a downloadable walking guide and online resources to bring to life the ‘Cotswold Story: the Bagendon Landscape’.

The Cotswolds attracts millions of visitors a year and such large numbers inevitably impact on the environment. Caring for the Cotswolds – managed by the Cotswolds Conservation Board, with funded projects delivered by the many organisations that look after the features that make the Cotswolds special – is brilliantly simple: visitors are asked to voluntarily donate a very small amount of money via their bill or fees, and that money helps to conserve the landscape they have come to enjoy.

“Our tourism industry relies on the high-quality environment of the Cotswolds and the members that care in the scheme really understand that,” says Liz Eyre, Chairman of the Cotswolds Conservation Board.

“It’s so easy for tourism businesses to participate in the scheme: whether activity companies using the Cotswold Way and other trails who simply collect donations from runners and pass them on to us for trails maintenance; or Adam Henson’s Cotswold Farm Park which makes donations from their annual membership schemes. Members can use whatever method best suits their business model.

“Visitors can also feel more part of the landscape, knowing that by booking accommodation, or enjoying meals and activities provided by tourism businesses in ‘Caring for the Cotswolds’ they are contributing towards maintaining the AONB.”

Manor Cottages, which provides an online booking service for holiday cottages across the Cotswolds, is a founding member of the scheme and largest single contributor to date. The company gives visitors the opportunity to donate £1 when booking their holiday cottage and then matches donations £1 for £1.

Owner Chris Grimes, who is also Chairman of Cotswolds Tourism, says: “We view Caring for the Cotswolds as a vital tool in helping to protect the Cotswolds landscape … and it is very, very simple [to participate]. Any business that benefits from the brand ‘Cotswolds’ really ought to be doing their bit to help protect the beauty and appeal of the region. We’re passionate about the Cotswolds and therefore feel it our duty to be involved in protecting the region.”

Businesses interested in doing their bit can find out more at the Caring for the Cotswolds event featuring presentations from members already in the scheme and conservation projects that have benefited from grants. “The scheme is working well and we are now looking to make a step change in scale to grow it further,” Chris Brant, Communications Officer, says.

Projects Spotlights

Through its Cotswolds Rivers Barn Owl Recovery Project, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (GWT) has been working with landowners and farmers along the River Windrush to reverse the decline in numbers of this iconic species. A Caring for the Cotswolds grant of £1,250 “has been invaluable, as it has enabled us to purchase the materials for barn owl boxes and is helping us run training events to train barn owl box monitoring volunteers,” says Richard Spyvee, GWT Living Landscapes Manager.

Barn owl populations declined significantly in the 20th century due to intensification of agriculture, habitat loss and pesticides. There are fewer than 50 confirmed breeding sites in Gloucestershire, but the River Windrush area is a barn owl hotspot thanks to rough grassland habitat where field voles thrive, old barns for nesting and favourable farming practices.

Two of three barn owl boxes inspected in 2015 revealed eggs and young, and results from boxes put up in 2016 are eagerly anticipated this summer. Thanks to landowners’ positive response, the original target of putting up 60 boxes will be well exceeded, Richard says.

A Caring for the Cotswolds grant of £770 towards the restoration of the Coronation Gate and replacement of the Walking Map in Ilmington has been “fantastic” says Jan Sherwood, Chairman of Ilmington Parish Council. “It is all about preserving things that people find really special.”

The north Cotswolds village, with its many footpaths, local hills and views, is a magnet for walkers, runners and cyclists, and the Coronation Gate – beautifully hand-carved in oak to mark the Queen’s Coronation in 1953 – gives access to a path leading to the Centenary Way. Well-loved, the special kissing gate nevertheless needed urgent tlc after 60-plus years of frequent use.

Similarly, the village map in the oak display board on the Lower Green had become badly weathered but now a new, updated Walking Map using fresh imagery and text will highlight Ilmington’s many footpaths and special features – not least St Mary’s Church boasting pews made by Arts and Crafts practitioner Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson, complete with 11 of his discreetly carved signature mice.

Become a member of Caring for the Cotswolds

Caring for the Cotswolds members event: Tuesday 16 May, 6:30pm, Adam Henson Cotswold Farm Park: to find out more and to attend, businesses can click here or contact Chris Brant, Communications Officer, email chris.brant@cotswolds-nl.org.uk, tel. 01451 862003.

This year’s Cotswolds Farming Forum will look at farming and the Cotswolds landscape after Brexit with presentations from three different perspectives; the farmer, the food retailer and the Cotswolds Conservation Board.

The Cotswolds Conservation Board will host this year’s annual Farming Forum at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester on Thursday 27 April from 6:30pm.

Farming is vital for the Cotswolds and has for many years been strongly influenced by European grant schemes and regulation. The speakers will look at the threats and opportunities from Brexit and what farming in the Cotswolds needs post Brexit to produce food, conserve the landscape and biodiversity.

Speakers include: Mark Tufnell, Calmsden Farms, Martin Lane, Director of the Cotswolds Conservation Board and Barry Hancox, local food and hospitality entrepreneur and consultant.

Director of the Cotswolds Conservation Board, Martin Lane said “We hope this event will give farmers the opportunity to consider both the threats and opportunities that Brexit will bring to the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, hearing from the farmer and the retailer”.

Doors open at 6.30pm with light refreshments, welcome and introduction by Lord Bathurst at 7pm.

You can register your place by visiting clicking here.