A delightful visit to Surrey Wildlife Trust Nower Wood
Maybe as a “thank you” to Pete for a generous donation to the Trust, supporting their herd of belted Galloway cattle, we received an invitation to “Bluebell Afternoon Tea” at Nower Wood. There is no public access to the wood, 81acres SW of Leatherhead, although there are occasional public “open days”. It is managed as an educational site, in fact an outdoor classroom using the beautiful woodland mainly ancient oaks, hazel coppice, chalk grassland, heath and ponds with a great variety of animals and invertebrates.
We were invited first to the teaching centre which was opened in 2017 part funded by the Heritage Lottery and fundraising support from Judi Dench the patron. The lovely wooden building has lots of environmentally sustainable features e.g. green roof and biomass boiler. We were assigned a SWT employee to look after us i.e. answer questions and make sure we had sufficient cups of tea. The CEO gave an inspiring talk about the Trust’s strategy for natural recovery. This involves the projects one might expect such as Heritage Hedgerow regeneration, working with landowners and providing training, also water and woodland management, assistance with the administrative complications for funding. Biodiversity net gain is now a mandatory requirement for development in England.
In the past money was the driving force behind land usage and one reason the UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world. However, to reverse the process by concentrating entirely on the environment is not now seen as a positive way forward, but instead to put a true monetary value on nature and biodiversity. The trust works with developers and public bodies to incorporate environmentally positive programmes e.g. Shepperton Studios land/water management in their surrounding estate. These programmes are increasingly seen as valuable to the status and reputation of companies as well as the direct effect of the programme on the natural environment. There is increasing awareness of the harms from pollution and that Nature is essential for all life.
The invitation was to afternoon tea and shortly after midday we were ushered into one of the teaching rooms with tables charmingly decorated with flowers, cake stands with sandwiches, scones, savouries, homemade jam and cream, fruit and more cakes etc on the side. The tablecloths, china and cutlery even the little embroidered napkins were certainly sourced from charity shops as a delightful mixture of pretty patterns and the food was amazing. Real leaf tea in teapots was a nice sustainable touch. Although officially afternoon tea, it formed a hearty lunch for us, a real treat.
The delights continued with a witty and thought provoking performance by members of Guildford Shakespeare Company as we were lead through the bluebell woods by a spivvy developer proposing plans along the lines of Mar-el-Lago as a modern Malvolio (Twelfth Night) we met characters in the woods with nature friendly messages in the style of Shakespeare and some actual quotes.
We returned to the centre just as the rain started. A truly magical visit.
Sheila Kemble Pete Bolingbroke.