Sustainable Development Fund 961.44 Kb - the Dorset AONB

Exploring and celebrating landscapes
We all have different ideas about what makes a great landscape, so it’s no surprise
that there have been lots of different ideas of how to celebrate this special part of
the world – and to explore it more too.
Woodland Walks in Frampton
Buoyed up by the success of developing
a Millennium Green in the village, a
group of local people spotted a strip
of woodland adjacent to the Village Hall
that would make a great new asset to
the community.
The woodland, known as Harry’s Wood,
runs peacefully along the River Frome and
being central to the village makes it very
popular with dog walkers too. Len Harris,
who has been a leading light in the
group, felt that much could be done to
improve the woodland for walkers and
for wildlife alike.
The first steps for the group were to get
specialist advice on what to do with the
wood. They drew up a Management Plan
for Harry’s Wood on that advice and the
butterfly and bird surveys they did
themselves.
As Ron pointed out ‘this project has
turned up quite a lot of skills locally,
unearthed lots of local knowledge’.
They’ve had to take their health and
safety responsibilities seriously and
trained up two volunteer chainsaw
operators to clear dangerous trees from
the path and roadside as well as doing
a weekly safety check.
Volunteers have also got involved in
clearing elder to help other woodland
plants grow, building new seats for
walkers and installing bird and bat boxes
too. One of the volunteers keeps a record
of birds and butterflies and highlights
them in a column in their monthly
parish mag.
As well as surprising skills that have been
unearthed, volunteer Peter Emery
recently found what is thought to be
Mesolithic worked flint and Bronze Age
remains of an enclosure thought to have
been a hunting camp – making Harry’s
Wood a very special place in the
village indeed.