Bushy Park wins an apple tree from space

A joint bid from Bushy Park, the National Physical Laboratory and the Friends of Bushy and Home Parks has successfully won a competition to acquire an apple tree sapling that has been grown from a pip taken by astronaut Tim Peake to the Space Station. The pip is from the apple tree at Woolsthorpe Manor, home of Sir Isaac Newton, where a falling apple inspired him to discover gravity and other laws of motion.

The competition was run as a collaboration between the National Trust, the UK Space Agency and Kew Gardens to inspire generations of future scientists, engineers and horticulturalists.

In excess of 50 entries were received and our joint entry was one of seven winning bids. The other winners include the Eden Project, Jodrell Bank and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, so a prestigious group.

This link will take you to the official press release by The Royal Parks.

The photograph below shows Assistant Park Manager Bill Swan, holding our sapling, with Tim Peake.

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Royal Parks’ receives further £750k boost to protect wildlife in heart of London

A project to protect and increase wildlife across 5,000 acres of London parkland has received a £750k boost, thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

The new award will allow The Royal Parks’ Mission: Invertebrate project to continue for a fourth year during 2020. Launched in 2017, Mission: Invertebrate supports wildlife across the Royal Parks by helping ‘bugs’ such as bees, butterflies, beetles, worms, slugs and snails to thrive. The project carries out expert research to investigate populations of insects and other invertebrates across London’s eight Royal Parks, as well as transforming habitats and providing opportunities for people to learn about the vital roles these tiny creatures play and the environmental pressures they face.

Since the project began, new habitats including wildflower meadows, orchard, earth banks and pollinator-friendly planting have been added to the parks. More than 10,000 London school children and 19,000 members of the public have also discovered park wildlife through free or low-cost activities.

The Royal Parks already receive a combined 77 million visitors a year. With London’s population predicted to soar to 9.3 million by 20211, Mission: Invertebrate is enabling The Royal Parks to act now to increase awareness among Londoners of the wildlife on their doorsteps, to protect the parks’ precious habitats and to work with organisations to help improve biodiversity across the city.

This year, by unearthing the secrets of the ground beneath visitors’ feet in some of London’s busiest parkland, The Royal Parks hopes to shine a spotlight on the importance of soil health in improving urban green spaces. The project will focus on measuring and improving the health of soils across the Royal Parks. This often-overlooked habitat not only supports a wealth of invertebrates, it is also vital to the growth of the city’s trees and plants, to help prevent flooding, to protect parks and gardens from heatwaves and drought and to help clean our water.

Far from being wastelands for wildlife, towns and cities support a great diversity of invertebrate life and have the potential to act as sanctuaries for rare and uncommon species. The variety of gardens, allotments, urban nature reserves and parkland provide a unique mix of food and shelter for pollinators and other invertebrates, and the Royal Parks are uniquely positioned to provide linking green corridors through the heart of London, offering an anchor for wildlife amid some of the city’s busiest areas.

Dr Alice Laughton, Project Manager for Mission: Invertebrate, said: “We are absolutely delighted that players of People’s Postcode Lottery are continuing to support our work. Invertebrates are not always at the top of everyone’s list of favourite creatures, but if you care about plants, trees, and other wildlife, it’s vital to protect invertebrates. This new funding allows us to study soils in urban parkland and the role that invertebrates play in soil health. It’s another important step in getting under the skin of urban ecology to ensure that conservation efforts in the future have the strongest impact possible.”

Andrew Scattergood, Chief Executive of The Royal Parks, added: “Through the support of players of People’s Postcode Lottery for Mission: Invertebrate, we have been able to take major steps to create richer habitats for wildlife in each of the Royal Parks, balancing the impact of millions of visitors each year. However, there is so much more to be done to protect biodiversity through the coming decades. As London’s population grows and environmental pressures increase, this generous funding will help conserve the wealth of wildlife found in some of London’s oldest, busiest and best-loved parks.”

Click here for more information on Mission: Invertebrate, including details of volunteering opportunities, outdoor learning and free family activities.

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Hampton Court Palace - Sunday 17th November 2019 - The Blessing of the Shire Horses.

The ceremony of the Blessing of the Shire Horses by the Chaplain at Hampton Court Palace has been captured on a short film by Alan Rolph, one of our members. Click here to view. These horses are stabled at Hampton Court and used for various purposes including pulling a wagon for rides around the palace gardens. Shire horse breeds are becoming rare as they are no longer used in large numbers for farming and transport. The origins of Shire horses lead back to jousting and the need for heavy horses to carry knights in armour. The blessing ceremony is now an annual event in the calendar of the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace.

————————————————————————————————-Wild deer are not Disney creatures, The Royal Parks warns parents

Parents are being urged by The Royal Parks not to put their children in harm’s way by posing with stags during the rutting season.

The rise in popularity of social media, and the availability of smartphones has been blamed for the rise in people taking unacceptable risks in Bushy and Richmond Parks.

The rutting season (breeding season) is now underway, in which male deer compete for breeding rights from now until November. Red stags and Fallow bucks, flooded with testosterone and adrenaline, roar and clash antlers in a bid to fight off rivals and attract as many females as possible.

To prepare for the annual rut, stags will bulk up and grow calcium rich sharp antlers. Maintaining a stronghold on their harems is tiring work, and the dominant stags are hyper vigilant and aggressive to potential rivals during this time. Dogs and even humans who try to get between a stag and his females run the risk of being injured if a safe distance of at least 50 metres is not adhered to.

Over a thousand wild deer live in Richmond and Bushy Parks, and The Royal Parks are reminding visitors, especially parents with children in tow, to exercise caution. They are also appealing to photographers to use a long lens and to never crowd the deer. Dog owners are advised to walk their dogs elsewhere, as attacks on dogs are not uncommon at this time of year.

————————————————————————————————-THE TOTEM POLE

Visitors to Bushy Park may not always discover the Canadian Totem Pole in the Canadian Glade in the Woodland Gardens. It was installed there on 1st July 1992, having been carved on site at The Stockyard by a First Nation family. It is a commemoration of how Canadian soldiers were cared for at Upper Lodge in Bushy Park during the First World war.

The story of its creation and installation featured at the time in a film on a BBC schools programme, Sight and Sound. Click here to go to the short film.