The Natural History of Willoughby
Below are a number of articles from our blog. If you would like to write for this page, please send us your contributions!
Tree Planting Scheme – grants available!
Do you want to leave a positive lasting impact on your land by planting trees? If so, Trees for Climate will give you the tools to put down roots in your local area that will last for generations. Your trees will stand as a positive legacy for a brighter future, a...
2022 Footpath Report
Village resident Rob Bowyer acts as our Footpaths Officer; below you can read his annual report. Notts County Council Rights of Way officers are beginning to get back to normal on their work, having asked everyone to bear in mind, that because of the COVID-19...
Protect your Pooch with the Neighbourhood Watch
In response to the increased fear of pet theft, Neighbourhood Watch has launched our PROTECT YOUR POOCH campaign. You can support the campaign by acting on their advice & you can help make pet theft a specific criminal offence by signing a petition or writing to...
Autumn 2020 News from Willoughby Wood
Willoughby's beautiful Millennium Wood is maintained by a wonderful team of volunteers. Now led by Dick Merriman - and before that for many years by Brian Thornally - the team looks after the trees, maintains the pathways and sees that any jobs that need doing are...
Community Post | Hedgerow Foods: Nettle Soup
This is the ideal time of year to make use of hedgerow foods. The present shortages will challenge our skills in making food stretch further. When going for your daily walk around our wonderful countryside, take a plastic bag and a pair of rubber gloves. The nettles...
Grasses in Willoughby – so much to see!
There is a whole world of grasses at our feet waiting to be explored and appreciated as part of the scenery and of our rural environment. If we count the cereal crops, which we should include because botanically and genetically they belong amongst the grasses, then 26...
Churchyards as Time Capsules
The thought that a church yard is full of echoes of the history of its parish and of rural England is deeply embedded in our culture, and I feel conscious of it whenever I sit on the seat for a rest and a think, or cut the west hedge. The sentiment appears in...
Wildlife of Willoughby
Willoughby has no formally designated wild flower gardens, though some gardens are semi-wild by default, including mine. In its wildness some cowslips mysteriously colonised my front lawn many years ago, and with no encouragement beyond taking care to avoid them with...
Birds to Spot in Willoughby
I think I have identified over 40 species of bird in Willoughby in recent years, but I dare say that there are many residents, far more expert in ornithology, who could name many more. Of all the vertebrate wild animal life, it is probably the birds which attract the...
Signs of Autumn in Willoughby
“To autumn” by John Keats (1792-1821) must surely be one of the most quoted poems in English, with its “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”. But what of our local natural history in autumn, and of its fruitfulness? As drivers we’re not always pleased to see the...