Conservation in Action
in Christleton Parish
Hockenhull Platts 1972+

It’s fifty years ago this September in 1972, that I became aware of the new Cheshire Conservation Trust Reserve that had been established at Hockenhull Platts, alongside the River Gowy. I had recently taken up the appointment of Headteacher at Christleton Primary School, and had been introduced to “Conservation” by Dr Anthea Brown, and Mrs Barbara Redwood, both teachers at the Queen’s School in Chester, and founder members of the Cheshire Conservation Trust. They had visited me at the Primary School, and encouraged me to introduce the “Conservation of Christleton” into my vision for the school. They were undertaking the most amazing census of all the ponds, plants, wild flowers, trees, animals, birds and insects in the Parish, and invited me to involve children in their plans. This was one of the most exciting things they could have done, and I readily agreed to become involved. Here was the opportunity I needed of getting children and their families involved in school activities, as under the previous regime, parents were not encouraged to participate in any way. They had followed a very narrow academic curriculum, and I wanted to involve the village in the activities of the school, and to make the children an active part of village life. Our projects included drama and music in the church, helping create tapestries and involving the senior members of the community in school life. We participated in sport of every kind, including swimming every day at the then Secondary School Swimming Pool. This occurred from 9.00- 9.30am each day thanks to the joint support of Les George Headteacher and Tony Dromgoole, Head of PE.

Our first joint conservation project was to create “The Story of Christleton Pit”. This enabled the children, to research and study an area and environment, that had become rather overgrown, but had wonderful potential. At about the same time The Daily Telegraph newspaper were running a project for schools called “Save the Village Pond” and the resultant project book created by the children was entered into the competition and to our great joy we were second nationally, and the school invited to take part in Animal Magic BBCTV series live from Bristol. More about that project next month.

Alongside this and other small projects within the village I was invited to join the work at the new Cheshire Conservation Trust Reserve at Hockenhull Platts. I became involved in the recording of species and physical work on the site, and the children were invited to record birds, flowers and insects as well as to study the ecology of the area. The pictures shown below illustrate some of the activities we were involved in, and during each summer I took small groups of children onto the reserve each week, and you can see one of two images of them there, especially looking at the orchids on the wet meadow. These visits were consolidated by work in the classroom, especially at the weekly wildlife club in a purpose built studio theatre in the school, and some of the work the children did contribute to local and national records. The photographs shown are part of the Hockenhull archive, from 1972 and you can see some of the activities such as digging an otter holt, and also some of the animal species recorded there. One of the highlights was being able to see a tawny owl in the daytime in the poplar plantation, sadly something that doesn’t happen now. It was a joy to involve the children in this practical conservation work, and together with the work at Christleton Pit created an ethos for the school. Our work became known locally and nationally, and was rewarded with our appearances in both Children’s and Conservation Books, as well as the exciting appearance on Animal Magic.