You may be aware that there has been a change of local National Trust personnel in the last couple of months. We have said a fond goodbye to Andy who has taken another job in in different part of the country with another conservation organisation. We wish him and his family the best of luck for the future. In July we welcomed Ashley, who has been seconded from his permanent job in the Birling Gap area to cover our local ranger post until the end of the year.
In the short time Ashley will be with us he is keen that Sandgate Conservation Society field day volunteers carry out a couple of projects that have an identifiable conclusion, provide a visible improvement and give a sense of achievement. Much of the work we do on the Warren can seem invisible or require a long time before the benefits materialise.
The two tasks we will be working on are
- clearing the area in front of the small wooden bench that overlooks the Green (up from the stony path towards the windmill shaft). This will open up the view from the bench over the Green. This work was started in July and is expected to continue in September and October.
- clearing gorse from around the stone seat on the large barrow to open up views from the stone seat. You can see from photographs published elsewhere on this website that the view from the stone seat used to be clear across to Chanctonbury Ring. It will be interesting to see how much of that view we will be able to recreate! The additional benefit is that as the barrow is a scheduled ancient monument English Heritage require that it be kept clear of large shrubs and trees which obscure and damage it.
With both tasks completed it may become possible to view the stone seat from the wooden bench and the wooden bench from the stone seat across the Green.