Recently, I was fortunate to encounter one of the most driven and knowledgeable country park rangers I have ever met.
Andrew Hunt is the sole manager of Silverdale Country Park, an 83Ha area of green space, created on the site of the former Silverdale Colliery near Newcastle-under-Lyme in North Staffordshire.
A sense of ownership among local people is a key part of the vision for the Country Park and community cohesion is a priority for The Land Trust who manage the site.
Andrew’s vision encompasses a wide range of work and activities that has had a profoundly positive impact on the development of the site, which in turn has led to many new opportunities for skills training and education of local working groups who come and take part in a numbers of activities and events held throughout the year – all of which enhance the biodiversity value of the site.
I met Andrew on a Green Flag visit where he was on hand to show me and fellow judge Stephen around the site. I thought I talked a lot, but Andrew beat me hands down!
The site also includes Furnace Pool, a drainage pool from the Waste Farm site, now used under licence as a fishing/balancing pond by the Silverdale Angling Club. The rest of the park comprises large areas of informal grassland, bare ground with ephemeral vegetation, young plantation woodland and wetland connected by a network of formal and informal paths and tracks.
Andrew said the management of the park is based on best practice habitat-management, informed by monitoring indicator species and safe-access guidelines.
Andrew is a well-qualified warden having attained a degree in countryside management at Reaseheath College and his MSc at the University of Staffordshire.
Andrew has, over the years, implemented many innovative workshops where groups of people have engaged in the countryside skills that are now becoming lost. These include dry-stone walling, hedge laying, handcutting meadows using hand scythes, coppicing and digging out ponds to name but a few of the activities that go on throughout the year. He has also set up handtool making workshops and a craft shack for people to learn new countryside skills.
Andrew also enlists the help of contractors and local farmers to help maintain the larger tracts of land that need maintaining. The farmers cut and take hay crops while local contractors maintain grass pathways, cutting several times a year.
Over the years, Andrew has seen a constant increase in wildlife species, birds, mammals, invertebrates, reptiles, plants and fauna in the park.
The number of grass snakes seen on site have increased dramatically since grass piles have been left. The proper management of meadows has seen a vast increase in their biodiversity, with skylarks and lapwings now being seen nesting in the country park. Andrew conducts many school talks and education days on site.
Silverdale Country Park has received many awards since opening in 2011. Each award is recognition of the efforts of Groundwork West Midlands and the Land Trust but most importantly the involvement of visitors, community groups and educational groups.
Without doubt, the success of this park is purely down to the commitment and hard work of Andrew and the support he gets from friends’ groups and the local community who ultimately benefit from Andrew’s endeavours.
