North Devon Coast AONB News

As our first official newsletter of 2022, it would be unfair to start without saying HAPPY NEW YEAR from all of the North Devon Coast AONB team. We are looking forward to what this year will bring, and we wish you all a great year filled with outstanding natural beauty. 

What has the AONB Partnership Chair been up to?  

As part of the clean sweep for the New Year I have just deleted 60 e-mails from Dave Edgcombe and 45 from Jenny Carey Wood from the last quarter of 2021! This leaves 50 and 62 respectively in the inbox about AONB matters still under discussion. Most of my exchanges with Dave are about planning, and this reflects the somewhat alarming increase in the number of applications in Torridge and more so in North Devon. These could have an effect on the landscape and tranquillity of our AONB. The planning panel does not and cannot consider all of these, but Dave drafts and circulates some excellent and pertinent responses on our behalf when appropriate. It is the cumulative effect of the many permissions granted that worry us particularly and do not seem to be able to be taken into account under present rules.

Jenny bombards me with a wider range of issues from progress of the Glover Review and FiPL at national level, through our own FiPL grants, communications with our local Biosphere, with the National Trust, with local landowners, bumblebees and horseshoe bats, to ideas for new projects and nature recovery, in general and through our SDF fund. It is all very interesting and quite positive for the AONB.

As I live in Croyde the respite in January from the traffic jams and footfall of visitors has been welcome but not complete as there are still many visitors about, hopefully appreciating that they are in an AONB or maybe a soon re-christened "National Landscape".

Dr Eirene Williams

COTIDAL Artwork Project 

The Time and Tide Bell Organization commissioned Tania Kovats to create COTIDAL, an ambitious new creative artwork.

Kovats is about to start making a digital film that will last 24 hours and 50 minutes, the duration of a lunar day. The film will follow the journey of high tide around the UK, including the sites of the Time and Tide bells. Community contributions, films, and sound recordings will be integrated into the film's content, which will be edited with Kovats' own material and woven together to create a cinematic almanac of the tides for our small island.

The film's first chapter will take place in the Southwest of England, beginning in Appledore, North Devon, where the first Time and Tide Bell was installed. This project is made possible thanks to a grant from the Arts Council England.

If you wanted to share what the sea means to you, please send a short film or sound clip to COTIDAL, a film made by the artist Tania Kovats, that will be woven together with the many different thoughts and feelings we have about the sea. Deadline for film submissions is the 28th February. 

Devon Countryside Access Forum - New Members Wanted 

During the pandemic, the relevance of public rights of way, recreational trails, and green areas to health and well-being was clearly proven. Being able to come out and meet friends outside has been a lifeline for many folks.

The Devon Countryside Access Forum is a statutory body tasked with providing independent guidance on how to promote public access to land and how to enjoy such settings. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 requires each local authority to create a local access forum, and the Devon forum has fifteen members nominated by Devon County Council. With the exception of National Parks and Unitary Authorities, the Forum covers all of Devon.

Members represent access users, landowners/managers, and a wide range of other interests, including conservation, tourism, and planning.

Devon County Council is looking for new members right now.  Follow the button link for information on the Forum's activity as well as an application form. The deadline for applications is February 18, 2022.

Friends of Hillsborough

In December, the AONB team and North Devon District Council undertook a volunteer task on Hillsborough, above Ilfracombe, which is a Local Nature Reserve and site of a former Iron Age Hillfort. With support funding from the Monument Management Scheme the work task concentrated on clearing scrub away from the scheduled monument together with the clearance of tall grass to provide area for wildflower creation on the summit of the Hillsborough site. Over the course of the past few years the AONB and North Devon Council have organised a number of volunteer days and this has now generated such local interest that a group of volunteers are looking to form a “Friends of Hillsborough Volunteer Group” in order to monitor and keep on top of the conservation work at the site.

With support, material and equipment supplied by the AONB and North Devon Council, it is hoped that the volunteers will run their own tasks on the site, working to a Management Plan that was produced for the site a few years ago.

If you would like to get involved and join in with this conservation group, please contact Robert Schick bobschick319@gmail.com who is hoping to co-ordinate the volunteers

Upcoming Conservation Task Days 

We are writing to you to let you know about two volunteer conservation days coming up in support of the Monument Management Scheme (MMS). As many of you know, this is a follow-on to the Heritage Lottery Funded, Coastal Heritage Project,  led by the North Devon Coast AONB. The MMS is funded by our partners Historic England and with Devon County Council’s Historic Environment team aims to encourage and support volunteers to take practical action to conserve our Scheduled Monuments.

We would like to invite you on either (or both?!) of the two project task days we have coming up, as follows:

Wed 2^nd March – WWII Concrete Landing Craft, Braunton Burrows (10am-3pm)

Those who know the ‘Burrows well will be familiar with these unique features hidden among the dunes. The concrete WWII Landing Craft were constructed by the American forces to practise amphibious assault in preparation for D-Day. The AONB sought official protection for the features and in 2019 the Landing Craft were Listed by Historic England.

Our task will be to control encroaching scrub regeneration around the features so they can be better accessed, revealed and interpreted.

For archive footage of the Landing Craft, see here (skip to around 6:30): World War 2 - Braunton Burrows Concrete Landing Craft - YouTube

Thurs 3^rd March – Gallantry Bower, nr Clovelly (10am-3pm)

Many bronze-age barrows have been damaged by a combination of ploughing, animal burrowing, scrub vegetation or excavation (the latter mostly during the Victorian period). The barrow at Gallantry Bower however is perilously close to the cliff edge and is threatened by coastal erosion.

With the support of partners, Substrata, our task is to carry-out a geophysical survey of the barrow and if time permits, to complete a survey of a mysterious ‘square feature’ to the North. Alongside this, will be an aerial ‘drone’ survey, vegetation management and work to install safety signage on the South West Coast Path.

Like to get involved? We’d love to hear from you!

Please get in touch with Task Co-ordinator Joe Penfold via his  email  joepenfold@hotmail.com  if you’d like to book on one/both of the above sessions and he will follow this up with further details nearer the time.

Tools, PPE and refreshments will be provided and we are happy to reimburse travel expenses to/from project sites.

For more information on the MMS achievements, see here:

Environmental Youth Group

As one of the North Devon Coast AONB's upcoming projects, our intern, Jess, will investigate the viability and feasibility of forming an environmental youth group in the area. The idea is to collaborate with the Braunton Countryside Centre as a suitable venue for group meetings and activities. Jess will spend the next few weeks researching all elements of the feasibility of forming such a group, researching the planning steps that will be required, and determining the level of demand for such a group. The goal of forming an environmental group for North Devon youth is to engage and inspire more young people to get involved in nature in their area.

The group will focus on local species identification, climate, and biodiversity issues in North Devon, as well as a variety of other environmental, landscape, and conservation topics. The goal is for the group's young members to lead activities and discussions in areas that they want to learn about and participate in, making it a youth-led group for young people, with supervision and help as needed. If you have any ideas for this project or know of anyone who would be interested in getting involved, please contact Jess via her email: Jessica.Giblett@devon.gov.uk.

Neil Worth's Passing

We are very sorry to announce that one of our keen friends and supporters Neil Worth, sadly passed away before Christmas.  Neil was a resident of the Braunton area and was a keen environmentalist and World War 2 Historian running his audio-visual business Kingfisher Multimedia. Latterly he was seen to be working frequently at the Cobbaton Combat Museum near Chittlehampton.   

Neil was a keen supporter of the North Devon Coast AONB team and was a great source of help with anything technical at many of the local museums in the area, in particular at the Countryside Centre and Museum in Braunton. He was a skilled wildlife film maker, helping create & edit a series of films with the late John Butter – known aptly as ‘Butterworth’ productions. He also through his business, he developed a number of special interpretation projects, many of which can still be seen in the local museums in North Devon.

We first worked with Neil in 2007, when he assisted us with the Explore Braunton Project, helping us to develop a website and helping us with a number of audio/visual interpretation projects in the Braunton area. Latterly as a member of the Friends of Assault Training Center, Neil provided help and advice with regard to North Devon’s 2^nd World War heritage, in particular the training on Braunton and Northam Burrows for D Day. This work was invaluable to us when we were delivering our Coastal Heritage Project. 

He will be so greatly missed by all who knew him.