MWHG Newsletter: 8th September 2025

MWHG Team
6 hours ago
8 min read

Dear Volunteers and Supporters,

Our project leaders and volunteers have had a busy summer period surveying wildlife, connecting young people with nature, and sharing our conservation work with the local community. Read on to find out what we've been up to and how you can get involved.

First, a reminder that the deadline for entries for this year's Eileen Savill Award is Tuesday 30th September 2025. Please read full details about this year's recycling theme and how to enter here. Prizes will be awarded in the following categories: 5-7yrs, 8-11yrs, 12-16yrs and 17-24yrs, and overall award winner chosen.

MWHG Out and About Over the Summer

We have had a busy summer of community engagement in the villages across the Manhood Peninsula.

Jane and team organised 4 Saturdays across May June and July of community activities in the church yards of Birdham, Ichenor, Sidlesham and West Wittering churches. These events were sponsored by the Co-op. We had lots of children and their adults doing activities such as painting bird boxes, dissecting owl pellets, crafting activities, looking for slow worms, identifying moths etc. We had between 60 and 80 people at each event. Many thanks to the volunteers who helped us with these events and the Co-op for their support!

In addition MWHG had stands at some of the village fetes and events over the summer. Emma ran a stand at the Sidlesham Fete, and Jane one at the Birdham Cricket club on the August Bank Holiday Monday. Lesley ran a stall at the Backlesham Community Picnic along side our friends from Brent Lodge and RSPB Pagham, and with Simona, a stand on Lifeboat Day in Selsey.

All these events were very well attended and we met lots of new people who are interested both in nature and wildlife, and in the history and heritage of the area. We look forward to seeing some of them over the winter as volunteers.

Lesley Bromley

Chair MWHG

Summertime Wildlife Warriors

By Emma Horton | Wildlife Warriors

This summer we have had the pleasure of delivering our Wildlife Warrior sessions with children from Medmerry Primary School in Selsey and Selsey Youth Dream's Holiday Club.

Our environmental activities took place at Selsey Hidden Gardens, in collaboration with the staff there. It is the most amazing venue in which to teach children about the precious wildlife in our area because of its many habitats and biodiversity.

There is a forest school at the rear of the gardens, providing a wonderful woodland habitat, ideal for bug hunting. The children had a great time studying mini-beats and we were very grateful to Fred, from the 'Men in Sheds' (whose premises are situated in the Hidden Garden) for constructing a brilliant bug hotel frame from recycled pallets, which the Wildlife Warriors were able to fill.

The margins of the gardens are bordered by wildflowers which are a magnet for bees and butterflies, perfect for the children to see pollinators at work. The community allotments were full of fruit and vegetables that were ripe for harvesting and the youngsters were treated to some freshly squeezed apple juice from the apple press.

The children could see how and where the fruit and vegetables were growing and the range of produce on display, from fruit trees to the most bizarre shaped squash plants, climbing up the woven frames.

It was an education in itself to see how organic and sustainable enterprise can be so productive and such a fantastic resource for all the local community, both young and old.

Despite the lack of rainfall over the spring and summer months, which has sadly seen many ponds on the peninsula dry up, the large pond at the Hidden Garden remained full of water and bursting with life. Beautiful marginal plants like purple loosestrife and fleabane provided colour at the pond's edge while the hugely entertaining marsh frogs thrived amongst the lily pads. There were also numerous newts and the children delighted in pond dipping discoveries such as the efts (the land-dwelling juvenile stage of a newt) as well as tadpoles developing their legs.

We are very fortunate to be working with so many local schools and community groups in order to deliver our Wildlife Warrior sessions. We have received lots of positive feedback from the children, staff, parents and carers about the value of our work. We are reaching more and more youngsters with our hands on, wildlife educational work and forging links with new groups, encouraging children to get out and about and look a little closer at their surroundings.

We aim to foster respect for the environment, so children can take pride in their local area and care about the wildlife around them.

If you are interested in our free Wildlife Warriors sessions and are involved in running a youth group/ organisation on the Manhood Peninsula, then do get in touch to find out more about our work and arrange a session.

Pond Power Project

By Jane Reeve | Pond Power Project

The Portsmouth Water funded Pond Power project has had another quiet couple of months as 3 of the ponds have completely dried out. This has meant no dragonflies over the ponds, no amphibians seen and actually little bird activity. Any water vole signs have disappeared which is a shame but we have experienced an extremely dry spring and summer.

The pond in Huston does still have water but no recent water vole signs. The site has started to be tented with hops so we will need to get in there and give it a good vegetation cutting session. There is also a tree down which will be good to manage as this is bringing bramble across the pond.

We are going to need lots of help to manage these ponds, especially as they haven’t had much done to them for 4+ years. We will be hampered on a couple of the sites by invasive azolla fern but we can still do a lot of vegetation management.

It will be lovely to see you on these sites as they really are little gems that need our care in the absence of the natural beaver activity which would have kept these ponds at their best.

The Beryl James Tree Nursery

By Joe Savill | The Beryl James Selsey Tree Nursery

We have been looking after hundreds of trees in the nursery this summer and most are doing surprisingly well considering the prolonged dry weather. This is thanks, in no small part, to timely watering by a few of our dedicated team.

The beds cut out of the weed suppressant, now covering most of the site, have worked well but it has still been an ongoing task to keep on top of the more thuggish weeds in the beds and around the perimeter fence.

The young trees include those grown from seed collected in 2023; donated trees; those left over from the 2024-25 planting work for the ‘Hedging Our Future Project’ and trees we are looking after for creating a hedge at Seal Primary School in Selsey. Many of these will be lifted this autumn/winter for planting out across the Manhood. It is this which makes the project so worthwhile, especially when they are the trees we have nurtured from often tiny seeds. Isn’t nature amazing!

So far there has only been a handful of us looking after the site, and thanks to everyone for their commitment. But we do need more volunteers now the work has expanded. The tasks vary throughout the year and include weeding, watering, creating new beds, sowing and caring for very young trees, transplanting trees into the nursery beds, seed gathering and processing, as well as record keeping and general maintenance tasks.

Please do consider joining us. The more trees we can grow locally, the better.

Also, please contact me if you have young trees to donate or have ideas about where you would like to see trees planted in the Selsey area.

Joe Savill

jsavill@mwhg.org.uk

Wittering Area Community Conservation Project

By Jane Reeve | Wittering Area Community Conservation Project

We have had a lovey summer of moth trapping with 15 sessions at different locations and have seen plenty of moths. It is so helpful to have lots of volunteers to help us to identify them and a couple of photographers to take capture the beauty of these often-hidden creatures. We have also been very good a catching common wasps and European hornets this year, which is a first, but it has been a great opportunity to see these colourful and impressive insects close up.

The location with the most moths has been Wylder in Almodington, an area of a couple of acres of woodland, which gave us 84 different species. It has been a good year for moths on the whole as they like quite warm weather but the long period of drought has probably affected caterpillar development and there is a lack of nectar at this end of the summer for adults.

One colourful and often seen moth this year has been the Jersey Tiger. This is a moth whose caterpillar’s feed on brambles, nettle, and hemp agrimony, while the adults feed on the nectar of many flowers.

We have also been busy as a presence at many community events – the Sidlesham Church Fete, the Bracklesham Barn Community Day, the Sesley Lifeboat Day and the Birdham Cricket Club Community day. Thank you to everyone that manned the gazebo, delivered children’s activities and put the MWHG message out there about the work that we do.

Emma has been busy with a children’s holiday club at the Hidden Garden and has had lots of happy customers 😊. They have had lots of fun pond dipping, bug hunting and bird and bat box painting.

We have a very busy physical work season ahead and will need lots of help so please come out and support us.

Heritage News

By Bill Martin | Selsey Tramway Project, Sidlesham Heritage Project

Selsey Tramway

Our film is continues to be shown as part of the exhibition on the Selsey Tramway at The Novium.

A podcast 'The Hapless Sidlesham Snail' is available on BBC Sounds.

30 people took part in the annual anniversary walk on Saturday 30th August to commemorate the first train. Prior to the walk I was interviewed on BBC Radio Sussex Breakfast Show.

Discussions regarding the restoration of Chalder Station are on-going with the Church Commissioners who own the land.

The recently extended Centurion Way includes the restoration of Singleton Station and we have asked the South Downs National Park for their advice with Chalder.

Land Settlement Association

It is now 8 years since the LSA house was dismantled and put into storage at the Weald and Downland Living Museum. The rebuild is now part of the museum's strategic plan for 2028-30.

The overall LSA Project continues to be promoted by the Heritage Centre and Charlie Roe Gallery at the Sidlesham Memorial Hall.

Heritage Map

An audit of heritage assets in all the Parishes on the Manhood Peninsula has been completed and will be available on the website.

Summer Wildlife Survey Results

By Nikki Timney | Find Wildlife From Home Survey

Throughout July and August our survey received 42 wildlife records, including 92 individuals, bringing the total number of records submitted for this survey to 1,849!

View a selection of the fantastic photos and survey results received further below.

Survey Results for July and August

3 7-Spot Ladybirds	5 Goldfinches	2 Jersey Tiger Moths
3 Common Blue Butterflies	9 Dunnocks	3 Red Foxes

Tell us about the wildlife you've seen in your garden, neighbourhood and surrounding local area and we will also submit your records to the National Biological Records Centre on your behalf.