Recent news - 15th August 2006

Land sale update, Wildlife, Storms and other stories.

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We recently launched a petition to add to our fight to have the area of Brickfields Country Park land contained within Chrismas Lodge returned to its' rightfull users Brickfields Country Park. This currently numbers over 200 signatures, all from users of the park, but we need more!. Please contact so that you can be added to the list.

Land Sale update (15/9/2006) ..... This ongoing problem has gone very quiet in the last few weeks, which only serves to alarm us. We have had reassurances from our local councillors, Rushmoor and Hampshire that they have our "best" interests at heart, but if you hear of anything please keep us up to date, even if it's just a quick call to say " no change at the present". In the last week there have been contractors / surveyors in the park, taking details and examining the surface drains and storm water systems, the grapevine says it's in connection with a Hampshire County Council investigation into alternative uses for the defunct Chrismas Lodge site, but as usual we are the last to find out!. We very much doubt that such a survey would come out in favour of a community use, development (sorry, profit on the sale of the land) will be the end result we are sure.

 The Aldershot News article that broke the news last June.

This whole situation only arose from a chance conversation we had with a local resident, which then prompted us to enquire with Rushmoor Borough Council about the closure of Chrismas Lodge, the Lodge boundaries and their affect on the park. It was then confirmed that should Chrismas Lodge be sold, the new owners (obviously a developer) would lay claim to the land as marked in the deeds, not as actually present on the land. (The affected area is coloured blue in the picture) This would mean that Brickfields Country Park could loose a strip of land along the Chrismas Lodge boundary some 10m wide, right across to the Western boundary and then up the Highfield Gardens boundary to the Croft Lane path. We would then loose the entrance to the park from the Croft Lane path.

We can only see this as being the thin end of the wedge for Brickfields Country Park in it's eventual disposal for housing and a terrible loss for the local community. Please support us in our campaign to stop this loss and spread the word. Contact your local Councillor, your M.P., Hampshire County Council, Rushmoor Borough Council - anybody. Valuable resources like this in Aldershot are being lost, help to save this one !.

Other news

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Events programme .... Our for this year is nearly over but we have had sectacular success with the events so far this year. Our Wildlife Fun Day on the 2nd July was exceptional, very sunny and very hot but attendance was well up on the previous year. Millers Ark Animals are very popular with the children who can get involved with the animals. The Birds of Prey dispalay was also very busy during the day with lots of interest. Watch out for next years event on the 1st of July. The Army Show on the 15/16th July was also very hot and again very well attended. Organisation of this event has improved over the last few years, but still has a ways to go before it rivals the old Army events of many years ago. We also attended the RSPCA Gala Fun Day & Dog Show at very short notice as they had missed us off the invite list !, only finding out about the event at the last minute, never the less a good day was had. So far this year all the events we have attended have resulted in increase attendance at the stand and resulting funds, overall a good year.

Wildlife ..... Overall our "visible" wildlife has done very well this year, indeed, on one weekends visit we counted twenty Ducklings, nine Goslings, and five Moorhen chicks. The Ducks have produced several broods and continue to do well. The Geese have produced nine young this year from one male and two females, presumeably a wife and a "girlfriend". The male spending more of his time with what we came to refer to as the "wife". Each female nested on seperate islands, the "wife" producing five goslings and the "girlfriend" four. She was about two weeks behind the "wife" and did seem to have a harder time of it and as the goslings grew they tended to gather in one large group but it was clear that the "wife" was giving the "girlfriend" quite a bit of stick!. All the goslings reached maturity, leaving us only a few days ago in between the two very violent rain storms we have had this year.

We also had a Mute Swan appear early in the year as a very young sub adult. It was apparently seen by one of our regular park visitors walking down the top path towards the pond, where it has stayed ever since. Over the months it has matured into a splendid Adult swan, a real ugly duckling transformation.

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Click for a larger picture

The Heron is still a regular visitor, although we think his fishing "catch" has diminished somewhat in the last few months due to the very bad Blanket Weed covering the pond currently has.

Weather wise the last couple of hot dry months did take its toll on the pond and water levels were dropping, although not as badly as several years ago. This is probably due to the Blanket Weed covering, but it does not help with the oxygen levels in the pond as was seen when several of the larger Carp could be seen gasping for air through the weed. Arrangements were made to have the larger fish removed to storage but on the day it was due to happen we had the first heavy rainstorm (see pictures) lasting about an hour. The storm which for a short time flooded Southmead Road on the Crown estate above the park (the surface drainage feeds the pond) put about a foot of water depth into the pond, this helped oxygen levels but did not save five of the Carp, which were removed a couple of days later.

Click for a larger picture Click for a larger picture

Click for a larger picture

A couple of weeks later on August 13th (Sunday, not Friday!) we had an even bigger storm lasting four hours, this put a further eighteen inches of water into the pond, which then broke over the banks into the surrounding areas. These areas had been assigned for storm water flood relief when the park was designed and set up in 1984/5 and worked well. In the accompanying photo you can see where the water went from the Blanket Weed residue left after the waters receded. Facts - The pond is an area of about 3/4 of an acre, that's 3035 square meters. Assuming an average depth of 1.3 meters (4ft 3in), the pond contains 4025 cubic meters or 4,025,000 liters, 885,376 gallons of water. At about 300mm (1ft) depth gain from the first storm, this amounts to 925 cubic meters of water or 925,000 liters, 203,471 gallons (UK). The second storm left us with 1,387,500 litres or 305,206 gallons (UK).

If you see any vandalism, damage or disturbance in the park, please do not get involved,
just phone the numbers below.

If you have any news for Brickfields Country Park please e-mail at The Friends of Brickfields Country Park.

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