July – August 2025 newsletter
Welcome to the Friends of Brislington Brook Summer Special newsletter!
In this month’s edition…
- Summer Social
- The Picnic Table
- Regenerating the St Anne’s Valleys
- AGM – Nov 5th 2025 – Save the date!
- What’s next for FoBB
If there’s something you’d like to include in our newsletter, let us know by emailing info.fobb@gmail.com.
Plenty of activities in nature!
Hello everyone, happy Summer!
This month we have a recap of our Summer Social, the picnic table in St Annes’ Valley, our plans to regenerate Valleys, the next AGM on November 5th and some news about what’s next for Friends of Brislington Brook.
Fix My Street
Fix my street – https://www.fixmystreet.com/
This is handy website where you can report local problems: an abandoned motorbike left in the woods, fly tipping, etc.. and they pass it on to the Council on your behalf.
How to report a problem
- Enter a nearby UK postcode, or street name and area
- Locate the problem on a map of the area
- Enter details of the problem
- We send it to the council on your behalf
Next Planning Meeting
It will be on September 3rd at the Langton. During the Last Planning meeting, Jackie brought a mock-up of the Interpretation Board, an amazing collaborative effort with maps drawn by Georgia and Hanna, texts by Nadia, Russell, Ethan, James and Jackie, and drawings by Ethan, inked up with Jo’s help (more details about this project will be coming up). We always have a great time discussing what we have done, and about future projects. You don’t want to miss it! September 3rd at the Langton.
All the best, Cristina – holding Secretary
Summer Social!
Emma (Lead Volunteer)
July enabled a great celebration of the good work we have done this year when we held a BBQ at the well in St. Anne’s Wood.
The weather held for a fun evening around the bonfire, feasting and singing under bunting festooned great trees, during which time two pilgrims did actually visit the well, one claiming to have travelled from Paris! (maybe he was visiting his friend locally?).
Two truths and a lie provided further entertainment as the darkness descended.
The Picnic table
All photos courtesy of Jackie (Co-Chair)
You might have noticed the new picnic table around the Holy Well. Geoff, our Treasurer, has many talents! He bought the materials and built the table himself, using some of the FoBB funds.
Andy helped install it – they are very proud of their work and rightfully so!
Regenerating the St Anne’s Valleys
A recent tree survey conducted by FoBB Volunteer, James Reed, found that 307 trees have fallen in St Anne’s Wood and Nightingale Valley over the past five years or so. As a result, there are many gaps in the tree canopy. With this in mind, I applied for a Woodland Trust Tree Pack. The application was successful and 420 native saplings will be delivered in November of this year.
The tree pack is made up of the following:
- Pedunculate oak
- Field maple
- Rowan
- Silver birch
- Downy birch
- Wild cherry
- Grey willow
- Goat willow
- Holly
- Hazel
- Crab apple
- Hawthorn
- Blackthorn
St Anne’s Wood has been colonised by sycamores
Steve Clampin, Parks Operational Co-Ordinator (South), has said we can borrow Bristol City Council’s tree popper to remove young sycamore trees. We plan to do this at October’s Work Party to make space for the saplings. We would appreciate your help with this. Brambles have encroached on our meadows, but that is a job for another day.
Myself and Gundula Azeez, Royate Hill Nature Reserve’s tree specialist, will survey the woods to identify where the whips will be planted. The riparian trees will be planted alongside the brook where the banks have eroded. A recent survey, conducted by Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART, 2025), concluded that Brislington Brook has the worst stream water quality in South Bristol, which is affecting macro-invertebrate levels. FoBB can’t do anything about the high level of pollution, but we can try to reduce the levels of siltage by binding the banks with riparian trees.
Jackie (Co-Chair)
Our next steering meeting will be at 7pm (for admin points) or 7:30pm for the main meeting, on Wednesday 3rd September (always the first Wednesday!) at The Langton, and our next work party (litter picking and brook clearance) will be 10am on Saturday 6th September at Nightingale Valley, by the Hill Lawn entrance.
We’ll be at Nightingale Valley on September 6th, so join us at 10am at Hill Lawn entrance (Nightingale Valley).
AGM on November 5th 2025
What a year it has been so far for all of us; full of hands on hard graft in the woodlands, planning forward to manage the habitats for wildlife, running events, team training, fundraising for future projects; the list goes on and on! Well done to all! …And it’s not over yet!
This AGM we’d like to make opportunity for feedback and celebration of the many layers of volunteering and giving that have taken place, show some short films captured during the year ahead of then hearing an overview of the year and voting in a new chair!
When taking on this role last year, as incoming chair, I committed to give a year to help draw new people into the group and set up a team up; building on the hard work of many over the years whilst bringing in new faces and skills that we desperately needed. It’s an honour to have been able to offer social practice/engagement skills (and a lot of time!) to help spark new energy into this group as part of the wonderful officer core team.
At the end of the day, each of us who volunteer for FoBB do it for the love of this unique woodland space; passionate about its rich ecosystem supporting flora & fauna and the beauty and wellbeing it brings to our community. The bonus is we have a lot of fun doing it, learn a lot from each other and enjoy that sense of satisfaction you get when walking home with water in your wellies and mud under your nails; we’re sustaining the woodland for years to come.
Are you the next Chair?
Would you like to put yourself forward for nomination?
If you would like to discuss this or anything else about the AGM or make nominations or suggestions on how we move forward then email Jo at info.fobb@gmail.com.
We thought it would be good to give a good amount of time for someone to ask questions and find out what the chair role involves.
None of the other officers are stepping down so; Geoff (Treasurer), Cristina (Secretary), and Jackie (vice chair and fundraiser) who won’t be considering the Chair role due to her work commitments.
I thought I’d include the list below of Chair responsibilities to remind everyone. The new chair will be part of a stronger team – social media person, two tech people and 12 Lead Volunteers plus our officers/fundraiser, a good-sized wild life subgroup and Andy continuing as Corporate Work teams coordinator. We also have a lot of very keen individuals within the group who jump in enthusiastically with ideas and support.
With the rest of the team supporting, the chair role could now be more manageable again (post pandemic the group was much smaller). Any added skills that the Chair can bring above and beyond this are welcome but this, below, is essentially what the group needs to thrive alongside the other roles. Could you do this?
Chair role
The chair is the spokesperson for the organisation, representing and advocating for the aims and ambitions of FOBB, particularly within the organisations we work closely with. Their overall objective is to further the aims of FOBB following the aims of the mission statement.
Responsibilities :
- Chair monthly meetings, allowing participants time to share their ideas.
- Ensure meetings have a chair and secretary to take minutes.
- Where votes are taken a meetings, the chair makes the final decision.
- Together with the secretary set an agenda, sign off minutes of previous meeting, ensure actions are completed or re submitted for future action.
- Ensure sub groups report back to the main committee.
- Ensure that health and safety is a priority, particularly at work parties, and that enough members are qualified to safely carry out tasks.
- Ensure the group is covered by appropriate insurance.
- Oversee, together with the treasurer and applicant, any grant applications made on behalf of FOBB.
- Call the annual general meeting (AGM) in early November each year, giving one month’s notice.
- Call for nominations for all the officers – Chair, Treasurer and Secretary – ahead of the AGM.
- Produce, with the help of others, the annual report to be presented at the AGM on FOBBs achievements, events and contributions made to the local neighbourhood.
- Keep and store copies of important documents.
We hope that there’s someone who feels they can give in this way over the next year at least. Its a satisfying role for someone who enjoys overseeing projects, has good communication skills and is good at listening to, valuing and respecting different viewpoints when making group decisions.
I feel a sense of personal achievement this year at the same time realising there are others who have skills I don’t have. It would be great to have someone with good organisational skills as there’s some work to be done in putting more focus on simplifying working practices to make them more efficient. I’d give a phased handover of course.
Enjoy the rest of the summer sun and have a think!
Jo – Chair
