11th June 2008

A Breathing Space for Snaky Lane

A local conservation group is celebrating this month – it’s one of the lucky recipients of a Big Lottery Breathing Places grant, as featured on BBC’s Springwatch. The Big Lottery has awarded Snaky Lane Community Wildlife Group a £9,125 grant to carry out work on the seven-acre site in Ash Vale to improve it for wildlife and local residents.

“This is fantastic news for us”, said Keith Boulnois the Snaky Lane Community Wildlife Group chairman. “It means we can introduce grazing to an area of Snaky Lane that is not maintained at the moment. This is the ideal way to manage this part of the site and will create better conditions for wildlife, improving the site’s biodiversity and giving better access for local people.”

Snaky Lane Community Wildlife Group has been going in its current format since September 2005 and its members have achieved a great deal at the site. They have installed surfaced paths, two benches and a site interpretation and notice board, as well as opening up part of the area and managing the grassland to improve it for wildlife.

This Breathing Places grant will enable the group to carry out work on part of the site which is currently not used because the ground is so uneven and the vegetation so dense. They will install stock proof fencing to introduce two or three Highland cattle to graze the site for three or four months each year. Grazing is a traditional form of meadow management and will maintain and improve the grassland flora and fauna. It will also improve access to this unused part of the site, whilst the cattle will provide a focal point for local people encouraging interest and involvement in the site. Part of the grant will go towards training local people to enable them to oversee the cattle when they are on site and it will also pay for a new interpretation board on conservation grazing.

Snaky Lane Community Wildlife Group is currently organising a special celebratory open day to be held later in the year which will tell local people about the planned work. The open day will include site walks, a small  ‘animal farm’ and an introduction to cattle grazing as well as talks about meadow management.

“We hope that the grant will attract more local people to visit Snaky Lane and get involved in the site.  Details can be found at www.breathingplaces.org by entering ‘Snaky Lane’ as a search,” explained Sue Dent of Blackwater Valley Countryside Partnership who are working with the group. ”If anyone would like to find out more about us or the site and about our future plans then please call me on 01252 331353 or email snaky.lane@hotmail.com”.  

END

For further information contact:Sue Dent or Christine Reeves on 01252 331353. Blackwater Valley Countryside Partnership,
Ash Lock Cottage, Government Road, Aldershot GU11 2PS.

DID YOU KNOW?

• The site is now owned by Guildford Borough Council and Snaky Lane Community Wildlife Group manages the site on their behalf.
• Blackwater Valley Countryside Partnership supports a number of volunteer groups throughout the Valley such as the Snaky Lane Community Wildlife Group  to help them look after their local green space.
• The area known as Snaky Lane was once the property of the Abbot of Chertsey Abbey when he was the Lord of the Manor of Ash. He was given the land in 1323 by a William Souter.
• By 1871 the area had been incorporated into Lynchford Castle Farm which covered a total of 70 acres and belonged to a James Nash.
• The road through Mr. Nash’s farm was named as Stratford Road in a list prepared for Ash Parish Council in 1907 although it was widely known as Snaky Lane, although we do not know why.