Photograph left: Janet Bostock
The Friends of Richmond Park conservation volunteers work in The Driftway
For several years the Friends’ conservation volunteers have been opening up glades, creating grassy edges along the Driftway, the path through Sidmouth Wood, removing birch which was competing with old oaks, and digging out bramble alongside the path. The aim is to create more bird food, (berries), nectar (flowers) and nesting sites in birch thickets as well as a beautiful path for visitors.
Kingfisher bank in Richmond Park
Photograph: The Friends of Richmond Park
Richmond Park is visited regularly by kingfishers, but suitable nesting places are limited and any nesting now only occurs outside of the Park. To overcome this the Friends of Richmond Park have funded and constructed an artificial nesting bank into which the kingfishers can burrow. The kingfisher is a legally protected species with a licence required to film or take photographs of a kingfisher nesting site so the nesting bank is in an area not open to the public.
The bank will take a while to settle down before it will be ready – it is sealed for 2024 and the earliest birds can use it will be when it is opened in 2025. But hopefully we will see these beautiful birds breeding here in a year or so.
Call for volunteers to help with a wildlife survey of Richmond Park in April
How does the wildlife in Richmond Park behave when there are no people around and how does the presence of people in the park affect the wildlife, both during the day and at night? Answers to these questions are essential if the park is to remain a sanctuary for wildlife and fulfil its designation as a National Nature Reserve.
The Friends of Richmond Park are funding and organising a wildlife ecology survey which has been designed by the Institute of Zoology and will be overseen by The Royal Parks. We are looking for 60-70 volunteers to help with the survey by setting out 150 camera traps across the Park and then recovering them at the end of the survey.
We will provide briefing and training. You will work in pairs and will need a smartphone to access the map of camera locations. There will be two sessions, each of 3-4 hours, expected to be on Tuesday 9 April and Tuesday 30 April. We would like you to attend both sessions – so that in the second session you can recover the cameras you installed in the first session.
Email here to volunteer or receive further details: volunteers@frp.org.uk
Works underway in Richmond Park
Path restoration near Holly Lodge. Photograph: The Friends of Richmond Park
Visitors to the Park will have seen various pieces of work underway. These include the Sussex style wooden fencing installed at Broomfield Hill car park to help protect the trees from damage and root compaction and help offer some order to the area by creating fixed points to use for parking.
Path works are not planned to be as extensive as a year ago. This year they include path restoration at the back of Holly Lodge and horse ride restoration near Richmond Gate.
Hawthorn protection work has begun, including creating enclosures to allow natural regeneration safe from browsing deer, notably at the Richmond Gate end of Sawyers Hill.
Wetland habitat enhancement work
Work underway on a pond near Conduit Wood. Photograph: The Friends of Richmond Park
Until well into the 20th century, the focus was on shifting water out of the Park as quickly as possible with drainage ditches and pipes, canalisation of streams and other methods. With climate change and threats of both flooding downstream and into the Thames and drought within the Park, the focus is very much water retention. Work is underway to desilt ponds and ditches in Conduit Wood, Hawthorn Valley and the ditch running down from Dark Hill towards Kingston Gate.
Sauna originally constructed in Richmond Park designated as a Grade II building
Photographs: Historic England archive
A Finnish Sauna first constructed in Richmond Park in 1948 was designated as a Grade II listed building in January.
The Olympic Games after World War II were held in London during a difficult economic climate and rationing. So, very few new buildings were constructed and male athletes were housed in former military camps including an army camp in Richmond Park south and east of Thatched House Lodge. The Finnish team brought their traditional Olympic sauna to Richmond Park. After the Olympics the sauna was donated to the Aylesford Paper Mill’s sports club in appreciation of using their running tracks to train for the games – it was moved there in 1949.
The sauna has been listed as the earliest surviving purpose-built Finnish sauna in England in continuous use, and it is thought to be the oldest surviving Olympic sauna in the world. It is a rare surviving example of a building newly constructed for the 1948 London Olympics.
There is further Information about the Finnish Sauna on the Historic England website:
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1487251
New edition of The Birds of Richmond Park
Cover photograph: John Strachan
The latest updated edition of the The Birds of Richmond Park, listing 175 different bird species spotted in the Park over the last 10 years, has been published. It gives guidance on whether the birds are resident, summer or winter visitors, or if they are rare species in the Park. Compiled for the Richmond Park Bird Group by Nigel Jackman. Sources: Richmond Park Bird Group and London Natural History Society records.
Richmond-Park-Birds-Ten-Years-2014-2023-final.pdf (frp.org.uk)