Pits celebration
We celebrated!
Hedge lay – Feb 2024
Our first community tree work – hedge-laying on the eastern boundary, with Paul Jackson teaching us the gentle art. A bit about laying: often Elm if not cut, will die. Paul began by astonishing us all with the Elm beetle story. Called Dutch Elm disease (unfairly as it did not…
Hedge planting
Volunteers gathered on a Sunday morning to plant a hedge near industrial sites. Over 100 saplings were planted with help from various sources. The group expressed gratitude for donations and assistance. They plan to replace entire blocks of plants if needed. Additional help and mulching volunteers are welcomed. The day…
Hedge planting
A bit about planting up our first hedge…. – Mulching with wood chip – anyone know of some going? – Plant types include hazel, Hedgerows have been a part of our rural landscape since the Bronze Age, marking boundaries and keeping in livestock. But they also support biodiversity and can…
First Newsletter
Printed and distributed January 2024
Japanese Knotweed control
A small patch of Japanese knotweed is on the site, near the small lake – north-east. Knotweed can grow in most soil conditions found in the UK, particularly in man-made habitats such as ours. Japanese knotweed is the most common of four invasive knotweed plant species in the UK. It…
Lifebuoys around lake
Four new life lifebuoys have been installed around the main lake and one on the small lake. As prescribed by the National Water Safety Forum (NWSF), they are: https://www.nationalwatersafety.org.uk/adviceresources/faq/ Here’s Jamie – testing a throw!
End of 2023 Pit walk
What a remarkable year it has been for us, securing this open space. Looking back on this year, in January we had no bank account, no money, no funding, no constitution, and the future of the Pits was uncertain.Remember our walk at the end of 2022? Are we starting a…
First hedge and bank repair
A fallen sallow willow into the lake gave us our first dilemma. To remove or leave and how to repair the bank. We sought advice. The fallen tree was a sallow willow. To get it out would not only be an enormous task, (it was still rooted), nature, with a…
Fallen tree around lake 2 – sorted!
In this great wet season, another multi-stemmed tree (sallow willow) has fallen beside the lake. Meanwhile the Alder we cut has turned a great red colour. Sorted in 24 hours! Here’s Paul working with Jamie and Rachel to clear it in the last light of the day.
Celebration – POSTPONED!
Due to the weather warning and the bad weather forecast we will have to postpone our community celebration on Sunday 3rd December at The Pits. As soon as another date is organised we will let you know. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you all again for…
First tree work at the Pits – Emergency felling of Alder
Paul Jackson and Jim, with help from Jamie and Rachel worked today to fell the falling Alder across the footpath around the lake. Crisp, cold and clear a day, we were nourished by fresh warm apple cake made by Marion. The multi-stemmed Alder was suspended over the path held by…
Ideal Brochure project
Fran Abrams (from Peasenhall) contacted us with an interesting proposal, which we’ve accepted. She, along with a group of Masters students form University College, London, is studying for an MSc in Environment, Politics and Society. Part of the assessment for the Conservation module is to produce a brochure on a…
Pits in Halesworth Hoot
November 2023 edition of ‘Halesworth Hoot’
Dr Thérèse Coffey MP visits Holton Pits
Dr Thérèse Coffey MP visited Holton Pits to see the open space, it having the same week been saved by the community with the award of matched-funding from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ and its Community Ownership Fund (COF). Having raised over £100,000 within the local community…
Community Ownership Funding – received! 🎉
Having raised over £100,000 within the local community, the Community Ownership Fund matched the sum and in addition provided some revenue funding. It is almost exactly one year since CEMEX put the Pits up for sale, when suddenly the future of what had been a 20 acre area of open…
Outcome ‘expected soon’!
‘The outcome of a funding bid to save a popular Suffolk dog walking and natural beauty spot is expected soon. ‘Campaigners from the Holton Pits Community Interest Company (CIC) have applied for Government community matched funding of £100,000 to secure the Holton Pits site at Halesworth. ‘The CIC has raised…
Nigel Ashfield’s photographs
Nigel Ashfield’s father worked in Holton Pit (as it was then known) in the 1950s to 60s, and he has kindly allowed us to share some of his late father’s photographs of the site as it was during its time as a working sand and gravel quarry. It was was…
Poppi’s Walking in Holton Pits
“When I first started walking round ‘the Pits’ two years ago, I noticed concreted areas under foot and one day I bumped in to ‘Woolly’, who shared with me his memories of working there and driving lorries when it was a working Gravel pit.”
Thérèse Coffey MP – Letter of support
As you know, our local MP, Thérèse Coffey, has been supportive of our venture from the start. We wrote to let her know we had submitted a full application to the Community Ownership Fund in June, and she has responded by urging the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing…
Love at Holton Pits
Photo taken by Edith Summerhayes (July 2023)
Nature in the Pits by Simon Thompson
Over the last 25 years I have wandered in the Pits enjoying whatever birds I could find, but it was during the COVID lockdown when I started to really catalogue the birds on a daily basis and to date we have recorded over 100 bird species in the area. I…
Save our Wild Isles
New funding stream launched – Aviva, in partnership with WWF and the RSPB, is giving £1 million to support community groups across the UK to protect and restore nature in their local area. https://www.saveourwildisles.org.uk/community/fund
COF Application submitted
Have a seat, let’s rest a while, after the enormous amount of work that went into creating a Business Plan and filling out the questions for the Community Owernship Fund. Phew. Submitted today. We should hear in 2 months if we have been successful. As you know from the meeting…
Red-banded Sand Wasp
WATCH HERE as this female Red-banded Sand Wasp (Ammophila sabulosa) hauls a much larger caterpillar, paralysed by her sting, back to provision her nest burrowed in the sand !! Captured here by Hawk Honey, Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s wasp and bee expert, at Holton Pits this week Here are more details…
BBC Radio Suffolk
📻 LISTEN BELOW! …to hear BBC Radio Suffolk’s Luke Deal talking to Rachel, our joint Chair, about the exciting news that Cemex have – subject to contract – accepted our offer to buy Holton Pits for the community, and about what the next steps will be…
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Holton Pits CIC 