Towards the end of 1984, Pete Walton gathered
together a group of enthusiastic people, tools and transport and organised a programme of tasks. The first
workday was on 1 January 1985, planting gorse bushes on the newly acquired
saltmarsh of RSPB's Leighton Moss. A very cold day, and the ground frozen,
the surface had to be scraped off before the bushes could be planted in the soft
soil underneath.
In the early years Pete had a small van to carry all the
tools and volunteers used their cars to give lifts to others to the fortnightly
work sites. They worked regularly coppicing at Gait Barrows in
winter; working on projects for schools with Landlife which at that
time had an organisation in Lancaster; working for the AONB officers
in the Forest of Bowland and Arnside/Silverdale, doing coppicing, walling, tree
and hedge planting; and even doing occasional pond work at such sites as
Cranwell Avenue in Bowerham, and St John's Primary School in Galgate.
There was a membership of between 15 and 20 in those first 5 or 6 years,
although turn outs were usually 7 or 8. They also had close links with
BTCV in Preston and their Field Officer, Dave McGrath, which was a great help to
them. Pete says, "I remember that things became much more organised
when Liz and David became involved and it is incredible how much valuable work
has been done since that time".
Later the group joined with the Arnside and
Silverdale AONB for the use of their minibus and pick-ups in Morecambe were from
by the Central Pier.
Eventually we had our own D reg minibus which was later replaced by our J reg Land Rover. Here is our fleet of two
vehicles on changeover day at the
Torver garage in 1995!
The picture on the left (courtesy of the Morecambe Visitor) shows Mayor
Jean Yates in the driving seat at Torrisholme School. Founders of the
group, Dave and Pete are on the bonnet, with Laurie also in the picture.
The picture on the right shows The Land Rover nearly 15 years later. It has done a sterling job, carefully
looked after by the Alexanders, who also do a great job in maintaining and
sharpening the tools for our conservation tasks.
