Litterpickers and bin bag hoops purchased with a grant from Leeds Together Fund
Today’s work party was a special event to celebrate a grant of £165 which the Leeds Together Fund awarded to Friends of Adel Woods this month to enable us to purchase three new litterpickers and six bin bag hoops. Bin bag hoops hold the mouth of bin bags open and make litterpicking a lot easier.
We had two aims today: first, to use our new equipment on a community litterpick around the Village Green and in Adel Woods; second, at the request of the Parish Ranger, to clear Himalayan Balsam from the woodland on the northern fringe of the Village Green.
We met in the Village Green carpark and had a record turn out of twenty six volunteers including a baby and your correspondent! Alwoodley Wombles also came with a supply of additional litterpickers in case they were needed.
Our happy and excited litterpicking team – brandishing litterpickers and bin bag hoops
Fourteen of our group were there to pick up litter. We furnished them with litterpickers, purple bags and bin bag hoops and despatched them to pick up litter around the Village Green and in the woods.
“Thanks so much for organising the litterpick – the boys and I had a great time…I hope we’ll join you again”.
The rest of us, including your correspondent, set off to pull up Himalayan Balsam.
The Himalayan Balsam team with Mark, the Parish Ranger
Himalayan Balsam is a non-native invasive plant which, left to its own devices, will cover large areas of land and shade out other plants. We discovered this morning that that is certainly the case to the north of the Village Green.
Massed Himalayan Balsam on the northern edge of the Village Green
Fortunately, Himalayan Balsam has extremely shallow roots which meant that in the space of an hour and three quarters we were able to pull up many thousands of plants.
In the course of our work we found a number of piles of dog mess. Your correspondent went to Fetch, the pet supplies shop opposite the Village Green, to purchase some poo bags, and Diane generously donated to Friends of Adel Woods a box of three hundred!
We were due to finish at 11.30 am but more than half of our balsam team enjoyed it so much that they stayed until 12 noon!
Friends of Adel Woods next to a pile of uprooted Himalayan Balsam
Thank you to the Leeds Together Fund for their generous grant, to Fetch for donating some poo bags, to Alwoodley Wombles for their support, and to all our wonderful volunteers who came and made the event a great success.
Come along to Friends of Adel Woods events!
We hope that you have enjoyed reading about our activities and would be delighted if you would like to join us.
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events such as bat walks, fungal forays and birdsong walks.
Our next work party is on Sunday the 15th June 2025 when we will be litterpicking and working on Adel Moor. You can find out more here.
We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods, and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, keep an eye on our Home Page and come along to one of our work parties.
If you would like to join our email mailing list, please get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
Friends of Adel Woods at the Buck Stone in July 2024
This evening we held our Annual General meeting, attended by seven members of our committee and four Friends, with apologies from one member of our committee, and five Friends.
1. Minutes of last year’s AGM
Approved unanimously.
2. Chair’s report
The Chair gave a comprehensive report of the past year’s activities. The report can be read here
3. The Treasurer’s report
The audited Income and Expenditure Account for the year ended 31st March 2025 was presented by the treasurer and agreed. Funds held on 31 March 2025 were £374.29. £100 was raised by the Birdsong Walk on 4th May so funds held today (22nd May) are £474.29.
The Treasurer expressed her thanks to the Auditor for his work.
4. Election of Auditor
Rob Hall was unanimously re-appointed auditor of the accounts.
5. Election of Officers and Committee
The following officers were elected: Chair Person – Roger Gilbert: Treasurer – Judith White (staying on until a replacement is found); Minute Secretary – Tamsin Wragg (Sue Chambers to cover if Tamsin has other commitments).
Robert Hall, David Hampshire, Steve Joul, Sue Chambers and Tamsin Wragg all agreed to remain on the committee.
Rob Dyal and Diana Hector agreed to join the committee.
6. Vote of Thanks to Judith White (retiring treasurer)
The Chair proposed a vote of thanks to Judith for all the work she has done over the years and this was passed unanimously. Judith agreed to stay on as treasurer until a new one can be found.
7. Vote of Thanks to David Preston
The committee passed a vote of thanks to David for all the work he’s done with the group over the year.
8. Any other business
A discussion took place about how we can attract new younger members. The Chair said he would produce generic poster to put up in the woods. Tamsin said she would see if she can publicise FOAW at Leeds University. Other suggestions were the use of the Alwoodley Ward Residents page on Facebook and linking with Alwoodley 2030.
Steve reported that the patch of Japanese Knotweed near the picnic area seems to be dead but may re-appear.
The Chair alerted the meeting to the state of Adel Pond which is leaking under the sluice gate and needs repair. He has been in touch with the council about this.
We are just about to complete our sixteenth year since Friends of Adel Woods came into being, and the last twelve months have been successful with many work parties and educational walks and talks.
Work parties
Usually, our work parties comprises a team of litterpickers and another team carrying out a task such as path clearing.
In the last year we have had twelve mornings of litterpicking and picked up about fifty bags of rubbish – so hats off to our dedicated band of litterpickers! We haven’t kept a tally, but it seems likely that since Friends of Adel Woods was formed, we have picked up over eight hundred bags of rubbish – in addition to disposing of larger items such as tyres and beer barrels!
Some of the rubbish we have collected over the last year
As well as litterpicking we have completed fifteen and a half mornings on the following tasks:
one morning working on Adel Moor with David Preston removing bracken, brambles and saplings.
one morning clearing bracken from around the Buck Stone
three mornings mowing the orchid meadow
four mornings clearing paths and fallen trees
three mornings working on Adel Bog (1 with David Preston)
one morning dredging Adel Pond with David Preston
one and a half days of nest box cleaning and surveying with Steve Joul
one morning putting tree guards on the orchard in the practice rugby field
Working on the orchid meadow with David Preston
Educational events
Since the last AGM we have had six educational walks – five with Steve Joul, and one with Leeds City Council ranger, David Preston. They were all a great success.
A fungal foray with Steve Joul on 17th November 2024
Steve led a variety of walks:
30th June: exploring biodiversity – a joint event with Alwoodley 2030
20th July: a stream and pond safari
29 September: a fungal foray
17th November: a fungal foray
4th May this year, a birdsong walk
On 28th August David led a guided batwalk attended by twenty six adults and nine children.
A bat walk with David Preston on 28th August 2024
I know from speaking to people who attend, and the messages I get from participants after these events, that people really enjoy them.
The Friends of Adel Woods Blog
If you would like to know more about our activities, please have a look at our blog entries.
Grants
Putting tree guards on the orchard in bitterly cold driving rain
We have received two grants in the last year.
In February we received a grant from Alwoodley 2030 to purchase tree guards for the orchard in the practice rugby field as the trees were suffering damage from deer and rabbits.
This month the Leeds Together Fund awarded Friends of Adel Woods a grant to purchase three litterpickers and six bin bag hoops. The purpose of the grant was to put on a community event during May and on the 31st May we are having a community litterpick.
Improvements to the Stairfoot Lane Carpark and Crag Lane
The Stairfoot Lane carpark after improvements
In December Leeds City Council resurfaced the Stairfoot Lane carpark and created a separate fenced off path through the carpark for the route of the Meanwood Valley Trail to keep pedestrians away from vehicles. This was clearly a big improvement.
In February the council resurfaced Crag Lane from the Stairfoot Lane carpark to Old Leo’s rugby club. This involved scraping off the mud from the surface, laying hardcore and then creating the new surface. This end result is a great improvement to Crag Lane.
Crag Lane after resurfacing work
However, my particular reason to mention this is that one of our regular volunteers, Matthew, contacted me on the 9th February, before the work was completed. He was very concerned because he had noticed that the hardcore used was of poor quality – containing crushed bricks, concrete, white ceramics and plastic piping – which was completely unacceptable in a woodland area. I contacted our local councillors and David Preston and passed on Matthew’s concerns and the result was that the worst hardcore was scraped off, and replaced with better quality hardcore.
So thank you very much to Matthew.
Water Quality in our Local Streams
Possible pollution in Adel Beck
Pollution of our rivers is a hot topic at the moment and in the past it has been raised with me by members of Friends of Adel Woods. One of the problems about looking into this is having accurate information about whether the streams are polluted or not.
In October last year I met up with a PhD student at Leeds who is active in promoting citizen science projects relating to water quality of our local streams. On 10th October, I walked with her along Nanny Beck and Meanwood Beck to look for signs of pollution and in February I organised a meeting of members of Friends of Adel Woods who would like to get involved in a water sampling project. About fourteen people attended the meeting. I am organising a meeting to form two or three groups who will take responsibility for the sampling. While it makes sense for Friends of Adel Woods to help steer this project, I am hoping that this will become a separate self-sustaining project.
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust event
On the 19th November, three of our committee – Steve, Sue and myself – went to an event organised by Alwoodley 2030 when Yorkshire Wildlife Trust gave a talk on the state of nature in Yorkshire.
Thank yous
Working on Adel Bog
So as usual, I would like to thank our committee and volunteers for all the work they have done over the last year. FOAW would not exist without the committee and volunteers. And I am looking forward to another year of fun, laughter and friendship. New members are always welcome!
I would particularly like to thank Judith for all the work she has done as treasurer over the last 16 years, and Stephanie who was our secretary from 2009 until July of last year.
Steve Joul on a stream and pond safari
Thank you to Steve Joul for leading five educational events this year – and helping to raise funds for Friends of Adel Woods.
Thank you to David Preston for the work he has done with us the last year. David is changing jobs to join the Public Rights of Way team imminently, and so we may not work with him again.
Looking to the future
As I and the rest of the committee get older, I get more concerned about how to ensure that Friends of Adel Woods continues for years to come. This is something which we need to consider over the coming year. New volunteers are always welcome!
Roger Gilbert
Chair of Friends of Adel Woods
COME ALONG TO FRIENDS OF ADEL WOODS EVENTS!
We hope that you have enjoyed reading about our activities and would be delighted if you would like to join us.
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events such as bat walks, fungal forays and birdsong walks.
We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods, and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, keep an eye on our Home Page and come along to one of our work parties.
If you would like to join our email mailing list, please get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
Another lovely day, and fifteen of us met up to work on Adel Bog and to pick up litter.
Litterpicking
Four Friends chose to litterpick this morning, and they split into two “teams”.
One team worked their way along Crag Lane, to the picnic area, Adel Crag and the Stairfoot Lane carpark and collected two bags of litter.
The other team focused on the Village Green and around the children’s play area. There was a lot of litter and they picked up two very full bags. They found two sun hats, socks, and woollen gloves in the play area and positioned them on railings in the hope that their owners might return to collect them.
Adel Bog
The rest of us worked on Adel Bog. Despite the period of almost two months of drought, the bog was looking quite green – with wild flowers beginning to appear, and lots of rushes.
Tormentil (potentilla erecta) coming into flower on Adel Bog
We focused on clearing saplings and brambles from the northern boundary of the bog, and using them to make the northern boundary clearer, and to build up the dead hedge we have constructed on the southern boundary.
Inspecting the job: saplings and brambles on the northern boundary of the bog
The removal of saplings was made much easier by our tree popper purchased with a grant from Alwoodley Parish Council.
As we cleared the saplings we came across two nests from last year – a small one, probably a robin’s nest; and a larger song thrush nest, identifiable by its smooth lining of mud [the larger mistle thrush also uses mud to construct its nest, but lines it with grass].
A robin’s nestA song thrush nest – with a smooth mud lining
We finished work at 12 noon and it was a very satisfying morning’s work.
About Friends of Adel Woods
We hope that you have enjoyed reading about our activities and would be delighted if you would like to join us.
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events such as bat walks, fungal forays and birdsong walks.
We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods, and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, keep an eye on our Home Page and come along to one of our work parties.
If you would like to join our email mailing list, please get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
A beautiful but chilly morning to meet at 6.55 am in Alwoodley Village Green carpark for our annual birdsong walk with Steve Joul.
The walk was attended by about twenty adults and three children and we raised £100 for Friends of Adel Woods funds – so thank you to all who attended.
Steve had visited the woods earlier in the week to plan the route and clear any vegetation which might hinder our passage.
Starting from the carpark, we made our way down the cycle path to the bottom of the village green where we could hear a chiffchaff; from there we went through the strip of woodland between the village green to the cricket pitch where we heard woodpigeons and robins.
On the cricket pitch we observed a pair of thrushes foraging for food. From their coloration they were almost certainly song thrushes, rather than the larger mistle thrushes. We often hear song thrushes in the woods.
Approximate route of our walk – follow the numbers 1-7
We then made our way up to Alwoodley Plantation (the area north of Crag Lane) where a group of magpies were making a heck of a racket at the top of a Scots pine. The frenzied activity continued for perhaps half an hour. Steve managed to see more of what was going on than I did. His account of what was going on is:
“I believe I saw a carrion crow in or on a nest in the top of the tree. I only saw this bird when it moved to the edge of the nest when fending off several magpies which it did vigorously. Whether the crow was defending its own eggs, was defending the eggs of a woodpigeon which it was consuming, or was defending itself against magpies whose eggs it was consuming I cannot say for sure. However, the nest appeared to be too shallow for a magpie nest and more like a woodpigeon platform, though the amount of nesting material made it look most likely to be that of the carrion crow.”
Leaving the magpies to continue with their battle, we continued up to the northeastern edge of the plantation to look across the farmer’s field down to King Lane. There we were fortunate to see a kestrel hovering over the field.
The area between the plantation and the hospice woodland (in the background)
We then went westwards towards the Hospice Woodland, before making our way back to Crag Lane and returning to the carpark.
Steve had organised a very interesting route through a variety of habitats – birch woodland, open field, pine plantation, beech woodland and scrub. So thank you Steve!
Last year we saw or heard twenty five species of birds, but today we only recorded sixteen. Nevertheless it was still a very beautiful, and uplifting walk. These are the birds we saw or heard (in approximate order):
Chiffchaff
Woodpigeon
Robin
Song thrush
Crow
Jackdaw
Wren
Blackbird
Blackcap
Magpie
Kestrel
Goldcrest
Dunnock
Great tit
Nuthatch
Blue tit
Red kite
Starling
Additional species which we noted last year (but didn’t see or hear today) were coal tit, goldfinch, great spotted woodpecker, greylag goose, heron, jay, mallard, redpoll, sparrowhawk, stock dove, and willow warbler.
Adel Woods are looking particularly lovely at the moment, with native bluebells in flower in many areas. Here are a couple of photos of bluebells and wild garlic photographed in the woods on the 6th May.
Bluebells in Adel WoodsBluebells by the path down from the Slabbering BabyWild garlic in Adel Woods on the 6th May 2025
Friends of Adel Woods: get involved and make a difference!
Friends of Adel Woods is a group dedicated to protecting, preserving, and celebrating the natural beauty and biodiversity of Adel Woods, a treasured woodland area in North Leeds. Our mission is to ensure that this vital green space remains a thriving habitat for wildlife and a peaceful retreat for local residents and visitors.
Through conservation projects, guided walks, educational events, and collaborative efforts with Leeds City Council we work to foster a deeper connection between people and nature. Whether you’re a seasoned naturalist, a weekend walker, or someone who simply enjoys the calm of the woods, there’s a place for you in the Friends of Adel Woods.
Join us in caring for this special place—together, we can ensure its legacy for generations to come.
Our next “work party” is on Saturday the 17th May when we will be litterpicking and path clearing.
If you would like join us, come along. No experience necessary – just enthusiasm and a love for the natural world.
If you would like us to add you to our mailing list, please click on the comment button on this page.
Friends of Adel Woods 