A pleasant morning and a good turn out of twelve volunteers.
Five of our volunteers chose to litterpick – including two from Litter Free Leeds! Between them they picked up about four bags of rubbish.
The rest of us helped David Preston, our local ranger, to dredge Adel Pond (also known as Mill Fall pond). This pond is man-made and was dug to supply water to a flax mill that once operated here. The pond fell into disuse and silted up until about thirty years ago when Steve Joul led a team of volunteers in digging it out again. It is now a wonderful habitat for frogs and newts and all sorts of aquatic insects.
Dredging the pond has been an annual task for Friends of Adel Woods every Autumn since (and including) 2009. The first thing we have to do every year is clear out the many large logs and rocks which somehow find their way into the pond. Many are concealed under the water and a bit of a tripping hazard. Fortunately, there was only one minor mishap today!
Once the logs and rocks have been removed, it is a question of digging up silt and putting it into buckets to transport away. Today we had four diggers in the pond, and one principal barrowman.
The pond is fed on the north side by a single ditch bringing in a stream of water throughout the year. Unfortunately, the stream also brings in lots of mud and clay as can be seen in the photos.
It is important, therefore, to clear as much mud and leaves from the ditch as possible and three volunteers focused on this task.
Each year we find in the mud where the stream enters the pond many broken fragments of china. Presumably these are the remains of cups, saucers, jugs and plates thrown into the pond by day trippers when Verity’s Cafe, which used to stand nearby, was in it’s heyday. Or perhaps they were thrown in when Verity’s closed down. This year, one item seemed to be a complete vase but unfortunately it shattered into many fragments as yours truly lifted it out of the mud.
At noon, we ceased work to wash down the equipment before heading home for a shower and a nice Sunday lunch.
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one morning a month to carry out various jobs, and we also put on educational events.
If you would like to take part in our activities or be added to our mailing list, please get in touch by leaving a comment on our website. Our next event is on Saturday the 4th November when we will be litterpicking and working on Adel Bog with David Preston.
A nice morning, and a good turnout of nine Friends of Adel Woods.
This was an extra “work party” for the specific purpose of repairing the steps leading down from the Stairfoot Lane car park to Adel Beck, and unblocking the drainage pipe under Crag Lane near the picnic area.
However, three Friends came to litterpick and between them filled four bags of litter. A wonderful achievement!
The Stairfoot Lane steps
The steps were constructed by the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers in February 2011. Before that, the traveller had to negotiate a rather steep and muddy bank if walking between the stream and Crag Lane. However, it is a public footpath and so Leeds City Council paid for the work to be done. In October 2012, Friends of Adel Woods added five further steps at the top so there are now thirty six. Sometime in 2013 we replaced the original wooden pegs with iron ones.
Maintaining the steps something we have to do regularly as mud is washed onto the steps when it rains, leaves fall onto the steps each Autumn, and the wooden risers rot. In addition, the local moles like to create mole hills on the steps!
Today, the steps were well on their way to returning to being a steep, muddy slope, and five of the risers needed to be replaced. Two or three more will need to be replaced in a year or so.
Amazingly, the six of us working on this task were able to complete the work, including levelling off all the steps, in an hour and a quarter!
We must have done well because a user of the steps emailed FOAW to tell us that we had done an amazing job – which is always nice to hear.
The drainage pipe under Crag Lane
Friends of Adel Woods working on Crag Lane with Steve Joul on 20th February 2011
Until February 2011, Crag Lane near the picnic area used to turn into a quagmire every time it rained as can be seen in the photograph above. In February 2011 Steve Joul led a team of FOAW volunteers in placing a drainage pipe in the offending area and building up the path using hardcore provided by Leeds City Council.
The path is completely transformed as a result of that work, but the pipe needs to be unblocked a couple of times a year.
Using drainage rods to unblock the drainage pipe.
As one of our volunteers remarked: “I love work: I could watch someone doing it all day!”
Five happy Friends of Adel Woods
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one morning a month to carry out various jobs, and we also put on educational events – this coming weekend we are putting on a Fungal Foray.
If you would like to take part in our activities, get in touch by leaving a comment on our website.
Looking southwards towards the Buck Stone on Thursday the 7th September 2023
A cool and Autumnal day. And also the day of the Meanwood Valley Trail Race organised by the Meanwood Valley Striders running club, so there were lots of runners in Adel Woods this morning.
Today we had two tasks: litterpicking and clearing scrub from around the Buck Stone.
The Buck Stone is a large outcrop of rock in the woods behind Buckstone Avenue. It has been recorded as a landmark on maps for over two hundred and fifty years and – you are ahead of me! – the Buckstone estate is named after it.
It has been a popular feature in the woods for many years, and members of FOAW can remember playing on it as children over fifty years ago!
Litterpicking
Unusually, we only had one litter picker, Sue, today.
She picked up three bags of rubbish, one of which was a bag of rubbish thrown into the bushes near the Buckstone Road entrance to the woods. She also found gas canisters and balloons in the Stairfoot Lane car park, and a disposable barbecue and box of raw bacon at Adel Crag!
The Buck Stone
Friends of Adel Woods first worked on the Buck Stone in March 2012 at the request of local residents. At that time, it was almost completely covered and hidden from view in the Summer by a large oak tree growing into the eastern end of the rock. We cut back most of the tree and cleared scrub under the guidance of our local ranger, Steve Joul, and restored the landmark to its former glory.
The Buck Stone “before and after” on the 30th March 2012
Since then, we have worked on the Buck Stone on 21 March 2015, 24th April 2016, and 8th April 2017. However, we have not worked on it since 2017 and this morning it was once more largely obscured from view by the oak tree, brambles, himalayan balsam and bracken. In fact, we had not seen such tall bracken and himalayan balsam – some plants were seven to eight feet high.
The southern face of the Buck Stone at 10.25 am this morning
The task looked daunting and the plan was to start from the Buck Stone and move outwards, to get the maximum bang for our Buck! But to begin we had to clear a way through to even reach the Buck Stone! And we also had to clear a space for a compost heap where we could put all the vegetation we removed. This in itself was a big job.
We started with a team of seven volunteers, but thankfully numbers gradually increased till there were twelve of us.
It was hard work, but as usual there was lots of interesting conversation and laughter – each of the Friends working on different parts of the project.
The northern face of the Buck Stone: 11.55 am on Saturday 16th September 2023
We finished at noon, and we achieved far more than we thought we could. Once more, the Buck Stone is a feature of Adel Woods and a place where people can sit, relax and dream, and young children can climb and play and use their imagination.
Thank you to all our volunteers. It is not just the Buck Stone that rocks. You rock too!
The southern face of the Buck Stone, noon on Saturday the 16th September
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one morning a month to carry out various jobs, and we also put on educational events. If you would like to take part in our activities, get in touch by leaving a comment on our website.
All except one of our current committee members attended. In addition, David Preston, ranger with Leeds City Council, and three “Friends” attended.
1. Three Friends sent apologies.
2. The minutes of the last AGM on 26th May 2022 were approved subject to minor amendments.
3. The Chair gave a report on activities since the last Annual General Meeting. This is printed in full below.
4. The Treasurer gave a report on the accounts for the last year. In fact, there had been only one item of expenditure in the last year.
5. Rob Hall was elected auditor for the coming year.
6. The following officers were elected unopposed:
Roger Gilbert: chair
Judith White: treasurer
Stephanie Clark: secretary
The existing members of the committee who were present all confirmed that they are willing to continue as members. In addition, another Friend had a rush of blood to the head and agreed to join the committee. The committee members are therefore: R Gilbert; J White; S Clark; R Hall; D Hampshire; S Chambers; S Joul; T Wragg; D Smith.
7. A vote of thanks was given to David Preston for the work he has done with the Friends of Adel Woods in the last year.
8. The meeting concluded with a wide-ranging discussion of other business including:
opportunities to apply for grants from Love Leeds Parks for footpath work;
the tree thinning work around Adel Crag is to continue this year;
the program of works for the coming year;
Steve Joul’s regular work on the one patch of Japanese knotweed over the last many years seems to have paid off as Steve could not find any remaining shoots this year;
how to deal with the problem of dog poo on Adel Moor.
The Chair’s Report
Star of Bethlehem in Adel Woods: 21 May 2023
We are very lucky to live near Adel Woods. Steve Joul did a walk around the woods on 16th April this year when he recorded: 23 bird species; 17 plants in flower; 4 species of insects; 7 species of fungi; and 20 grey squirrels. You can find the details in the blog post for 16th April.
The last year has been our first complete year of activities uninterrupted by Covid 19 since 2018-19. It was a bumper year.
We have two types of activities: work parties, and educational walks and talks.
WORK PARTIES
We had 18 work parties when we carried out the following work (NB the total number of activities adds up to more than 18 because each work party involves both litterpicking and some other work such as path clearing):
13 mornings of litterpicking;
4 mornings working on Adel Moor – removing bracken, brambles and saplings;
2 mornings on Adel Pond and ditches (and Judith cleaning the Slabbering Baby);
3 mornings on Adel Bog;
6 mornings of path clearing;
A day and a half of surveying and cleaning nest boxes
1 morning of working on the hospice woodland (plus a morning in October when Judith cleaned the monument at the entrance on Stairfoot Lane).
Litterpicking and path clearing in Adel Woods 21st January 2023
Of the eighteen work parties most were led by our chair, but three were led by David Preston; the nest box cleaning and surveying was led by Steve Joul; three of the mornings on Adel Moor were led by Barbara Wakefield; two litterpicking and path clearing events were led by Judith; and one by Rob. It is good that we have a range of people who are able and willing to lead a morning in the woods.
Working on Adel Bog with David Prestonon 30th November 2023
The mornings led by Barbara were a new venture – on a Wednesday morning and focussing on one task which did not need tools, pulling up bracken on the moor. These were very successful, attracting some new volunteers and achieving a great deal. We are going to repeat this in July this year.
Friends of Adel Woods pulling up bracken on Adel Moor: August 2023
EDUCATIONAL EVENTS
We had two educational events in the last year.
The first was a fungal foray with Steve Joul on the 12th November.. It was a beautiful afternoon and we had something like 45-50 attendees.
Steve Joul describing a fungus to a rapt audience on 12th November 2022
The second was our our annual birdsong walk on Sunday 14th May, again led by Steve Joul. We had about a dozen attendees. It was a very successful morning: we saw or heard 19 species of bird, and we saw woodpeckers entering and leaving a hole in a tree; a pair of jays on their nest; a woodpigeon sitting on its nest; tits using a Friends of Adel Woods nest box; and treecreepers entering a nesting hole in a tree near the entrance to Old Leo’s car park.
Steve Joul leading our birdsong walkon 14th May 2023
If you would like to know more about our activities, please have a look at our blog entries. They are written by someone I know well and love and respect, and they have some really good pictures!
There are a couple of other things worth noting during the year.
Firstly, in August last year, Steve single handedly scythed and raked the orchid meadow and made a brilliant job of it.
Secondly, in February of this year, David Preston and the Meanwood Valley Volunteer Rangers thinned trees, scrub and holly in front of Adel Crag and they have really improved the crag as a feature of the woods.
A view of Adel Crag (middle left) in February 2023 after clearance of scrub, trees and holly
Finally, at this time of year it is worth popping into Adel Woods to have a look at a beautiful, fragrant yellow azalea near the Stairfoot Lane carpark. If you go down the steps towards the stream, turn left onto the path after about the fifth step down, the azalea is about 25 yards along. It blooms in May and it has beautiful yellow flowers and a wonderful fragrance.
Yellow azalea in Adel Woods
On the same theme, in the next month, a large lime tree in the Stairfoot Lane car park will be coming into blossom in June, exuding a beautiful fragrance across the area. Make a note to enjoy it!
THANK YOUS
So as usual, I would like to thank our brilliant committee for all the work they have done: likewise all our wonderful volunteers. FOAW would not exist without the committee and volunteers. And I am looking forward to another year of fun, laughter and friendship with you all.
Thank you to Steve Joul for leading two wonderful educational walks over the last year – and for letting use his ladder for the nest box survey.
Thank you to David Preston for leading the events over the last year and we are looking forward to working with you again this coming year.
Finally, thank you to Old Leo’s for allowing us to use their carpark over the last year.
Alwoodley Plantation: Adel Woods; 12th November 2022
A fine Spring morning and six Friends of Adel Woods met on Buckstone Road at 10 am to pick up litter and clear the ditches which feed water to Adel Pond (also known as Mill Fall Pond). Two more Friends joined us at the pond a little later.
As you can see, it was a fine Spring morning at 10.15 am as four of us set off up Buckstone Road to pick up litter on the path through the copse to Tescos, on the recreation ground, and along Crag Lane.
Our fantastic litter pickers
Two of us set off down to Adel Pond laden with spades, saws, loppers and mattocks. The pond was looking beautiful in the sunlight – but no frogspawn yet.
Having appraised the work we needed to do, we started off with a ditch about 10 metres to the north of the pond. As you can see in the photos below, a section of this ditch was completely filled in. Interestingly though, as soon as we started digging, we found that water was flowing swiftly under the surface. By the time we had finished, water was pouring very swiftly through the ditch.
We then started on the main ditch feeding the pond. This was relatively clear, but still full of mud, sticks and leaves. Fortunately, as we started on this ditch two more Friends joined us and together we were able to make a good job of clearing the stretch nearest the pond.
As we were working, one of our Friends, Sylvia, spotted a newt among the leaves we had just pulled out of the ditch. Geoff was despatched to relocate it to the pond. This was a task Geoff had to repeat another five times as we found more newts among the leaves!
A newt in Adel Woods
Towards the end of the morning one of our party decided to work on a stretch of ditch further away from the pond – and was surprised to find that his spade kept going down through the mud until only the handle could be seen. Fortunately, he had not stepped into that particular patch of mud!
A very deep boggy area in one of the ditches leading to Adel Pond
Towards 12 noon, Diana, another Friend of Adel Woods came to see usfor a chat and to offer encouragement.
Adel Pond on 25th March 2023
Yet another lovely morning of friendship, learning and achievement.
The original intention this morning was toclear the ditches feeding Adel Pond, and litterpick around the cricket club, and Crag Lane. However, yours truly and his better half have had covid this week, so plans had to be modified.
Judith, our ever resourceful treasurer, stepped into the breach and led a successful litterpicking team of five litter pickers, focusing on Stairfoot Lane carpark, Adel Crag and the area around the picnic tables.
They found plenty to keep them busy – mainly doggy doo doo bags and glass bottles.
So thank you to all who picked up litter today!
Since David Preston and his team of Meanwood Valley Volunteer Rangers cleared a lot of the scrub around Adel Crag, it is looking a lot better.
A beautiful morning, but – By Gum – it was cold first thing! It took your correspondent 20 minutes to scrape the ice off the car windows – including inside! Nevertheless, eleven Friends turned out for this morning’s work party. Five of us litterpicking. and the rest of us path clearing. And it was a lovely day for working in the woods.
The litter pickers picked up about six bags of rubbish on Buckstone Road, the Village Green, Crag Lane, the Hospice Woodland and on the track down to the cricket pavilion.
For the path clearers the objective this morning was to improve the path running alongside Adel Beck. Historically, there has been a path by the beck on the Alwoodley side all the way from Stairfoot Lane bridge down to the Spring Hill bridge, just downhill from the Slabbering Baby. However, in recent years the path has become overgrown and muddy and its route unclear at the halfway point, in the region of Adel Bog. Our focus today was to work on the path from Spring Hill bridge up to the midway point.
Getting under way: the path by Adel Beck – Spring Hill bridge can just be seen to the right
Near Spring Hill bridge, the path had been eroded away by the beck, making it a bit hazardous, as can be seen in the photograph above. One of our first jobs was therefore to move the route of the path further away from the stream and remove brambles and a large sapling which was growing across the path.
Looking towards Spring Hill Bridge
The main things to tackle today were brambles and holly which were making the path very narrow – even before the growing season starts again.
Making our way home
In the space of two hours we were able to accomplish our aims, though there is still a lot to do – principally to improve the muddy sections of the path and to improve way marking.
BeforeAfterViews of Spring Hill Bridge before and after clearing brambles and saplings
The two photographs show the difference made in the vicinity of Spring Hill bridge. The tree on the left can just be seen in the “before” photograph though it is obscured by the brambles which we removed. You can also see to the right of the tree the stump of the large sapling which we removed because it was growing across the path.
Adel Beck path looking upstream from the vicinity of Spring Hill bridge – after clearing and widening the path
Another satisfying and successful morning for the Friends of Adel Woods!
Today was the second (and concluding) part of the Friends of Adel Woods annual nest box survey and Spring clean. Yesterday (in part 1) we started by surveying the nest boxes to the north of Crag Lane and spent the afternoon surveying the nest boxes on the Meanwood Valley Trail from the picnic area down to just short of Adel Pond.
This was another day which defied the weather forecast and turned out to be a lovely harbinger of the nesting season.
We met at 10 am in Old Leo’s car park. Five Friends turned out, including two who were taking part in the nest box survey and Spring clean for the first time!
Today, our first task was to put up “Tina’s nest box”, so named because Tina gave it to us! Situated on Crag Lane, near Old Leo’s car park, it is without doubt our best nest box, being made of woodcrete, a mixture of concrete and straw. It is spacious, dry, and designed to let the inhabitants nest well back from the entrance hole, away from the reach of predators. We cleaned it out yesterday, but found it too heavy to put back. Today with the use of a “stand off” to the ladder, we were able to put it back up.
From the car park, we made our way down to the pond with our wheelbarrow, ladders and equipment and started with box 42, just to the north of the pond. This contained a blue tit nest (we know because the entrance hole is 25 mm, so too small for birds like great tits) and the presence of droppings indicated that it had been used for roosting.
Cleaning out nest box 42
Incidentally, the reason we clean out the nest boxes each year, is that the species which use our nest boxes – like blue tit, great tit, sparrow and nuthatch – do not re-use nests from previous years. This was made clear by the lockdown in January 2021 which prevented us from cleaning our nest boxes that year. When we surveyed the boxes in January 2022, most nest boxes contained two nests, one on top of the other. It is also clear why the birds evolved to make new nests each year: when we clean out the boxes, the old nests are often full of lice and mites, droppings from roosting birds, and damp, rotted moss – not a great environment for young birds.
Nest box 38 – a sparrow nest?
Our next nest box was number 38, just by the bridge below the pond. This was unusual in that it seemed to contain a sparrow nest – which is made of straw – rather than a tit nest which is made of moss and fine grass. On several occasions, nuthatches have nested in this location, but not this year.
We then surveyed and cleaned out the nest boxes on the Meanwood Valley Trail from the Slabbering Baby down to Seven Arches, finishing at about 1.45 pm.
In all, we cleaned and surveyed seventeen nest boxes today. This is the overall summary:
twelve boxes contained tit nests;
one box contained an incomplete tit nest;
one appeared to contain a sparrow nest, but strangely it had a small amount of moss (which is typical of a tit nest) on the top;
two small nest boxes which we put up last year were not used, but one contained a small amount of moss;
one of the boxes containing a tit nest had clearly been used initially by nuthatches, but it looks as though they were driven out;
another box showed extensive work by nuthatches, but there was no nest.
I mentioned above that there was some evidence of nuthatches in the nest boxes but no nuthatch nests. In some years we have found one or two nuthatch nests. They are very distinctive for two reasons. Firstly, nuthatches seal all possible gaps in the nest box with copious amounts of mud, both on the inside and outside – and sometimes make the entrance hole smaller. Secondly, the nest is not made with moss and grass but with bark chips, so the nest box looks rather as if someone has tipped some bran flakes into it.
Courtesy of RSPB websiteA nuthatch and a nuthatch nest: note the mud around the top of the box
Nuthatches are very sleek looking birds which are the only UK bird that can climb headfirst down a tree trunk!
A view of Meanwood Beck through the trees in Adel Woods: 15th January 2023
On Friday, the Chair of FOAW (ie me) attended the inauguration ceremony for the creation of a new area of woodland off King Lane to the north of Alwoodley.
Leeds University has purchased 37 hectares of land (that is about 90 acres) from Clonmore Farm in order to create the new woodland. The precise location is shown below. The boundary is shown in red. To help you orient yourself, Five Lane Ends is the bottom centre of the map, and King Lane runs along the south west boundary.
It was a beautiful afternoon and the event was attended by about 40 people – including two Alwoodley parish councillors, representatives of the Forestry Commission and other interested parties.
The university’s intention in creating the woodland is to:
provide the opportunity for research and teaching
increase biodiversity
reduce carbon in the atmosphere
provide benefits to the university and the local community
The research and teaching opportunities will be across many departments of the university.
The university will be leaving in place the existing woodland adjacent to Eccup Whin (which is owned by Leeds City Council) and leaving some of the land as scrub to study how the land changes over time. Where they plant woodland, they will be planting appropriate broadleaf trees. They will also be planting trees of different ages to try to create the mix of ages to be found in a natural woodland. The existing buildings will be retained but only to provided shelter to lecturers and students. No new buildings are planned.
The long term intention is to allow public access to 20% of the woodland. 80% will be kept as private because the primary purpose of the woodland it to provide opportunities for research and walkers and dogs may well affect the outcome of the research. Public access to the 20% will be allowed in phases. Phase 1 is to provide an alternative route for Leeds Country Way and the Meanwood Valley Trail.
Roger Gair and Professor Simone Buitendijk, Vice-Chancellor of Leeds University, after planting the first tree in Gair Wood.
The woodland is named Gair Wood to honour Roger Gair who retired as secretary of Leeds University last year, and has had a long interest in conservation. He and Professor Simone Buitendijk, Vice-Chancellor of Leeds University, planted the first tree, an oak, and then the rest of us had the opportunity to plant cherry tree whips (ie very young trees which have not yet developed branches).
If you would like the opportunity to plant some trees in the new woodland, the university is organising some planting days and you can book your place by clicking on the following link which will take you to Eventbrite where you can choose a time and date to do your bit. You don’t need any previous experience and you will be shown what to do.
We woke this morning to a clear blue sky and a beautiful day. What better way to spend the morning than in Adel Woods?
We had two activities planned for this morning – to work on Adel Pond and to litterpick. Our treasurer, Judith, added a third, namely to go and clear away grass and other vegetation growing around the stone monument marking the Hospice Woodland. And a great job she made of it, as shown by the photograph below. Unfortunately, she was unable to take a photograph showing its state before she began due to the angle of the sun.
The entrance to the Hospice Woodland, Stairfoot Lane, Adel Woods, Leeds.
Only one Friend, Sue, chose to litterpick today, and she picked up two bags of rubbish, mainly around the rugby club and Stairfoot Lane car parks. Thank you Sue!
While Judith and Sue set off on their respective missions, the remaining nine of us made our way with David Preston, our local Parks and Countryside Ranger, to work on Adel Pond.
There were three aspects to our work on the pond. Firstly, to remove small trees and overhanging branches from around the edge of the pond, in order to let more light in and to reduce the number of leaves falling into the pond.
Sizing up small trees and overhanging branches for removal
Secondly, to remove silt from the pond. Thirdly, to clear mud and leaves from the ditches leading into the pond. This involved a lot of digging of mud from the pond and ditches, and removing it to somewhere it will not wash back into the pond.
Clearing silt from Adel Pond
It was hard work, but of course there was time for a bit of nature watching!
Friends of Adel Woods 
