Environment

Nature watch in Wateryard

Wateryard Nature Watch board in early Autumn 2020.

Wateryard Nature Watch board in Summer 2021.

Wateryard is located at the bottom of Water Lane and has open fields on the opposite side of the road. The Bidwell stream becomes the Chelveston Brook, running beside the lane before turning and heading down to the River Nene. The rural setting, availability of food, water and shelter combine to make the area attractive to passing wildlife.

Residents record the wildlife sightings each season on a blackboard.

St John's Recycling

At St John's Sue Wager is collecting the following items for charity:
• Milk bottle tops (milk bottle only), to Air Ambulance;
• Old pens, biros and felt tips go to Brain Trauma Research;
• Squashed drink cans go to Helipads for Hospitals;
• Pill blister packs go to Superdrug Wellingborough to be recycled, after stripping aluminium from the plastic;
• Clean jam jars and the metal top 1lb size go to the Brownies for their jam sales.
Please bring your clean recycling to St. John's and leave it on the bench.at the back of the Church. In time we hope to have specific areas for collection. Thank you for your help.

Hedgehog Streets

Jennie Clark (Chelveston) is our local Hedgehog Champion. There over 40,000 Hedgehog Champions in the UK, who are inspiring the public to make their gardens hedgehog-friendly, and recruiting their neighbours to create "Hedgehog Streets" in their local community.

Hedgehogs are a natural predator that can eat up to 80 slugs a night. Encourage them into your garden by making a 13cm x 13cm hole in your fence. Do hedgehogs visit your garden? Have you linked your garden with your neighbours? If so, Email "HOG" and/or "HOLE" along with your street name to hogsandholes@yahoo.com.

Hedgehog Highway sign above a hole in a fence.

HogFact - Hedgehogs usually hibernate from October/November through to March/April. Research has shown that each individual hedgehog is likely to move nesting sites at least once during this period and so they can sometimes be seen out and about. During mild winters hedgehogs can remain active well into November and December.

Protected Wildflower Verge

The only designated wildlife area in the parish is the Protected Wildflower Verge (PWV), formerly a Local Wildlife Site (LWS), known as Caldecott Verges. It is located on the road between Caldecott and Chelston Rise. This protected verge is identified by marker posts at either end.