Recent Events
Autumn Love Your Lanes Litter Pick
Sunday 17th November 2019
Once again an intrepid group PALLS members ventured into the lanes for our third litter pick. It is always amazing to see how much litter lurks within the ditches and undergrowth - the usual cans and bottles but also wing-mirrors, umbrellas, tent poles and unidentifiable large chunks of plastic! We picked up about 20 bags of waste from Lower Pennington Lane, Ridgeway Lane, Platoff Road, Poles Lane and some of Normandy Lane. I think it is fair to say that all of us enjoyed our morning in the winter sunshine and enjoyed meeting neighbours and friends. Thank you to everyone who joined us.
Love Your Lanes Litter Pick II
Sunday 10th March 2019
Thank you so much to the brave who turned out on our postponed litter pick on a very blustery Sunday 10th March. We managed to collect a surprisingly large quantity of litter from the ditches and verges of parts of Ridgeway Lane, Poles Lane, Platoff Road, Maiden Lane and Lower Pennington Lane…as well as having a lovely chat and giggle along the way. Thank you to our Town and District Councillor Alan Penson (2nd from right) who came along , too – his support for this initiative was very much appreciated.
Thank you also to everyone who volunteered to come along on the previous Sunday (3rd March) which we had to postpone but who couldn’t make the postponed date – including two of our other councillors – Andrew Gossage and Jack Davies. It is great to see our local representatives willing to get their hands dirty for their local community!
Bird Monitoring Tuition
28th January 2019
Thank you to all of those hardy volunteers who came out on an extremely chilly Sunday morning to learn more about monitoring our coastal birds and their use of the fields around the lanes.
'Love your Lanes' Litter Pick
Sunday 28th October
A HUGE thank you to PALLS members, young and old, who collected an astonishing 16 bags of rubbish, 2 boxes of glass, and an assortment of other items including car hub caps and bumpers and even a couple of scaffolding poles!
We will be organising another litter pick soon so please do watch the website for dates.
Lanes Nature Walk
Sunday 21st October
Last month, Jonathan Cox led a fascinating nature ramble through the lanes and footpaths of Pennington and Woodside. Crossing from Ridgeway Lane through the fields to Lower Pennington Lane, walkers observed the fine oaks in their autumn colour and the many birds in the hedgerows including great spotted woopeckers, nuthatch and long tailed tits. The ploughed field, which the footpath crosses, provided feeding for many pied wagtails and a habitat for several arable plants of cultivation. These remarkable plants can lie dormant in the soil for many years only to find fresh opportunities to flower and set seed when the ground is disturbed by the plough.
Nearing Lower Pennington Lane a tree stump was covered with a huge flowering ivy which was alive with insects in the autumn sunshine. Along these hedges were many elms with their leaves turning vibrant yellow. These elms are believed to be examples of Goodyer’s elm – a type of elm unique to the lanes of south west Hampshire and Dorset described by the botanist John Goodyer in 1624. Although mature trees are susceptible to Dutch elm disease, the young suckers can be found frequently in our local lanes.
Crossing back over the fields the walkers emerged onto Chequers Green, a relict of the historically grazed drove ways that once linked the common grazing lands of the New Forest with the coastal marshes. Standing on the edge of the Green is a huge old oak tree – another feature of the parkland landscape created by the tradition of common grazing. The walkers returned to Woodside Park along Platoff Road. Here the wide wooded verges are separated from the fields by well defined ditches and banks - another feature retained from a time when commoners’ ponies and cattle roamed the lanes.
Jonathan hopes to lead another nature walk soon - so keep any eye on the website for a new date.