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Starting Off

Go to the back of the Visitor Centre where you will see the Wildlife Garden, which is a haven for insects, birds, butterflies and bees and the Wildlife Pond which supports invertebrates, molluscs, newts, frogs/toads and dragonflies.

At the back of the garden is a hedge which was laid last winter (2007/08).

Look out for:

Hedgelaying - A traditional way of managing hedgerows, which are a man-made feature, to form a boundary or barrier to stock. Stems are partially cut through & laid down at an angle.

Why? If left to nature the trees/shrubs continue to grow upwards to form fully grown trees, as they do, the branches at the base tend to die off creating gaps in the hedgerow.

Benefits -

• Shelter/windbreak for livestock, wildlife & crops
• Food & nesting sites for birds and insects
• Less prone to vandalism & misuse than fencing
• A shaded habitat favoured by many woodland plants
• A green corridor which animals & plants can spread along to colonise new areas.

Leaving the wildlife garden and looking to the right, you can see the new Wind Turbine, which has a maximum output of 15KW and generates power in wind speeds over 2.5 metres per second. It is expected that the turbine will generate at least 20,000kW of electricity per year which is 20% of the total use at Shipley Country Park.

The way is clearly defined

Bridleway

Follow the bridleway past the Toddlers' Playground and the Adventure Playground, along the Hedgerows around Cinderhill. Around eight years ago, three rows of trees were planted to form a hedgerow that would be good for wintering birds:- Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Rose, Hazel, Spindle, Holly, Crab Apple, Wild Cherry, Rowan, Guelder Rose.

In Cinderhill are also found orchids, rabbits, hares, hedghogs, occasional sightings of badgers and, a few years ago, reports of MuntJack deer.

2008 was a good year for Rosehips, which provide four times the amount of Vitamin C than other berries. If they're the only things on offer, birds will eat them but they'd rather eat the other berries. There has been a sighting of Waxwings in the local area, this occurs about every five years or so, when there's been a bad crop of Rowan berries in their normal area, as they move further afield looking for food.

On the right hand side (field) is the Living Bird Table, an area that was sown with a mix of annual plants for insects and birds to feed on. There was a mix of Poppy, Buckwheat, Corn Chamomile, Corn Marigold, Cornflower, Corn Cockle & Sunflower. These plants were common amongst arable crops but changes in agricultural practice saw them decline dramatically during the second half of the 20th Century.

Look out for the feeding areas

Further down on the right, in the dip, there is a newly constructed Bird Feeding Area, which consists of a viewing screen with bench and also a feeding station with seed hoppers/feeders and peanut feeders. Fruit could also be added to encourage other birds. Birds seen so far include:- blue tit, robin, great tit, long tailed tit, coal tit, goldcrest, chaffinch, greenfinch, jackdaw, crow, jay, sparrowhawk, wren, blackheaded gull, blackbird & dunnock.听 The area also has a small pond and听 two log piles to provide habitat for mini-beasts & small mammals.

Take a look across the open fields towards Flat Meadow Farm, on the right, where green woodpeckers, redwing and fieldfare can sometimes be seen. At Flat Meadow Farm there is a flock of tree sparrows which is good because they are becoming increasingly rare. To encourage them down to the bird feeding area, the plan is to plant a hedgerow to channel them down towards it. Birds generally do not like open areas and need hedgerows to flit about in to feel safe.

Continuing along the bridleway towards Bell Lane, there are open fields to left (Holland field). This is a wet/damp area, so it is good for willow trees which like the damp conditions, and in the field you can find skylarks and hares.

See if you can spot Guelder Rose berries in the hedge. They are good for wildlife - but you can make a jam out of it (savoury like cranberries) but it does tend to smell of old socks! Flocks of long tailed tits have been seen flitting about this and the hedges along Bell Lane.

Bell Lane

Turn left from the bridleway, onto Bell Lane, and head towards Derby Lodge, which has a tearooms downstairs open on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays and has public toilets. There is a house sparrow terrace nest box on the wall for three families. These birds like to nest in loose colonies.

The park has a variety of habitats

Continue up Lodge Walk past Derby Lodge to see a ground layer of leaf litter, fallen twigs and soil which provide shelter for animals like birds and mini-beasts. Some mini-beasts feed on the leaf litter and some animals and mini-beasts feed on those animals. Leaf litter can also provide shelter from predators and the weather.

Take the right hand fork and then bear left to take you under the Sweet Chestnut trees which provide food for squirrels on Shipley Hill. These trees are not native to the UK and were brought in by the Romans.

Carry on to walk under the Yew trees. These are often found in churchyards and could have already been planted at places of pagan worship before the churches were built. Legend says that Yews gave shelter to early Christian missionaries before their churches were built. The bark, leaves and seeds poisonous but berries harmless and quite sweet.

Continue following the path around the hill. Badgers are sometimes seen around the hill, they seem to use it to forage for food but then move offsite to their setts.

We keep standing dead wood (eg tree stumps) around the Park as it is good for insects and therefore woodpeckers, and also lying dead wood which is also good for insects, birds and fungi.

On the left, as you pass the old American Adventure site, is an old Ha Ha built as a barrier to prevent animals getting onto the Hall site, but unobtrusive (unlike hedgerows and fencing) so as not to spoil the view.

Carry on up the path to the top and as the path turns to the right, if you look straight on down the woodland, you will see the old cemetery, the site of the burial ground of the last Squire, Alfred Edward Miller Mundy.

Next to see along the path is a Victorian Folly, built as a ruin, but used by the Miller Mundy family to perform plays when the children were younger. It is also reputed to be where King Edward VII (before he was King) met his mistresses!

Enjoy a walk in Shipley Country Park

Beech Walk

Continue along the path to Beech Walk. A lot of the older (200 years) Beech Trees on Beech Walk have had to be felled due to them developing Honey Fungus, so we are now planting some young beech trees which will hopefully be around in another 200 years.

In front of you now is the Water Tower (now a private residence) which was built in 1892 and supplied water to the Hall, farm and Shipley Village. Continue along the path and pass the back of Home Farm (now a private residence) which was built as a showpiece rather than as a working farm.

Follow the path down and turn to the left then right to take you back down to Derby Lodge, built in 1911 and one of the original 'gateways' to the Hall.

Osbourne's Pond

Turn right from Derby Lodge, heading down Shipley Lane towards Osborne's Pond. In the hedgerow on the left you'll see a number of apple trees - and 2008 has been a bumper year for apples, which is good for the birds over winter.

Take a few minutes to enjoy Osborne's Pond

Turn left when you get to Osborne's Pond and follow the path around the pond where you will see Mallards, Coots, Terns, Swans, Great Crested Grebe, Canada Geese, Gulls, Tufted Ducks and Moorhen.

As you walk to the top end of the pond, bear left along the path to take you back up to the Visitor Centre and Car Park. On the right is Heanor Gate Bridleway which now forms part of the Nutbrook Trail, a 10-mile traffic free trail from Shipley to Long Eaton. It was originally a railway line, which was used to move coal, when Shipley was being mined.

At the top of the path, you will see on the left, the Wind Turbine that you passed when setting out and the Car Park straight ahead.

Hope you enjoyed the walk!