Blooming Marvellous!

Karl Curtis’s comment,

The town of Rugby hosted the Heart of England in Bloom campaign this year and it proved successful with Rugby being the overall winner of the campaign for 2015 and will be representing the region in the 2016 competition.  The nature reserves in Rugby of course support the towns success and again Ashlawn Cutting achieved gold and overall winner in the Rugby in Bloom environmental category.

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Steve Batt, chair of the Rugby Wildlife Group – a local branch of the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust said of the success:

‘I am delighted to see the volunteers efforts on Ashlawn Cutting recognised again through the Rugby in Bloom competition this year. Winning the Environmental category is a real fillip and rewards the very considerable efforts it takes to look after this old railway cutting. In excess of 2900 hours were spent last year looking after the grasslands and creating scallops to further enhance the diversity.

The Healthy Living Walk has matured much quicker than we even dared hope and is now a real feature, the hedge laid near Benn Street is a wildlife bonus, and the works on Pytchley Marsh over the last few years are really paying dividends in improving species diversity with marked gains for dragonflies. Add to this the scallops between the bridges and the volunteers efforts can easily be seen to have improved the reserve yet again. Our thanks of course to those who have helped including the Warwickshire College, Rugby School, Rugby Borough Council and naturally the Trust itself especially from the Nature Force visits, and those who turned out as part of SEWA day.

Ashlawn is one of those reserves where there is always more to do and if anyone fancies joining the volunteers we’d be delighted to see you, if physical activity isn’t your choice we could always do with some help with this website, or just casual records and observations, and photographs.’

Rugby in Bloom Ashlawn 2015