The sixth and last in a series by local historian Philip Grant
The
Fryent Country Park Story – Part 6
Over
the past five weeks, we have wandered through 1,000 years of our open space’s
history, up to 1980. Thank you for your company on this journey, and I hope you
will enjoy the final instalment, which brings us up to date. If you missed Part
5, “click” here.
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1. A Spring morning on Fryent Way, as you enter the Country
Park.
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As
part of its plans to improve its open spaces (including the Welsh Harp) in the
early 1980s, Brent Council appointed two Countryside Rangers. In 1984, Brent
combined its Barn Hill and Fryent Way lands, under the name Fryent Country
Park. That year volunteers, who began to help look after this open space in
1983, formed the Barn Hill Conservation Group (“BHCG”).
Among
the first steps taken was the restoration of the existing ponds, and the
creation of some new ones, to encourage frogs and other amphibians. The ancient
hedges also needed attention, to bring the fields back to the way they had been
on the Hovenden Map of 1597 (see Part
2).
BHCG members collected seeds from existing trees and bushes on the Park in the
autumn, growing new ones on an allotment to replant missing hedgerows.
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| 2. BHCG’s 1988 illustrated map of the Country Park, with
lists of species. (Photo of an old copy I still have!) |
Group
members also took part in nature surveys, to count the number of different
species to be found there. Around 1990, the Park was declared a Local Nature Reserve.
When BHCG members produced an illustrated map of Fryent Country Park in the
late 1980s, it listed around 550 types of flora and fauna. The map included the
old field names, and the rows of green dots marked new areas of woodland that
were being planted at Beane Hill, in the south-east corner of the of the Park,
growing ash timber for commercial sale.
Efforts
to attract more public use of the Park were dealt a blow in August 1986, when
Travellers occupied land beside Fryent Way. This was partly in protest against
Brent Council’s failure to provide a permanent site for them to use. Towards
the end of the year there were up to 400 Travellers living there, without a
water supply or sanitation, and fly-tippers took advantage of their piles of
rubbish to dump more. The Council took court action to evict them, but then
allowed 30 families to occupy a “temporary site”, with portable toilets, near
the Fryent Way car park, until a permanent site was built.
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3. Traveller caravans at Fryent Way, December 1986. (Still from an RTE television news report)
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The
Travellers and their rubbish (tons of which had to be cleared away
periodically) were a continuing source of complaint by local residents, even
after the permanent “Book Centre” site in Neasden was completed in the summer
of 1988. The last of the occupying caravans finally vacated the Country Park
after further court action in 1990. Banks of earth were put in place along both
sides of Fryent Way, to prevent vehicle access into the fields in future, and
although these looked unsightly at first, they are now a grassy feature.
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4. Hay meadow wildflowers and grasses, and a Gatekeeper
butterfly. (Courtesy of Leslie Williams / BHCG)
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An
“organic” management plan is followed for the Park’s meadows, which have a rich
mix of grasses and wildflowers, and are an important habitat for butterflies.
Annual butterfly surveys have been carried out since 1986, to monitor the
different types and their relative numbers, and several new species have
established themselves. The grass is cut for hay, from July onwards, and where
possible the Council markets the right to come and harvest the crop. In the
photo below, from 2004, a farmer from Wiltshire was preparing to take the hay
home, as winter feed for his organic herd of dairy cows, which provided milk to
make Yeo Valley yogurt!
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5. Hay baling in a field behind Valley Drive, 2004. (Photo by the late Ian Stokes, courtesy of BHCG
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A
popular corner of the Park has always been the old Bush Farm, reached along its
drive from the corner of Slough Lane. Two fields were fenced off, as grazing
for horses that are still kept in stables there, and BHCG has worked to restore
the farm’s former orchard (shown on the 1597 map), which as well as old apple
varieties has damsons, mulberries, cob nuts and hops. A wheelchair accessible
path has also been created there, to allow disabled visitors to enjoy some of
the fields and ponds.
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6. Horses in a field at Bush Farm. (Photo by David Howard, posted on the Flickr website)
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The Park is covered with a network of
footpaths, and one of the tasks carried out by BHCG on their year-round Sunday
morning projects is to keep these paths clear for walkers to enjoy. The photos
below show volunteers working on a path near Uxendon Hill, which is part of the
Capital Ring. This 72-mile long circular route, around the green spaces of
outer London, was devised by the London Walking Forum and, in normal times, can
be walked in easy stages. The leaflet for Stage 10, “South
Kenton to Hendon”, describes Fryent Country Park as ‘one
of the best surviving areas of traditional countryside in Middlesex’.
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7. Before and after views from a Sunday morning footpath
project. (Photos by John Parker / BHCG)
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Another
initiative to encourage visitors to enjoy the Park was Brent’s Countryside Day.
From the 1990s, this annual show brought a range of country activities,
information stands and fairground rides to the event field. Watching sheep dogs
at work, or displays with birds of prey, brought crowds of many thousands. As
well as seeing BHCG members demonstrating wood turning on a pole lathe,
youngsters sometimes got the chance to have-a-go themselves. Unfortunately,
funding for this event was one of the cuts the Council had to make after 2010.
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| 8. A flyer for the 1999 Countryside Day, and using a pole lathe in 2010. (With
thanks to John Parker and Rose Bennett / BHCG) |
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