Howard Gibson: a Tribute

Howard's smile when given his retirement present after he stepped down as Butterfly Park Treasurer in 2021

It is with great sadness that we report the death of Howard Gibson, the treasurer of New Ferry Butterfly Park for 22 years and chief lawnmower operative for 26 years.

When Howard retired from being a bank branch manager, he wanted to use his banking skills to serve the local community. He first started at Merseyside Improve Housing Association Tenant Participation group, where he met Mel Roberts, the visionary founder of the Park. Mel soon recruited Howard into the Park’s team, with Howard becoming the Park’s treasurer in 1998, taking over from the first treasurer Vi Otter.

The Treasurer’s role started on a small scale but developed into a much more involved role, reflecting the considerable development and increased activities taking place at the Park. It is a busy job in the summer, sorting out weekly collections put in the donation tin and distinguishing between donations: general, wood chip, soil improver, or group visits. These were accurately and clearly presented in the annual accounts. The accounts give the committee a clear picture of the financial resources and how each income stream has contributed over the year. Howard’s accounts were used to demonstrate the Park is a business - we sell wood chip. This was a crucial point raised in court in 2009 when protecting the Park’s business tenancy. Howard became an expert in VAT and claimed a 20% refund on our disabled accessible composting toilet via Cheshire Wildlife Trust. This refund helped with funding the required surrounding ground works.

The busiest day of the year for the treasurer is the Opening Day, when around 1,000 visitors are entertained. It can be complicated, with cash floats required for several stalls and refreshments, along with the purchase of materials, some items being purchased on the day as the opening day progresses. On the following day, whilst volunteers are all recovering, Howard quickly presented the accounts for the Opening Day, as a thank you to all the volunteers who had contributed to the success of the opening day and sharing their part in fundraising endeavours.

Howard also became expert in handling grants and reporting clearly on how they had been spent. Anything from a few hundred for the artwork which graces our pondside container, to several thousand for the toilet.

The most complicated and involved financial project handled by Howard, and one which cost the most at £17,000, was the Comma Project in 2012, during which a shop in New Ferry Precinct was rented for six months. Each month there was a different artist and a private viewing party at the end of the artist’s residency. It was a challenge to collect all the receipts: “No receipt, no payment” was Howard’s mantra and quite right too. There were rent, gas, electric and water bills along with decorating bills, artistic materials, and artist’s payment at the end of their residencies. When Howard stood down as treasurer in 2021, he was presented with a framed picture, a caricature of himself drawn by the park’s artist in residence, Carol Ramsay. He was delighted by it as evident in the photograph above.

Caricature of Howard, drawn by Carol Ramsay

Along with his banking skills, Howard brought many practical skills and joined in with the weekly Tuesday workdays with Dave the boat, Dave Holms, Mel Roberts and Ian Jones, as well as the twice monthly Sunday workdays during the fledgling years of the Park. Howard also installed, fixed and painted much of the park’s furniture and carried out many successful infrastructure projects at the Park: the BBQ stand, the much-used bench by the container, designing compost bins and, best of all, adding a sloping roof to the metal container, keeping it dry and harvesting rainwater. We are still finding new volunteers for the things that Howard used to quietly do annually, such as treating handrails and posts with preservative, which he did up to 2024. He mowed our paths throughout the growing season for 26 years, from 1998 to 2024. At the 2025 Opening Day, Justin Madders MP presented Howard with a gift token as a small appreciation of all that work.

Howard and Peter preparing the hole for the industrial history display board at the brick pit

Howard bravely took on intruders in the Park, removing an air rifle from a gang of youths trespassing in the Park. In 2011 as part of a survey of volunteers’ hours for Cheshire Wildlife Trust, it was realised that Howard was giving 140 mid-week hours per year plus seven Sundays, amounting to 20% of the total volunteer input at the Park that year, very impressive.

Howard has always been a quiet strength of the Park, and this was recognised and celebratedby Cheshire Wildlife Trust, who awarded Howard the Eric Thurston Award in 2015.

Howard receiving the Eric Thurston Award

Howard’s twin daughters Dawn and Fiona carried out their Duke of Edinburgh community service at the Park, and his wife Enid came to the opening days with the wider family. Enid was able to join us at celebratory events such as the Liverpool Echo Environment Award for Community Impact 2019.

Echo Environmental Awards Community 2019

The Green Flag at the Park has been flying at half-mast in tribute to him and at the recent group meeting we held a minute silence to reflect on Howard’s contribution to the Park and his fellowship over the years.

Howard has left a legacy through his financial acuity and hands-on involvement with the much-loved community asset of New Ferry Butterfly Park. As many have said, he was such a kind and peaceful man, with an extraordinarily strong work ethic. We were incredibly lucky to have him as a volunteer for all those years.

Howard at the entrance gates to the Butterfly Park, ready to great visitors

A Tribute to Gill Norton

Jill Norton

We send our sympathy to the family of Gill Norton. Gill was a botanist by training, though she worked mostly as a taxonomist: her specimens can be found in Liverpool World Museum. In later life she became of of our wildlife recorders, active for some 15 years starting in the late 1990s. She was also a regular attender at our monthly talks. The photo, from her funeral leaflet, shows Gill as we often saw her, in the outdoors.

Gill had a particular fondness for Wirral Wildlife. Her daughter Sarah and the family have kindly donated the collection at her funeral to Wirral Wildlife. Thank you, Sarah.

Ron's Rotary Club Award

Ron Warne (on right in Christmas jumper)
after being given his award from the Rotary Club

We are very pleased to congratulate Ron Warne for his recent award from The Rotary Club of Birkenhead.

Ron was awarded the Sam Lamour Award for Developing Youth. This is because he has quietly worked to ensure that the world young people will inherit will be a good physical environment. He has provided support for the amazing fundraising by Woodchurch High School pupils, by identifying a system whereby funds raised can be shared amongst voluntary groups that aim to improve Wirral's environment.

Ron was a recorder with Wirral Wildlife for some years, recording small mammals and plants. It is due to his good offices that Wirral Wildlife has received generous funding from Woodchurch High School's fundraising activities, for heathland restoration work at Cleaver Heath. Also New Ferry Butterfly Park has received funding towards a new large barrow.

June Receives Volunteer Award from Cheshire Wildlife Trust

June Mortazavi (centre) with Felicity Goodey, President of Cheshire Wildlife Trust (left)
and Charlotte Harris CEO of Cheshire Wildlife Trust (right)

At the Cheshire Wildlife Trust AGM on November 26th Wirral Wildlife volunteer June Mortazavi was presented with the Eric Thurston Award. This is the highest accolade for volunteering given by Cheshire Wildlife Trust. It is given to acknowledge the Trust’s most inspirational and outstanding volunteers. Winners are awarded a limited edition of a Roger Stephens print of peregrines circling above Beeston Castle.

Here is a taste of why June was nominated.

June arrived with a burst of enthusiasm on the Wildlife Trust scene in 2017 and has made an impact across several Cheshire Wildlife Trust areas. At New Ferry Butterfly Park, she rapidly got involved in practical habitat management and also as a warden, an active committee member and helping host courses and open days. Her impact is Wirral-wide, being an active and encouraging part of the Wirral Wildlife biological recording team. June started with little plant knowledge but has developed her confidence in carrying out botanical surveys and this year is in charge of her own survey. June is a real support to some over stretched volunteers e.g. helping Dr Hilary Ash by writing up flora records. June has become very adept at deciphering Hilary’s annotations of plant names in Latin!

She was trusted to help the Wirral Wildlife recording team process data and publish a peer reviewed paper on quadrat survey carry out at Thurstaston common for 39 years. That is a lot of data!

June gets out and fights for nature, for example liaising with neighbours over injured hedgehogs found at the New Ferry Butterfly Park. June is also a stalwart of the Friends of Lowfields Wood, Eastham, which was set up by Cheshire Wildlife Trust's Natural Futures programme in January 2019 and continues to flourish. June works beyond Wirral with CWT staff in the Delamere area.

All this tremendous activity and sustained and growing enthusiasm is on top of a part time job.  June has not retired yet and achieves so much for the Trust locally on the Wirral and further afield. June is prepared to both do the spade work in the field and in the digital world with alacrity.

She is a deserving recipient of this Award and we are grateful for her commitment and drive.

Portrait of Treasurer

Caricature of Howard Gibson, painted by Carol Ramsay and framed by Pam Sullivan

 

Howard Gibson retired as Honorary Treasurer of New Ferry Butterfly Park, after 22 years of dedicated service, at the park’s recent AGM. We are immensely grateful to Howard for so many years of sterling work, when we could always rely on the Park’s accounts being accurate, up to date, and professionally presented in apple-pie order. When someone like this retires, particularly after such a long period of service, you suddenly realise how important a Treasurer is. It is the only position that any organisation must have. Organisations can cope without a Secretary or a Chair but not without a Treasurer. Howard was a recently retired HSBC (Midland) bank branch manager when in 1998 he was recruited by Mel Roberts, the visionary founder of the park, taking over from our first treasurer Vi Otter.

The Treasurer’s role started on small scale, but has developed into a much more involved role reflecting the considerable development and increased activities taking place at the park. It is busy job in the summer, sorting out weekly collections put in the donation tin and distinguishing between donations: general, wood chip, soil improver or group visits. These are accurately and clearly presented in the annual accounts. The accounts give the committee a clear picture of the financial resources and how each income stream has contributed over the year. Howard’s accounts were used to demonstrate the park is a business - we sell wood chip. This was an important point raised in court in 2009 when protecting the park’s business tenancy. Howard became an expert in VAT and claimed 20% refund on our disabled accessible composting toilet via Cheshire Wildlife Trust. This refund helped with funding the surround ground works required.

The busiest day of the year is the opening day, when nearly 1,000 visitors are entertained. It can be complicated, with cash floats required for several stalls selling goods, tombola tickets, cakes and refreshments, along with the purchase of materials, some items being purchased on the day as the opening day progresses. One opening day required six trips to the supermarket next door to keep the BBQ and Cycle Smoothie supplies going! On the following day whilst volunteers are all recovering, Howard quickly presents the accounts for the opening day, as a thank you to all the volunteers who have contributed to the success of the opening day and sharing how their part in fundraising endeavours has helped. Assistant Treasurers for future such events are required and offers of help would be greatly appreciated.

The most complicated and involved financial project handled by Howard, and one which cost the most at £17,000, was the Comma Project in 2012, during which in a shop in New Ferry Precinct was rented for six months. Each month there was a different artist and a private viewing party at the end of the artist’s residency. It was a challenge to collect all the receipts: “No receipt, no payment” was Howard’s mantra and quite right too. There was the rent, gas, electric and water bills along with decorating bills, artistic materials, and artist’s payment at the end of their residencies.

 

Howard opening his retirement present

Following this year’s al fresco AGM at the Park, Howard was presented with a caricature of himself painted by Carol Ramsay, who initiated the first opening day. This was beautifully framed, using recycled wood, by Pam Sullivan, who created our Welcome Board. The smile on Howard’s face as he opened the portrait said it all. With such a lovely, personal and fun portrait like that the committee will all want to retire!

To find a replacement for Howard presented some challenges and was a worry as potential Treasurers who were asked declined; then out of the blue John Bateman came forward. John had already started taking a few items on board such as the successful Crowd Funding Campaign for the Silver Jubilee Gates. This raised over £1,000 which is a similar income to an Opening Day but with a lot less effort. John will make an excellent Treasurer as he is already involved in our monthly work parties and is the volunteer who lives the closest to the Park. John will be looking into the world of electronic donations.

Howard will be carrying on at the Park with many of his other roles such as mowing the grass, fixing and painting the site furniture and offering valued advice. Howard has carried out many successful physical projects at the Park; the BBQ stand, the bench by the container, designing compost bins and, best of all, adding a sloping roof to the metal container, keeping it dry and harvesting rain water. Howard has always been a quiet strength of the park and was recognised and celebrated by Cheshire Wildlife Trust, who awarded Howard the Eric Thurston Award in 2015. As Howard hands on the Treasurer’s baton, the Park continues its journey with another ambitious project, the Silver Jubilee gates. Under Howard’s good financial stewardship the park has accrued enough funds to make a significant contribution to this grand project.

Help Wanted To Plan Our Wildlife Survey Programme

A quadrat at Thurstaston Common, one of the sites we survey.

Help needed! One of the key activities of local naturalists is the surveying and monitoring of local wildlife. Here in Wirral some of this is undertaken and managed by the Wirral Wildlife group. We are lucky to have many sites of special wildlife interest in the Wirral and need to monitor how they are doing over the years. This lets us spot any changes including new species and losses of biological diversity in our area.

We need someone to help our team with the planning and management of our ongoing program of surveys and recording. All our records contribute to national wildlife recording databases which are key to preserving our wildlife for future generations. The task is not onerous but does require some basic computing skill, as records are now all held electronically. Most of the work is January - March each year as the surveys are planned.

If you think you may be able to help us with this important aspect of our work for local wildlife please contact Hilary, Margaret and Ron via email info@wirralwildlife.org.uk or ring Hilary on 0151 327 5923.

Treasurer Wanted for Butterfly Park

 

Howard receiving the Eric Thurston Award

Howard has been Treasurer of New Ferry Butterfly Park for over 20 years and is retiring next year. We need someone to take over from him and the new person can shadow him to learn the ropes.

What does the Treasurer do?

Accurate accounts need to be kept of donations made at the Butterfly Park and any purchases made. The busiest day is the Open Day in May when petty cash is needed and then money taken has to be counted and banked. The Treasurer checks bank statements every month and may be asked to supply information for grant applications. The accounts must be prepared annually for approval by an auditor and a verbal report is given at the AGM.

How long might this take?

Around an hour a week in the summer when the Butterfly Park is open. Half a day after Open Day to count cash, pay it into the bank and update records. A few hours are needed to complete the annual accounts.

If you have the skills for this role or want to learn them Howard will run through it all with you.

Any offers of help or questions can be emailed to info@wirralwildlife.org.uk and they will be passed on to Howard.

Award Winning Volunteer

Presentation of the award to Tim Ganicliffe (right). The other people are (left to right) Charlotte Harris (CEO of Cheshire Wildlife Trust), John Thurston (son of Eric Thurston after whom the awards are named) and Felicity Goodey (President of Cheshire Wildlife Trust).

Eric Thurston was an eminent Cheshire naturalist and also an experienced and skilful photographer. The Eric Thurston Award is the highest accolade for volunteering given by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust. It seeks to showcase the Cheshire Wildlife Trust’s most inspirational and outstanding volunteers, recognising the importance of wildlife, conservation and the natural environment throughout both urban and rural areas of Cheshire.

One of this year’s recipients is Tim Gannicliffe. Tim has been working locally in Wirral with the Cheshire Wildlife Trust for 27 years. His strength is carrying out fresh water invertebrate surveys in ponds and streams. Tim’s survey work has been important in assessing Local Wildlife Sites, and the state of the Clatter Brook which runs through Thornton Wood and he has also been monitoring nitrogen inputs at Red Rocks and at Thornton Wood.

Tim Ganicliffe (left) with Stephen Ross, Chairman of Wirral Wildlife.

He is a valued volunteer at New Ferry Butterfly Park, especially encouraging participation in pond dipping. This includes our very busy opening days (circa 1000 visitors), regular Sunday opening and on group visits. He shares his expertise, enthusiasm and knowledge of the pond’s denizens.

Tim is also involved in a broad array of conservation networks within Wirral. The hedgerows of New Ferry Butterfly Park have been kept in good order partly through Tim’s skills at hedge-laying. Importantly Tim has been tenacious in his removal of Himalayan balsam in the Dibbin catchment. These events are not exactly popular: “Come to the wood to be stung by nettles, scratched by brambles and bitten by flies whilst removing the Himalayan balsam!”. Sometimes there is only one other volunteer. Tim has recently taken on a new role on the steering committee of the recently created Dee Coastliners project. As you can see, Tim certainly deserves this Award.

Heswall Community Wildlife Project - July Volunteer Day

Heswall Community Wildlife Project's second Volunteer Day takes place later this month.

Sunday 23rd July 2017

9.30am to 4pm

Meet outside Heswall Hall

If you can stay all day bring a packed lunch or there is a pub close by and there are plenty of coffee shops in the area.

Refreshments available all day from Heswall Hall.

Thick soled, closed in shoes are necessary and bring gardening type gloves if possible.

For more information email Margaret

A good start was made last month as you can see from the photos below.

CAN YOU HELP WITH EVENTS?

Apple Day at Eastham Country Park

Wirral Wildlife is often invited to participate in local nature related events at places like Ness Gardens, parks, local garden centres or Earthfest. 

We have a small team but need more helpers. We need someone to liaise with the organisers and other people to help on the stall. If you like organising things or you can spare a couple of hours to help at an event please get in touch with Linda on 0151 342 1395 or email.