30th Anniversary of the Butterfly Park: Visitor Attraction

Over the last 5 months on this blog, we have recalled the events of the last 5 years leading up to the 30th anniversary of New Ferry Butterfly Park.

Since 1995 the Butterfly Park has undergone some physical changes but has continued to be a focal point for local people to visit on Sunday afternoons and as a destination for school and group visits.

Visitor numbers 2003 - 2024, showing the impact of Covid-19

2020 to 2021 saw a fall in numbers of visitors by 75% due to Covid-19 and that also had an effect in 2021-2022. However in the 2022-2023 season there were 2453 visitors in total and 366 individuals were given guided tours. In the 2023 - 2024 season the guided tours reached a total of 450 people and total visitor numbers were 2895, almost 50% of them (1,400) coming on the opening day. Since 2002 we have welcomed a total of 34,890 visitors.

Here are some photos of the Butterfly Park from our archives!

Mel digging the lime waste area prior to the Butterfly Park being open to the public

Opening of New Ferry Butterfly Park in 1995

Planting the lime hedge circa 1997

The acid grassland at the Butterfly Park in 2006

Volunteers relaxing by playing boules.
The container, in the days before it became a work of art!

30th Anniversary of the Butterfly Park: 2024

Record breaking crowds attended New Ferry Butterfly Park Open Day on 5th May, 2024. The sun came out, the butterflies were flying, and crowds of local people came flooding in. 1,400 altogether, which was the highest attendance to date. Several species of butterfly were on the wing: Brimstones, Orange Tips, Speckled Woods, Holly Blues and Commas to name a few. The best turnout of butterflies on an opening day ever.

The new feature unveiled this year was a series of six bespoke tiles on the brick pillars of the silver jubilee entrance gates. Nigel Lanceley, the Deputy Lieutenant of Merseyside unveiled the tiles and spoke about the dedications behind each tile. 

Left to right: Nigel Lanceley, Deputy Lord Lieutenant for Merseyside; Freya Levy, artist who drew the gate plaques; Stephen Ross, chair of Wirral Wildlife; Charles Neame, Vice chair of Cheshire Wildlife Trust; Paul Loughnane, Honorary secretary of New Ferry Butterfly Park Committee 

Tiles were dedicated to individuals or groups who have significantly helped the Park. The tiles artworks were created by Freya Levy and as well as being turned into tiles, the art works are also available as greeting cards.

There was an array of displays from slow worms via spiders to owls and even a skunk, together with Girl Guides, jewellery, a wonderful plant sale, investigating plant pollinators, smoothies by bicycle, RECORD, children’s activities, homemade cakes and a BBQ. Being the early May Day Bank Holiday weekend, there was Maypole dancing. Guests all left with the smiling faces of having had a good day out.

A very busy New Ferry Butterfly Park Open Day in 2024

2024 was the year we decided to revamp the promotional leaflet. The front now has an illustration of the Park’s Silver Jubilee Gates, complete with the new decorative tiles inset into the supporting brick pillars. The leaflet has an email contact address, QR codes, a link to the Park’s Facebook page and another to the Wirral Wildlife website, both full of useful information about the Park and ongoing activities. These extra resources give extra life and vitality to the leaflet. Two art works within Vicky Hose’s original 2006 illustrated map have been changed, to feature creatures that visitors are more likely to encounter. One of these was first recorded breeding at the Park and Wirral in 2014. Freya Levy, an artist new to the park, has blended these images into the leaflet following style of the 2012 version.

The updated Butterfly Park leaflet

 

The map inside the leaflet, drawn by Vicky Hose with additional species added by Freya Levy

New Ferry Butterfly Park played host to an art installation which was last seen in Liverpool’s Albert Dock when it was created as part of a Taylor Town trail to coincide with the Taylor Swift concerts. It landed at the Butterfly Park in September and is a symbol of transformation and beauty. The weather on the last opening afternoon of the season could not have been more different to the day the installation first appeared. A steady downpour deterred a lot of people but some bravely came to have their photographs taken standing in front of the installation.

That afternoon we were pleased to welcome Justin Madders (second from the right in photo below). He is MP for Ellesmere Port & Bromborough and his constituency includes New Ferry. Volunteers from the Butterfly Park, Friends of Dibbinsdale and Friends of Lowfields Wood spoke to him about local environmental concerns.

The Taylor Swift butterfly artwork installation

Sunday 13th October was a warm October day - perfect weather for the second New Ferry Butterfly Park Apple Afternoon to celebrate locally grown apples.

At our event, John Bateman collected apples and manned the apple press so that visitors could taste freshly pressed juice. Many people took some juice away with them.

Local apple varieties on display at the Butterfly Park

John Bateman supervising the juice making

The amazing efforts of all our volunteers was recognised by RHS North West In Bloom.

In July, Jason Lambert, an RHS Judge, came on a visit. Volunteers from different areas explained what they did and we gave him a comprehensive tour of the Butterfly Park. He admitted to being very impressed by what he saw and told us that assessment of entries would take place in July and August. We wouldn’t know the outcome of this until the Awards Ceremony in October.

On October 30th, three volunteers set off to the venue at Bolton Wanderers FC stadium to await the results.

There are 5 levels of award, one to five. Imagine our delight when, on our first time of entering, the Butterfly Park won a Level 5 - Outstanding award.  However, that wasn’t all. We were presented with a certificate and trophy as winner of the NWIB Gardening for Wildlife (Biodiversity) award.

What an accolade for New Ferry Butterfly Park and a fantastic end to 2024.

Left to right: Phil (NFBP chairman), Linda (representing NFBP volunteers),
and Steve (representing Wirral Countryside Volunteers), with the RHS judge
at the North West In Bloom award ceremony

New Ferry Butterfly Park's Outstanding award!

The NWIB Gardening for Wildlife (Biodiversity) award

30th Anniversary of the Butterfly Park: 2023

The 4th May 2023 saw New Ferry Butterfly Park hold its 12th Opening Day. This marked the start of the 28th season of being open to the public. Despite the drizzle, there were 567 guests on the day. They enjoyed the BBQ, delicious homemade cakes, a magnificent plant sale, stalls of local talented crafters and children’s craft activities, including making badges and sowing seeds in newspaper pots. It was a first sight for many of the revamped wildlife demonstration garden dedicated to the park’s founder Mel Roberts. There was lots of information and inspiration to get people started on their own wildflower adventure.

Caroline Lancelyn Green,
guest of honour at the 2023 Butterfly Park Open Day

The guest of honour for the day was Caroline Lancelyn Green. Caroline is a long-term supporter of the Park. She and her family host fundraising garden parties at nearby Poulton Hall from which the park has benefited. Caroline, who is delightfully theatrical, rose to the occasion and came along in a wonderful butterfly scarf which she unfurled to applause.

Caroline came to unveil the latest feature at the park, a new information lectern dedicated to the industrial heritage of the park. This lectern was made possible by a legacy from the late Frank Cottrell, a former chair of Wirral Wildlife and a former Cheshire Wildlife Trust Trustee, combined with donations made in his memory and funding from the Wirral Wildlife. Hilary Ash read a tribute to Frank and said, “He would be wryly amused to be now part of the history of the park.” It was Frank who persuaded the Cheshire Wildlife Trust to take on New Ferry Butterfly Park.

The industrial heritage information board

Sunday 8th October was a warm October day - perfect weather for all things appley. Volunteers at New Ferry Butterfly Park organized an afternoon to celebrate locally grown apples.

A selection of the apples on display at the apple afternoon in October 2023

The first Apple Day was organised on 21st October 1990 by Common Ground to celebrate apples and orchards. Many traditional orchards were being dug up and the country became reliant on imported apples despite about 3,000 apple varieties having been grown in the UK. The aim was to bring the wide variety of local apples to the attention of the public.

John Bateman collected apples and manned the apple press so that visitors could taste freshly pressed juice. We had 21 varieties of apples picked from Brimstage and Upton Hall School orchards plus two varieties from the NFBP committee chairman’s garden. What wonderful names these old varieties have – some dating back to the 17th century. Some varieties like Peasgood’s Nonsuch are named after the person who raised them. Others like Lord Lambourne are named after a person. Catshead is named because of its shape, Red Love for the colour of its skin and flesh and Bee Bench after the tradition of taking bee hives to orchards to pollinate the flowers.

The apple juicing equipment

2023 was also the year we had to reline the pond.

The previous year we realised that the pond had a leak. Water levels had been low all season but even the autumn rains didn’t raise the water level. The pond liner, all 350kg of it, cost us over £3000. It was (slowly and carefully) moved into position at the end of the pond, attached to ropes and a winch, and very slowly unrolled into the pond, rolled along the base, then up the other side. At which point we heaved a sigh of relief and had lunch! We were eventually able to run in 4000 litres of water from our 4 big tanks plus all we had stored in buckets, barrels and an old bath. Some pond weed went back in and a number of newts, diving beetles, dragonfly larvae and doubtless other life. So it was beginning to look like a pond again, ready for a resumption of pond dipping.

Adding buckets of water back to the pond

Adding a pond dipping platform to a refilled pond

A New Artwork Representing New Ferry Butterfly Park

On 22nd March Cheshire Wildlife Trust hosted the first day of an 'Action for Wildlife' weekend at Birkenhead Park.

The artist Luke Crump was there and created hexagonal canvases representing the various groups at the event.

This is the New Ferry Butterfly Park illustration. Isn't it fabulous?

The completed artworks made a fantastic mosaic representing the wonderful nature volunteer work taking place in Wirral.

Thanks Luke for taking the time to create this unusual artwork.

Take a look at more examples of Luke's work:
https://lukecrump.com/

The Woodland Inspectors Call

 

Bluebells in Entrance coppice in Thornton Wood

The Cheshire Wildlife Trust reserves of Foxes Wood and Thornton Wood are both units that lie within Dibbinsdale Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and as such are inspected by Natural England to assess their condition. The lowest point of these woods converges at the hump backed bridge at the bottom of Thornton Common Road, near Raby Mere.

They are designated as part of an SSSI because they are classed as an ancient woodland and the question is do they still match this criteria? Do they match up to the natural communities of species that one would expect in a semi-natural woodland? Two Officers from Natural England, came to carry out a condition survey. I was delighted to be invited to take part in the survey to understand the process. Pre-determined quadrats were taken, five in Thornton Wood and four in Foxes Wood. (See map for the locations of the quadrats and woods.)

Location of quadrats in Thornton Wood and Foxes Wood

Once in the centre of the 100m² quadrat, the following measurements were recorded:

• percentage of canopy cover and species composition
• extent and species composition of under storey
• spread of age and classes of trees
• presence of over mature trees
• extent of dead wood, standing and fallen

The sapling species composition arising is also recorded and the regeneration of Sycamore. This has to be less than 50% and Beech, Laurel and Rhododendron have to be less than 10% of the quadrat to pass. The species of plants on the woodland floor were also assessed with 95% of the coverage needing to be native species to pass.

A packed lunch was enjoyed in the freshly cut Entrance Coppice where the woodland inspectors were impressed by the dense bluebell display and the several butterflies fluttering in the coppice. This survey was in mid-May when the days are getting warmer but just before the canopy opens and shades and cools the coppice floor. Wirral Wildlife spring walks are held in the woods in late April to catch the primrose and wood anemone in flower. However, it is too early to catch the woodland butterflies. Sadly, none of the four coppice areas in Thornton Wood were included in these predetermined quadrats. Luckily one clump of wood anemone was picked up in the survey, which is one of the largest clumps in Thornton Wood, approximately 2m diameter. The extensive area of Variegated Yellow Archangel in the southern tip of Thornton Wood could hardly be missed and was picked up in the survey.

Foxes Wood passed on 14 of the 16 criteria, failing due to Ash die back affecting more than 20% of the canopy and the presence of Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS). In Foxes Wood the INNS are Himalayan Balsam, Pink Purslane, Yellow Archangel, Fringe Cups, Sycamore, Beech and Scots Pine. Thornton Wood passed on 13 of the 16 criteria, failing due to Ash dieback affecting more than 20 % of the canopy and INNS such as Himalayan Balsam, Variegated Yellow Archangel, Pink Purslane, Sycamore and failed a further criteria because in one quadrat 60% of the regeneration of the trees in the quadrat were Sycamores. Very few ancient woodlands in England are in favourable condition, largely because of INNS and Sycamore.

Although the official results for both woods were “declining unfavourable”, the part of Foxes Wood managed by Cheshire Wildlife Trust and local volunteer, Tom McCullough, was in good condition and one quadrat passed all the categories. It did not even fail due to Ash die back as there are no Ash trees in that part of Foxes Wood, this area being dominated by oak. However, most of Foxes Wood which is not under CWT management was in an unfavourable declining condition. There are a few honey pots of biodiversity in Thornton Wood, in particular the coppice areas where Primrose, Greater Stitchwort, Barren Strawberry, Wood Anemone and Wood Sorrel occur. It is hoped that these areas are improving as nutrients are cropped at each coppice cut. 

Some of these favourable areas within the woods can be viewed on a guided spring walk with the Wirral Countryside Volunteers on Saturday 26th April at 9.30 am. Places are limited so booking is essential via the Ticket Tailor link below:
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/wirralcountrysidevolunteers/1468284

Note: there are no defined paths in the wood and it is steep in parts so stout footwear is required.


Paul Loughnane
Thornton Wood Reserves Manager and Secretary of Wirral Countryside Volunteers

Home Farm Hedges

Miles Duncan, the tenant of Home Farm, Landican

Home Farm, part of the Leverhulme Cheshire Estate, lies in mid Wirral in the centre of the settlement of Landican to the west of the cemetery of the same name. Wirral Countryside Volunteers (WCV) have worked there over the last seven years, laying over 700 metres of hedge with skill and dedication. Arnold Plumley, a Cheshire hedgelaying judge at local and national competitions, said “The hedges laid here are up to competition standard.”

Hedge planters at work

The volunteers ran their 14th, 19th and 20th hedge laying training days on the farm. The 14th training day was the largest training day to date with fifty-eight participants, including twenty students attracted from nearby Woodchurch High School.

WCV planted over six hundred hedgerow whips to form a hedge in the Thingwall Corner Field and planted 200 trees to form a shelterbelt. The volunteers christened the shelterbelt “Rough Shoots Wood” from the field name on the 1847 Landican tithe map. New volunteers were surprised by the effort it took to plant hedgerow whips; five hours of digging is a good workout! When hedgerow planting, lunch was in a neighbour’s garden overlooking the freshly planted hedgerow in the warm January sun.

Hedge planters having a welcome lunch break!

On the 20th hedgelaying training event in February, the volunteers were equally blessed with the weather and laid 168 metres of hedge between the preparation day, the main day itself and a follow up day. This is by far the longest length laid on a training event, reflecting the hedge used and the increased proficiency of the volunteers at hedge laying. It is pleasing to see over the years trainees have developed into trainers.

The WCV have worked in conjunction with Miles Duncan the tenant of Home Farm, Landican.  Miles is so encouraging and greatly appreciates the input of the volunteers and has given generous donations to the volunteers. A professional hedgerow condition survey was made in November 2024 showing ten kilometres of the Landican hedgerows (see below extract showing the areas tackled by the WCV). The report found 3% of hedges were largely gappy (really only self-seeded), 3% in poor condition, 36% in moderate condition and a stunning 58% in good condition.

There were 151 hedgerow trees recorded in the 10-kilometre survey which was also above the survey target of one hundred trees per 10km. When hedge laying the volunteers take the opportunity to keep some trees, mainly crab apples, to promote as future hedgerow trees.  Several kilometres of hedges were planted 10 -15 years ago and the WCV are working to lay them so that the farm looks much more hedged than it had been. Since the report, WCV have planted 150 metres of hedge and laid another 168 metres, putting another 3% of the Home Farm Landican hedges into the good or improving category. 

Map of Home Farm, showing condition of the hedges

Next winter season the volunteers hope to be working on establishing a hedgerow from the former agricultural worker cottages on the sharp bend of Landican Lane, west to Home Farm itself and continue to host further hedge laying training days at Home Farm. Look at the Wirral Countryside Volunteers website in the autumn for further updates.

Paul Loughnane, Secretary, Wirral Countryside Volunteers

30th Anniversary of the Butterfly Park: 2022

2025 is the 30th anniversary of New Ferry Butterfly Park. Over the next few months we will look back at the five years since our 25th anniversary. In January we began with what happened in 2020. Now to 2022...

That year we were able to have an Opening Day to signal the start of our Sunday afternoon openings. We celebrated the 27th open season to the public with the unveiling of the Silver Jubilee entrance gates. Delayed due to the pandemic, these were to celebrate the first 25 years of the park being open to the public. Nearly a thousand guests enjoyed the day at the park amongst the stalls, wildlife and refreshments.

Opening Day visitors

The spectacular gates were opened by Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside, Mr Mark Blundell, who said “New Ferry faces the many challenges of an inner-city area and this was compounded further by the explosion of March 2017 which destroyed a third of the main precinct. The Butterfly Park is seen as an emblem of hope and re-birth, in fact New Ferry sees itself as a butterfly town, with #Love New Ferry graffiti art by the former Co-op and the “I love New Ferry stickers in the shops” both with a butterfly theme. These spectacular gates will help secure the site and offer the opportunity to provide a welcoming entrance and celebrate the continued success of New Ferry Butterfly Park.”

Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside formally opening the new gates

As well as the fresh comma wings on the gate, another new set of wings seen at the park this week was a Dingy Skipper Butterfly, which had not been seen at the park for over two decades. This was a great endorsement of our habitat management for butterflies at the park. What could be better! We were still spotting new creatures 29 years on from starting to manage the site.

Dingy Skipper : Roy Lowry

The park was then open every Sunday, until Sunday 11th September.

Pond dipping on a Sunday afternoon

That year was the first year that the Wirral Wildlife plant sale continued every Sunday afternoon, thanks to the commitment of Mike Maher, and started raising extra funds.

 It was also a year of some unexpected visitors.

Roy Lowry regularly visits the Butterfly Park with his camera. On the morning of Sunday 12th June he managed to spot and photograph the first Large Skipper butterfly of the season.

Dingy Skipper butterfly

His most unusual photograph was of a fly which struck him as very different. Roy thought he recognized it as a locust blowfly - an African species that has been reported more frequently in recent years as a vagrant in the south of England.  One was seen in Southport in 2020. It did indeed turn out to be a correct identification so this was definitely a first at the Butterfly Park.

Locust blowfly

In July a white letter hairstreak was photographed by Colin Millington. Not seen for nearly two decades, this species was last recorded at the Butterfly Park on 5th July 2003. We rarely see them as they are feeding on the honeydew in the tree canopy (especially on elms). Perhaps levels of honeydew are low, bringing them down to the ground to find nectar in privet and bramble flowers.

White letter hairstreak butterfly

The  Butterfly Park was awarded a Green Flag Community Award for the 10th consecutive year,  the international quality mark for parks and green spaces. 

The Green Flag for 2022 -2023

For two Sundays in September, we were pleased to welcome some giant flower sculptures to New Ferry Butterfly Park. They were loaned from the Eco Art in the Park project, a collaboration between Wirral Environmental Network, artist Alison Bailey Smith, Wirral Unplugged and Wirral Eco Schools programme to highlight the importance of pollinator food plants.

Some of the flower sculptures 

Alison Bailey Smith created nine giant sculptures of plants made using repurposed materials such as garden hose, food packaging, yoga mats, light fittings and toothpaste tubes. The eight wildflowers and one grass depicted by the sculptures are all found in Wirral. 

Three more of the flower sculptures

We held an ‘End of Season’ barbecue for volunteers and, despite the heavy rain that afternoon, 22 people turned up. 

An October workday had 20 volunteers, including some students from Liverpool John Moores University Conservation Society working at the Park. Some apple pressing was expertly organised by John Bateman with 25 litres of apple juice being pressed. Volunteers got a bottle of apple juice to take home.

Pressing the apples to make juice

Bottles of apple juice

We were also able to install two new 1000 litre translucent water butts which have now been covered in a carpet to reduce algal growth. In October the 2000 litres of water collected in them was added to the pond which had suffered from this year’s lack of rain and the water level was raised by 5cm. 

Including that Open Day there were 2,453 visitors to New Ferry Butterfly Park in 2022, which was a good recovery in numbers from the Covid pandemic. There were 16 guided visits: 2 schools, 13 uniformed groups (Beavers, Rainbows etc) and one adult group of refugees, totalling 366 people. The Butterfly Park also welcomed Bebington Photographic Society and Cheshire Bee Group and Dr Hilary Ash gave two plant identification courses. Over the last 19 years an impressive total of 29,794 visitors have visited.

None of these things could be achieved without our volunteers and at the Cheshire Wildlife Trust AGM Butterfly Park 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

June (centre) receiving her Award

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. She is also part of the Wirral Wildlife biological recording team She helped 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 also gets out and fights for nature, for example liaising with neighbours over injured hedgehogs found at the New Ferry Butterfly Park. programme in January 2019 and continues to flourish.

As you can see 2022 saw us back up to speed after the restrictions of the previous two years.