As our own lottery bid starts to take shape, hopefully many Friends of the Dene have found the time this summer to check out the newly refurbished Leazes and Saltwell Parks. Both Parks have recently been recipients of large amounts of lottery funding and both have been the subject of talks to the Friends. This summer’s innovative art in Leazes Park has proved a winner – wooden “picture frames” where the visitor can look through to different “beds” of flowers, including a water-bed, feather-bed, even an unmade bed! In Saltwell Park the once derelict grade 2 listed mansion, Saltwell Towers, is now restored as a visitor centre and café and is proving very popular.
As reported later in this Newsletter, the Heritage Lottery Fund have advised the bid consultants for the Ouseburn Parks, that rather than build a new visitor centre at Pet’s Corner, the bid should make better use of the existing building (ie Millfield House) – something that several of the Friend’s Committee had felt strongly about throughout the consultations. The latest plan is to redevelop the café into a two-storey visitor centre with ground floor educational facilities, improved accommodation for the Rangers and a toilet block. The existing café will be relocated in the main building as part of the conference facilities there.
Readers who have been following the recent heated correspondence in The Journal concerning sparrowhawks, will be interested to note Michael Frankis’s observations that the hawks have had a successful breeding season this year, with two pairs fledging young but so also have the other common resident species of woodland birds in the Dene.
Finally if readers have any memories of the Dene or any points they would like to make – why not send a letter to the Editor (or any committee member) and a selection could be printed in future Newsletters.
Anna Newson, Newsletter Editor
The former school and original meeting place of the Friends of Jesmond Dene, is being considered by a firm of developers for conversion into a luxury hotel. The developers are Rivergreen Developments (responsible for the conversion of Seaham Hall Hotel). Friends’ Committee Members have both corresponded and met with representatives of the developers, who have confirmed that the premises will not operate as a public bar. They received a Public Entertainments Licence from the City Council in April for the following periods:- Monday to Thursday 11.00am to midnight, Friday and Saturday 11.00am to 2.0am and Sunday mid-day to midnight. The licence was granted in respect of the function room, dining/lounge area and conference/meeting rooms. The licence is subject to a limit of 190 persons and has conditions restricting noise and preventing any function where payment can be made on entry. These conditions confirm that the premises is not to operate as a night club and restricts the serving of alcohol to residents and those attending bona fide functions. The Liquor Licensing and “Special Hours Certificate” application has been adjourned until September 13.
Whilst the Committee and also many residents welcome the interests of a developer who is likely to save the building from further decay, others are still very concerned at the possible nuisance when guests leave after an event ending at 2.0am and also about the risk of the hotel being sold on to another operator with that 2am licence.
Steering group members have voted to name the Eco Centre (former Byker City Farm) - Ouseburn Farm. A proposal to include more land for the farm project has been welcomed by the steering group. The revival of the Stephen Street allotments will take place over the next few weeks. The plots will be used for horticultural training and education, as well as short courses, run in partnership with the City’s Allotments Officer.
Maintenance of the valley’s greenspaces continues, offering valuable training opportunities for environmental and horticultural trainees and volunteers. Designs for a Community Orchard are currently being explored with Brogdale Horticultural Trust, the holders of the national fruit collection. Species chosen will reflect local and old varieties of fruit.
Publicity and information about Ouseburn Farm and our plans were displayed at the Ouseburn Festival on 25th July. The Festival was a great success attracting several thousand people to the Valley. The Farm has also played host this summer to a two week coracle building project partnering with Foster Care Associates. Ten children built their boat on the farm site, then sailed across Leazes Park Lake and also down the River Wear.
The steering group have agreed to hold an event for the ‘Friends of the Farm’ group in September in order to launch the new name and to inform the group of the new Environmental Training and Education Centre Building. If you are interested in becoming a Friend of Ouseburn Farm please contact Dawn Howe c/o Ouseburn Resource Centre, 53 Lime street, Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle on Tyne. NE1 2PQ, tel / fax 0191 232 3698
Email: dawn.howe@newcaslte.gov.uk
When I was appointed Jesmond Dene Ranger in 1976, I was also the voluntary otter coordinator for Northumberland and Durham, as part of the national otter survey. I searched the Ouseburn from its Callerton Pond source to its confluence with the Tyne, many times over the following 21 years. Never ever did I find any indication that otters were using the Ouseburn catchment. My interest in the area awakened, I started a project: Past and present occurrence of the otter in an eight-mile radius of Newcastle Central Station. With no recent records available, the survey would be based on old, and even anecdotal, information. Otters are recorded at All Saints Church, Pilgrim Street, where four pence a head was offered for every otter killed within the parish. In 1830, otters are mentioned in a History of Prestwick Carr (Maddison). In 1904 there are records of a pair of otters in the Dene killing large numbers of domestic poultry and ornamental waterfowl belonging to Col Adamson of Craghall and Sir Andrew Noble of Jesmond Dene House. Incidentally, Andrew Noble also kept a pet otter, “Peggy”, reared from a cub. The pair of wild otters moved down to Coleman’s Farm (now Coleman’s Field) raiding the farm poultry at night from the sanctuary of the Dene, where hunting was forbidden. The male otter was eventually killed on the electric railway beyond Jesmond Vale, November 1904, while the lactating female was caught in a gin trap and killed by a Coleman’s Farm worker. After display in the Coleman’s shop in the market, the otter was presented to the Hancock Museum in December 1904 – an account widely documented at the time.
Interviews during the 1970s shed some light with information on earlier sightings: A Mrs Hill, formally of Dene Terrace, remembered seeing a Mr Hindmarsh with an otter he had killed, by Craghall Burn in the early 1900s. Mr Edger, also of Dene Terrace, recalled seeing an otter on this same burn around 1910, when trout, pike and eels were still abundant. Then in 1927, an 18-pound male otter was electrocuted between Gosforth and Benton, while another smaller male was similarly killed in August 1930. A third record is for an otter electrocuted near Monkseaton Station in 1931.
During the 1950s a dead otter was found below the main waterfall in Jesmond Dene. The last known record of otters, until very recently that is, was for Fox Island, Gosforth Park Lake in 1962, while otter spraint was found near Three Mile Bridge in 1963. The next newsletter will cover the present status of the otter on the Ouseburn and the problems it is facing in the future.
Bob Wilkin
It has been a quiet year for many birds, with little unusual seen this spring and summer. The most interesting visitor has been a Common Tern, seen fishing at Paddy Freeman’s Pond on one or two occasions in late July.
Some of the commoner resident species have had an excellent breeding season though, with large flocks of recently fledged young Long-tailed Tits, Blue Tits, Great Tits and Nuthatches finding their way round the Dene. A couple of broods of Bullfinches have fledged too, a welcome hope for this nationally declining species. The Sparrowhawks have done well too, with two pairs fledging young.
Not so good for the Mallards on either the Ouseburn or Paddy's Pond though, with only small numbers of ducklings this year. A large part of this is due to the very high rat population, encouraged by the excessive amounts of bread and grain unfortunately left in the Dene by visitors. Some ducklings at Paddy's Pond have also been taken by Lesser Black-backed Gulls; this is due partly to the lack of cover for the ducklings to hide in, but also because several of the ducks (the big fat ones!) are farm escapes with very poor parenting skills, unlike their wild relatives.
Michael Frankis