The Bradley Stoke Journal

Did you know that there is a nature reserve in the heart of Bradley Stoke, home to an astonishing variety of wildlife and right on your doorstep?

A local nature conservation group is inviting residents to join them on a guided walk around the Three Brooks Local Nature Reserve this coming Saturday (11th June), as part of the Bradley Stoke Community Festival celebrations.

The walk will be led by a professional ecologist who will introduce you to the different habitats on the reserve and to the wildlife that depends on them.  By the end of it you will be able to tell your cinnabar caterpillars from a cabbage white, learn why teasels are important to both goldfinches and billiard tables, and know why you shouldn’t eat anything with purple spots.

The group says it can’t predict in advance exactly what you will see (or hear) but promises a fascinating insight into the natural world.

The walk, which is free and open to everyone, commences from outside the Leisure Centre at 10am and will finish by 1pm, in plenty of time for you to join in the festival fun at the Jubilee Centre.

It will be conducted at a “fairly leisurely pace” and will mainly take place on surfaced paths, but please be aware that it will also take in the reserve’s woodlands and grasslands so terrain will be uneven and suitable footwear should be worn.

Related link: Three Brooks Nature Conservation Group

A group of teachers from a Bristol secondary school have become the latest to complete a long distance walking route that passes through Bradley Stoke.

The Green Man Challenge follows the course of the 45-mile Community Forest Path around Bristol and anyone completing the route in under 24 hours (walking) or 12 hours (running) is entitled to receive a certificate and have their name entered in a book of honour.

The current record of 7 hours 19 minutes was set in 2009 by ultra distance runners Martin Beale and Martin Indge.

The group of eight staff from Bristol Cathedral Choir School set out from Ashton Court on Friday afternoon and passed through Bradley Stoke early on Saturday morning.

The photo above shows the group taking a short rest at Sherbourne’s Brake, just off Baileys Court Road.

Seven of them went on to complete the challenge in around 21 hours, with the eighth having to drop out at Easter Compton with sore feet!

The challenge was staged to mark the retirement of teacher Peter Bond, who has served for 40 years at the central Bristol school. The walk also honoured the memory of David Perry, another long-serving teacher, who passed away earlier in the year.

Funds raised through the walk will go towards to the installation of a well in a Ugandan village.

Bristol Cathedral Choir School was formerly an independent fee-paying school but became a state-funded academy in September 2008. It has since become Bristol’s most over-subscribed state secondary school.

Entry into Year 7 is open to children from a wide geographical area that incorporates Bradley Stoke and many other towns beyond the city boundary.

Comments on proposals for a new shared used footway/cycleway on the east side of Bradley Stoke Way, close to the Leisure Centre, must be received by South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) by midnight on Friday (27th June 2008).

Relevant pages on the SGC website:

• Bradley Stoke Way, North of Leisure Centre – Shared Use Path
  • Consulatation Documents
  • Respond to the Consultation