Park's £3.5m wildlife haven taking shape (From Echo)

Park's £3.5m wildlife haven taking shape

2:00pm Saturday 4th July 2009 in

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WORK on a £5.3million scheme to create a wildlife and ecological haven in the heart of south Essex is well under way.

Over the past six months, workmen have dug out a network of ponds and ditches across Wat Tyler Country Park, in Pitsea, to encourage a variety of birds and wildlife.

The scheme forms part of a wider wetland system, which can be artificially controlled to create perfect conditions for breeding birds, newts, toads, and insects such as dragonflies.

Steve Prewer, 58, open spaces manager for Basildon Council, explained: “Water drains naturally from the hills above the park, to the ditches, ponds and reed beds.

“But we also have an increasing level of control over water levels across the wetland system.

“Rain which falls on to the roof of the park’s new heritage centre will be stored and used to top up the ponds when necessary.

“A windpump is also being installed which will either blow water from the main freshwater system to the fleet, or vice versa, depending on which has too much or too little water at any time.”

The fleet is a stretch of freshwater, that starts just beyond the ditches and ponds and flows to the seawall and Vange Creek.

The windpump will cost about £10,000, paid for by the Environment Agency.

Workmen have also spent the past 18 months clearing trees and large bushes from about 20 acres of parkland.

Mr Prewer said: “Wat Tyler is a site of special scientific interest. It is home to important invertibrates, such as rare bumble bees, solitary bees and beetles. But it had become overgrown with trees and large bushes, which the rare species don’t like because of all the unwanted shade.

“They prefer low-level vegetation, with plenty of nectar-giving flowers, which is the environment we are creating.”

The clearing has also revealed some of the man-made history of the park.

An explosives factory, surrounded by several soil mounds, was situated in Wat Tyler from the 1890s to about 1919. These mounds have now been uncovered.

Mr Prewer said: “The mounds were to stop the force of the explosives from spreading sideways to the factory and other buildings.

“They are still there, but you couldn’t see them before because they were covered in scrub.

“Now the trees and bushes have been cleared, which has both displayed the mounds as important historical features and left lots of dry soil slopes, which the bees love burrowing into.”

Another popular feature of the park is three cottages dating back to the 1600s and 1700s.

Mr Prewer said: “Two of them were moved from the path of the Stansted runway and rebuilt here, brick by brick, in the 1980s, while another came from Rayleigh.

“They would have been homes for farmworkers. An old barn was also moved here from Billericay.”

Builders have also nearly finished extending and renovating the old ammunition factory into a heritage and visitor centre.

This will be home to a cafe, classrooms and a series of exhibitions on the history of the park. It will also host wedding receptions.

Access to the heritage centre and other attractions in the park, including an adventure playground and motorboat museum, will be improved by an extension to the park’s mini-railway.

Mr Prewer said: “We will be extending the railway by about 600m, to the park’s main entrance gate. People will be able to park at the entrance and then catch the train all around the park.”

Other planned improvements include installation of new improved signs.

Mr Prewer said: “There will be a series of orientation huts along the main access road through the park, where people will be able to stop and read signs setting out the wildlife and heritage walks and all the other attractions here, including what birds to look out for.”