I went there after lunch yesterday to get an up to date feel for the place before writing about it. The weather was bright and clear with a gentle breeze. It seemed ridiculously mild. As I squelched towards the wood across the ‘amenity grassland’ which would much rather be a marsh, the wildlife began to appear. On the eastern edge of Hanford Cricket Ground about a dozen fieldfares flew into a tall poplar. A goldfinch already esconced way up at the top was singing. In case winter doesn’t return spring is ready, poised to announce itself; reluctant to wait unnecessarily.

I came to the wood’s western corner marked as is the norm by barbed-wire. There were a few recently discarded items in the thorny woodland edge; debris imported by local youths as building materials for the precarious shelter they use for nocturnal activies of the nefarious kind (I’m showing my age by unfairly presuming the worst).  Under a piece of wood framed ply was a neat little nest of bone-dry oak leaves. Scanning around I met the gaze of the owners – three woodmice very reluctant to leave. I fleetingly felt mean about disturbing their quarters but mused that if we could communicate they would understand the need for me to nose around their home.

I love woodland more than any other habitat. As I hop over the beaten-down fence I feel that hushed atmosphere; the sort of atmosphere of tranquility one gets upon entering a cathedral or a musty country church. Fanciful maybe but I am no longer at a site, I’m in it. Suddenly I am aware of activity all around: the clatter of many retreating wood-pigeons; the wistful sound of robins near and far; the urgent great tit calling; the harsh magpie chatter; grey squirrels scrabbling up and down trunk and off into the hedge; the fieldfares, many more now, moving around the woodland edge. I love this initiation as one’s senses are assaulted by a battery of wildlife encounters. After I have assimilated this amid the joy that these creatures are actually here I become aware of paradox. Beyond the harmonious ambience there is a cacophony. I hadn’t noticed outside of the tree-filled domain, but once in it the traffic roar from the A500 just the other side of the River Trent was horrendous. I wondered about the added stress this noise pollution placed on this ecosystem. Hopefully, the birds adapt to it but would the number of species and overall populations be higher without it?

The wood itself is a mere trifle but even more precious in the light of its precarious existence. At not much more than a hundred yards across from west to east a bulldozer could dispose of it in a morning’s work. Indeed, the grid pattern of even age sycamore and oak suggests a re-planting after a clear fell, perhaps in time of war. This would be no surprise at a time of need in the less than salubrious and fuel-hungry Potteries. That it was re-planted is cause for gratitude.

The sycamore appears to be struggling (as are any planted cherries) with many dead and dying specimens, some already prostrate, honeycombed by wood-boring beetles, rotten through with fungi and much exploited by woodpeckers. However, holly is spreading and ash is joining the oaks with the main factor probably slowing regeneration being that the wood is open to grazing horses. As part of the replanting it appears that the perimeter was bolstered by hedge species such as hawthorn and blackthorn. One suggestion of man’s agency is the unexpected and extensive occurrence of Crataegus laevigata – the woodland hawthorn- along with common hawthorn. Indeed, there is a fine specimen of the former in the middle of the wood. At the western end some mature oaks and a beech survived the felling.

I base my notion of a felling on the ground flora for this is clearly no plantation onto agricultural or quarried land. Yesterday I noted that bluebells are already showing themselves along with the early leaves of pignut. Later, the delicate flowers of wood-sorrel and wood anemone will join them. Wood speedwell - Veronica montanum – abounds yet I’ve looked in vain for dog’s mercury and hope to one day explain its absence. Interestingly, a glimpse of perhaps a once larger area of woodland is suggested when one visits the churchyard beyond the cricket ground to the south-west. Woodland was felled there in the 1920s and the churchyard extended. The soils must have remained largely intact, however, as bluebell and pignut are still widespread in the turf along with a tenacious patch of wood anemone whose blooms have sparkled strikingly in the spring sunshine in each of the years since their canopy was removed .

I begin to consider ending my visit after an hour or so. A great-spotted woodpecker is calling. I spot a fantastic array of fungi fruiting bodies as evidence of the mycelia making a meal of another hapless sycamore. Pleurotus ostreatus I reckon but I’ll need to confirm before sending a record in. Then the whole wood seems full of long-tailed tits – I just have to watch them. I am further delayed from leaving by a couple of nuthatches busily exploring dead and living wood and giving a full recital of their extensive vocal repertoire. I really must go now but am finally captivated by the vibrant energy, which never lets up, of several blue tits. It’s life in the fast lane for these small birds. Training the binoculars on a singing bird makes me feel such a sluggard.

It’s over the wire and off home. I’ll be back soon, gathering data, showing others and wondering why this special corner of Stoke was not deemed to satisfy the council’s criteria to qualify as a Natural Heritage Site. I know why of course. Sainsbury’s Distribution Warehouse sits 100 metres to the north. The land is held within the murky world of government agencies of which more later. This is development land. Economic growth not ecosystems is the priority.

We moved to Hanford in 2002. I had previously spent untold amounts of time wandering the Whitfield Valley near our old house in Burslem and was keen to find another ‘urban greenspace’ to enjoy. I quickly fell excitedly under the spell of this ancient but much knocked about landscape.

Technically access is very restricted, the lane alone being a public footpath. A concessionary path also used to wend its way across the field to the north. This was re-positioned to the east as part of the works associated with the Prologis development site (of which much more in later posts) and now serves as access to the canal and on to the hallowed ground at Britannia Stadium (I wish I could get to Craven Cottage as easily). The developers furnished the new path with lots of limestone and metal gates. No-one bothered about the loss of a piece of unimproved pasture and anyway, worse was to come in another part of the area.  Practically, as obviously I  had to have a closer look at the whole place, it’s simple enough to climb over gates, carefully negogiate barbed wire or, in the case of the unfenced land to the south of ‘Cow Lane’, stroll past the sign which ineffectually forbids my presence.

It was plain to me though, that things were far from secure and I could sense that here was land which would be regarded as ‘waste’ until the bulldozers move in. Planners do not like forgotten corners. To me a vibrant, fascinating and enthralling community of flora and fauna; to them an empty space on a map, a file on the desk. and an access problem to be solved. I suspect that the difficulty getting in and out of Hanford and Trentham is a significant factor in the preservation of this site. I recognise that it is the job of planners at both local and government level to utilise land which is at a premium and ever-diminishing in our squeezed nation. Squeezed we may be but I will fight for space for wildlife always.

I first wrote to the City Council in late 2003 enquiring about the planning and ecological status of the Hanford site. Hence the uninspired title for a dry topic.

In respect of planning I was told that the site had been designated as ‘Green Wedge’ in the 2001 City Plan and was to be regarded as ‘Urban Greenspace’ for the coming 2011 City Plan. The ‘semi-rural character’ of the area was seen as desirable to maintain. Planning Policy Guidance Note 17 was cited as requiring an assessment that the land is ‘surplus to requirements’ (smile!) and that any development proposals are supported by the local community. PPGs will, of course, be consigned to history if the 2011 National Planning Policy Framework is adopted. Several paragraphs from the City Plan were quoted to me adding weight to the need for protection of landscape, amenity, brownfield over greenfield development etc. Somehow, at the back of my mind, I remained unconvinced.

So to ecological matters. I received a reply from a different ‘Directorate’ telling me that ‘on the basis of certain criteria’ the Hanford greenspace did not qualify as a Natural Heritage Site. I had questioned why certain other sites around the city, to my eyes ecologically less interesting, had been given this status but not Hanford. The cynic in me suspected that it wasn’t actually convenient to recognise Hanford. Still, at least I was given the criteria used when designating these sites which has acted as a focus whilst I seek to upgrade the home of numerous great crested newts, ground nesting solitary bees, farmland seed-eating birds and the trees, shrubs and herbs which comprise the miles of ancient/ diverse hedgerows.

Some may discern that my focus reflects the Staffordshire Biodiversity Action Plan as the above are all sbap categories.  Usefully, sbap was included in the ‘high’ rating qualification for Stoke’s Natural Heritage Sites. The contortions one has to go through when trying to safeguard wildlife and I don’t just mean when crawling through barbed-wire!

That was 2003. Coming posts will tell the story of the ‘eco-friendly’ Prologis development that never was,  the murky nature of land ownership and, far more importantly, some observations of the wildlife. Introducing the latter, the header photo shows the fungi Pholiota squarrosa growing at the base of an ash in the wood next to Hanford Cricket Club.

In 2003 Stoke-on-Trent City Council introduced a programme called Greening for Growth. The suggestion seemed to be that visual improvements of public spaces would somehow stimulate economic growth in the Potteries. If one looks at the projects completed thus far one is left with the impression that whilst they are associated with green areas of the city, the ‘greening’ part of the title extends only as far as landscape considerations. Greening for Growth is not about ecology.

I remember from discussions had when I was involved with the Potteries local group of the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust that one of the council’s concerns was the visual impact of the main corridors into Stoke-on-Trent. However, just south of Stoke station there is a place that creates a pleasing impression. In between theTrentham housing estates and the Sainsbury’s Distribution Centre, a vista of rural loveliness opens up westwards alongside the Trent-Mersey canal. Its a scene reminiscent of much of Staffordshire and indeed any pastoral scene throughout England but it is deceptive.

A map showing the area is posted on my website. The landscape itself is much as it was but land-use and designation are now very different. However, under the terms of Greening for Growth it still surely serves a positive role before one’s train from London sidles past the visual delights of Sainsbury’s depot, the Hanford Incinerator and derelict railway depots and sidings. Part of the deception is due to the ridge running north to south along the western edge of the field systems which serves to just hide the housing which has expanded at Hanford. The modern estates have obliterated the farms (five I am told) which once utilised the landscape.

We have, therefore, a place which stands as a relict amongst its urban surroundings. Looking on the map, the lane running west to east is an obvious continuation of the road through Hanford now known as Wilson Road. It no doubt continued towards Stoke in days before the industrial expansion associated with Hem Heath Colliery and the construction of the massively embanked canal (the narrow bridging point can still be seen) and a little later, the railway. I am told by a local grazier that this thoroughfare was actually used as a coach route in antiquity.

Thankfully, access problems have proved insurmountable for now and we still have a wonderful and tranquil spot (notwithstanding the traffic noise emanating from the M6, A34, A500 and A50) much appreciated by local people who may be unaware of the tenuous nature of its continued existence.

My interest is in the wildlife of Hanford and how it can be conserved. This blog is dedicated to casting light onto the ecology of the Hanford open space and unearthing the ownership and planning implications which threaten its future.

This blog will contain everything I have found out about the planning situation for the open space at Hanford and Sideway, Stoke-on-Trent. I’ll also be reporting on the wildlife that lives there and all things ecological. Any comments will be gratefully received.