About Us
We are a conservation volunteer group in Oliver's Battery, Winchester, Hampshire.
Our aim is to 'Conserve, sustain and enhance the natural landscape and wildlife
of Oliver's Battery Parish'. To this end we carry out practical conservation
work and also organise 'fun' events to involve local people.
We are currently working on the management of the small nature reserve known as
the Conservation Area, next to the Recreation Ground off Compton Way.
Our activities were described in a recent article in the Community News.
The group's work on the Conservation Area was set up with the help of funding from Hampshire
County Council and the (now defunct) Hanson Environment Fund. OBCG continues to receive funding
from the Parish Council and from membership subscriptions.
The group originally developed from local members of Hampshire Wildlife Trust who met while
surveying the hedges of the parish for their wildlife habitat, as part of the Hampshire Hedgerow
Survey. The Parish Boundary Stone erected to mark the
Jubilee was the first successful joint venture between the parish and what is now OBCG.
The group was formally constituted in 2005 to co-operate with
the Parish Council, which has an overview of the development of the whole parish. The
Countryside Group hopes to contribute to the Parish Design Initiative and already has ideas
about a management framework for habitats in the parish.
Other public events organised by the group have included the well-supported "Beat the Bounds"
walks in Jubilee year and again in May 2003 and an "Apple Day" held on rather chilly day in
October 2002 when the public were invited to taste over a dozen varieties of apple, compare
apple recipes and plant seeds from crab apples collected in Crab Wood. Members have also
previously run Wildlife Watch events for children in the parish.
The group put on an exhibition at the OB 50 fête at the Battery in
September 2006. Events held in 2007 included an August moths evening and
a September 'Nature's Harvest' afternoon.
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