Land

The Land and Biodiversity Sub-group is dedicated to protecting and enhancing the natural environment of Baslow. Through our work, we aim to involve our local community in conserving precious habitats; increasing biodiversity, raising awareness about environmental issues and inspiring individuals to take action.

We believe that everyone has a role to play in protecting the environment. Whether you're a local resident, a frequent visitor, or simply someone who cares about the environment, we invite you to join us in our mission.

Our current projects include:

St Annes churchyard planting

This year we have increased the biodiversity in St Anne’s old churchyard, by introducing some native hedgerow shrubs, native wildflowers and also other perennial flowers that are great for pollinating insects. We hope that this more varied habitat will attract many more bees and other insects and a greater variety of bird life as well.

In March, nine volunteers planted four areas with over 50 tree saplings that produce flowers and fruits or nuts and so are attractive to wildlife (hazel, rowan, hawthorn, blackthorn).

Volunteers around the village also carefully nurtured about 700 tiny plug plants until they were large enough to be safely planted out in early summer and autumn along with native wildflowers. The intrepid team of members of the Environment Group did a fantastic job of planting three beds of wild flowers and pollinating plants. And now they are flowering beautifully and insects are returning.

Volunteers planting saplings in the churchyard at Baslow St Anns Church.

In autumn, 170 lavender plants were planted along the churchyard wall from the Prince of Wales pub to just past the war memorial. This wall is south west facing, so they should get plenty of afternoon sun here to help them thrive and produce a low hedge that the insects will love.

As well as the planting, the team have watered and weeded the tree saplings and flower beds, so that they are ready for winter. A great effort from the team, across the year.

Our thanks go to the Better Derbyshire Dales Fund and the Woodland Trust for the funding and tree saplings to enable this to happen.

Chatsworth Land by the Cavendish

Last Autumn we worked closely with the Chatsworth Estate on a potential project to plant trees and improve the biodiversity of the field between the Cavendish Hotel and the footpath next to the A619 Cock Hill.

Unfortunately, this has been put on hold whilst Chatsworth agree their new Environmental Stewardship Scheme with DEFRA, but we are still hopeful that it will all be back on for late Autumn 2025.

Baslow Natural History Booklet

We have a small team working on the development of a Baslow natural history booklet on the lines of the Baslow History Group booklets, to celebrate the great diversity of flowers, trees, birds and animals that can be seen in our village.

It would focus on:

what is special in Baslow
what changes as the seasons change, and maybe what changes are happening now due climate change, agrochemicals etc.
what can be seen at various hot-spots, probably by tracing two or three walks.
and what can be seen in gardens and what garden plants work to attract wildlife.

We have been funded by the Foundation Derbyshire - Hall Family Fund to enable the publishing of the initial print run of this booklet.

If you have a particular passion and knowledge about some of our local flora or fauna and would like to contribute to the booklet, please contact Ian Johnston on 07771 808017 (by texting ONLY please).

Improving Our Gardens for Wildlife

One of the things that we can all do to assist nature and improve bio-diversity, is to encourage wildlife in our gardens. There is lots of great advice available on the Internet to help us do this, here are just a few examples: