Wildlife & Biodiversity of Bailey Hill
Wildlife
Bailey Hill is a biodiverse small park. Good habitat management will encourage even more biodiversity, but must respect the underlying Scheduled Ancient Monument and the laws which protect trees in a Conservation Area.
FLORA - look out for mature beeches, sweet chestnuts, pines, sycamores, yews, oaks, limes, and ashes. In the understorey, young trees are emerging, plus hazel, bramble, wild raspberry, native grasses, ferns and bluebells. Ivy on trees provides a refuge for birds, and extensive ‘ivy lawns’ in shadier areas shelter other creatures. The mown, trimmed and rougher areas contain many native grasses and wild flowers. The formal ‘beds’ contain a mix of decorative and native plants. Their flowers, hips and seeds add to the year-round provision of nectar and food for birds and insects. Primroses, violets and native wildflowers have been added to the motte. In the wider park, native ferns, snowdrops, wild daffodils, species crocus and cyclamen have been added, and a display of per-1940s ‘Heritage Daffodils’ under the ‘Coronation Oak’.
FAUNA - look out for greater spotted woodpeckers, nuthatches, tree creeper, spotted flycatcher, blue tits, wrens - and woodland birds such as tawny owls. Holes and cracks in older trees provide good homes for birds, and many new bird-boxes have been erected. There are grey squirrel drays in the larger trees: and a bat roost. Pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle and noctule bats fly over the site at dusk. Bat–boxes have been erected. There are bumblebees to be spotted, on anything in flower, all the year round.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is simply the variety and abundance of species and genes in any habitat, large or small. Conserving and boosting the planet’s biodiversity helps to sustain the quality of human life on Earth, and our food and supply chains. Humans use tens of thousands of different plants and animals to sustain our lives. Human history tells us that over-reliance on any one plant is risky, and rare plants and strains of plants and animals often ‘save the day’.
Overview
Bailey Hill is already very biodiverse. There is a need for sensitive action and decision-making to conserve what is there and augment it appropriately. Habitat management there must always consider the fact that the habitat overlays a Scheduled Ancient Monument SAM), set in a historic park, and located within the Conservation Area (within which trees are legally protected).
A disused castle of the C11/12th, over a natural post-glacial hillock, which was heavily planted with trees by Lord Mostyn in the late C18th. It was essentially a plantation woodland and private park, with access for the public along a couple of paths, up to a bowling green, and one leading to the top of the motte. The site was acquired by the Mold Local Board in 1870: Edward Kemp (a famous park manager and landscape gardener) was commissioned to advise on its potential for more recreational use, and supplied a new planting list in 1871, but it is uncertain to what if any extent his ideas were taken up. In the 1920s tennis courts were developed and more decorative planting was done. There is some evidence of older, formal styles of planting displays being continued near the entranceway. By the 1970s the park was less–used, parts fell into disrepair, and since then the maintenance has been less intense.
The National Heritage Lottery Fund Project revamp in 2020 brings the bulk of the park up to a good standard of design for its current and new purposes, with improved accessibility for all. The Project and the associated work done by FoBH and other volunteers in recent years will boost biodiversity in the park, as well as ensuring a significant aesthetic improvement.
In 2020 FCC applied to Keep Wales Tidy, for Green Flag status for the improved park. The formal assessment process includes an assessment of a park’s biodiversity.
The park lies on the north-western edge of Mold, in the Alyn Valley, close to a river, with a mixture of gardens with mature trees, overgrown churchyard gardens, and grassed open spaces around it. Habitat enhancement, in and around the park, to effect good habitat connectivity with the river corridor and the more extensive wooded areas in the vicinity, is highly desirable and to be encouraged.
TREES - across the park there are many mature beeches, sweet chestnuts, pines, sycamores, yews (none truly native to the locality), and a few oaks and limes. Some have extensive ivy growth upon them. There are many mature ashes also (in 2020) – but ash-die back disease is likely to affect the tree-canopy cover in the next few years. Active tree management work – to aid succession and sustain the tree canopy (on and around the park) – is now needed. Dead wood is usually retained on site and allowed to decompose – to support fungi and invertebrates.
UNDERSTOREY & SMALLER TREES – there are many thickets of old decorative plants, self-sown hollies, a few coppiced hazels, bramble and wild raspberry thickets, and a good many self-sown seedling trees of various native and introduced species (which need careful nurturing).
GROUND FLORA – there are areas dominated by native grasses under mature trees, native ferns in the wooded areas, and many woodland plants typical of this part of Flintshire, including native bluebells and sedge grass. There are extensive ‘ivy lawns’ in the shadier areas – which are an important feature of the park aesthetically.
LAWNS - The inner bailey and outer bailey are regularly mown and include a high proportion of native wild flowers (e.g. white clover, trefoil, etc). There are also lightly trimmed and unmown grass areas in the park which support native grasses and a wide range of native wildflowers.
DECORATIVE PLANTS – there are many decorative plants in the park - including flowering/fruiting small trees, lilacs, hollies, honeysuckle, shrub-roses, euphorbias, privet, cherry-laurel, rhododendron, cotoneaster, snowberry, hypericum and spirea. Collectively these provide an extra source of nectar, seeds, hips and other food and shelter for birds and insects. But many are in poor condition, straggly and struggling, so the plan is to conserve some and replace others as needed. Cherry-laurel, extensively planted in Victorian/Edwardian times, is widespread and now perceived to be mostly in the wrong place. It is a challenge to control on a SAM where intrusive techniques would not be acceptable nowadays. So, the current emphasis is on using volunteers to clip it back hard, flush to ground level, repeatedly.
Cherry-laurel, extensively planted in Victorian/Edwardian times, is widespread and now perceived to be mostly in the wrong place. It is a challenge to control on a SAM where intrusive techniques would not be acceptable nowadays. So the current emphasis is on using volunteers to clip it back hard, flush to ground level, repeatedly.
FUNGI – the increased deadwood is encouraging fungal growth
BIRDS – nesting on the site – greater spotted woodpecker, nuthatches, blue tit, tree creeper, spotted flycatcher, and others. A few bird boxes were made for the park by local school-children a few years ago, and FoBH has added another 17 nest boxes in 2019, located as advised by NWWT. FoBH monitor and repair all the boxes as needed. They are half way to achieving their long-term target of 50 nest-boxes and/or roost-pockets placed in the Park over the next few years.
MAMMALS – there are grey squirrel drays on the mature trees, and a bat roost in one mature tree. Pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle and noctule bats fly over the site. Bat–boxes (4) are being erected by FoBH following advice given by NWWT. More investigation is needed to establish the presence and extent of use by other small mammals. Further fauna surveys are needed –as we do not know at this point whether and to what extent the park is used by small mammals.
INSECTS & INVERTEBRATES – virtually nothing is known about the extent of use of the park by insects, beetles, bugs and bees. A variety of bumblebee species are almost always present in the park – exploring whatever is in flower. Bee–hotels are due to be added soon. Surveys and studies of the moths and butterflies using the park are needed.
REPTILES - a hibernaculum will be added by FoBH (when a suitable site is identified).
