Firstly, the exciting news. A marsh harrier has been seen around Fleet Hill farm, Manor farm, Moor Green Lakes and surrounding area for at least a month! I was told about it last week, but only saw it this week, and only by the greatest of fortunes. I was stood by the transformer, by the south footpath, photographing what Inert were up to, when I spotted a bird of prey to my right. I automatically started photographing it, thinking it was nothing more than a Red Kite. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the images to see a Marsh Harrier. I was even more surprised to manage to photograph it. The bird was some distance away, flying against a very messy background. You can see how far away it was, as the image of the bird is quite small in the photograph with my lens at 600mm. The soil you can see in the photo, is one of the many piles Inert have built over the past couple of weeks as they begin to dig out the new, long Manor lake. It would be a considerable coup if the bird were to remain in the area. Apparently, it isn't too bothered by all the heavy plant trundling around the site - actually, most of the birds aren't bothered either. Now on to what Inert have been up to. The eastern North Embankment has almost been completely flattened. A tiny knoll remains. I reckon the soil from this will be used to cap the banking being built around the southern edge of what will be the main reed bed. As to what Inert were doing on my Thursday morning site visit...well it was difficult to say. One digger appeared to be digging up the remains of the former land bridge. Alternatively, it might have been digging out a bit of a reed bed. In any case, the stuff dug out was being loaded onto heavy earth movers and shipped to Chandlers farm. Another digger and bulldozer combo were working around the banking for the main reed bed, around the breach in the banking Inert cut to drain the main reed bed. It was unclear what was happening. I arrived late at the site, and the chaps had gone off for their tea break. The big yellow pump had been moved off the banking, and reinstalled close to where the pump station used to be. I'm not sure what it is plumbed into (I can guess), but will only find out on my weekend site visit. Inert had returned when I left the site at about 10:30. I espied a digger trundling northward, in the main reed bed, to the east of the banking. Therefore, I have no idea what it was up to, as I was stood on the west of the bank, way over on the Longwater road. I do feel that Inert are reaching the end of the landscaping part of the restoration. Needing to form the main reed bed (there are a lot of piles of stuff lying around it) and dig out the new, long Manor farm. Our final part to this week's update concerns horse on Fleet Hill farm. It seems that there are horses loose on the Fleet Hill farm part of the nascent Longwater road nature reserve.
I have seen, over the years, horses loose on Fleet Hill farm part of Eversley quarry. I had assumed they might have belonged to Fleet Hill farm proper. Yes, it still exits (as does Manor farm), and it keeps horses. Indeed, the farm either owns a strip of land within the boundaries of the nascent reserve along the Blackwater or they lease it from Cemex. I often wondered if the horses had somehow got loose from this land. However, there is a field, just north of the Fleet Hill farm quarry entrance, sandwiched between allotments and the Longwater road. This field has a farm gate leading directly onto the Fleet Hill farm part of the nascent Longwater road nature reserve. Thus, these stray horses might belong to whomever owns this field. On the other hand, they may belong to an unidentified third party. In any case, Cemex has served notice that the horses are to be removed by 5:00pm on the 5th October 2022. Failure to do so will see Cemex remove these horses. I'm pleased that Cemex are on the ball. A few years ago, I reported to Cemex that there were horses loose on Fleet Hill farm. One of the horses was very skittish, and I had to give it a wide berth. The horses were removed a week later. Other horse owners ignore signs to keep horses off the footpaths. The one leading from Fleet Hill farm to Finchampstead - along what was the old Llama farm, was used illegally by horse owners. They made a right mess of the footpath, turning it into a quagmire. It isn't fun meeting a skittish horse on a narrow footpath. They are hulking great huge things, and you have no alternative but to get off the footpath, and hope the horse doesn't do something nasty to you as it passes by. The worst activity of horse owners was to campaign to have Cemex remove a kissing gate from the footpath that leads from Fleet Hill farm to Finchampstead. This gate was put specifically to stop horse riders using the footpath and endangering walkers. Finchampstead Parish council reinstated the kissing gates. Our erstwhile pump, seemingly removed two weeks ago to be discarded, has been plumbed into the current Manor lake. I've not been able to get close enough to our venerable pump to ascertain its condition. First time was mid-week, when Inert were trundling to and fro doing their restoration bit. Second time I had an opportunity was Saturday morning, when Inert appeared at 7:30am to begin work!!! I took the opportunity, today, to wander up to the pump. It has a nice platform to itself, crafted out of the bank that runs along the west edge of the current Manor lake. Our wee beastie has an inlet pipe, buoyed with the assistance of what looked like a life belt. The outlet pipe is plumbed into the existing drainage pipe leading to Chandlers farm, and then the settlement ponds, before being pumped into the Blackwater river. The plumbing in of the pump does answer a conundrum that has been exercising my little grey cell for a while. How are Inert going to dig out the bit of ground separating the current Manor lake from its new, elongated shape? Deep water, with boggy mud do not mix well with heavy plant. The pump answers this. It will be used to remove sufficient water from the current Manor lake to make it safe for a digger and/or bulldozer to get in there safely and remove the bit of ground to plumb the two halves of the new Manor lake together. Part three of this week's update gets a little murky, I'm afraid. One reason is that I have not been visiting the area around the former pump station as religiously as I should have; assuming that much of the work over the past few months has been confined to the western part of the site. Another reason is that what Inert have done to the area around the former pump station and the mighty mound that sat here for months, is not altogether clear. Firstly, I cannot work out if Inert are shipping yet more stuff into the site. They have created heaps of soil - one of their favourite pastimes. To my mind, it doesn't make sense for Inert to ship stuff into the site, as I reckon they have to dig masses of stuff out of it to form the new, long Manor lake. What I think they are doing is digging out the excess stuff they shipped in. Rather than commandeer the heavy earth movers to ship this stuff to Chandlers farm, they have, instead, built mounds. This leaves the heavy earth movers to get on with demolishing the eastern North embankment. At a later stage, the heavy earth movers will then be used to move the spoil heaps over to Chandlers farm. Regardless, Inert have been bulldozing the area that will become the new, long Manor lake, cutting out a fair depth of soil. They've also dug some curious channels, which might simply show the intended depth of soil to be removed. I think they may have also dug a channel between the current Manor lake and the former Cormorant lake. However, I'm not too sure about this, as it might have been done some time back. Anyway, the channel doesn't work as it is blocked by a small bridge of spoil. Inert have removed the pipes that used to take water from the site, over to Chandlers farm. Good piping this. It can be reused. Inert have been having fun and games around the southern edge of the main reed bed banking. Wednesday's visit saw them installing a rather large, snazzy yellow pump on the banking to drain the area to the north of the site. I did wonder at the time as to why Inert didn't either install a sluice gate or cut a channel in the banking. Well, the pump was not chugging away on Sunday, though it appears to have done its job. Unfortunately, it rained all early Sunday morning. My site stomp on Sunday did reveal that Inert had broached the banking by digging a channel across it. They had also dug a channel along the southern edge of the main reed bed banking, allowing water to drain through to Finch pond and thence Fleet Hill farm. Other than that, Inert do not appear to have done much around this area since Wednesday - though appearances can be deceptive. Inert may have done other bits and pieces I could not see. Though their main focus is demolishing the north embankment I decided not to pay a site visit early on Saturday morning as Inert appear to be working overtime to complete landscaping. Instead figured Sunday would be better. Weather forecasts on Friday suggested it would be the better day. Ha! The weather had other ideas. It poured with rain and didn't stop until gone 9:00am. I legged it down to Manor farm restoration, where light conditions were appalling, despite it being so late in the morning. Inert have been up to rather a lot. Some of what I saw on Sunday had been done some time ago, it was simply my laziness in visiting the area around the pump station that prevented me from writing up the changes. Other more recent changes I had incorrectly reported, simply as I hadn't had proper access to the site i.e. Inert were working on Saturday morning. Well, enough boring excuses. On with the show. Having suggested that Inert might take a further two weeks to demolish the eastern North embankment, they only go and surprise me with their efforts. They have made spectacular progress in demolishing the eastern North embankment. Less than half of it remains. I suspect that one reason for the accelerated demolishing is that the soil is now being used to cap the area around the embankment and possibly the banking around the Main reed beds. Removing the need to ship the soil to Chandlers farm would seriously speed the process. I wonder if the animals that use the area are somewhat confused with all the changes. They have been very dramatic over the past couple of months. Owners of land and houses to the north of the site now no longer have a view of a huge embankment. |
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November 2025
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