The QLPS is now able to proceed at pace, with most covid restrictions sufficiently eased to undertake nearly a full programme of events, although sometimes with amendments in place.

We have been able to complete our first community test pitting event in Bicknoller, with 10 pits dug in gardens throughout the village. The interim report suggests the village developed after the Norman Conquest. We have another 2 village test pitting events planned for spring and autumn this year, the first being Kingston St Mary at the end of March. Our archaeological and archive projects have been able to get going, with a community excavation at Cothelstone Hill last July a great success. The results from our LiDAR survey have shown great promise (LiDAR is a way of producing a very accurate terrain map using aircraft-mounted lasers). We received them just in time for the dig at Cothelstone and it has informed our thinking that the previously identified linear ditch is actually part of a late Bronze Age enclosure, around 3000 years old, which loops around the entire hill. The new information makes the sites of national importance, with only 150 known to exist from that period throughout the country. We are now undertaking Geophysics on the interior of the enclosure to see what else we can learn about this enigmatic feature. If you would like to get involved in any of our archive or community excavation work contact qlps@somerset.gov.uk.

Our engagement with communities outside of the traditional Quantock hills AONB area is also going well. We have taken youth groups from Stogursey and the Sydenham ward in Bridgwater into the hills for a weekend trip t Great Wood Camp, as well as engaging with the community in the Priorswood area of Taunton. We brought the hills to them with a series of mural painting weekends last spring following facilitating a trip to the hills for them to draw inspiration to create the murals. We run a monthly photo walk to introduce people to different areas of the Quantocks, with the added benefit of encouraging entries into our photo competition. We have been working with Somerset Nature Connections, a project running throughout the 3 AONBs in Somerset to improve mental health by connecting people to the beauty and wonder of the natural world through free nature and wellbeing courses. So far about 4/5ths of our engagement activities have been in peoples’ home communities, as we’re always careful not to add to existing visitor pressure.
Our nature and wildlife projects have had a more difficult start, a lot of our biodiversity monitoring plans have been hit by not being able to get volunteers trained up last year due to the pandemic, with a knock on effect of a lot of catch up in training being required before we can get people out on the ground. We have managed to do some hedgerow survey training in the autumn, so those volunteers will be out surveying as many miles of Quantock hedges as we can manage this spring. We have also got plans to expand the survey of dormice at Cothelstone along with adders and a range of other species that make their homes here in the Quantocks. Our Young Rangers programme is due to start this year, taking groups of young people into the hills to learn practical conservation and countryside skills. If you have any tasks that need doing and would be interested in hosting a Young Rangers work session, or if you would like to help monitor our local wildlife please get in touch at qlps@somerset.gov.uk

We do have money within our budgets for footpath repairs, fingerpost sign repairs, and there is a pot of money for small scale repairs to significant monuments and buildings.
We also support the creation of community orchards or traditional orchard restoration, hedgerow creation and maintenance , and establishment of parkland and hedgerow trees in the LPS area. If you are interested in finding out more about the opportunities this might present to your parishes, please get in touch with us to find out more.