A Selection of Projects
The Grey Partridge Project
Pond Restoration
Heritage Restoration
River Channel & Habitat Restoration
Woodlands into Management
Leven Carrs / Routh Wetland
Albanwise Environment have been working on restoring farm ponds across our landholdings in Norfolk for many years. Norfolk holds more ponds than any other English county with an estimated 23,000. Most of these ponds are located in farmland and have their origins as marl or clay pits and in some cases livestock-watering ponds dug in the 17th to 19th centuries.
Ponds provide vital freshwater environments in farmland and are important habitats for aquatic biodiversity covering plants, invertebrates, amphibians, fish, and mammals. Good quality ponds are also important for farmland birds and bats as they provide additional insect food.
Many of our pond restorations in Norfolk have been in conjunction with advice provided by the Norfolk Ponds Project – Norfolk Ponds Project | Norfolk FWAG
We have also been working in conjunction with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust on one of our farms in Yorkshire to restore several Dew ponds. Dew ponds are man-made and were created in the 18th and 19th centuries to provide water for farm animals. In the dry, chalk landscape of the Yorkshire Wolds, a natural supply of surface water was not always available, and despite their magical name, it’s thought that the water in the ponds came mainly from rainfall, rather than dew, clouds or mist.
Albanwise Environment manage the environmental features across 2650ha at Barton Bendish in Norfolk. In 2009 there were 41 pairs of Grey partridges on the farm. Since then through good wildlife management practices, changes to farming practices and the introduction of environmental measures this number has been increased to a stable population of 250 pairs.
We provide all that these birds need on a year-round basis. This includes nesting cover in the spring, areas where the pairs can take their young chicks to in summer and areas where they feel safe and there is plenty of food and shelter over the winter.
We do this by carrying out well planned hedge management practices which ensure hedgerows have thick and dense hedge bottoms suitable for nesting and cover from predators. This includes rotational hedge-cutting, coppicing, hedge-laying and the removal of guards from young hedges to promote early bushy growth.
We also provide areas of the farm that provide chick food through the provision of weedy stubbles, cultivated margins, conservation headlands, grass and wildflower margins and rough grassland areas. In the winter we provide extensive areas of wild bird seed.
The measure that we deliver on the ground to support Gey Partridges also mean we have thriving populations of other farmland birds including Tree Sparrow, Turtle Dove, Stone curlew, corn bunting, Lapwing and Skylark.
Please get in touch if you would like to talk about how you could improve the habitats across your land for Grey Partridge or any other farmland birds.
Working on behalf of our client, the landlord, we partnered with the new tenant farmer and Historic England on a programme of repairs including replacing decayed bricks, repointing and roof repairs. We oversaw the financial, contractual and project management aspects.
The site of Butt Farm anti-aircraft battery, near Beverley was first operational in 1941 and built to defend Hull from aerial attacks during World War Two. It is brick and arranged in an arc around a semi-submerged command post. The 3.7-inch guns were operated by men of the 62 HAA Regiment, with women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service carrying out all other roles on the site including operating radar and communications systems.
We recently oversaw a project which was completed by the Norfolk Rivers Trust to improve a range of habitats within a series of meadows at our Green Farm site in North Norfolk.
The project was successful in re-meandering the stream, improving the water quality and creating new areas of wet floodplain meadows, and areas of wildflower-rich chalk grassland on the higher ground. The work will improve the meadows for wintering wading birds, insects, and improve water quality by filtering nutrients.
Leven Carrs is a wetland restoration project extending to 130ha adjacent to the River Hull in Yorkshire. The wetland was created by Albanwise Environment in 2014 using Environmental Stewardship funding from Natural England.
Albanwise Environment worked with specialist contractors to design the wetland and project managed the creation project.
The site is maturing into an intricate mix of wet fen and wet grassland habitats which support a range of species including Lapwing, Snip, Black-headed Gull and Otter.
Albanwise Environment currently undertake woodland management across approximately 600ha of woodland using our in-house team and dedicated contractors.
We are very frequently bringing woodlands into management for the first time in many years. The thinning of woodlands is vital for their health and increases the diversity of plant and animal species that they can support.
