2022 will be Bracknell Forest Council’s Year of the Green Corridor. Local environment groups will be supporting this and celebrating all the different things that make Bracknell Forest one of the greenest council areas in England.
Bracknell Forest Council has already been hard at work improving the sign-posting of a series of walks that explore tree-lined and river-side routes around the borough. In Binfield you can explore The Cut Countryside Corridor which stretches from Larks Hill to Blue Mountain visiting Garth Meadows, Piggy Wood and the copses to the north of Jocks Lane. Nearby you can try The Bullbrook Countryside Corridor which links Longhill Park to Westmorland Park via Lily Hill Park and Clinton’s Hill.
As well as being interesting walks in themselves, they connect up some of the borough’s lesser known green-spaces. The Bull Brook is a tributary of the River Cut, which is itself a tributary of the Thames. The Bull Brook emerges in a Bullbrook housing estate and runs north to pass behind Tescos to reach Westmorland Pond. There is easy walking along the brook and this section is tree-lined and passes by some attractive, nature-rich green-spaces. There are fish in the river here and a range of wildlife uses the corridor from bats to beetles. Watch out for a heron using the roof of a nearby house as a vantage point.
At the time of writing, the maps on sign-boards at both sites are more up-to-date than the maps available on Bracknell Forest Council’s website. I recommend that you find one of these sign-boards (e.g. there is one at the eastern end of Jock’s Copse) and take a photograph of the map before exploring.
You can find out more about the green-spaces that make up the two countryside corridors here - https://www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/parks-and-countryside/suitable-alternative-natural-greenspaces. Bracknell Forest Council and Binfield Parish Council are also discussing the possibility of developing another countryside corridor linking up some of the green-spaces in the west and south of Binfield.
Binfield Environment Group will be running a series of events next summer to show off some of these green corridors and the nature that uses them. Between now and then we will be running our monthly work-parties on the third Saturday of each month. The next few are listed below and will all start at 10am.
November 20th – Farley Copse work party – trimming holly and tidying fence-line near entrance.
December 18th – Wicks Green work party. Tasks include: tidying round rhododendrons, tidying wild-flower area, selective cutting back of black-thorn and coppicing.
January 15th – Amen Corner North – box hanging and possibly tree planting.
February 19th – Wicks Green work party. Tasks left over from December and possibly tree-planting.
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