The volunteers are a clever bunch - whether it's medicinal herbs, forest schooling, tree care, horticulture, bee keeping, local history, garden machinery, conservation or even (ahem) blogging someone will know about it and be keen to pass on their skills and knowledge. For example, we had a volunteer training session for the safe use of petrol strimmers. Strimmers are very good for clearing large areas of scrub, but not as environmentally friendly as slashers or scythes so th

One of the bigger special conservation projects that the volunteers, lead by Chris, have been working on is to improve the ponds and wetland habitats. Much shovel work has been done to improve the natural wetland areas in the reserve. In addition to the existing residents, we were asked to rehome a number of aquatic bugs and beasties. For example these common, or smooth, newts have been released into the Reserve. As well as the newts and lots of Water Boatmen and other smalle

Looking for somewhere new to walk in the reserve? Here's all you need to know about designated paths... Public access The site is a public open space with free public access. There is one designated public right of way crossing the site: the path following the eastern boundary of the site between Count House Lane and Steeple Lane. There are several informal paths over the site, maintained by a combination of footfall and SWPG volunteers. There is an improved path suitable for

Types of honeybee There are three types of honeybee in a hive. Most of them are sterile females, the ‘workers’. Worker bees do all the work of the colony. When they first hatch, they spend a few days in ‘domestic duties’ - feeding the developing grubs; converting the nectar into honey as it is brought in by the foraging bees and packing it away, building fresh comb where needed, feeding the drones and the queen, and generally tidying up. After a few days, they move on to ‘gua

Bumblebees are not solitary - they live in small colonies of at most a few hundred bees. In spring, the queen will emerge from hibernation and start to make small nests in a hole in a hollow wall or discarded mouse-hole or even a tussock of grass. She makes a few cup-shaped wax cells and lays an egg in each, and then gathers pollen and nectar to feed the grubs when they hatch. Eventually these will become ‘worker’ bumblebees, smaller than the queen, and will take over the job

The volunteers follow a seasonal workplan, with each of the different habitats within the Reserve having its own tasks. The workplan is a summary of the Management Plan. If you'd like to get involved with a volunteer workgroup (every Wednesday at 09:30, meeting at the main gate entrance on Steeple Lane) please come along or take a look at our Volunteering page. You can always get in touch if you have any questions.

Everyone thought the British Black Bee had died out completely. Beekeepers replaced them with paler bees, the result of an extensive breeding programme by Brother Adam, a monk in charge of the apiary at Buckfast Abbey in South Devon. He used bees imported from southern Europe, crossbred with other strains. Buckfast bees are docile, prolific and hard workers, although less hardy than the English Black Bee. Beekeepers throughout the UK now use Buckfast bees, also known as ‘Ital

Main features of the mine ​Trelyon Consols includes a series of mine shafts: New Shaft (to 80 fathoms below adit), Parry’s Shaft (to 30 fathoms), Lawry’s Shaft (to 50 fathoms), Flat Rod Shaft, Daniel’s Shaft, Whip Shaft, America Shaft and the adit mouth on the coast. The ground had been stoped from surface to adit to the east and west of Lawry’s Shaft over a length of 70 fathoms, (this almost certainly taking the form of gunnising and other surface workings). Engine or Lawry’

Boundary stones in Steeple Wood One of the more unusual aspects of this area is the very large number of boundary stones. The parish/municipal boundary runs just to the south of Steeple Woods and where this crossed the open downs was defined by boundary stones. To both north and south, however, the fringes of enclosed land, the edges of lanes, a back alley behind cottages at Chy-an-Gweal - all were marked out by closely-set boundary stones. Such stones were used to define the

Female solitary bees make their nests in a variety of places, such as hollow plant stems or tunnels in the ground. About two-thirds of solitary bees are mining bees, who make their nests in little tunnels that they excavate in soft soil. The Steeple Woodlands reserve has a number of soft, sandy paths, Cornish hedges and earth banks that solitary mining bees love to burrow into. Many of these features are a result of the mining that once took place in the area. The nests often

Victorian tin and copper miners The early history of the mine is not known, but in 1849 ‘Trelyon Consolidated Mines’ was formed, an amalgamation of several small mines including Wheal Venture, Wheal Widden and Trelyon Downs mine. The mine was recorded as being only 34 fathoms deep (the depths of all Cornish mines were measured in fathoms, i.e. six feet, probably because of the association between the two principal Cornish industries of fishing and mining). Teams of horses wer

Don't know your Killas from your Stope? Here's all you need to know about historic mining terms but were too afraid to ask! LODE: The name given to a mineral-bearing vein. These usually occur in narrow fault fissures, they are near vertical or steeply dipping or inclined, and they are discordant with the surrounding country rock. KILLAS: The Comish mining term for the altered, usually bedded sedimentary rocks or clay-slates and siltstones which surround the granitic rocks of

A beehive intended for honey production usually consists of a stack of stout wooden boxes, approximately 45cm square. The lowest box, known as the ‘brood box’, is about 20cm deep, while the boxes higher up, called ‘supers’, are shallower and about 15cm deep. Within these boxes hang rectangular wooden frames in which the bees make their honeycomb, thousands of little hexagonal wax cells about 5mm across and about 11mm deep. The brood box is where the queen lays her eggs, the g