Littlemoor Park, Queensbury

Saturday 27th July 2024

Leaders: Friends of Littlemoor Park

16 BBG members were guided around this site by 6 members of Friends of Littlemoor Park. This meeting wasn’t part of the original summer programme but was advertised to members by email. David Campbell, Biodiversity Officer for Bradford Council, gave a talk to BBG members earlier this year about Bradford’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy and suggested BBG members could contribute to the project by visiting potential Local Wildlife Sites. As a result, this visit to Littlemoor Park was arranged.

We were given a brief history of the park, which was once the grounds of a large stately home called Littlemoor Castle. The Friends of Littlemoor Park’s website includes images of what the house looked like (see link at the end of this article). Although very little has survived of the house, you can still see traces in the grounds, especially the fruiting shrubs and trees.

The park is a mixture of woodland surrounding a grass meadow. There is a nature walk through the woods, which is where we started our walk. The main tree species throughout the walk was Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), with all the normal plants you would expect, Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), Enchanter's-nightshade (Circaea lutetiana), Willowherbs (Epilopium) and Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) etc. We also found some Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera), too much to remove, although Andrew did try until we spotted a larger patch.

As we wandered through the trees, we came to what was once a well laid out garden (The Round Garden) with raised beds. Here we found lots of fruiting shrubs. Quite a few of the members enjoyed the sweet Raspberries (Rubus idaeus), tart Gooseberries (Ribes uva-crispa) and even a few Black Currents (Ribes nigrum). The Friends of the park explained they had spent quite a bit of time clearing this area.

We continued along the woodland path, spotting Fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica), Highclere Holly (Ilex x altaclerensis), Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur) and Ash (Fraxinus excelsior), among other tree species. Unfortunately, all the Ash has signs of ash dieback (caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus). There were docks and ferns and other woodland wildflowers that you would expect, with lots of Enchanter's-nightshade in flower.

At the end of the woodland walk, we came out onto the meadow, where members ate their packed lunch, and snacked on blackberries. After lunch, we checked out the grasses, rushes and sedges in the meadow. There were also a few wildflowers, such as Yellow-rattle (Rhinanthus minor), clovers (Trifolium), Common Nettle (Urtica dioica), Daisy (Bellis perennis), Creeping Thistle (Cirsium arvense) and buttercups (Ranunculus repens & R. acris).

We were then taken up to the site of the old glasshouse, where there still stand three council-owned houses, one of which was still occupied. We then went on to the site of Littlemoor Castle, only a few steps remaining after it was destroyed 45 years after being build.

We were then taken to see the two man-made caves where we saw more ferns and the remains of a man-made stream that looks to have been made to flow into one of the caves.

Andy and Ian found some interesting fungi throughout the walk, and our walk leader, Jim, caught a few moths in a sandwich box for us to look at.

Ian spotted a red admiral butterfly that was taking a brief rest, although it was past it’s best. He also managed to get a good photo of Garden Privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium) in flower.

There were a couple of trees that needed further investigation. We decided that the first was a Hybrid Oak (Quercus x rosacea), the second a Red Horse-chestnut (Aesculus carnea).

At the end of the walk, we thanked those Friends of the park that had stuck it out (I was told they had never walked through the park so slowly!). They are doing a marvellous job, keeping the park accessible and making it an interesting place for all.

One thing that may be of interest for anyone visiting the park, although we did not see it on the day, is a Swamp Cyprus that is growing at the end of the flower meadow.

https://littlemoorpark.co.uk/who-are-we

Text by Paula 

Photographs by Ian D