OVER a recent November weekend, Tony Darbyshire who runs his own company, Sawpod Ltd based in Amport, led a team of tree-fellers to clear elderly and dangerous trees from Amport Green.

His team was made up of two of his usual helpers, Peter and Paul, and villagers, including the Amport Parish Council’s Chairman, Cllr Ian Long with Cllrs Chris Harris, Alan Maddern, Rob Jones and his young son Tristan, together with Neil Warren, who lives on The Green and Kingsley Harding from Sarson Close.

They started by felling a number of older trees along the edge of The Green, mainly goat willows which have a limited life A wood chipping machine had been hired which needed continuous manning as the wood-cutters provided more fallen trees. This produced a large quantity of wood chippings which can be used as mulch. It is planned that new young trees will be planted to replace those removed.

Their next task is to carry out the same operation in The Fen which is the small piece of land between the feeder stream at the edge of The Green and the main stream, the Pilhill Brook.

It was acquired by the parish council some years ago and is run as a nature reserve, at present managed by Cllr Chris Harris whose cottage is nearby.

The nature reserve is a great resource for Amport School, which recently celebrated its 200th anniversary, and they regularly use it for nature study. This work will be carried out when the participants have another free weekend.