Date: Sunday 1st September
Time: 2-4pm
Place: The Garden Room, The Ardagh

Please note that we'll be trialling a longer 2 hour meeting to better facilitate all the projects we’re up to! No commitment required - all welcome to attend all or part of the meeting.

2-2:55pm will be general FOHC chat,
2:55-3:05pm will be a break
and 3:05-4pm will be more environment focused chat.

Feel free to come for either part or both! Please send anything you'd like to add to the agenda to [email protected]

Date: 23rd May
Time: 18:30 - 20:00pm
Location: Around the various parts of the Common

Join us for a free evening guided walk (around 1.5 hrs) with naturalist Ed Drewitt! We will be exploring the Common, looking at the different variety of trees and the wildlife living amongst them. 

The evening time is a good period to enjoy birdsong and we hope to hear birds such as blackbird, robin, blackcap and chiffchaff. It is also a chance to simply enjoy nature at this time of day.

(We will be moving around the Common for this event. Suitable for all ages, but small children may find it tiring concentrating for that long!)

Please email [email protected] from 5pm, Tuesday 7th May to secure your place - only 20 places, so get in there quick!

Date: Saturday 11th May
Time: 1pm-2:30pm
Location: Garden Room (The Ardagh)

A split meeting - feel free to attend just one, or stay for both. 
All welcome, come say hello if you’re new!

1pm-1:40pm : May Friends Meeting
Come join to discuss updates on the Friends group and events.
1:50pm-2:30pm : Management Plan Meeting
The work continues to develop the plan for the Common! Please email [email protected] ​for materials, if you weren’t able to attend the first meeting.

Date: Saturday 13th April
Time: 11am-12:30pm
Location: Garden Room (The Ardagh)

All welcome to come and get the Common's management plan rolling! This will guide the wildlife/plantlife management that we undertake with the Council, as well as inform what community events we'll be arranging to support this - so a critical plan for the future of the Friends group!

​Any questions, please get in touch, and if you would like to join, please email [email protected] so we can send you some materials beforehand.

Date: 17th March
Time: 2 - 3:30pm
Location: around the whole of Horfield Common

Join local historian Andy Buchan for a free, fact-filled journey around the Common!

(Suitable for all ages, but small children may find it tiring concentrating for that long!)

Please email [email protected] from 5pm, Monday 4th March to secure your place - only 15 places, so get in there quick!

Date: Sunday 21st January
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
Location: Garden Room (the room to the right of the cafe, The Ardagh)

We'll be having our first volunteer meeting of 2024!

The meetings are a great chance to get involved with FOHC if you haven't been able to attend any events yet - all are welcome to come and share!

A shorter meeting as not too much to update on due to the winter break, with the rest of the time to have a chat - either about anything FOHC related we haven't had time to touch on so far, or just to get to know each other more!
​
​Hope to see you there!

Volunteering events across North Bristol for December-February, featuring ongoing events (such as our monthly litter pick!) and one-offs.

Each park has lots going on with a variety of activities to suit everyone, so please do take a look and share with your friends!

FOHC is working with the Council to refresh the cutting map and we need your views!

What is a cutting map?
This shows where and how often the grass is cut in the area. For example, short grass for playing fields will be cut more often: "5 cut" means it will be cut 5 times a year. 

Why do we need to refresh it?
The last refresh was in 2015! We would like to provide a better environment for wildlife/plantlife across the Common. This summer, as we maintained the meadow patches and set up protections for the cat-mint, we realised that the old map is hard to follow and can easily lead to missed cuttings/miscommunication as well.

How can I help?
An initial map has now been completed and we will be meeting with the Council on the 18th December to feed back. Please note that this is a proposed map and implementation will depend on a number of factors as we move through the process.

Please see the key and map image (also provided as downloads for easier reading) and send us your initial thoughts by the 17th December!
​Email them to [email protected].

Key:
The management descriptions of the different regimes are as follows:
 
Floral Lawn

• Applied to some 8 cut sites.
• Reduces frequency of cutting to every 5 to 7 weeks (avoiding any cutting during May), which would equate to about 6 or 7 cuts depending on the weather/season.  This allows flowering plants that can do well in amenity grass (e.g. clovers, bird’s-foot-trefoil etc)  to flower and provide nectar and pollen.
• Uses the same equipment as used currently.

 
Cut and Collect – 2-cuts

• Applied to 1 cut sites.
• Consists of one cut and collect in March/early April and one in late August/September
• Will use the Amazone Profihopper (and tractor/trailer) to cut, collect and remove the material.  Cut material will be taken back to depot and deposited into a 20 or 40 yard RORO skip.

 
Cut and Collect – 5-cuts

• Applied to some 8 cut sites.
• Consists of a cut and collect 5 times during the first year which will then be reduced each year.  This is based on the assumption that with the cut material being collected and removed it will reduce certain nutrients in the soil, and therefore reduce the vigour of the grasses.  This should mean that there will be less growth to cut each year.  This is based on the experiences of other local authorities including South Glos who have similar soils to us.
• Will use the Amazone Profihopper (and tractor/trailer) to cut, collect and remove the material.  Cut material will be taken back to depot and deposited into a 20 or 40 yard RORO skip.

 
Tussocky Grass

• Applied to 1 cut sites that are adjacent to a hedgerow or woodland, to create better edge habitat and provide important cover and overwintering habitat particularly for invertebrates including certain butterfly species.
• Consists of one cut every three years on rotation – that means ideally each area or group within a site will be divided into 3 and a different section cut each year.
• Will be cut with a flail and collected using the Profihopper (and tractor/trailer), taken back to depot and deposited into a 20 or 40 yard RORO skip.

 
Bank 50/50

• Applied to banks (mostly south/south-east/south-west facing)
• Consist of half being managed on a ‘Cut and collect – 2 cut’ regime, and half on the Tussocky Grass regime.  However the machinery used to cut it will remain as it is, and the material will be raked and collected by hand. 

 
The maps also show some areas identified as ‘Flat 50/50’.  These are areas that would be split between the ‘Cut and collect – 2-cut’ regime and the ‘Tussocky Grass’ regimes as described above.