Early rewilding site secured for nature after ‘outpouring’ of public support

A “unique” site for nightingales and other wildlife on farmland left to go wild decades ago has been saved following a £1.5 million appeal.

Conservationists are celebrating the success of saving Strawberry Hill in Bedfordshire, which saw nearly £500,000 raised by more than 3,800 individual public donations plus a substantial private donation and contributions from trusts and funds.

The previous owner of the 377-acre site stopped farming his land 37 years ago – decades before “rewilding” became a trend.

Strawberry Hill has become a haven for rare nightingales (Holly Wilkinson/PA)

Once-arable fields have since reverted to scrub and young woodland now home to a host of wildlife including threatened nightingales, cuckoos, turtle doves, bats, butterflies and wildflowers.

But the site, which is crisscrossed with public footpaths, had no official designations or protections and following the owner’s death there were fears the land – the largest area of scrub and young woodland in central England – would be sold and returned to agriculture.

After leasing the site with the help of loans from the Esme Fairbairn Foundation and We Have The Power (a group of conservation-minded lenders), Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs and Northants (BCN) was able to buy half the site with a grant from Biffa Award.

In June it launched a £1.5 million appeal to buy the whole site, save the habitat and wildlife and provide what the trust described as a “unique” opportunity to have a decades-long head start on rewilding the land for nature.

BCN chief executive Professor Brian Eversham said the public’s response to the appeal – one of the Wildlife Trusts’ largest ever – was “simply overwhelming”.

The once-arable fields have returned to scrub and young woodland (Chantelle Warriner/PA)

Prof Eversham said he wanted to say a “huge thank you” to everyone who donated – from the two young brothers who sold lemonade from a homemade stand, to those who made large donations.

He said: “I have never seen such an outpouring of support, passion and generosity from people in our region and across the UK who love wildlife and want to see it protected.

“We knew Strawberry Hill was a special place when we first began our fight to save it more than two years ago, but we had no idea it would capture people’s imagination in the way it has.”

In summer the dense scrub of hawthorn, brambles and young trees is filled with birdsong including the distinctive purr of turtle doves and rich nightingale song.

The amount of birdsong is unique in recent decades, I know of nowhere else with these numbers of nightingales

Professor Brian Eversham, BCN

Both birds are red-listed because of huge declines in their populations over recent decades.

Prof Eversham said the BCN had also discovered rare wildflowers and recorded 11 of the UK’s resident bat species.

He told the PA news agency: “I’ve not seen anywhere like this place in the last 20 or 30 years.

“The amount of birdsong is unique in recent decades, I know of nowhere else with these numbers of nightingales.

“The scale also means you can walk into there and feel completely isolated from the industrial agricultural world.”

Strawberry Hill’s habitat is ‘overbrimming with wildlife’ (Holly Wilkinson/PA)

The site is “overbrimming with wildlife” with an abundance of species able to flow out into the wider countryside, Prof Eversham said.

Because of its size the conservationists can trial different types of management, meaning the plan for the site includes leaving one third completely alone to grow into “high forest” and another third managed with “light touch” grazing by Highland cattle.

The final third will be looked after with grazing and conservation management to maintain its current scrub and open features.

The BCN, which is selling the listed farmhouse and farm buildings because of the cost of restoring and maintaining them, also plans to create some facilities for staff and visitors to allow people to experience the site without disturbing wildlife.