16 December 2022
Franchises Lodge nature reserve
A secret Forest for the nation
A ‘secret forest’ in the north of the New Forest was saved for the nation by the RSPB with our help, back in 2018.
At the time the new nature reserve near Nomansland in Wiltshire was one of the RSPB’s most significant purchases in its 129 year history.
Few people had visited the 1,000-acre woodland, which is the size of over 1,300 football pitches and is home to a wide range of birds, invertebrates and plant life.
The spectacular woodland also provides a bridge between two already internationally-important wildlife areas – Langley Wood National Nature Reserve to the north and the New Forest Special Protection Area to the south. It’s an extremely rare chance to turn a huge piece of the north of the National Park into a special place for nature, making the Forest bigger, better for nature and more joined-up.
Our initial £200,000 investment to help with the acquisition of the site has now evolved into a much wider partnership.
The RSPB has been working to discover the rare plants and animals that live there and the charity is working closely with volunteers and Commoners to help improve the new nature reserve’s value for wildlife.
Ponds created
Ponds have been created by Freshwater Habitats Trust at Franchises Lodge through our Species Survival Fund project.
Planning advice given
Planning advice was given to the RSPB team to convert an old farmworker’s cottage into a nature education centre thanks to the Cameron Bespolka Trust.
Cameron’s Cottage has been created as a legacy to Cameron Bespolka who died in 2013 aged 16.
Cameron had a deep passion for nature, which began as a young child and developed further as he got older. The RSPB and Cameron Bespolka Trust are keeping Cameron’s memory alive by encouraging more young people to find the same joy that Cameron found in the outdoors.
At Cameron’s Cottage young people from schools, colleges, universities and groups are immersed in nature and connect through outdoor cooking, learning conservation skills and survival techniques, creating lasting memories.
Invasive rhododendron cleared thanks to volunteers and National Grid
The National Grid’s Landscape Enhancement Initiative (LEI) fund has helped bring conservation volunteering to Franchises Lodge.
The LEI fund is given to protected landscapes to help reduce the visual impact of high voltage power lines in the New Forest National Park.
Non-native rhododendron is found across the Franchises Lodge site.
Thanks to LEI support secured through the NFNPA, enough highly invasive non-native rhododendron to cover an average 18-hole golf course has been removed from a once-inaccessible area in the north of the New Forest.
With help from volunteers, work at Franchises Lodge to restore the nature reserve has enabled ground nesting birds such as the woodlark and the nationally rare nightjar to make a welcome return and large mounds, known to be Bronze Age burial sites, have been preserved.