How a big tip went back to nature

THIN winter sunlight filters through the branches of young ash, alder and hawthorn trees. A carpet of green vegetation covers the ground - bluebells that by May will have turned the depths of this little wood into a shimmering blue haze.

Gordon Campbell-Thomas kicks a lump of mossy stone that sticks out of the ground. A piece of concrete, he says. Nearby, tangled deep in a scrub of bramble and young saplings, a concrete post leans drunkenly. It used to be a support for a barbed wire fence that at one time surrounded the whole area, Gordon says. "There was a sign on it saying 'Toxic Tip. Keep Out'," he recalls.

If ever you need reminding of the power of nature, this is the place to come. This part of St Nicholas Fields, in Tang Hall, was once a brickworks. The huge holes where for years clay had been dug out of the ground were then used to dump the city's domestic and industrial rubbish - everything from old tyres to leaking oil drums.

Since 1988, however, when a campaign first began to save the 'Tang Hall tip' from redevelopment, nature has been steadily creeping back, extending its green fingers through the rubble and rubbish that was once here.

Part of the 24 acres that make up St Nicholas Fields is now wild flower meadows; part is natural scrub; and part is steadily maturing woodland.

What makes it so unique, says Stephen Whittaker, local nature reserves officer with City of York Council, is that it is a habitat in transition. Nature, with the help of a few willing volunteers, is doing what nature does when given the chance: re-colonising what man has despoiled.

"You can see here the transition from grassland to scrub to woodland," Stephen says. "It is ecological succession in action."

This small green lung in the heart of York is home to a breathtaking variety of wild plant and animal life. The wildflower meadows provide shelter for a variety of butterflies, such as common blue, holly blue, orange tip, ringlet and meadow brown.

Nearby, the rough grass and scrub contain large stands of teasels and thistles, which provide seeds for finches - goldfinch, chaffinch, bullfinch, brambling and siskin are frequent winter visitors.

The thicker scrub and thickets of elder, hawthorn and bramble, meanwhile, provide ideal cover for nesting robins, wrens, sparrows, dunnocks, blackbirds and thrushes.

There are more unusual species too. The rubble scattered over much of the area makes it an ideal home for plant and animal species that would more normally be found in broken coastal areas. The young woodland contains apple, pear and plum trees - all grown, Gordon says, from seeds and cores dropped by visitors, and all tested recently and found to be clear of pollutants. And then there is the wild chicory. Look on old Rowntrees Black Magic boxes, Gordon says, and you'll see that one of the ingredients was chicory. It was grown at Dunnington, processed at Layerthorpe and then shipped to the Rowntree factory. Along the way, seeds managed to escape and were dropped at St Nicks: and the plant grows here still.

It was the wealth and diversity of plant and animal life and the unique nature of the habitats found here that - thanks to the friends of St Nicholas Fields and the support of English Nature - that persuaded the city council to declare St Nicks York's third local nature reserve (after Hob Moor and Clifton Backies) on Saturday.

This will grant greater protection from development, as well as allowing the city council to pass bylaws to prevent activities that could damage St Nicks. It may also make it possible to secure funds further to improve the nature reserve.

For Mr Campbell-Thomas, one of the founders of the Friends of St Nicholas Fields and for ten years the St Nicks park ranger, it is something of a personal triumph.

In two weeks, the veteran environmental campaigner will be leaving York to head for Goa in India, where he plans to transform another disused brick works into a nature reserve, using St Nicks as his model.

"I'm absolutely over the moon about this the granting of local nature reserve status," he says. "I'm leaving in two weeks and this really is the culmination of 16 years of hard work. It is a real bonus."

Campaigner Gordon Campbell-Thomas recalls the long fight to save St Nicholas Fields

START with a 40-acre disused rubbish tip, one that for nearly 20 years has taken all the domestic and industrial rubbish of an ancient city. One where fly tipping was an everyday occurrence. Where piles of old tyres were regularly set alight, where oil drums leaked their contents into the earth, where concrete, rubble, and rats lived happily side by side.

Take a city council that wanted to develop the site into an industrial site, with uninspiring architecture, roads and sodium streetlights.

Add the green fuse of nature, competing with the rubbish. The shoots of wild plants hoping to bloom into trees, butterfly bushes hoping to put out the purple spikes of lovely scented flowers.

Mix in the enthusiasm of local residents wanting to create a green lung near their houses. Wanting to create woodlands, footpaths, and play areas. A place where their children and children's children could roam free, and where nature could flourish long into the future. A place that could provide for people an opportunity to enjoy nature in all its glory.

Then you have there a recipe for a long drawn out battle between opposing sides. The landowners on one side and mad but hopeful campaigners on the other.

Add 16 years of hard work, and what do you get? York's third local nature reserve.

The greening of St Nicholas Fields

1988: A report in the Evening Press mentions that Tang Hall tip is due for development by the council into an industrial site. It also mentions that a new group called York Natural Environment Trust would like to keep it in a "really wild state". Gordon Campbell-Thomas becomes campaign co-ordinator.

1990: Gordon Campbell-Thomas stands in the council elections to put St Nicks on the political agenda. The idea takes hold.

1991: YNET hold street stalls in Parliament St. The city council receive a 1,000 signature petition from residents of York to create "an urban nature park on St Nicholas Fields".

1992: A new group is set up. St Nicholas Fields Conservation Group is a bit of a mouthful, and becomes the Friends of St Nicholas Fields. A service agreement is drawn up with the council whereby the friends become managers of St Nicks.

1994: Gordon Campbell-Thomas is appointed project co-ordinator/park ranger for the new friends group.

1994: Work starts on "capping" 18 acres of St Nicks. 25,000 tonnes of clay is deposited on top of the existing site to the depth of 0.5 metres. The work is in two phases and takes over a year to complete. The friends save many plants and trees that the contractors would have bulldozed. School children and volunteers assist the friends to develop the park.

1994: Fundraising starts and a 100 Butterfly Walk is planned.

1994: The size of St Nicks is increased by taking over the land alongside Osbaldwick beck and Bull Lane. St Nicks is now 22 acres and, with another two acres added later, eventually grows to its present 24 acres.

1995: Projects completed include the Dragon Stones (a mini Stonehenge made of stone dumped at the site, including some from the Bar walls), the 100 metre Butterfly Walk and a "reed bed" habitat in Osbaldwick beck.

1995: The friends hold their first tree dressing festival, with more than 150 children taking part. Work begins on the John Lally community woodland, which will eventually grow to cover 4.5 acres, with more than 6,000 trees planted by volunteers.

1996: A children's play area is built on St Nicks, with the help of school kids. It is the least vandalised play area in York

1996: St Nicks provides a home for the rare bee orchid, an event that made national news. The orchid still continues to bloom and spread

1996: The friends hold their second tree dressing festival around the Dragon Stones

1997: St Nicks obtains landfill tax credits of £38,000 from Yorwaste to provide environmental education

1998: A grant of over £288,000 is obtained from the National Lottery Charities Board to build York Environmental Community Centre.

1999: Work starts on the Environment Centre. The friends start offering New Deal placements to unemployed 18-24 year-olds. A number of educational courses are developed.

2000: Chris Mullin, Parliamentary Secretary of State for the Environment, officially opens York Environmental Community Centre in May.

2001: A community composting and recycling scheme is set up, with 150 households joining.

2001: St Nicks is awarded "highly commended" in the Eurosolar UK Prize "for inspiring renewable energy projects".

2002: 160 people attend a community yurt-building project over one weekend and build a 32 ft circumference yurt (Mongolian-style tent)

2003: The community recycling scheme expands up to 600 households

2003: Work starts on gaining Local Nature Reserve status, joint funding to English Nature succeeds

2003/4: Eighteen affordable and sustainable houses are built next to York Environmental Community Centre.

2004: A partnership bid starts with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to create an extended 10,000 sq ft environmental community centre

2004: St Nicks achieves Local Nature Reserve status.

If you would like to join the Friends of St Nicholas Fields, or would simply like to volunteer to help out, call the York Environmental Community Centre on 01904-411821.

Updated: 09:32 Tuesday, March 02, 2004