Christmas Catch-up

Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas! We hope you all had an amazing Christmas and you’re gearing up for the new year celebrations. Before that though, lets get you updated on all the activities that have been happening here at Friends of Tawd Valley.

The ever hard working Team Tawd and Rangers have been tackling the pathways in Tawd Valley Park over the last few months – They’ve braved icy conditions and wet weather to continue in the quest to tidy the paths in the valley. They even took on extra tasks of clearing patches of ice and maintaining problem trees, which highlights their dedication to the valley’s upkeep, even in the harshest conditions. All this hard work is truly inspirational.

It was a magical run-up to Christmas, as we joined the Rotary and their Santa Float events around Old Skem and Ashurst. It was truly special to see all the smiles on children’s faces as we went around the streets dressed as Santa and his elves. A big THANK YOU to Ormskirk Clocktower Rotary for inviting FoTV. The money raised at these events will help us continue to improve Tawd Valley Park.

Just before all the festivities of Christmas began we had the honour of being joined by Dr Paul Gaskell of The Wild Trout Trust, who provided an excellent training session on how to identify trout redds. We also had the opportunity to trial a new redd recording tool that is currently in development. The training helps FoTV towards reaching gold chapter accreditation of the Trout in the Town project.
A trout redd is a spawning bed for trout in a river or stream, where female trout lay their eggs in a nest of clean gravel.

And finally, Boxing Day marked are annual Tawd walk. Even though visibility wasn’t great, the weather was lovely and mild, as we took a refreshing stroll through the Valley taking in some of the more scenic landmarks the park has to offer.
Starting at the local high schools, we followed the meandering river towards the fish-life art mural, before heading past the Community Fruit Orchard, taking in the new wetland and journeying under the bridge and down the brick path.
We want to thank those in the community that joined us and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

We really appreciate the support we’ve be shown over the past year by the community, by local businesses, and by local and national organisations. Without this support we wouldn’t be able to do half the stuff we do. We look forward to building on the amazing success of 2024 to make 2025 even better. See you all in the new year.