Parks and Gardens: Description - story

Peter Orchard

Parks and Gardens:

Description

As a seaside holiday resort Sidmouth has a number of important public green spaces within the town for visitors and locals to enjoy combining managed landscapes for leisure and recreation.

 

Access

Walk up Station Road from the Bedford passing the Fortfield on your left, then turn right at the triangle before then going through the archway towards the Parish Church and on past the bowling green and into Blackmore Gardens.

 

Influences

The town parks and gardens aim to blend historical charm with ecological value. Despite management regimes aimed at keeping these areas ‘smart’ for visitors the town parks and gardens, as a whole, are significant for biodiversity, influenced by human activity and a mild micro-climate. The presence of wildflowers in an urban area can be a contentious issue, with some perceiving them as untidy while others appreciate their role in supporting biodiversity. The town parks and gardens are an important part of the broader biodiversity networks within Sidmouth, providing shelter, food, and warmth for various species.

 

Habitat

The area comprises the following sites, each with unique characteristics:

 

  • Blackmore Gardens: This is one of Sidmouth's main green spaces and these gardens are well-maintained by the East Devon District Council (EDDC) workforce. The walls of the garden are home to mosses and lichens and some of the trees are infected with various fungal species.
  • Parish Churchyard: This area is notable for its rich diversity of lichens, mosses, and ferns found on its gravestones and walls. The old walls here are built with lime mortar, which allows plants to colonize their joints, unlike modern Portland cement mortar which is harsher on plant roots. Several Yew (Taxus baccata) trees are present, with their berries serving as a winter food source for birds.
  • Bowling Green: The grass beside the bowling greens hosts a variety of fungi in autumn including some Waxcaps which are considered rare fungi and are indicative of old grasslands.
  • Fortfield: Located behind the cricket pavilion and tennis courts, this area includes a path alongside an old field boundary known as Back Fort Field. Various floral species thrive alongside the croquet lawns in Station Road, utilising the fence as support. The walls along Fortfield Terrace have various climbing plants but these are mainly cultivated species that have spread from gardens nearby.

 

Plants

Many of the flowering plants found in these locations are naturalised garden 'escapes' and some, three-cornered leek (Allium triquetrum) in particular, are invasive and becoming a problem. Pellitory of the Wall (Parietaria judaica) is found thriving on the gate pillar of the churchyard wall alongside Church Lane, rooting in the soil between the wall base and footpaths. Wherever unmanaged niches occur various 'weeds' find a home and on less tended grassy areas species like yarrow and self-heal can be found.

 

The tomb stones in the churchyard have various lichen species, mainly crustose species, and the walls here, and in the Blackmore Gardens, support mosses and spleenwort ferns. Of the fungi the Pink Waxcap (Hygrocybe calyptriformis) is one of the most notable.

 

Animals

Various bird species are frequently seen in the parks with the pied wagtail (Motacilla alba-yarrellii) particularly favouring the short cropped grass on the bowling green and croquet lawns. Oystercatcher ((Haematopus ostralegus) can often be seen feeding on the cricket pitch at high tide in winter and swallow (Hirundo rustica) nest around the croquet lawn buildings each summer.

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