Friends of Langley Park

 Committee  ¦  Gardeners  ¦  Rangers

My name is Margaret Ashmore and I have been involved with the Friends of Langley Park from the start.  As a committee member I am described as a 'helper' which is what I try to do.  One of my main contribution s is to make the cakes on volunteer days.

I am fortunate to live on the edge of the Park, with my husband Aubrey, our two dogs and the cat.  I walk the dogs every day in the park, as I have done for the past 11 years.  It is a beautiful place with a wide variety of wildlife and it is a privilege to play a small part in its restoration.

Davina Watson

My name is Davina Watson and I am the Treasurer for the FOLP.  It is my duty to keep the funds raised by membership, donations and events safe and to ensure that any expenditure is accounted for and to work closely with the Chairman and Secretary on any fundraising.  My background has been varied and I have held similar positions for the Friends of Slough Museum when the Museum first opened, and also for the Southern Skirmish Association - a national re-enactment group.  It was whilst holding the latter position that I had the unenviable task of registering for VAT before the ceiling was raised to a more realistic level, and for many years I also kept the accounts for a friend’s company where the turnover could be as high as one and a half million, but I don’t think FOLP will reach that level!  Most of my working life has been spent in the film industry and I have even been responsible for Langley Park being used as a location by one company I worked for.

I came to this area in the mid-50’s when my parents returned from Canada and spent most of my formative years having fun in both Langley Park and Black Park, where my first brush with filming was when my friend’s horse bolted through the trees and straight through a column of ‘American WWII prisoners’ and their ‘German’ guards scattering them to the four winds.  It was only later that I discovered the strangulated scream of ‘Cut’ came from the famous director Carl Foreman!  Basically I can say that over the past 50 + years I have walked dogs, ridden horses and earned a living in Langley Park and hope that it continues to provide as much fun and entertainment to the generations to come as it has to me.

Jodie Mills

Hello everyone, my name is Jodie Mills and I used to be the Access and Audience Development Officer for the Langley Park Project which meant I had to do lots of community work and events in the park and write a big report to give to the Heritage Lottery Fund.  During my time at the park I ran 57 events with schools and the community and attracted over 1100 people to the Park!

Me and my dog, ‘big head Benny’ loved Langley Park and the job very much but unfortunately it was only a temporary contract so I had to go and find another job!  I have managed to keep my sticky beak in the Langley Park Project by becoming the Friends of Langley Park’s secretary and fundraiser, so I can keep my eye on what’s going on!

You can get an idea of what I am like from some of the comments in my leaving book from the Langley Park Friends and members and parks team:

 I have never met anyone who drinks as much tea as you -  At least our supply of tea bags and biscuits will last a lot longer - How many leaving do’s can one person have? - Hope they have a good supply of biscuits in your new job - I can’t believe I have met someone that has more milk in their tea than me!

I have had lots of environmental jobs - before I came to Langley Park to work I used to work as a forester at the National Trust’s famous Cliveden Estate in Berkshire.  I learnt how to chop down huge trees, and set up a successful education programme and volunteer network.  After nearly losing a few limbs I decided it was time to hang up my chainsaw!

Before I was a forester I went travelling for a year - I went to Mexico (where they paint donkeys to look like zebra’s!), and where I ran a BTCV conservation Holiday on an community organic food growing project (the Mexican leader made us wash the plates with lemons and used to sniff each one to check it was clean!), Guatemala (where I contracted malaria!), Honduras (where I learnt to scuba dive again!), Belize (where we met a French man who had hurt his toe – he called it his ‘foot finger!’), then 3 months in New Zealand where I did a snowboarding season (where I broke a rib) and bought a campervan.  Then to Vietnam (where a ‘shared taxi’ meant 4 in the front (2 people in the drivers seat) and 5 in the back!), Cambodia and Laos and a final flight to India (where I starred in a Bollywood movie!)

I also used to work for a small environmental charity in Sunderland where I was a conservation training manager but before I could get any paid work in this field I had to become a fulltime conservation volunteer in Lancashire for a year even though I had done a years conservation work in Australia and got a degree in Environmental Science!

Anyone thinking of a career in the environment should join the Friends of Langley Park group to get a taster of what conservation and community work is like and how much fun you can have – it also looks great on your CV!

John Watson

How did I ever find time to go to work?  I expect you’ve heard that before.

I’m John Watson, and this is a picture of me with Molly and Brandy.  I’m the tall one.

We moved to George Green in October 1998 and, very quickly, the dogs showed me all the footpaths and fields within a two mile radius.  There’s an old truism that goes “the more you put in, the more you get out” and, sure enough, all that walking made me realise how little I knew about the wild flowers that I saw.  So I put that right.  But then came bushes, deciduous tress, and then conifers, and the more I learned the less I knew.

Just about when I retired, I saw a notice asking for volunteers for Langley Park, and I thought that this would a be good opportunity to put back some of what I had gained, without taking more.  I volunteered, and far from not getting more, the park threw things at me I never even dreamed of.  There is a bigger variety of trees than anywhere between here and Kew Gardens.  There are more, and rarer, bugs in dead trees than anywhere between here and The New Forest.  There are roe deer and  voles, hobbies and cross bills, fungi and bats, butterflies and spiders.  Every time I turned a corner the park stuck something else in my face as if saying “So what’s this then Mr Know-it-all”, and often I didn’t.  So I put that right.

Then they started a group “The Friends of Langley Park”.  I’m not a friend; I’m an ardent fan and admirer, so I joined the committee.  I don’t have a particular role, I just help all the others who are much more skilled and able than I.  But at meetings I get to pontificate about every subject, and have no responsibility for any.  Makes me feel like a real politician !!  I also thought it was a opportunity to put back some of what I had gained without taking more.  Until the floodgates opened.

I gave up history in the third form in 1953, and never had cause to regret doing that during fifty years in commerce.  That was until 2005, when I suddenly found out about lots more “Friends”.  King John of Magna Charta fame, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Queen Charlotte wife of George III, Dukes, Earls, Lords and Ladies, the Kedderminster family, the Bateson Harvey family, Capability Brown, and Stiff Leadbetter.  All had walked the same paths in the park as I.  Mind you, none of them had been on the committee.

And if you don’t want any of this, then the park just stands there, welcoming all who come through it’s gates whatever the time; 6 o-clock sunrises over the lake in spring, or January squalls down the vista shot blasting your face with rain and dead leaves.  And if this is still too much, then solitude is in Temple Gardens, Kings Wood, or by the lake.

My dad always told me not to believe everything I read.  I’m telling you “Don’t believe everything you read”. Come to Langley Park and find out for yourself.  I did.

You could wonder how you ever found time to go to work.

Tansie Nicole

Hi, I am Tansie Nicole and the IT Officer for the Friends of Langley Park, which basically means I run and update the website.  I was originally asked if I knew anything about FrontPage web design, and after admitting I did, given the job of creating this site.   (Next time I will keep my mouth closed!)

It has been a lot of fun and at times challenging to work out ways of getting things done on the site, but also very rewarding, and I am pleased to say I am now quite proud of it!

My background has been Admin/PA based, mixed in with being a Complementary Therapist and Trainer, and I now also design web sites for people.

My passions are being in nature (so I love the conservation work we do, especially as we have a great group of people doing it), working with animals (I currently foster 4 adorable kittens and a beautiful 5 year old female for the Cats Protection League), dog walking for the Harefield Dogs Trust, spending time with my 5 nieces and nephews - its great to be a child again!, to name but a few.

Going back to the website, we have tried to include as much of interest to people as possible, namely the guided walks, orienteering trail, maps of Langley and Black Parks, and conservation work.  We also have a monthly Park User, Photo Competition and Forum to make this site more interactive.   And the latest addition has been using PayPal so that anyone can pay by debit or credit card for membership or our other goodies online, as simply as possible.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the website and Langley Park, and if you have any ideas for improvements or suggestions for either please let me know.

 Andy Stevens

My name is Andy Stevens and I am the Conservation and Photography Officer for the Friends of Langley Park.  My role allows me to get involved with the volunteering side of the group which is a very important part of our objectives and it is rewarding to know that we are helping the Country Parks Team to maintain and improve such a special place.  Have a look at our Conservation page to see the kind of volunteering work we do.

My day time job is that of Park Manager at the Orchards Residential Park, which is situated very close to Langley Park and which also had a mention in the historical survey carried out by John Phibbs for the HLF bid, as the site of an Elizabethan Pleasance Garden, this is exciting news and is yet another piece of the historical jigsaw.

The photography side of my job involves documenting as many of our varied activities as possible in order to monitor our progress, keep the website up to date and have a good laugh at some of the strange things FOLP members do at events and social functions (some will never be seen!!) and of course to implement and supervise the Fixed Point Photography of Langley Park which is a requirement of the HLF project.

Fixed Point Photography is a method of recording photographic data of designated areas including the Lake, the Car Park, the Temple Gardens and the Arboretum, etc from fixed points around the given areas at regular intervals for as long as is required.  This is normally done over many years.  The information is stored in hard copy and data files that can be cross referenced throughout the project and beyond allowing the Country Parks Team and the HLF to see exactly where the monies are being spent.  This is a project any keen photographer within the group can do as expensive equipment is not required, although a tripod is quite important. 

Every visit to the park is different and I gain a feeling of great pride and pleasure to know that the FOLP members ably assisted by the hard working Country Parks Team are helping to promote and maintain a place of such diversity and interest that is Langley Park. 

I look forward to seeing you during my many wanderings.

Chris Ring

Hello, my name is Chris Ring and I am very proud to say that I am the Chairman of ‘The Friends of Langley Park’.

I have lived and worked in the Slough and South Bucks area all my life and have been regularly using Langley Park to exercise myself and my dogs for over twenty years.  I remember visiting both Langley and Black Parks with my parents more than forty years ago.

I taught in three local schools in the 70’s and 80’s, Langley Grammar, Westgate Secondary and Lynch Hill Combined before changing to a career in Thames Valley Police.  As I approach the final year of my policing life and with my family growing up, I decided to join the Friends to help maintain the park and to support the HLF bid.

In the absence of any other volunteers and not really knowing what I was letting myself in for, I offered in March 2006 to Chair the newly formed group to see where the journey took us.  You will see from the rest of this website that the journey has been a long, varied and an extremely fulfilling one filled with new experiences, meeting new friends and learning new skills.  I never dreamt how difficult and frustrating it would be to lead a group of conservation volunteers in support of a common goal.  Health and Safety, Risk Assessments, Constitutions, Sponsorship bids, Committee Meetings …  It would be easier to do a jig saw in the dark with boxing gloves on!

Having said that I am very pleased with the progress we have made which is a credit to the hard work of all of our committee members, the support of the Country Parks team, our sponsors and our 100+ membership spread across several counties.  Our successes have far outweighed our failures and with the positive result of the HLF bid our work and our journey is only just beginning.

If you think you might like to join our committee, even if only on a trial or temporary basis, get in touch and I will be happy to have an informal chat with you.

Enjoy the park, Chris

Maureen Stevens

Hello, my name is Maureen and I am the Membership Secretary for Friends of Langley Park.  I also put together the F.O.L.P Newsletters.

I have known Langley Park for many years and have a deep love of wildlife and the countryside, passed on to me through my father.  From childhood he has always taken me out and about and shown me many beautiful places, from the mountains and forests of Wales to many areas around Buckinghamshire and Berkshire.  The Chilterns are probably at their most beautiful in Autumn, although I really love the fresh greens of Springtime.  The early childhood interest has never left me and I always try to instil something of nature into people around me, either at work or where I live.  I never walk far in the countryside without having to stop to hunt for whatever I heard scurrying through the undergrowth and invariably it is a mouse or a vole or even sometimes a lizard.  If you wait long enough and patiently enough it will appear.  Wildlife is never far away.

When the chance came to get involved in doing some conservation work in Langley Park I jumped at the chance and from that grew the Friends of Langley Park.

I have gained many wonderful friends through the Friends of Langley Park in particular the other committee members and volunteers and I very much enjoy meeting with people through the events we put on.  Invariably it is people with the same interests.  We truly have become a “Friends group”.

In my normal daily working life I am a Secretary for a large construction company in Slough, which at times can be pretty monotonous and a walk through the woods or the Rhododendron Gardens at the end of a long and busy day, listening the wonderful bird songs, can be a good release.

I also enjoy gardening and try to incorporate plants and flowers that attract the butterflies and insects which can be beneficial to every gardener and when I get some spare time, however small it may be, I do like to sit down and do some card making.  You never know, one day I may get the chance to sell some at some of our events.

Jez Gabb, Ranger

Whilst thinking about what I could write for this article I took a moment in Langley Park to gather inspiration.  It is a misty autumnal day with the earthy smell of fungi in the air.  Instantly I am taken back to my first memory and experience of Langley Park.

We journey back through time to around 1984/85, when an eight-year-old boy new to the area goes on his first trip with his new school.  I venture through the gates on board a coach down the main avenue at Langley to the old stable block.  At the time, rather than plush flats the rooms above the archway are used by the countryside team as classrooms for visiting schools.  Inside I vaguely remember the musty smell of the stuffed British mammals and birds which I guess were part of Robert Harvey’s monumental ‘I shot  that’ collection.  Here, girls and boy’s of Langley’s Marish Middle School assembled around tables and were greeted by a ranger (what an effect this must have had on me!).  This part of the visit fades a bit.  I am sure we spent time learning information about the autumn and its relation to wildlife, polished off with a quiz or fact sheet no doubt.

After sandwiches the real fun began when we were unleashed upon the wider park.  Each of us was given a small bag to collect items from nature to draw/stick and write about once back at school.  I have fond memories of this nature walk.

First to the Arboretum to examine the trees.  We peer through the gate to the walled garden, imagining the secret garden on the other side.  Then up the Vista we go, taking in the colours and smells that Langley offers in autumn.  We reach the ha-ha (I get confused thinking it’s pronounced Ah-ha, like the successful band of the time) and I first learn about its use as a non-visually-intrusive barrier against deer at this time: information I still pass on to visitors today.  Then into the Temple Gardens, climbing and jumping out on each other in the maze of then wide, well-pruned tracks.  Next the class stood around the grand old yews where we all found it hard to comprehend the extent of their existence.  I still do now!

A game between the boys is invented at some point, the object of which is to find and explode puff balls before others can.  Millions of fungi spores are artificially released this day and I feel content with my personal effort. 

Out into the open by the toilet block next for more of an open run around.  I imagine this is probably a relief to the teachers and ranger, now that they could see us all and not have to worry about one going stray among the rhododendrons.  After a while it's back down via the avenue to the classroom for squash and end of day conclusions.  Then on to the coach where we are pleased to be given 'Apple coach' badges by the driver before being taken back to school.

The visit that day has a lasting effect on me as a young lad.  It gives my new town an historic identity and shows me a great place to play war with my brothers and mates.

I continue to visit Langley Park as I grow up with my family.  As well as with the scouts, then on my bike on my own.  When I was 16 I often visited the park with groups of friends.  On sunny days groups of us would hang out, trying to impress girls we were with by showing off.

When entertaining groups and individuals in my current role as a ranger for the Country Parks, I often draw on my memories of my first visit, for inspiration and enthusiasm to carry out my work.

I am excited about the future of Langley Park.  The Heritage Lottery Grant, and what it will mean on the ground in the park (such as the effect on the visitors’ experience: new or veteran) will be fantastic.  I am equally enthused by the creation of an Audience/Education Officer for the park.  What a blast from the past this role will be, and important in many ways to the local community for access and educating visitors such as local school groups.  Who knows the wider effect?  Maybe in 20 years’ time a ranger again will write an article to the Friends of Langley Park, describing their visit to the park with their school and the effect it had on them.  We here in the present know that this is a possibility due to the hard work and effort we all put in to receive the HLF funding. 

Thanks to everyone, and watch out for those school groups in the future, as you never know what they could turn into.

Matthew May - Ranger

It didn’t take me too long to decide what subject to use as a basis for this article, as my few visits to Langley Park have always left one major impression on me above all others: the stature of the collection of Giant Redwoods (Sequoiadendron giganteum) the park boasts. 

These massive trees, often referred to as either Giant Sequoias or Wellingtonias, were clearly favoured for a time in the planting plans of one of the Park’s former owners or designers, as they tower above the deciduous natives and other imported trees which have stood for many years in the park and gardens.

I have not yet had the opportunity to count the number of these trees at Langley but I know their enormous height and girth ensures that any visitor to the park will know they are there, particularly as the main cluster seems to be around the higher ground at Verney’s Walk, which happens to be fairly close to the car park.

In its native Sierra Nevada, California, this colossal tree can reach a height of almost 100 metres. They can live for a staggering 3,000 years and when they have been felled, specimens in the past have apparently weighed in at 2,000 tonnes. Think about that for a second: that’s the equivalent of 335 adult male elephants…from just one tree!

The world’s biggest standing Wellingtonia – which is also the largest single living thing on earth – is affectionately named General Sherman. The General has a diameter of almost 18 metres and is 95m tall. It’s not the tallest tree in the world (that accolade belongs to a cousin: a coastal redwood), nor the fattest, but it is truly a champion in terms of all-round volume.

The dramatic bulk of these redwoods, combined with their position geographically, seems to account for the news that the vast majority of the American veterans of the species have been cut down, seemingly needlessly, by man. Their timber is useless for most building due to its brittle nature, which is often the case with trees which grow at such an incredible rate.

Luckily for us we do not have to go all the way to America to see fine examples of these trees, as since their ‘discovery’ (surely native Americans knew about them already?) in 1841 they soon spread to the UK, where plant enthusiasts of the time must have delighted to see a grandiose species take so well to the vast majority of our soil types. Despite this, and the fact that many of our specimens have a greater stem girth than oaks and chestnuts 10 times their age, most Wellingtonias in the south east of England now have rounded tops and are not thought to be growing upward any more.

Still, there’s plenty to marvel at. The thick, spongy, fibrous bark is nature’s way of protecting the tree from the kind of vicious forest fires which have savaged California’s forests over the years. Indeed the Giant Redwood has adapted perfectly, even relying on the fire’s heat to release seeds for propagation in the resulting ash and suddenly-clear forest floor that results.

Despite my awe at these gigantic trees, which the writer John Steinbeck described as “a vision that stays with you always”, it may be surprising to hear that they are by no means my favourite species. That particular honour goes to a member of the cedar family – but that is a story for another day…as I believe Langley may have one or two of those elegant masters of the tree world in its collection as well.

 Steve Heywood - Head Ranger

Over the past few years I have had numerous chats with members of the public whilst doing my rounds in Langley Park, some of which on the subject of deer!

Many claim never to have seen any, or even go to the lengths to deny that there are any still within the park.

Whether these individuals have just been unlucky on their visits I don’t know, but for the majority I reckon there is a case of what I term ‘countryside blindness’. People often look but they don’t see.  In my view you would be hard pressed to visit Langley Park without seeing a deer or at least seeing the signs that deer have left behind, for example deer droppings, footprints, etc.

Historically Langley Park was a Royal hunting park in the gift of kings, first mentioned in 1202 when 100 live does and bucks from the forest at Windsor were transferred to stock the Park by Richard Mountfitchet.

In the early years deer hunting shaped the landscape of Langley Park, and although a maintained and enclosed stock of deer are no longer kept there are however small populations of wild deer which now roam this ancient landscape.

Langley Park boasts two species of deer which are present throughout the year.  The larger and only native deer in the park is the Roe Deer.  These are non herding solitary deer which can only be found with others of the species during mating season between July and August, although on occasion and much to the dismay of Farmer Whitby (because roe deer graze on his arable crops!), I have had the pleasure of seeing three to four roe’s together in the field bordering Langley Avenue at other times of the year.

The other smaller and more numerous species of deer that roam Langley are the Muntjack deer.  This deer is a native of Asia and became naturalised in Britain about 1900 after a small population escaped the Duke of Bedford’s Woburn Estate in Bedfordshire.  The deer’s success is due to the fact that it breeds all year round, and in some cases may produce a fawn every seven months.

I have never seen a fawn in Langley but have sighted two in Black Park, and let me tell you it’s a sight and a half.  The adults are only the size of Labrador’s and the fawns could easily be mistaken for a rabbit to the untrained eye – they are that small!

Muntjack’s are the easiest deer’s to spot in Langley because they often freeze when seen, in the hope that their excellent camouflage will protect them.  They are also solitary like Roe.

I have often stood for several minutes happily watching a Muntjack, apparently frozen to the spot, unmoving until I go on my merry way.  There truly are excellent photo opportunities for this deer!

It is a real pleasure to be able to watch deer in the free and open landscape, and I hope the people that walk Langley Park enjoy watching them just as much as I do!