2022-08-31-accounts - Froyle Wildlife

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FROYLE WILDLIFE

Trustees’ Report for the period 1 September 2021 to 31 August 2022

The trustees of Froyle Wildlife present their Report and accounts for the period 1 September 2021 to 31 August 2022.

1. Reference and administrative details

Froyle Wildlife is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, registered charity number 1171997. Its registered address is:

Braemore Husseys Lane Lower Froyle Alton GU34 4LX.

The trustees of Froyle Wildlife throughout the period were:

Barry Clark (chairman) Susan Clark Alan Dyos (secretary) Jayne Fisher Nigel Hughes Jenny Matthews Jonathan Pickering (treasurer)

At each annual general meeting of the members of the CIO, one-third of the charity trustees shall retire from office. Any person who retires as a charity trustee by rotation is eligible for re-election.

Alan Dyos and Jayne Fisher have indicated they will retire and seek re-election.

Governance, management and trustee recruitment

Froyle Wildlife is run by its trustees, who meet as often as required during the year to manage its affairs. They also arrange the events which Froyle Wildlife puts on in the village, and recruit and manage volunteers to assist with the upkeep and maintenance of the Froyle Park pond and the wildflower meadow on Froyle Recreation Ground.

The trustees of Froyle Wildlife share an interest in local wildlife and the natural environment, and the importance of its conservation and protection. Potential new trustees are sought from the residents of the local area who share the values and objectives of Froyle Wildlife.

2. Objectives and activities

The objectives of Froyle Wildlife are:

(a) to promote for the benefit of the public resident in and around the villages of Upper Froyle and Lower Froyle, Hampshire the conservation, protection and improvement of the local physical and natural environment , in particular but not exclusively by identifying and recording species of flora and fauna in the local area ;

(b) to advance the education of the public resident in and around the villages of Upper Froyle and Lower Froyle, Hampshire in the conservation, protection and improvement of the local physical and natural environment.

During the period Froyle Wildlife (FW) arranged its programme of activities to comply with Covid-19 restrictions. The trustees confirm that activities have had regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit. Our plan is to carry out the following activities, either separately or in conjunction with each other:

Providing talks, preferably illustrated, by relevant knowledgeable individuals on aspects of species, local wildlife conservation, protection and natural environmental improvement;
Providing guided walks in the local countryside, led by relevant knowledgeable individuals, to observe and where possible record various elements of the local flora, fauna and, if appropriate, related topography;
Offering opportunities to participate in the development, maintenance, upkeep and renewal of local natural facilities including, but not limited to, the wildlife pond and meadow area in Froyle Park, and the wildflower areas on the Froyle Recreation Ground;
Providing forums in which interested people can meet to discuss and share experiences, observations and opinions relating to local flora, fauna and conservation matters generally, all of which will be open to members of the public at an appropriate modest entrance fee, generally £3 (designed to cover both staging and general operating expenses) and free for members.

Froyle Park Pond area June 2022

Wildflowers on Froyle Rec. July 2022

3. Achievements and performance

Froyle Wildlife arranged our ‘walks and talks’ with most talks back in Froyle Village Hall after the easing of Covid restrictions. These supported our purposes and form part of a year on year programme, see our website for more information - http://froylewildlife.co.uk/news/past events/. We continued to look after the wildflower area on Froyle Recreation Ground and the wildlife pond area near Gid Lane with volunteers.

We heard a fascinating talk last October by Tom Mabbett from Naturetrek, on ‘My Favourite British Wildlife Locations’. Lavishly illustrated with an impressive range of bird and animal photographs, Tom took us on a tour starting with the Ardnamurchan Peninsula and finishing closer to his home the Forest of Dean. Along the way we heard about Spurn Point, the Somerset Levels (wonderful starling mumurations) and more locally Alresford Pond.

The tiny Wren a has loud song

Hampshire’s County Bird Recorder Keith Betton gave an informative and chirpy talk on ‘Bird Song Around Froyle’ in March. Birds sing to establish and maintain a territory, and to attract a female. Recordings illustrated the songs of birds likely to be seen and heard locally. For example the rich ‘chocolatey’ song of the Blackbird, the note and phrase repeats delivered by the Song Thrush, and the powerful, loud and fast song of the tiny Wren.

An enjoyable talk about ‘Attracting Wildlife to your Garden’ in April was presented by Susan Simmonds of Hampshire and IOW Wildlife Trust. Native plants are well-liked by pollinators (dandelions, germander speedwell), or are good for butterflies to lay their eggs on (nettles, garlic mustard), or provide nesting places for birds and hibernation sites for butterflies (brambles and ivy). If you leave some lawn uncut it can be surprising what springs up. Garden ponds should have a shallow edge or ‘beach’ for easy access by amphibians and marginal plants.

Our guided walk in May was led by reserve officer Mike Coates at RSPB Farnham Heath. In 2003 the area had been restored by clearing over 300 acres of commercial conifer plantation. The restored heathland vegetation has now attracted back a wide variety of flora and fauna. Birds we spotted included tree pipit and woodlark, plus the distant song of a Dartford Warbler. The walk also took us to where we were fortunate to hear chirping Field Crickets, a species found in only 8 UK sites in Sussex and Hampshire. Woodlark sighting Farnham Heath

Woodlark sighting Farnham Heath

Gatekeeper on marjoram

Sunny weather was excellent for the ‘drop-in’ day in July at the wildlife pond area. During the day we saw 15 species of butterfly including Marbled White, Gatekeeper and Comma. The mesmerising airial displays of dragonflies and damselflies over the pond are always a delight to witness, with 8 species recorded such as Broad-bodied Chaser, Banded Demoiselle and Small Red-eyed Damselfly. The wildflower meadow surrounding the

pond also hosts a variety of hoverflies, bees, ladybirds and beetles.

Old Winchester Hill NNR provided our walk in early August and did not disappoint with wonderful views, wildflowers and butterflies. The south slope had numerous Chalkhill Blue butterflies flitting over the hot vegetation among their caterpillar foodplant Horseshoe Vetch. We spotted the delicate flowers of the rare Round-headed Rampion growing in the poor chalky soil along with species such as Harebell, Squinancywort and Small Scabious. Well worth a visit at any time of the year, we enjoyed some of the best of Hampshire’s countryside.

Round-headed Rampion

Community involvement:

Last November 2 new wild cherry trees were planted on Froyle recreation ground adding to the 6 trees planted previously. This was done by two families with children. Although the 8 trees were mulched, this summer’s drought necessitated watering on four occasions with volunteers having to carry watering cans.

Tree planting on Froyle rec. Nov 2021

New cedar log seat from fallen tree

A local landmark on a hilltop field in Froyle was the Cedar of Lebanon that stood there for over 150 years as a sentinel tree. The cedar fell during gales in 2020 and an 8ft long section of trunk was kindly donated by Belport in April 2022. Froyle Wildlife arranged for a local chainsaw artist to carve out a wonderful new seat from

the log. A grant from East Hampshire District Council covered our costs for this community project.

We commissioned the design of an illustrated trifold leaflet with information and photographs about Froyle Wildlife and local flora and fauna. The colourful leaflet will be delivered to all households in Froyle.

In Spring we trimmed the willow dome and sowed an area of cornfield annuals on Froyle recreation ground. The annuals flowered well in early summer despite the drought with corn marigolds, cornflowers, corn camomile and poppies. In July the adjacent perennial wildflower plot had its annual cut and rake up as part of the maintenance plan. Many locals enjoyed seeing the colourful wildflowers and using the willow dome, created by 17 volunteers involved for 98 hours work.

Ground prepared for annuals on rec. April 2022 Thinning bulrush Froyle Park Pond 2022

Managing the wildflower meadow surrounding Froyle Park Pond has involved volunteers for 118 hours of hands on work to maintain the habitat. With this effort, the wildflowers have thrived and the pond continues to support breeding amphibians, dragonflies and damselflies. Work included removing perennial weeds; cutting paths to enable access for visitors; and removing excess pond vegetation. The high number of plants, insects and amphibians that would otherwise be absent from the area is due to our management which includes selective cutting and sheep grazing in winter months.

We encourage local people to send us their wildlife sightings in Froyle with photos if possible: these included Bee Fly, Scarlet Tiger moth, Wasp Spider, Knotgrass caterpillar, Emperor Dragonfly exuvia, Slow Worm, Barn Owl and Sparrowhawk. In addition to our website www.froylewildlife.co.uk, we also publish monthly articles in the Froyle Village magazine to inform about local wildlife. We had a display of local wildlife information at the Froyle Festival last September and at the Froyle Gardens Open event in June 2022.

Display at Froyle Festival

Sparrowhawk in a Froyle garden

Species recording:

Observations have been made to record what species are present in the local area throughout the seasons. These add to the information from previous years accessible from our website http://froylewildlife.co.uk/recording/species-lists/. We have informally monitored the habitat at the wildlife pond and wildflower meadow and records now include: 17 species of dragonfly/damselfly; 4 species of amphibian; 27 species of butterfly; 103 species of moth and 115 species of flowering plants. The breeding population of Great Crested Newts continues to thrive. Records at the pond area for the first time this year include: Willow Emerald damselfly, Purple Hairstreak butterfly, Meadowsweet and Water Avens.

Willow Emerald Damselfly Water Avens near pond edge

Surveying continued this summer in Froyle’s disused quarry (SINC site), a habitat with naturally regenerating chalk grassland. Good numbers of the Small Blue butterfly that breeds there were seen as well as other species.

Flora recording in May 2022 around Froyle was led by botanist Isobel Girvan. This joint project with Alton Natural History Society recording plant species in Froyle started in 2021 as an update to a previous survey in 1991. The list of 89 flora seen on the day included Yellow Archangel, Hairy St. John’s-wort, Beaked Hawk’s-beard and White Helleborine (a wild orchid).

We ran a moth lamp twice at the meadow surrounding the wildlife pond near Gid Lane, Upper Froyle. The first evening in June recorded 15 species under a clear cold sky. The second in July 2022 with ideal weather conditions recorded an amazing 68 species under overcast sky with a temperature of 21°C at midnight. These included the colourful Elephant Hawk-moth and our largest British species the Privet Hawk-moth. Hardly any of the hundreds of individual moths attracted would be seen in daylight. Elephant Hawk-moth July 2022

Elephant Hawk-moth July 2022

4. Financial performance

Froyle Wildlife’s opening funds were £1,511 of which £90 were restricted to use in the development, maintenance and upkeep of the pond. During the year it received grants of £850, of which £500 were to help with funding its general activities and £350 were to fund the creation of a bench from the trunk of a fallen cedar tree. As a result of a continued lower level of activity following the Covid-19 pandemic, overall there was a surplus of expenditure over income of £141 (an improvement over the previous year’s deficit of £747). Closing funds were £1,370, none of which are restricted. Froyle Wildlife has no debts.

The trustees manage Froyle Wildlife to allow the purchase of essential items of equipment or consumables to enable it to carry on its conservation activities, and aim to maintain a small positive cash balance as working capital to enable the production of local events. The subscription amount is set at a level to meet these objectives: the trustees do not consider it is necessary or appropriate to generate significant reserves to be held by the charity.

Other matters

Froyle Wildlife holds no funds as custodian trustee, and has not taken advantage of any exemptions from disclosure.

FROYLE WILDLIFE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2022

Income & expenditure statement

Year ended 31 August 2022 General Restricted Total funds funds funds £ £ £ 850.00 850.00 370.00 370.00 42.23 42.23 77.00 77.00 3.00 3.00 1,342.23 - 1,342.23 350.00 350.00 109.98 109.98 30.00 30.00 28.78 28.78 44.95 44.95 180.00 180.00 376.41 376.41 133.66 133.66 81.47 81.47 23.95 123.99 147.94 - 1,359.20 123.99 1,483.19 (£16.97) (£123.99) (£140.96)	Year ended 31 August 2022 General Restricted Total funds funds funds £ £ £ 850.00 850.00 370.00 370.00 42.23 42.23 77.00 77.00 3.00 3.00 1,342.23 - 1,342.23 350.00 350.00 109.98 109.98 30.00 30.00 28.78 28.78 44.95 44.95 180.00 180.00 376.41 376.41 133.66 133.66 81.47 81.47 23.95 123.99 147.94 - 1,359.20 123.99 1,483.19 (£16.97) (£123.99) (£140.96)	Year ended 31 August 2021 General Restricted Total funds funds funds £ £ £ 366.00 366.00 45.00 45.00 - 20.00 20.00 431.00 - 431.00	Year ended 31 August 2021 General Restricted Total funds funds funds £ £ £ 366.00 366.00 45.00 45.00 - 20.00 20.00 431.00 - 431.00	Year ended 31 August 2021 General Restricted Total funds funds funds £ £ £ 366.00 366.00 45.00 45.00 - 20.00 20.00 431.00 - 431.00
				431.00
350.00 109.98 30.00 28.78 44.95 180.00 376.41 133.66 81.47 23.95 1,359.20	123.99 123.99	423.12 - 57.56 - 225.00 7.04 95.96 32.50 - 313.76 1,154.94	22.94 22.94	423.12 - 57.56 - 225.00 7.04 95.96 32.50 - 336.70
				1,177.88
(£16.97)	(£123.99)	(£723.94)	(£22.94)	(£746.88)

FROYLE WILDLIFE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2022

Balance sheet at 31 August 2022

Current assets Cash at bank Petty cash Net current assets TOTAL FUNDS Represented by: Capital introduced Opening reserves Surplus/(deficit) Closing reserves Transfer to general fund TOTAL FUNDS	31 August 2022 £ £ General Restricted funds funds 1,182.72 187.72 1,370.44 - £1,370.44 - 53.50 1,367.97 89.93 (16.97) (123.99) 1,351.00 (34.06) (34.06) 34.06 1,316.94 - £1,370.44 -	31 August 2022 £ £ General Restricted funds funds 1,182.72 187.72 1,370.44 - £1,370.44 - 53.50 1,367.97 89.93 (16.97) (123.99) 1,351.00 (34.06) (34.06) 34.06 1,316.94 - £1,370.44 -	£ Total funds 1,182.72 187.72 1,370.44 £1,370.44 53.50 1,457.90 (140.96) 1,316.94 1,316.94 £1,370.44	31 August 2021 £ £ General Restricted funds funds 1,349.97 89.93 71.50 1,421.47 89.93 £1,421.47 £89.93 53.50 2,091.91 112.87 (723.94) (22.94) 1,367.97 89.93 £1,421.47 £89.93	£ Total funds 1,439.90 71.50
					1,511.40
					£1,511.40
					53.50
					2,204.78 (746.88)
					1,457.90
					£1,511.40
		- -

Approved on behalf of the Committee by:

Barry Clark

Jonathan Pickering

Date: 4 September 2022

FROYLE WILDLIFE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2022

Froyle Wildlife is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (no.1171997) formed to take over the activities of Froyle Nature Conservation Group (FNCG).
The accounts cover the year ended 31 August 2022.
The accounts have been prepared on a Receipts and Payments basis, as agreed by the Trustees.
The restricted funds represented the balance of grants from East Hampshire District Council for the creation of a wildlife pond on the Froyle Park Estate remaining after the expenditure incurred to date. During the year the remaining funds were used for maintenance, upkeep and improvement of the wildlife pond. All pond-related activities have been treated as on capital account.
In accordance with recommended practice, the gross income and expenditure for various ancillary activities have been shown in the accounts, rather than the net figures, which are as follows:

been shown in the accounts, rather than the net	figures, which are as follows:
	Refreshments
	£
Receipts	77.00
Cost of sales	(44.95)
Net proceeds	£32.05

All the fixed assets acquired from FNCG were written off in the previous year. In line with the Receipts and Payments basis of accounting, acquisitions of fixed assets in the future will be written off on acquisition.

7. Fixed assets

31 August 2022 £ £ £ General Restricted Total Cost funds funds funds Opening balance Acquisitions Closing balance Depreciation Opening balance Charge for year Closing balance Opening net book value Closing net book value	31 August 2021 £ £ General Restricted funds funds 1,070.00 989.85 1,070.00 989.85 756.24 966.91 313.76 22.94 1,070.00 989.85 313.76 22.94 - -	£ Total funds 2,059.85 - 2,059.85 1,723.15 336.70 2,059.85 336.70 -