Art activities

Last Saturday was the annual Open Day for the Chalk Pits and despite constant rain about 70 people from the parish of Buriton took part in various activities throughout the day. The parish hall had been booked in case the forecast proved correct and this made an ideal base for story telling, chalk carving, clay sculptures, coppice crafts and wildlife identification.

QECP staff, members of the Buriton Project team, and the site’s new volunteer group were all involved in running the day which was aimed at raising the profile of this small but important site.

The Chalk Pits are located on the edge of the village adjacent to the Country Park and can be reached using the Hangers Way. 

 

Clay crafts

One benefit from all the rain was the huge turnout from those creatures that enjoyed the wet weather. In total 20 different types of mollusc (slugs and snails) were found and identified on the site. This is a high total and contained the rare Cheese Snail which is found in only a few locations nationally. Other snails, all with great names included Glass, Strawberry and Garlic as well as Tree and Keeled slugs.

Two were particularly unusual both in their scarcity and in the fact that they are non-native species. The Girdled snail is from continental Europe and has been introduced to this country by accident, as was the Worm slug which was not discovered over here until 1972. The latter is normally a subterranean species, living in worm burrows, where the wet conditions had probably brought it to the surface for us to find. So clear proof that every cloud has a silver lining, at least as far as bio-diversity is concerned!

    For more information about the site and the parish of Buriton go to www.buriton.info/parish-council  For other events taking place at the Country Park see the Park Pages on www.hants.gov.uk/qecp

Rare Cheese snails

Worm slug and Girdled snail