Wildlife

Habitats: The Clough

Woodland in the Clough at Speke Hall © National Trust/Alex Muir

This woodland is a fantastic habitat for all kinds of wildlife

© National Trust/Alex Muir

This is an ancient woodland site, situated in a semicircle between the Hall and the River Mersey.

It was mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086, but has been clear-felled in the past and is now mostly sycamore with some native hardwood trees.

Trees from the Clough are said to have been used in the building of the Hall.

Habitats: Meadows

Poppies and daisies in a wildflower meadow © National Trust/Alex Muir

Our meadows are fantastic in summer

© National Trust/Alex Muir

The original farmland that surrounded the gardens and hall has been converted to wildflower and wild grass meadows, with historic field boundaries reinstated.

They contain a good variety of native grasses and herbs. This creates an excellent habitat for invertebrates, butterflies and moths, mammals and birds.

Habitats: Stockton's Wood

A path winds through the bluebell carpet at Stockton's Wood at Speke Hall © NTPL/Andrew Butler

Stockton's Wood is especially beautiful in spring at bluebell time

Part of the original Speke Hall estate, the woodland has survived nearly 600 years intact. Originally heathland, with a scattering of hardwood trees, it now contains oak, birch and sycamore trees as well as rhododendron and bracken.

The wood has a richly diverse fauna and two very rare species of beetle are found here.

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Bats

A close up view of the head of a long-eared bat © NTPL

At dusk you can see them swooping across the lawns in search of insects for dinner

© NTPL

In addition to the more usual wildlife, Speke is also home to many bats, including Daubenton's and Brown Long Eared bats. They live inside the wall of one of our storerooms and are especially noisy during the summer months when the youngsters start to grow up.

If you'd like to see this for yourself then keep your eyes out for our events programme. We usually run a few Bat Talk & Walk events every year.

 

Seen at Speke this month:

  • Huge bumblebees enjoying the blossom
  • Plenty of rabbits
  • Some very industrious blackbirds - they must be building a big nest
  • All sorts of thrushes - mistle, song and redwings to name just a few
  • Squirrels scampering around
  • Kestrels and buzzards hovering over the woods and fields

Meet the bees

Two of the Speke Hall beekeepers show off some of the award winning honey produced here. © National Trust

Our beekeepers Tom and Joanne show off our prize-winning honey

© National Trust

As part of the BBC's Bee Part Of It! campaign, which aims to tackle the problems with declining numbers of honey bees in the UK, we set up a hive of bees last year. The bees settled in so well that they produced honey straight away. It even won a prize at the National Honey Show.

The honey is sold in limited quantities in the Speke Hall shop. But, be warned, it sells out very fast. We also use it in our restaurant to make delicious honey cake.

We've introduced a second hive this year and the bees are all buzzing happily along together. Fingers crossed for another award-winning year in 2012.