Volunteer voices

Harry Green has been involved with the Trust from the beginning. He joined the Trust’s Council in 1969, served as its Chairman from 1983 to 1993 and is still an extremely active Council member, involved in every aspect of the Trust’s work.

Rita Armstrong has raised an amazing amount of money for the Trust from running stalls at local events for nearly 30 years. Rita joined the Trust in the early 1980s after seeing an advert for her local group in the Wyre Forest. Soon after joining, she took on the sales role and spent many hours - in all weathers - selling Trust items and promoting the cause.

Peter Doncaster grew up at the Knapp, which was donated by his parents Hugh and Shiva Doncaster to the Trust in 1968. It was the perfect place to grow up with a garden and orchard bordering the stream, and woods and meadows beyond, now all part of The Knapp and Papermill nature reserve.

Chris Doncaster took her children along to Wyre Forest Watch group in the early 90s and never left! When Rosemary Winnall stood down, Chris became the group leader and has been in charge ever since. She also runs other environmental courses for the Trust, working with both children to adults.

John Mcgregor Smith joined the Trust in the late seventies when his wife Jennie was working as the first administrative assistant. For four decades John has been bird watching at Upton Warren and still goes every fortnight with a friend. He lists avocets, water rail, Cetti warblers and red kites as his favourite sightings.

Jennie Mcgregor Smith was the Trust’s second member of staff. In 1976 she was employed as a part time Administrative Assistant, joining the Trust’s only other paid person, Conservation Officer Andrew Fraser. Their first offices were in ‘a shed’ at Avoncroft Arts in Bromsgrove.

Brian Boaler was the first minute secretary of the Worcestershire Nature Conservation Trust and witnessed the signing of the document that created the Trust in March 1968. At the time he was a Forest Officer for Redditch Development Corporation and he and his wife Brenda were active volunteers at Ipsley Alders Marsh nature reserve.

Ray Bishop has been volunteering for the Trust for more than 40 years.  He first got involved with the Marsh Warbler Group in the 1970s. In 1976 he joined the newly formed Malvern Local Group, later serving as its chairman for 17 years.

From an early age, Ray discovered two major passions in life; nature and art. He’s put both to good effect for the Trust, creating hundreds of wildlife illustrations for newsletters, posters and publications.

Tessa Carrick’s contribution to the Trust has been enormous. She has been volunteering for 40 years, originally in education and more recently as a trustee.  A science teacher by training, Tessa has helped out with everything from Wildlife Watch  groups to adult education courses. She’s shaped policy, written books and played key roles in purchasing nature reserves and developing Lower Smite Farm.

Amongst many claims to fame, Tessa has been interviewed by a toad on live TV and has had a pond named after her.

Bob Gillmor moved to Pershore from London in the mid 1980s and soon discovered Tiddesley Wood. This led to a 30 year involvement with the Trust, firstly as a hands-on volunteer on work parties - scrub bashing, making fires and planting trees - and then as a trustee.

Jenny is married to Harry Green, who has been at the heart of the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust for the past 50 years.

Cecil Lambourne ran a successful metal-working business in Birmingham making things like buckles and clips. His real passion was ornithology and he was a member of several local bird and wildlife groups. He was also one of our founding members, enabling the ‘Worcestershire Nature Conservation Trust' to break away from the West Midlands Trust for Nature Conservation in 1968.

Christopher Cadbury was not only one of our founding members but also instrumental in creating the organisation that became the national Wildlife Trusts. He was a dedicated conservationist, a man of vision and energy, able and willing to pull strings, and exceedingly generous with his time and money.  The lodge building to Christopher’s home at Beaconwood became the Trust’s offices in our early days.

Norman Hickin was one of the original founders of the Trust and a world expert on the caddisfly. He trained as an entomologist and worked for Rentokil but liked to spend his spare time in his cottage in the Wyre Forest, exploring, investigating, drawing and collecting things. He was a great supporter of the Trust for many years.

Gordon Simmons was one of the Trust’s earliest members. His daughter Fiona describes him as a ‘committed naturalist’ with enthusiasm for everything to do with nature. His particular area of expertise within the Trust was education. He taught trainee teachers at the Worcester College of Higher Education and often took his students to the Trust’s nature reserve at The Knapp and Papermill, giving many a lifelong love of nature.

Bill Wells was a salesman at Cadbury’s and despite living quite a long way away, he was persuaded by Christopher Cadbury to join the Worcestershire trust in its very early days. His daughter Deborah says Bill was a great organiser and remained very proud of his association with the Trust.

Garth Lowe grew up opposite one of the Trust’s first nature reserves, The Knapp and Papermill. In those days, Knapp House and orchards were owned by the Doncaster family and Garth spent many hours exploring the woods and meadows with the Doncaster children. In 1968 Hugh and Shiva Doncaster gave the Knapp to the Trust and in the 1970s Garth was appointed volunteer warden.

Gordon Forrest became a member of the Trust in the mid 1970s and has been an active volunteer and supporter for the last 40 years. From childhood Gordon always had an interest in wildlife and photography and he has shared his enthusiasm and knowledge generously through talks and publications; he’s written eight books.

Geoff Trevis has spent the last four decades devoting his free time to the Trust. He’s done a lot of everything from working on reserves to visiting schools, sitting on committees, talking to farmers, representing the Trust at national level and managing the Trust’s nature reserve Feckenham Wylde Moor. 

One of the things Geoff is most proud of is saving Worcestershire Biological Records Centre, an organisation set up to collect data on the county’s wildlife. Geoff rescued WBRC from the back room of a charity shop and brought it into the Trust’s fold.

After 40 years of volunteering for the Trust, Geoff is still busy. Currently he’s creating an atlas on Worcestershire’s bumblebees.

John Hodson has been part of the Trust since the 1970s when he joined the group monitoring Marsh Warblers on the River Avon. A decade later John took on the job of supervisor of the young people on the Community Programme, a government scheme to give people paid work experience.

John is still supervising volunteers three decades later, doing practical conservation work at many of the Trust’s reserves every week.

Oli Goldfinch has had several roles at the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust. When he first retired from teaching, he took on running craft fairs for several years, helping raise much-needed funds for the Trust. Then he moved on to birdfood sales, running this operation for nine years.

These days Oli can be found twice a week on the reception desk at Lower Smite Farm. He loves his role and says it’s the last thing he’ll give up.

Brett Westwood has had a long association with the Trust, both as a volunteer and as a radio broadcaster. He was involved in the production of the book ‘The Nature of Worcestershire’ for the Trust’s 25^th anniversary in 1993. Throughout the 90s, Brett made regular radio reports about the Trust’s work for BBC Hereford and Worcester and more recently for Radio 4.

Andy Graham has had several posts with the Trust but his first was as the River Severn Otter Project Officer in 1995. As well as promoting the otter, improving habitats, building about 50 artificial holts and working with land owners to prevent river pollution, Andy was involved in the creation of a new reserve for otters on the River Avon.

Mike Williams’ primary interest is butterflies and he set up the West Midlands branch of the charity Butterfly Conservation.

Linda Butler joined the Trust in the early 1980s after going bird watching at Upton Warren. However, it was her professional skills (as a librarian) that brought her onto committees and Council, where she worked tirelessly for years on the structure and governance of the Trust and on recruitment and membership.

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Linda became our Chairman in 2008 and has represented the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust at national level in many ways, including on the board of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts.

Neil Devey spent most Sundays between 1981 and 2014 doing practical work on nature reserves around Worcestershire. He was part of a group called the Worcestershire Conservation Volunteers set up by the Trust in the mid 1970s but run as a separate entity. Tasks involved coppicing, tree felling, hedge laying, building stiles and clearing paths.

Mary Bendall volunteers with Wyre Forest Watch group. She got involved after taking her own children there many years ago and being inspired by the hands on approach. As well as being a Watch leader, Mary is also involved in other aspects of environmental education with the Trust, including school sessions at Lower Smite Farm.

Emma Wurmli is our Volunteer Development Officer but like many other members of staff, she started with us as a volunteer.  After moving to Worcester from the southwest, and with a background in environmental education, Emma jumped at the chance to get involved with the Worcester Wildlife Watch group based at Lower Smite Farm.

There can’t be many volunteers like Poppy. She has been involved with Worcestershire Wildlife Trust all her life, greatly influenced by her father John Baskeyfield, her neighbour John Meiklejohn and their family friend Harry Green. Poppy joined work parties as a child, did school work experience at the Trust, volunteered when a student, was an active member of the Worcester Local Group and is now a Council member.

Helen Woodman has been working at the Trust since 1991 when she joined as a Reserves Officer.

Colin Raven has been the Trust’s Director since 1995 but he joined the organisation in 1987 as Conservation Officer. In those early years, he and his wife lived at The Knapp and Papermill, where they were also reserve wardens. One of Colin’s early successes was the acquisition and move to Lower Smite Farm, a huge step up from the original HQ on the Hanbury Road.