Memories, maintenance and a bit of misbehaving!
Meet Neil Belton, Centre Maintenance Volunteer
Having lived in the area my entire life, the Wittenham Clumps have always been a familiar landscape feature and visiting them as a child, a parent and now grandfather has been a regular, enjoyable pastime, usually involving the walking of a dog.
My father worked for Hedges Farm in South Moreton and to earn extra money in late summer he helped in the gathering of crops on the land which now surrounds Earth Trust. His job entailed driving a lorry alongside the combine harvesters whilst the corn was being discharged. The harvest usually took a week to get in, with three combines working in tandem. Usually, the grain was taken back to South Moreton to be stored in silos but it was kept on Earth Trust land too, in a barn we now use as a workshop, appropriately named ‘the old grain store’.
During my teenage years I often joined the Hedges Boxing Day shoot too, working as a beater, and I remember returning to the farm to enjoy soup, tea and cake and more importantly mingling with some of their celebrity friends, to name two – Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill.
In the early 80s I began working for Oxford Instruments, a company owned and run by the late Sir Martin Woods. He and his wife Audrey purchased Little Wittenham Woods for their disabled son to enjoy. Through Sir Martin’s involvement paths were quickly established allowing pedestrian and wheelchair access.
Those paths are still there today, maintained by the land management team of rangers and volunteers at Earth Trust, providing easy routes through the woods for the enjoyment of locals and visitors alike.
In 1982, the Wood family established a charity to care for the site – the Northmoor Trust for Countryside Conservation – and in 1983 it acquired Wittenham Clumps, and the first school visits to these beautiful green spaces around Little Wittenham began soon after. (The charity was rebranded to Earth Trust in 2011.)
My children loved school trips to Wittenham Clumps, building wooden dens, creating small habitats for bugs and generally running wild.
In 2003/4 I was lucky enough, as a volunteer, to work alongside the archaeologists excavating around Castle Hill.
The work was carried out by a team of amateur archaeologists and community volunteers, overseen by Oxford Archaeology.
Geophysics provided information that there was an earlier fortification on the hill, before the still-visible Iron Age hill fort, and it suggested there were various concealed pits, buildings and other man-made structures .
Little did I know at the time, this would be good preparation for working at Earth Trust over twenty years later as a maintenance volunteer – digging holes and moving wheelbarrows full of spoil!!
When I retired from a career in mechanical engineering in the summer of June 2022, I began to investigate opportunities to volunteer, and my family suggested utilising my love of the outdoors and nature.
I contacted Earth Trust and spoke on the phone to Volunteer Manager Nicola. I came for an interview and began volunteering with the Centre Maintenance team in January 2023.
I now work alongside Terry, Robert, Howard and Mark, and we undertake a wide variety of tasks, to name but a few; painting, plumbing, woodwork, and my least favourites – window cleaning and grass cutting!
Working as part of a small, like minded team is enjoyable and entertaining. Although misbehaving in class by nattering instead of listening to Centre Manager Colin’s instructions for our tasks brightens my day.
Being outside in the fresh air (sometimes too fresh!) in beautiful countryside is always a bonus. Standing on the Clumps allows you to really appreciate nature; being able to see the River Thames, Days Lock, open farmland and in the distance the ancient Ridgeway. We are blessed.
