We would like to thank John for the inciteful talk into how Friends of Childwall Woods and Fields are revitalizing such an important community asset at our talk in August.
John’s biography can be found below, and the FCWF website contains a worthy amount of intriguing content for those who would like further information on the works they are undertaking.
John’s Biography
The Friends of Childwall Woods have a mission to improve, protect and preserve the Childwall Woods Local Nature Reserve for today’s and future generations. In existence for several decades the people in our group may have changed over the years but our values have not.
Childwall Woods has remained largely unchanged since they were planted in the 1700s, however, through the years the name has changed as have their owners. The woods were originally the grounds of Childwall Hall the seat of a wealthy landowner and were known as The Grounds. The owners of the hall owned vast amounts of land and planted much of it as woodlands, some of it still existing today as Childwall Woods and the Black Woods.
An article from the Liverpool Echo in 1967 reports the planting of the commemorative tree to mark the opening of the woods to the public. The article states that Lord Cranborne, the grandson of the Marquis of Salisbury, the original owners, was there at the opening.
The tree was given to the Liverpool corporation by Mr George Mellor, who was the Chairman of the Childwall Woods Preservation Society. This certainly sounds like a forerunner of the Friends of Childwall Woods and Fields. Fast forward to the current day and our Local Nature Reserve is continuing to demonstrate its ecological value as the trustees and members identify and catalogue a significant number of species; some unique and rare.
Understanding its importance for people and nature the group set out their ambition to tame the overgrowth, make the paths passible and give nature a helping hand.
In 2019 the group were successful in obtaining funding of £93,000 to improve the (then) much neglected local nature reserve. As the project to complete the works comes to an end, the journey to deliver the improvements can be told.
John McCombs is the chair of FCWF and a trustee of several other charities and not for profit groups.
John is a local resident and very active within the community. John is an early retired central government project manager who has delivered projects with a value of several £100m.
Leave a Reply