Everyone is invited to the opening of the new Queen’s Jubilee Bench, sculpted by Andy O’Neill to commemorate Badock’s Wood being awarded the Queen’s Green Canopy Woodland in 2022.
The Bench will be formally opened by Mrs Peaches Golding OBE CStJ, His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Bristol, at 3:30 p.m. on Badock’s Wood meadows. Nearest entrance, Northern Gateway, Doncaster Road by BS10 5PU.
This bench was commissioned by Friends of Badock’s Wood in celebration of the award of Queen’s Green Canopy in 2022, one of only 70 Woodlands to receive this accolade during Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee year. Badock’s Wood is an ancient woodland which has been growing here for hundreds of years, alongside the River Trym, cared for and loved by the local community.
The new bench has been funded by donations from members of the Friends of Badock’s Wood and funds left over from a previous grant for benches for the nature reserve. We are very grateful to everyone who has donated towards this project over the past few years.
Also in March 2023, Bristol’s One Tree Per Child Team, ably assisted by children from Badock’s Wood Academy’s Nature Club, planted over 80 native trees and a commemorative oak (near the new bench site). These now form part of the Queen’s Green Canopy and Mrs Golding is looking forward to meeting some of the children who planted the trees when she opens the bench.
The new bench includes sculptures of important species for the wood including a depiction of a sparrowhawk (designed by local wildlife artist Nik Pollard) alongside bluebell, native woodland leaves and other beloved species of the woodland.
For more information contact Frances Robertson, Secretary, Friends of Badock’s Wood
email: fobwsecretary@yahoo.co.uk, tel: 07939 143 785.
