Tom Marshall
Wilder Chesterfield
Donate to help create a wilder Chesterfield nowChesterfield is a vibrant borough with a strong history. Home to one of the oldest and largest markets in the country. At the forefront of the industrial revolution, the coal fields that surround the town once supplied pioneering businesses both near and far.
The mines are long closed now, but several have been restored for nature and provide a haven for wildlife and a place for people to unwind. Chesterfield is the gateway to the Peak District, which attracts millions of tourists each year. The borough is home to innovative businesses and is investing in regeneration.
Now is the time for us to invest in nature too and grow a thriving city, a Wilder Chesterfield that is a leader in the green revolution.
Here in Chesterfield we have great parks, green spaces, and nature reserves close by like The Avenue, Carr Vale and Lineacre reservoir but we need so much more. Here's our vision so far.
And it's urgent
The last few weeks have been incredibly worrying - our Government seem set on wrecking the natural world.
Their plans to slash the laws that protect nature will lead to less space for wildlife, more sewage in our rivers and on our beaches, and even the return of fracking. This is reckless, destructive behaviour. An attack on nature is an attack on all of us.
But we are powerful in the face of this threat because we have the means to defend nature. We already are.
Will you join me, and thousands of other nature supporters across Derbyshire by taking one or both of these actions right now to defend nature in and around Chesterfield?
Quite simply, turning over land NOW into rewilding projects is one of the most effective ways to guarantee nature is protected.
Below are the details of land we want to secure in Old Whittington near Chesterfield, there are more sites we are working on that we hope to share very soon.
Learn more about the fields near Old Whittington near Chesterfield
Old Whittington fields are 60 acres of intensively farmed land, in Old Whittington to the north of Chesterfield. This humble site could be of major importance both to nature, and to the people of Chesterfield and Derbyshire. Why is that?
The fields are to the north of the town, at Old Whittington. The site stretches between two woodlands, St Bartholomew’s woods to the south and Grasscroft ancient woodlands to the north. These woods that join to Unstone and then on down into the valley of the River Drone.
Using rewilding, we plan to create a varied woodland habitat at Old Whittington fields with areas of woodland, wetlands and small open areas of grassland.
By creating more space for nature and improving habitat connectivity, the site will support a range of bird and bat species, as well as mammals such as foxes, badgers and hedgehogs. The rewilding of Old Whittington fields will bolster a vital habitat corridor in the region and support nature’s recovery in Chesterfield and the surrounding areas.
Old Whittington is just one example of the ways that Derbyshire Wildlife Trust is working to defend nature. And this is thanks to generous supporters like you.
Thank you!
What have we done with rewilding already?
Rewilding that spans a whole landscape is crucial. That is why we are investing in large-scale projects across Derbyshire that are bringing nature back.
These include Wild Peak, which is rewilding the Peak District National Park, our Derwent Forest programme which will reconnect woodlands from the National Forest in the south of the county to the Northern Forest set to be created just north of Derbyshire.
Our work on a wilder Trent just south of Derby, has seen new wetland creation and the return of beavers to Derbyshire.
Why is this work so vital?
Often, when we think of nature it is ‘over there’, on a nature reserve, in parks or the countryside. But in fact, the places right around us are just as important. Our parks, our roadsides, residential streets, and business operations. All of these have great potential to be vital homes for nature. Many already are.
Our vision for a Wilder Derbyshire is for nature to be in recovery across the county connecting existing wildlife rich spaces and growing more so that nature and residents will thrive alongside each other.
Nature is vital to our wellbeing. Being able to access nature-rich spaces on our doorstep gives all of us a lift, increasing mental resilience, and leading to better health. Children do better with wildlife around them. We all do.
Nature-rich places; wetlands, woodlands, moors and meadows; hold flood waters, and act as green lungs, cleaning the air we breathe, drawing down carbon. We will not survive without them.
Donate today to create more space for nature near Chesterfield
Beaver swimming with its head just above the water © Russell Savory
Allestree Park vision
Alan Price
Tom Marshall
The Wildlife Trusts believe that people are part of nature; everything we value ultimately comes from it and everything we do impacts upon it.