Dear Friends
Welcome to this new feature on the christleton4 website. As I am very busy writing and preparing several new books for the Village, I’ve decided to combine the separate Christleton History, and Wildlife files of the past four years, into one new feature, Christleton Today. This new page will allow me to include Village events, occasions and happenings, as well as the wildlife seen in the featured month.

In this January edition you can view some of the damage done by winter storms, in particular the major trees which came down in the village earlier this month in storm E’owyn. There were extremely powerful winds in this storm which wrought havoc with many mature trees. In the case of the mature tree which came down in Pepper Street, a tree probably over 200 years old. The damage to the walls and garden at Stoneydale was immense, and the removal afterwards caused many problems, as can be seen from the images below. Winds of over 45mph were also recorded in the area on the 24th January during storm Herminia, and I’m sure there were gusts more powerful than that, as full wheelie bins were being blown across the road/streets like confetti, and many were rescued from being hazards to traffic. Thankfully on this occasion, fewer trees were affected, although one or two conifers seem to have succumbed. Our rainfall in January is already approaching 125mm (5inches) and the Pit at Littleheath has topped up again, with the overflow water draining into the ditch on Bricky Lane. Despite the bad weather, we have had some sunny periods and I hope you enjoy seeing the colourful pictures taken at the Pit and on the Playing Fields, especially the ones with the rainbow, as well as those along the canal near Quarry Bridge during the ice and snow.

The main wildlife sighting this month has been the great white egret, pictured in last month’s wildlife watch, and I’m also pleased to include in this edition the picture of the kingfisher at Rowton taken by Graham Elwell. Kingfisher/s are currently being seen daily on the canal between Christleton and Waverton, so keep your eyes open for that magical flash of metallic blue. The Big Garden Bird watch took place last weekend, and I’m pleased to report that many friends and ourselves, have seen large parties of long tailed tits regularly in our gardens. Up to twelve in our case at Croft Close. In addition to the usual blue and great tits, we’ve had parties of starlings, house sparrows, a couple of robins and dunnocks, and a superb song thrush. There have also been reports about song thrushes being seen in the village, a really welcome development. The wintering thrushes, both redwings and fieldfare have been fewer in number this winter, but a small number of both species were spotted flying over the village on the Big Garden Bird Watch weekend. Earlier today I saw a lone kestrel on a telephone wire, and a Little Egret on a flooded field near Walk Mill, whilst a party of colourful lapwings sparkled in the winter sun, flying off this now almost permanent lake, just beyond the White Bridge over the Gowy. Several friends have also reported seeing parties of goldfinches in their gardens in Christleton this month, and a treecreeper and a pair of nuthatches were seen a week ago in a garden on Quarry Lane.

Finally this month, I’m able to report the discovery of yet another wildboar symbol, the signature/calling card of the twentieth Legion, XX VV. This time on a website for Hadrian’s Wall I was searching. Many of you will know that following the discovery of a stone carving of a wild boar in the village several years ago now, I’ve been carrying out my own research, to try to discover the story of the Twentieth Legion, during their almost 380 years of service in the UK. My research has taken me from Colchester in the south east of England to Perth in Scotland, and many places in between. Thanks to their use of a carving or stamp of a wildboar, or the signature XXVV, on bricks and tiles which recorded their presence at a particular site, I have been able to create a diary of the Legions movements. This has also been helped by finding a considerable number of tombs or memorials, from across the UK, with details of Legionary soldiers, sometimes with the names their wives and children, included on them. This has enabled me to create a new presentation about the Legion which is ready for showing. I will be presenting it in the village at the end of March, in my annual fund raising talk, for Christian Aid. Full details to follow.