Rugby teams playing alongside butterflies, bees and thistles? Well, as our rewilding sports correspondent Angus Young relates, it just got a step closer.
A grassroots wildlife project at an amateur rugby league club in Hull is mixing nature with nurture. Volunteers at the West Hull club turned part of its home in North Road into an urban nature reserve, creating a new environmentally-friendly space in one of the city’s most deprived neighbourhoods.
The sports ground is known as Johnny Whitely Park, named in memory of the late rugby league legend. Now Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Outer Humber Officer Andrew Gibson, who has worked with club groundsmen and volunteers from the West Hull Community Hub which is based at the site, is hoping other sports clubs in the area will follow their example. He said: “This is honestly one of the best projects I have ever been involved with. We started out with a target of turning over 30 per cent of the ground to nature by 2030 and we did it within a year.”
What was once an entirely uniform grassed area now boasts a variety of different habitats. Mr Gibson explained: “At the start, we sat down with the groundsmen to work out how we could change the way the site was managed. There are two playing pitches and a training pitch but there was also a lot of additional land really doing nothing. It was all about encouraging them to try new things. Instead of cutting in straight lines like they have always done, we got them to cut more natural wavy edges to the borders and mow the areas between the pitches less often to allow wildflowers to come through.”
In addition, hedgerows are now cut less often, encouraging them to flower and fruit properly, while a woodland walk has been created at the eastern end of the site along with a meadow where grasses are allowed to grow through the summer providing a food source for insects and small mammals. “To their credit, the guys really got it, “ said Mr Gibson. “I would love to see other amateur sports clubs and schools follow their lead. I’ve already had encouraging talks with the Rugby League about rolling out what we have done here elsewhere.”
As well as the club’s groundsmen, the project has been supported by the Community Hub which opens two days a week as a social resource for people of all ages. Hub trustee Anji Gardiner said: “It all started when I was watching a game here with Johnny Whiteley’s daughter Kim and we got talking about getting a few bird boxes to put around the ground because there was so much greenery. I didn’t really know anything about birds and didn’t want to put them in the wrong place so we were pointed in Andrew’s direction. The first thing he said was: ‘I don’t do bird boxes’ but he agreed to come and see the site and we’ve never looked back. One of the first things we did together was organise a litter pick as part of the Great British Spring Clean event. The weather was horrendous but 300 people still turned up to take part. We knew then we were onto something.”
Mr Gibson said the most rewarding part of the project has been involving people who use the Community Hub as a regular meeting place. “It’s been wonderful to see what was previously just a big sports ground becoming something for all of the community to enjoy and being able to introduce nature into peoples’ lives.”
The Community Hub opens on Thursday, 10am to 3pm, and Fridays, 10am to 12.30pm, and regularly attracts around 100 people. It not only provides a place to meet and socialise but also a range of activities and free drinks and a hot meal for all attendees as well as a fortnightly advice session hosted by the city council.