Its here! The film we have all been waiting for.....

As promised in last week’s blog update the film about our work at Fallin Bing through this All Our Stories project is now complete. The film not only covers the habitat creation work carried out at the site during the project but also has information about the history of coal mining at Fallin and includes parts of an interview with Jock Thompson who has lived in Fallin most of his life and who also worked at the coal mine.

This film is part of the legacy of the project and has been uploaded onto History Pin through YouTube for everyone to view, please take the time to watch the film and let us know your thoughts. You can watch it through History pin (http://www.historypin.com/channels/view/52077/#!photos/list/) or directly through YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzLifCIzscU).

The start of the film captures the entrance to Fallin and gives information about the All Our Stories project.

We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped in the making of the film and also to the editor Paul Gunn (TCV Natural Communities trainee)! He has done a fantastic job going through all the footage we collected throughout the project and piecing it all together to tell the story of Fallin. Without him we wouldn’t have this film!

The film has some excellent footage of pollinating insects, including the beautiful 6-spot burnet moths that were seen foraging at Fallin Bing last year.

As we come to the close of the project we will be having an event to celebrate the project and Fallin’s history towards the end of March. More information about the day will be available nearer the time. We also say a goodbye to Paul who finishes as a TCV Natural Communities trainee next week and a hello to Harry Woolner who will be carrying on the amazing work Paul has been doing over the last year.

Thank you Paul for all your hard work and good luck in the future!

New year, new beginnings...

Happy New Year! This is our first blog of the year and the last one was over a month ago!

The All Our Stories project at Fallin Bing is due to be completed by the end of March this year. Throughout the project, TCV Natural Communities trainee Paul Gunn has helped to organise the habitat creation days and promote the project to the local community of Fallin and surrounding area. Paul’s one year post finishes on the 21^st of January and Harry Woolner will be starting with Buglife on the 22^nd of January as a TCV Natural Communities trainee. Harry will be continuing Pauls work on this project and will be organising a final event to celebrate the history of Fallin and the work carried out during this project.

Paul has been a great help throughout this project by helping to organise the habitat creation days and promoting the project to the local community.

A major part of this All Our Stories project involves submitting a digital record that will act as a legacy for everyone to see and use. For our digital record we are submitting 20 photographs showing various activities and people that have helped out during the project and this will link back to this blog. The photographs have now been uploaded onto History Pin and can be viewed at: http://www.historypin.com/channels/view/52077/#!photos/list/

Here is one of the images that have been submitted as part of the projects digital record. It was taken during the day of scrub removal back in June last year when we were surrounded by 6-spot burnet moths and several Common blue butterflies. Melissa in the photo is from Stirling University Nature Society (SUNS) and volunteered to help clear scrub.

Paul has been working on a short 13 minute film that we will also submit as part of our digital record. The video will be available shortly and will hopefully be up on this blog by next week.

Thank you Paul for all your hard work over the last year! We definitely couldn't have done this project without you!

The calm after the storm

TCV Natural Communities trainee Paul Gunn is busy working on the digital record for the Heritage Lottery Funded All Our Stories project at Fallin Bing. As part of the digital record we have to supply either 20 photographs or a short video of the work we have been doing. For this project at Fallin, our digital record will consist of 20 photographs that show people using the site, volunteers doing habitat creation work and having fun, the stunning views from the top of the bing and also the wildlife at the site. We will also have a short 10-15 minute video showing volunteers at work on site removing scrub and creating habitat piles and shots of some of the wildlife that can be found at the site. The video will also have stories shared by members of the local community about life in the coal mine and Fallin Bing as it is today. This digital record will be shared with Heritage Lottery Fun as well as the people of Fallin and the surrounding area.

The Ochils to the north-east of Fallin have a light coating of snow on the highest peak Ben Cleuch.

This week, Paul and I aimed to get out to Fallin Bing and do some more filming at the site but with the storm that hit yesterday we weren’t sure if we would be able to do this. Amazingly today there was complete calm over the Stirling area and we went to Fallin and completed our filming. Fallin Bing looked completely untouched by the storm and there didn’t appear to be any fallen trees. Although it was absolutely freezing it was nice to see lots of people out and about walking around the bing with their dogs and friends. 

Snow covers the tops of the hills that lie to the north of Fallin as can be seen here between Stirlong castle and the Wallace Monument

This will be the last blog update of the year so I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a Happy New Year. We will return in 2014 with an update on the project which will be completed in March 2014.

Best Wishes

Suzanne Bairner

Buglife Project Officer

The colours of late autumn

Paul Gunn (TCV Natural Communities Trainee) went along to the Butterfly Conservation work day at Wester Moss yesterday. He noticed that many of the trees at Fallin Bing still had some leaves on them, especially the birch. There was a wide variety of colours present from orange to red to yellow. 

Some of the trees still have leaves on and are a variety of colours! (c) Paul Gunn

Paul noticed that there were even some flowers still out including Oxeye daisy, Ragwort and Creeping buttercup! Most of the pollinating insects will be hibernating or would have died with the start of the cold weather. Some will still be active on dry days when it can be quite warm with the sun out and these flowers will provide these pollinators with a vital food source. It certainly hasn’t been warm and dry for a few days though so I think many insects will be in hiding. 

An Oxeye daisy still in flower at Fallin Bing (c) Paul Gunn

A guest blog was written about the All Our Stories project at Fallin Bing for Readwave, check it out here: http://www.readwave.com/fallin-bing-from-coalfield-to-brownfield_s16446

 

Bing on a bog!

The bing at Fallin is the unwanted spoil from the coal mining industry and this spoil actually lies on top of a peat bog! The bog Wester Moss is a Nature Reserve and a Site of Special Scientific Interest and is just to the south of Fallin Bing. The site is owned by Stirling Council and has been established as a partnership with Butterfly Conservation and the local community of Fallin. 

A volunteer with a leaf beetle on Wester Moss (c) Suzanne Bairner

Wester Moss is a lowland raised bog and these habitats are important for a wide range of wildlife species. Lowland raised bogs are a very scarce habitat and are typically found in the wetter parts of Britain within the north and west. Nearly 90% of their former area has been lost in Scotland.

Invertebrate species of conservation concern that have been recorded at Wester Moss include the Large heath butterfly (Coenonympha tullia) and the Bog sun-jumper spider (Heliophanus dampfi). 

Bog sun-jumper spider (Heliophanus dampfi) on Wester Moss (c) Lorne Gill

The Large heath is Britain’s only bog specialist butterfly and its caterpillars can even survive short periods underwater when its foodplant, Hare’s-tail Cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum) gets submerged.

The Bog sun-jumper is a tiny spider with distinctive fluorescent green legs and mouthparts. This species has only been recorded from a handful of other sites across Britain including Flanders Moss and Ochtertyre Moss that are both near Stirling.

Other wildlife and plants recorded at Wester Moss include Emperor moths (Saturnia pavonia), Hieroglyphic ladybird (Coccinella hieroglyphica), Common lizard (Zootoca vivipara), Round leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) and the Nationally Scarce Bog-rosemary (Andromeda polifolia). 

The Hieroglyphic ladybird (Coccinella hierglyphica) (c) Steven Falks

Butterfly Conservation and Stirling Council are working to restore the bog to its former glory and work to create more ditches and to remove birch scrub is on-going. There is a habitat creation day on Saturday the 9^th of November (10am-3.30pm) and Wednesday the 13^th of November (10am-3.30pm) that everyone is welcome to attend for as little or as long as they want. For more information about the day and to book a place contact Scott Mason (Apprentice Ranger, Land Services), Stirling Council, Allan Water House, Kerse Road, Stirling, FK7 7TE, Tel:  01786 237792, E-mail: masonsc@stirling.gov.uk

For further habitat creation days at Wester Moss check out Butterfly Conservations website: http://butterfly-conservation.org/842/scotland.html

Life underground and its difficulties!

Working in a coal mine was not an easy job for anyone. Before health and safety was improved during the 1940’s life underground was fraught with danger! One wrong move could lead to broken bones, loss of limbs or even death. In 1947, the coal pit at Polmaise was nationalised and safety was vastly improved but from when it opened in 1904 till then, 35 miners had lost there life and more than this were severely injured. 

A coal miner at work underground (Image taken from Wikimedia Commons).

Most of the accidents in the pit were because of underground explosions caused by sparks coming off boring hammers which ignited any gas in the surrounding air. Another main cause of accidents was due to rock fall and this was often due to the limited amount of tools the miners would have with them that consisted of a shovel and a pick. The most important thing when working in the pit was to get the supports up to prevent rock fall and potential accidents.

With the death of a miner, many families were left without the main breadwinner and the family would be left to endure many hardships. In a small village like Fallin, neighbours, relations and friends would band together and help the family. With the change in safety laws, this improved the lives of many families as well as the community of Fallin and other nearby coal mining villages such as Plean and Cowie.

Miners waiting to head home from the coal mine (Image taken from Wikimedia Commons).

Below are only a handful of fatal accidents that happened in the early years at Polmaise Colliery pits 3 and 4 at Fallin (taken from Scottish Mining Website http://scottishmining.co.uk/352.html):

12^th February 1923- miner killed and another seriously injured at number 3 pit at Polmaise Colliery, Fallin when a large portion of the roof of one of the roads fell on them.

8^th May 1923- body of a fireman from the mine was found in the morning in number 3 pit after he went to make an inspection of the pit. On failing to return a search party was sent to look for him and he was found dead.

2^nd October 1925- fatal accident of a miner in number 3 pit when 2 tons of rock fell from the roof. The miner was pinned under the debris where he was found dead.

26^th February 1926- large stone weighing 13 cwts fell and seriously injured a miner about the head and he was taken to Stirling Royal Infirmary where he later died of his injuries.

16^th November 1928- Miner crushed by large stone at number 3 pit and was removed to Stirling Royal Infirmary where he died shortly after arrival. He was employed at Polmaise Colliery in Fallin for 21 years.

30^th August 1931- Miner dies in Stirling Royal Infirmary of internal injuries from rock fall from the roof of the mine the previous week.

1^st July 1934- Miner killed and several injured after an accident in the cages at number 3 pit after they overwound the cage. Seven men were descending the pit at the time and six were coming to the surface. The miners in the descending cage, which struck the pit bottom, were most seriously injured. The accident occurred when the afternoon shift was succeeding the day shift and miners going to their work helped carry the injured men from the pithead to the ambulance room. The joiner's shop was utilized for this purpose. The injured men were brought to the surface using number 4 shaft. Another miner later succumbed to his death.

Creating banks for bees!

Our habitat creation day at Fallin Bing on Tuesday this week was a great success with 14 volunteers from The Conservation Volunteers and the Green Gym coming along to help clear birch scrub from along the pathways and also create 2 bee banks. We were lucky as the sun was out and the rain clouds held off!

Before the area was cleared of birch scrub....

....and after.

When we arrived at site we decided to focus on clearing the birch scrub. After lunch, when the Green Gym turned up we split the group into two. Part of the group carried on with clearing scrub and the rest went to create a couple of bee banks. The banks add a topographical interest to the relatively flat slopes of the bing. They will be perfect for warmth loving invertebrate species such as ground beetles and spiders and also butterflies that like these areas for basking.

Volunteers creating the bee bank.

There was lots of wildlife out and about including Pink footed geese flying overhead. Fungi were growing up everywhere including this beautiful purple mushroom seen in the photo below.

A beautiful purple mushroom at Fallin.

This is the last of the habitat creation days this year but we will be back at Fallin next year to run some more bug walks as well as other activities- so look out for more information on the blog.