Wild orchids grew on Admiral's field at Keppels prior to culvert filling

Holistic Fraternity website is from almost two decades ago, given to me free for life by Freenetname, who no longer exist. They were bought out by Madasafish and then Plusnet. Plusnet have honoured my original agreement which is a credit to them in this age of mundane materialism.

In the near future we will be bringing you information about holistic healing and living. If you have anything relevant that you'd like including, please direct any enquiries to saparonia at gmail c o m - and in the Subject line please enter the words "Holistic and Listing"

The website was originally started to help to save an Island of Ancient Woodland and an Ancient Monument in Scholes Coppice, Rotherham UK. The woodland was originally ancient Woodland but trees were introduced used for coppicing and there was also a plantation of rasberry bushes at the bottom. These have mainly disappeared. Drainage culverts were installed effectively after the uphill area now called "Admiral's field" was cleared of trees and surface mined for coal shale by prisoners of war between the 1930's-1950's. Later, in 1998, these culverts were filled with pea gravel to redirect the stream when adjacent areas of green belt land were selected for development. A stream fed by the culverts originally ran through the wood and into the green belt land around Scholes and Thorpe Hesley. Before Admiral's field was mined it was part of the original Ancient Woodland as shown on the maps below

Recent filling of the culverts caused standing water and subsequent waterlogging and seepage in all downhill areas. The village of Scholes no longer has a cricket field. The original stream fed by culverts, engineered and controlled to bypass the earthwork and fed a wetland area at the bottom of the wood. This has dried up completely and the current wetland area is at the top of the hill on Admiral's field. The result of uncontrolled run-off downhill into the woodland and earthwork damages trees and erodes into new paths directly to the Ancient Momument.

I was informed by council managers and others during our meetings in the woods, that those trees which had been introduced into the Ancient Woodland, such as Beech, were going to be gradually phased out and the native trees encouraged. However, to remove any more mature trees in the wood below would cause increase in the waterlogging of young trees. The more obvious solution is to take out the pea gravel from the culverts as the original drainage system had worked from the time that the area was surface mined. Previous to the first clearing, large indigenous trees pumped the water out The Chestnuts planted on the Earthwork should be cut and the roots left in situ to prevent further damage and disturbance to the double ditches and central table.

Together with parallel campaigning in the villages of Thorpe Hesley and Scholes against the proposed development of green belt land, this website attracted attention of various bodies who were alerted to the need for the woodlands to be protected. The Ancient Woodland and therefore the earthwork, Caeser's Camp, is now under the care of English Heritage. This includes the estate which borders onto Scholes Coppice and the very large stately home previously of the Fitzwilliam family, Wentworth House.

The preservation of the area was the sole reason for beginning my website and I feel that it was successful. I feel that we encouraged the awareness of the intrinsic value of our natural surroundings. Sadly, a very rare wild orchid seems to have disappeared completely due to waterlogging, mowing and introduction of heather and Highland Cattle. On a brighter note, there was one possible sighting of a Pine Marten!

This domain is going to be gradually developed now to encompass a wider spectrum of holistic living. This is going to take some time and won't happen overnight as this is my hobby, not my occupation.