Reevy Mill Dam

Reevy Mill Dam, looking towards Buttershaw High SchoolReevy Mill Dam, looking towards Buttershaw High SchoolBEES manage this small wildlife space, adjacent to Wibsey Park, on behalf of the Council. Our main responsibilities are to keep the pathway open and remove litter. The grassland is managed to encourage wildflowers and the trees and shrubs are planted to attract wildlife.

The site, which is mainly a large mill pond with nesting coots, moorhens and Canadian Geese, is popular with local fishermen.

In June 2007 the Environment Agency carried out a brief survey of the pond. View the survey results

 
Geolocation

53.765227, -1.790428

Conservation Work

Reevy Mill

Reevy Mill Dam, Buttershaw

Captain Brass took able charge of the boat again today. Together with the enthusiastic assistance of David they managed to retrieve the accumulated litter from the water whilst others worked around the edge and in the grassy areas. Thanks to the Clean Team for collecting the rubbish.

We also cut and raked the grass, to benefit the wildflowers and cut back branches around the pathway.

8 volunteers

Friday 12th October 2012: Reevy Mill Dam, Reevy Road, Buttershaw, Bradford, BD6

The task today was mainly to cut and rake off the grass areas of the site. This will allow the grasses and wildflowers a chance to grow again next year and provide useful habitat for the insects and birds that visit the site. The grass was cut with the autoscythe and then raked off with hay rakes and taken to site edges with pitch forks. We also organised the boat to be on site and this gave us a chance to clear litter from the reeds around the edges of the pond. Two brave and willing souls braved the vessel and the elements and set off for the unknown. The journey revealed a surprising amount of debris like shed panels and footballs, which had to be carefully manoeuvred to get out of the water. Another job that we undertook was cutting back of the overhanging braches along the roadside. At the end of the day the site was looking very different to when we started.

Today we worked with 8 volunteers.

Click here to see other photos of the day.

Friday 3rd Oct: Reevy Mill Dam, Reevy Avenue, Buttershaw

thanks to Tim Speed for photo Photo: T.Speed 3 Oct 08 Reevy Mill Dam 1 2 3 4 5

This is the annual cut of the grassland, plus clean out of the pond using the BEES boat in the pond to reach the parts of the pond that we cannot reach from the banks and general path maintenance.

Reevy Mill Dam is a former mill pond located in Buttershaw where Reevy Road and Reevy Avenue meet. It is now owned by the Council and managed for the benefit of people and wildlife by BEES.

6 volunteers and 2 members of staff were involved in todays task and we carried out the annual cut of the meadow area. The grass and wildflowers are allowed to grow throughout the year to provide a habitat for animals like frogs and provide food for insects like butterflies. The grass is then cut and raked in a similar method to hay meadow management the same plants will grow again because they have sown seed and the soil fertility kept as they require:

Plus litter picking over the whole site and excitingly we sailed the BEES rowing boat (named HMS Litter Picker) and collected refuse that had been stuck in the reeds for a long time.

The site looked much improved at the end of the task and this was commented on by one of the neighbours. We are grateful to the Council's Clean Team who took away all the refuse we collected namely 15 bin bags of litter, various road signs, a chair, fire extinguishers and road barriers.

Thanks to everyone that took part.

Friday 23rd October 2009: Reevy Mill Dam, Reevy Road, Wibsey, BD6

Friday 23rd October 2009: Fishing for litterFishing for litter

 Today we once again combined with the Prince's Trust team, which gave us a good number of people on site. This meant that we were able to take the boat on to the pond to carry out some much needed litter clearance around the edges. It seems that not only was there litter that had been blown into the pond by the wind but we removed road signs and toys that must of been trown in. We also managed to get a good amount of the resurfacing work completed and was pleased with the result after the wacker plate had been driven over. 

Today we worked with 22 volunteers. 

Other photos of the day and the site can be viewed by clicking here. 

Friday 20th September 2013 Reevy Mill Dam, Reevy Road, Bradford, BD6

We were joined by a group of employees from Santander. This was a good thing as we had to cut the meadow areas by hand using our scythes and sickles. But the group was not overawed in fact the Santander employees enthused about not having to answer a phone all day. The majority of the people on site were either; cutting, raking, stacking or mowing the vegetation for the day and we disturbed many frogs from the grass, they will be able to find more shelter in the remaining long grass. We took the boat as well and were able to collect the litter, other general rubbish and fishing line that had made its way into the pond over the year since we last did it. Putting on the waders it was possible to clear the litter from the edges too. The Moorhens and Cotes will be grateful not to share their home with so much rubbish in future. The path edges and the perimeter hedges were given a cut back and this will make it easier to move around the site.
A very worthwhile day, that has prepared the site for the forthcoming months and our thanks to the Santander employees for their help.

Today we worked with 20 volunteers.

Click here to see other photos of the day.  

Fri 3rd April 09 Reevy Mill Dam, Reevy Road, Buttershaw

Pround bench installersProud bench installersWe have installed two new benches at the site. We chose to use recycled plastic and they feel very appropriate. We placed one at the head of the pond in a space that once housed a bench, but it disappeared long ago. We also replaced the rotten bench near the park. The final bench will be replaced later in the spring.

We also began to repair the path around the mill pond. This involved slicing the turf off the path surface to widen the path to about 1.2m. It had become so overgrown that it restricted anybody with limited mobility from using the footpath safely. We were joined by students from Buttershaw School, who worked hard to clear the path and to help with the bench installation.

There were six volunteers today. We started off in thick fog but by the end of the day we were in lovely sunshine, reflecting our satisfaction with the completed task.

View more photos in the gallery

Friday 4th Sept: Reevy Mill Dam, Reevy Road, Wibsey

Reevy Mill DamReevy Mill DamThe day was spent cutting the grass and nettle areas and continuing to clear the path. We also had to remove some damaged tree branches.

Eleven volunteers worked today with a mixture of traditional hand tools - the scythes, sickles and hay rakes - and the auto-scythe with allows efficient cutting at the base of the vegetation.

We normally take our boat to the dam at this time of year to collect litter in the reeds, however today we focused on the waters edge and grassland. Several passers-by commented on the reduction for litter for the site.We appreciate the support of the Clean Team who collected the bulky waste.

Friday 14th May 2010: Reevy Mill Dam, Reevy Road, Wibsey, BD6

Canada Geese with goslingsCanada Geese with goslingsToday’s visit concentrated on meadow management, this involved cutting some of the grass areas that are likely to be used by the public to keep the site accessible, while leaving other areas to grow long and allow the wildflowers to bloom. This will provide nectar for insects including butterflies during the summer. The site has benefited from regular litter collections but we still managed to collect a number of fly tipped items and general litter. After some further general maintenance we found ourselves in the unusaul position of completing our work. This gave us the opportunity to split into two groups one to visit Brackenhill to check the bridge and the other to visit BEES UNR to check on and remove the giant hogweed.

Today we worked with 12 volunteers

Click here and here to other photos of the day