Tom's in charge of one of trust's flagship sites (From Cotswold Journal)

Tom's in charge of one of trust's flagship sites

BOURTON nature warden Tom Beasley Suffolk is not unaccustomed to cameras - in his previous job at a park near Pinewood Studios often used as a location for James Bond and Harry Potter movies as well as fashion shoots, he provided expert assistance for the film crews.

"If a tree got in the way of a shot we had to make sure they didn't chop it down," explained Tom. "We got used to looking after them and helping them get around problems."

But finding himself at the other end of the lens out on the Greystones Farm was something of a novelty.

It was nothing that agricultural college graduate Tom, whose parents live at Cropthorne, Evesham, couldn't handle. He has been at Bourton for eight months and has to turn his hand to many jobs as warden of the farm, which is one of Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust's three flagship sites.

Unlike most of the Cotswolds, the land here is an ancient marsh with a dark, peaty soil which encourages the growth of plants not found elsewhere in the county. These include the rare, early marsh orchid and southern marsh orchid, cuckooflower and marsh valerian.

Also indicative of the site's Neolithic, 6,000-year history, it boasts the remains of an ancient hillfort, a scheduled monument, which once had double ramparts some 50 metres apart - not that you could tell that by looking without having a lecturer or several educational degrees or a member of Channel 4's Time Team with you. Nothing of the fort remains, but there are traces of its banks and ditches.

Moles and badgers are proving to be valuable archaeological aides by unearthing old pipes and Roman pottery and tools around the old fort area.

To Tom's trained eye, or with the help of the trust's information leaflet, there was no mistaking the ancient field systems - they are long and narrow - or the rig and furrow on our walk along part of the so-called Oxfordshire Way, one of two new walks at the farm, one historic and one grassland for nature lovers.

The latter takes in an SSSI area of special scientific interest called Salmonsbury Meadows where ragged robin and great burnet flourish by the banks of the River Eye. Tom and the other trust staff are currently gathering seed from the plants here to sow on other fields, thus cultivating new flower-rich meadows and doubling the size of the SSSI area.

New growth is also being propagated from the now rare black poplars on the far side of the meadows - there are less than 400 left in the county, making the Greystones Farm poplars very important.

The area's wildlife also lends it special appeal. Badger sets are obvious even to a city girl like me, and by the sparkling river live endangered water voles and otters. Flashes of electric blue indicate damselflies, while around an ancient willow, which sounds like something from Tolkein, flit woodpeckers and blue tits.

Information points along the two new walks have been waymarked - blue arrows for meadow walks and brown for historic- and a handy leaflet also helps guide people round and provide additional information about what they are seeing. Interpretation boards will be put up in September and Tom is currently building a boardwalk around the edge of the hillfort site so the old ramparts will be more recognisable.

Local artist and staff member Sarah Rowlatt has spent much time on the site sketching and drawing the landscape, wildlife and flora and fauna, and her work can be seen on the new boards and in the colourful leaflet.

For further details on Greystones Farm, call Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust on 01452 383333 or see its website at www.gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk.