Footprints Pommy Harmar

This month's episode celebrates Bath CIty Farm.
Situated on a beautiful 37-acre site with stunning views over the city, Bath City Farm is a working farm, that’s also a much loved visitor attraction.
On the site there is a community cafe and farm shop, farm animals, children’s playground, woodland and nature trails. Entrance is free however donations are very welcome.
In this episode you will meet a varitety of farm animals with livestock coordinator Ella Holmes.
And on the way we will talk to:
Sarah Davies, Programme Lead for Mental Health
Brendan Tate-Wistreich, Director
Amy Nelson, Roots to Work Coordinator
Sarah Prettejohns, Cafe Lead Roots to Work
Luke Roberts, Horticultural Assistant
Credits
Music: Audionautix
Produced by Pommy Harmar
Links
Bath City Farm - www.bathcityfarm.org.uk
Bathscape - www.bathscape.co.uk

This episode is published on International Dawn Chorus Day which takes place on the first Sunday of May every year and this year it’s Sunday May 5th. It  is a worldwide celebration of nature's greatest symphony and in this show we want to celebrate birds in general, the birds of Bath and their incredible songs.  One of the main reasons that birds like to sing at dawn is that it’s quieter then,  the air is usually very still and birdsong has been shown to carry 20 times further at dawn. 
Remember you don't have to head out to a nature reserve, you can always just open your window - and listen.
The episode starts off very early one morning just behind Sydney gardens with expert bird listener Lucy Starling who was keen to find out whether a pair of sedge warblers had returned to nest in Bathampton meadows.
Ed Drewitt is a local naturalist, author, tour leader, birder, photographer, public speaker, bird ringer, zoologist, feather expert and he’s currently studying for a PhD based on researching Peregrines for the last 24 years. He talks about what the dawn chorus means to him and describes the life of a peregrine falcon and the Peregrine Project in Bath.
The episode finishes with a walk organised by the Cotswolds Wardens with expert birder Marika Kovacs.
Credits
Music: Audionautix
Dawn Chorus audio kindly recorded by Ed Drewitt
Produced by Pommy Harmar
Links
RSPB - dawn chorus - www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/news/the-dawn-chorus-all-you-need-to-know-about-natures-big-show
Bath Peregrine Project nest site webcam - www.hawkandowltrust.org/live-cameras/bath-peregrines
Cotswold Warden Walks - www.cotswolds-nl.org.uk/visiting-and-exploring/guided-walks
Ed Drewitt - www.eddrewitt.co.uk
Bath Natural History Society - www.bathnats.org.uk
Bathscape - www.bathscape.co.uk

This month, as spring gets properly into its stride, we go gardening.
We start with Carol Stone, one of the volunteers from Alice Park Community Garden down below Larkhall on the London Road. If you have always wanted to know how to stop slugs and aphids munching your beans, well - listen in..
Marion Harney, Professor of Buildings and Landscape Conservation at University of Bath takes us around Sydney Gardens, the only Georgian Pleasure Gardens left in the UK and tells us how the Georgians liked to have fun.
Amie Cook, Community Ecologist for the Team Wilder Ecological Advisory Service gives advice on how to encourage wildlife into your back garden. This is a service offered by Avon Wildlife Trust via site visits, video calls or workshops.
Cat Baker, ecologist and manager of WIld About Bath takes us around a wild garden overlooking Horsecombe Vale, tells us what she loves about gardening and gives tips on composting.
Credits
Music: Audionautix
Produced by Pommy Harmar
Links
Alice Park Community Garden: www.facebook.com/aliceparkcommunitygarden/?locale=en_GB
Team Wilder Ecological Advisory Service, Avon Wildlife Trust: www.avonwildlifetrust.org.uk/team-wilder-ecological-advisory-service
Wild About Bath: www.wildaboutbath.org

In this episode we take a deep dive underneath the city of Bath and discover the geology that underpins it.
Professor Maurice Tucker from the Bath Geological Society tells us about the father of Geology, William Smith
Mike Williams is a landscape historian and ecologist and he talks about the affect of the landscape on settlement and biodiversity. He also shows us petrification in action!
Finally in our feature we go underground! Simon Hart, Managing Director and Owner of Hartham Park Stone Mine takes us down the mine where we meet a 16 ton chainsaw and see 200 year old graffiti.
Credits
Music: Audionautix
Produced by Pommy Harmar
Links
Bath Geological Society -www.bathgeolsoc.org.uk
Hartham Park Stone Mine - https://www.lovellstonegroup.com/quarry/hartham-park-bath-stone

For this episode you will need to grab your popcorn, dim the lights and settle down for a magical journey to the heart of the filmmaking industry in the historic city of Bath.
Rachel Bowers from the Bath Film Office describes the process for bringing upwards of two hundred actors and crew into the heart of the city to film.
Charlie McCLoud gives us his very own ‘Life in the day of an Extra’. 
Plus the Holburne Museum's Chief Operating Officer Emma Morris tells us the inside story of working in a building which famously doubled as Lady Danbury’s grand estate in the hit series Bridgerton
Links
Bath Film Office - www.bathfilmoffice.co.uk
Holburne Museum - www.holburne.org
Credits
Music: Richard Frohlich Media and the Texas Radio Theatre Company.
A short melody of Luigi Boccherini's minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op.13, No.6. Played by Howard Geisel
Produced by Pommy Harmar

Happy New Year and welcome back to Footprints!
In this our first episode of 2024, we look back at our highlights from 2023. More than 40 people took part in the shows last year and a huge thanks must go to them for making the episodes so fascinating and varied to listen to. They and the organisations they represent are at the very heart of the Bathscape and we will hear from many more in 2024.
Clips
Ep 13 February - Living Working Bath: Mark Batterham shows us around the Moorlands Estate, the first council estate planned after the second world war and opened by Nye Bevin.
Ep 14 March - Art in the Landscape: Marian Hill talks about her exquisitely intricate and accurate identification charts of bugs, beetles and butterflies, using collage.
Ep 15 April - Wellbeing in Nature: Lucy Bartlett leads a walk for students as part of Be Well week and three students talk about why being outdoors helps their mental health.
Ep 16 May - The Call of the Wild: One of the wildlife enthusiasts featured in the episode Catherine Turner talks about her passion for spiders and has me peering deep into the long grass .
Ep 17 June - The Love of Trees: Joe McSorley, lead ranger for the National Trust shows us around Prior Park Gardens and tells us why the gardens were created and what the trees were used for.
Ep 18 July - Haile Selassie in Bath: Ras Benji allows us to tag along on a tour of Fairfield House where Emperor Haili Selassie lived during his time in exile during WW2.
Ep 18 July - Haile Selassie in Bath: Pauline Swaby-Wallace shows around the Windrush Centre and describes what it was like to come to Britain at that time.
Ep 19 August - What did the Romans ever do for Bath?: Combe Down resident Helen talks about the time she found a skeleton of a roman citizen buried in her garden wall!
Ep 20 September - Farming in Bath: Bob Honey has a pedigree herd of Herefords, but he also has a cider apple orchard. This is a clip of him describing the year in the life of an apple. You will hear glorious names of apple varieties such as Slack-ma-Girdle!
Ep 21 October - Radical Bath: In this clip, Professor emerita June Hannam talks about why Bath was important to the Suffragettes and tree planting at Eagle House.
Ep 21 October - Radical Bath: the episode brings us right into the present with Kidical Mass campaigners talking about their mission to create safer streets for children to cycle in.
Ep 22 November - Bath at Night: We visit the West of England Falconry Centre in Newton St Loe and hear about Bella the rock owl during one of their flying displays.
Ep 23 December - Three Grand Schemes: This episodes hears about Bath Preservation Trust's renovations to Beckford's Tower, one of the National Trust's Green Corridor schemes at Bathampton Meadows and the recently-opened Cleveland Pools. In this clip three inspiring women talk about their experience of swimming in temperatures of around 10 degrees!
Our thanks to all our contributors throughout 2023
Stuart Burroughs, director, Museum of Bath at Work
Diana Ahmed, Twerton artist
Mark Batterham, local historian
Jessica Palmer, Bath artist
Perry Harris, Bath artist, watercolourist and cartoonist
Marian Hill, Bath illustrator
Chris Pound, architect, writer and World Heritage expert
George Cook, project officer, Avon Wildlife Trust
Mike WIlliams, Bath naturalist, specialist in beetles
Catherine Turner, Bath naturalist, specialist in spiders
Alan Rayner, Bath naturalist, specialist in mosses, lichens and liverworts
Helen Hobbs, organiser, Chalcombe Toad Patrol
Karen...