Useless fact no. 729. Not actually anything to do with the AQIVA complex, but, what the hell, let’s live dangerously. Close to Hyde Park Corner in London stands Apsley House. It was built between 1771 and 1778 for Lord Apsley, who was Lord Chancellor at the time, and who later became Lord Bathurst (there’s the local connection: clever, eh?). The house was known as Number One London, as it was the first property that travellers came to after passing through the tollgate at Knightsbridge. It was sold in 1807 to the Marquis Wellesley who, in turn, sold it in 1817 to his younger brother who was, by then, the Duke of Wellington, and whose descendants still live there.
Anyway, back to our little bit of Cirencester. We would welcome new members to our friends group who might bring new thoughts or skills or who generally would like to have an involvement in what we are doing. We can promise you a boring fun packed couple of hours at our monthly meetings. Alternatively, if you are able to provide extra arms and legs on an occasional basis, to help with specific tasks, that would be equally welcome. We do have a growing list of projects we would like to undertake over the next year, too many of which are unfortunately subject to financial constraints. For example, we would love to gradually build up a sculpture trail across the complex, so if any of our readers have good mafia connections that could help with fund raising, please let us know.
The Obelisk
In spite of all the clearance work done, the area rapidly became overgrown again, and the town council have done a further tidying up exercise. But it is a bit like the proverbial painting of the Forth Bridge, so the AQIVA group are in the process of planning a more regular volunteer maintenance programme for here and other areas of the site, to try to keep everything looking more attractive, welcoming and accessible. Have we mentioned anything about extra arms and legs being welcome…………….?
Work to prepare the information board continues, and funding is still being sought to do maintenance work on the obelisk itself.
The Amphitheatre
The amphitheatre is an extremely important part of both local and national history. At the entrance from Cotswold Avenue is a plaque showing what it may originally have looked like: for those who haven’t seen this, we show it below, together with a current view.
Querns Wood
We still have the missing link from the end of the pathway through Querns Wood into the amphitheatre. It causes no problem at the moment but could revert to last winter’s quagmire with sustained rainfall. The cost of making an improved access via this link is around £1,000: we are looking at funding possibilities.
The 1st Cirencester Scout Group will be taking on a project to make some bat boxes to be located around the woods. Our thanks to Hailey Wood Saw Mills who have kindly offered to donate the wood for these.
Four Acre Field
Sorry, but we couldn’t completely ignore the wild flowers here, and the bumble bee mix along the Cotswold Avenue side of the field attracted bees and other visitors.
The ground along this strip had been left undisturbed for a great many years, and the preparation that was carried out prior to sowing never was going to clear everything that had been so long established, so the brambles and other vegetation that were there have started to reclaim their territory. Nevertheless, a good start was made and we will have to see what might be achieved next time round.
The benches and notice board have now been delivered and we are now trying to organise installation.