HIGH BATTS
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary
2023 is the 50th anniversary of the founding of High Batts. This is the second part of the story of the Reserve to celebrate its half-century. See also Part 1.
The early 1990s were a period of great development for the Reserve.
Mr Robert Staveley allowed the use of his land and an old agricultural building adjacent to the Reserve to provide a work area and car park in exchange for volunteers clearing up an old farm dump and doing up the building.
This image shows the barn before work began.
This image is of the delivery of old telegraph poles to be used to stabilise the barn building. It also shows the newly surfaced car park and the repointed walls of the work compound.
This image shows a cheerful work team on roof repairs (painting the roof of the barn).
The same period saw the creation of a new pond at the north end of the Reserve, with a big fund raising campaign and a major dig and lots of volunteer effort to make it happen.
This image shows the excavation for the pond.
This image shows the team of volunteers beginning to lay the pond liner.
But in 1991 there were the worst floods ever recorded extending well into the Reserve and breaking the banks of the river at the northern end.