Camden Meadow revealed…

Working with B&NES Council and the Camden Residents’ Association, a small group of local people formed a volunteer working party on Saturday to help manage the land in front of Camden Crescent. Our work at ‘Camden Meadow’ follows the mandate provided by CRA members at our public 2020 AGM to work with the Council to better manage this historically important piece of land at the gateway to Camden.

First, a little history and background…

Camden Crescent was built by John Eveleigh in 1788.  It was originally conceived as ‘Upper Camden Place’, as depicted in this late 18th century map of the City of Bath.

Numbers 6 to 21 Camden Crescent have been designated as Grade I listed buildings, the remainder being Grade II listed.

Jane Austen fans will know that in Persuasion the Elliot family rented lodgings at ‘Camden Place’, as the Crescent was by then known.  It may have been an uphill, “toilsome walk” to get there, but the reward was “a lofty, dignified situation, such as becomes a man of consequence”.  I live a few doors down the road, so I am not quite sure what that says about me!

Nineteenth century property deeds refer to Camden Lawn below the Crescent as a well-kept sloping lawn with unhindered views up to the Crescent and down to Hedgemead Park and the City, as indeed Victorian painting and photographs show. The land is steep and very difficult to use and maintain so, in 1964, the Camden Crescent residents sold it to the Council, for £1, in order to safeguard its upkeep and ensure its continued management.

Although the land is now in public ownership, there is no public access to the land – even when well maintained, it is too steep in places to be safe – there are numerous hidden sudden falls and sharp precipices.

In recent years the Council too has struggled, with declining funds, to maintain the land.  It is now essentially unmanaged or, at best, sporadically managed in parts.  Ecologically (and we have had some useful ecological information from the Council) apart from the small grassed area in the middle, hazel trees and laurels dominate the land. They have grown to such an extent that little else can grow or flourish . It might look green from Camden Road above but, get a little closer at ground level, and it is clear that there is very little diversity, and what there is will soon be lost as the hazel and laurel canopy develops further, creating a near monoculture and precious little biodiversity. 

In addition to ecological concerns, the hazels have also grown to heights that block historically important views from Camden Road over the city, and from Hedgmead up to Camden Crescent, the Upper Hedgemead Road boundary is a mess, and littering and fly tipping is effectively encouraged by the appearance that no-one is really bothered about the site.

In short, in its current state, the land is out of keeping with the Listed status of Camden Crescent or Bath as a World Heritage city. It is also a wasted opportunity.

So…  after some months of discussions with the Council, the CRA committee and local people (including the two residents with homes bounding the land, and some of the Camden Crescent community) we have decided to roll our sleeves up and help. Our aim is to start cutting back some of the laurel and hazel, to open the land up – and Saturday’s working party got us started. 

It’s not our intention to see the land turned back into a pristine lawn – that would be almost impossible now anyway, and there is no shortage of neatly lawned crescents in Bath.  But we do want to tame the current overgrowth and make room for a little more diversity – creating spaces where more native plant species can take root and thrive, and where more wildlife (we know there are birds, bats, badgers, foxes, to name but a few) can co-exist and flourish.  And perhaps, in the autumn, do a little targeted planting too, to help it along – we’re currently enjoying the idea of adding a smattering of apple trees here and there (Camden Cider anyone?!).  We’ll see.

For now, we’re making a start.  We completely get that the Council has some financial and resource pressures – but they can help in other ways (this is probably a good point to thank Cllr Tom Davies for joining our working party on Saturday and getting stuck in with the rest of us).

If you’d like to get involved in future working parties, please do let me know directly or as a reply to this post.  It’s not easy work, but it is very rewarding (as I think the photos show).  And there might just be a glass of cider in it for you one day.

John Long