We don’t often stray out of county, but we were contacted by Simon Nash from Wells to ask advice about whether it might be possible to install some Swift boxes in Wells Cathedral as he had seen our success with Swifts nesting in boxes in the tower of Winchester Cathedral. Simon was previously CEO of Somerset Wildlife Trust for 15 years until 2019. I agreed to go down in February this year and take a look to see what might be possible. It seemed from discussions that although several of the towers had louvres there was only one where access was going to be readily available and that was the North-West tower, top left on the picture below.
Built as a Catholic Cathedral from around 1175 to replace an earlier church that had been on the site since 705, it became an Anglican Cathedral when King Henry VIII split from Rome. It seems much larger and taller than Winchester Cathedral
While there I took dimensions, and following a bit of discussion about what louvre level would be best for the Swifts we agreed that boxes could be fitted on the second level, so that birds would have more clearance of the stonework below. We agreed that it would be quite easy to install eight boxes at that level on the west side of the tower and a further eight boxes on the east side making a total of sixteen. While there we heard Swifts calling overhead which was a good sign.
The louvres are large and spaced far apart, so it was a matter of providing a large plywood blanking plate and fixing a pair of boxes on the rear of that. I checked with Roger that he was up for a trip to Wells and he started to make the boxes.
Installation day was set as 25 July, and luckily there were several helpers from the Cathedral maintenance team to carry all the gear and boxes up the spiral stairs to the belltower.
Tom did a great job with cutting the mesh and installing the boxes, and it didn’t take long to install the call player too. All boxes are openable using magnetic catches and are long enough to incorporate a camera at a later date if required.
Whilst there we walked up the rest of the stairs and went through a little door onto the roof of the tower with its tremendous views over the City and beyond.
And just outside the Cathedral grounds in the Market Place there is a tribute to Mary Rand MBE (born and raised in Wells) who won the long jump at the 1964 Summer Olympics by breaking the world record, with a jump of 6.76m. She was the first British female to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field. Until Emma Finucane in 2024, she was the only British female athlete to win three medals in a single Games.
Sincere thanks to everyone who has helped to make this happen, including all the above mentioned as well as to Ruth Clacee-Rowe and the Architect Nick Cox, Mark Rowe, Superintendent of Works at the Cathedral and last but not least to the kind benefactor Martin Stanley who has funded the project.
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