King’s Mill is a great little site of historical significance in Wrexham, located just on the edge of Caia Park. Since April of this year, it has been managed by Wild Ground for nature conservation. It is perfectly placed for river-related tasks, as this is the point where Wrexham’s two rivers – the Gwenfro and the Clywedog - meet!
This means that throughout late Spring and early Summer we spent most of our time with our wonderful group of volunteers in the river, pulling out the invasive non-native species Himalayan Balsam. This plant species can have a detrimental effect on riverbanks, as it’s dense growth regularly shades out other native species, and its shallow root growth leaves banks unstable and at a heightened risk of erosion.
Throughout the Summer, we were also busy holding events at the site! People were invited to join lots of different activities including river dipping, hapazomes (leaf/flower smashing) and a nocturnal walk – where we got to see lots of pipistrelle bats and even hear a tawny owl too, it was very atmospheric!
With the site being placed so closely to Erdigg, we also have a great relationship with the team of National Trust rangers that manage the site. In August, we joined their regular group of volunteers to help with a particularly flooded area of pathway within the woodland. We all got stuck in (the mud!) helping to dig out trenches for new drainage systems to be installed, before laying out more gravel to ensure the new paths were nice and accessible for the many walkers that visit the area.