AGM September 2025 – Chairman’s Review

Tributes to Committee Members

Chris Gossop paid tribute to two Committee members who had passed away since the last AGM. Both had made special contributions to TMAEG.

Pavla Gossop

Pavla had provided both a lead role and background support to the organisation from the beginning. She was an ideas person and notably led the way on our Open Gardens programme over ten years. As a former teacher, Pavla worked with Ashbrook School where she introduced an annual bulb planting event whereby first year children each planted three daffodil bulbs around the Local Park entrance. Pavla loved TMAEG and all it stood for.

Chris Monk

Another former teacher, Chris was our Chairman for two years and throughout provided invaluable guidance for the development of TMAEG. He brought special skills as our webmaster, designer and often brilliant presenter. His design skills played a major part in the ten-year run of Open Gardens and those and his historical insights were integral to the creation of the Bluebell Circuit. He was a wise, helpful and kind colleague.

Highlights of Year 14

In all our volunteers tackled some 21 environmental projects in our Year 14 (October 2024 to September 2025). This was a few less than in other recent years and it arose, we believe, from the highly erratic weather. -TMAEG doesn’t normally stop work because of the weather but this year we were rained off on three occasions. Unsurprisingly a few days were missed because of the losses of those team members. Nevertheless, important work was done to great effect and our calendar was also punctuated with some highly enjoyable visits.

Stone Hill Pond – Annual Pond Tidy In January 2025 a large group of volunteers took on clearance work in and around the pond. With three people in waders in the water, and others around the banks, our work targets the removal of the year’s leaf fall and other tree litter from the pond bed, as well as a light trim of the bank vegetation. The aims are to prevent the build-up of excess sludge and light-diminishing vegetation while maintaining sufficient cover for bird populations, including breeding waterfowl.

An early scare This year we faced an early scare. Just a few days before our event, the Council (MKCC) drew our attention to ‘the green weed’ beginning to spread over the pond’s surface; initially they had thought that it might be a designated invasive species, the scary sounding New Zealand Pigmyweed. This can wipe out other existing vegetation, and the threat of this can lead to schemes like ours having to be curtailed or even abandoned.

Thankfully, a more detailed review by their ecology team revealed the ‘weed’ to be the native Common Water-Starwort, a benign species said to be supportive of amphibian life. So, our work was able to go ahead.

In most years, one of the spring and summer delights of this area – beyond the mallards and moorhens which sometimes breed here – is the cow parsley which lines the path linking Stone Hill to The High Street. With their vivid white umbrella shaped flowers, they become a spectacular feature of the walk. But for some reason those plants failed to flower this year (2025) , exposing pedestrians to the nettles behind them which were beginning to take over. So, in June 2025 TMAEG organised an additional project to trim back both plants. Hopefully the cow parsley will be back in flower in Year 15 (2026). As well as this, in Year 14 TMAEG dealt with a fallen tree limb blocking the path – never a dull moment!

Brioche Pasquier Factory Visit – In June a large group visited the brioche factory in ‘next door’ Wymbush. With its five production lines this is the UK HQ for this fast-developing company founded in 1936 by Gabriel Pasquier in the Loire region of France. Many of you will recall that Brioche Pasquier sponsored the launch of TMAEG’s Bluebell Circuit in the summer of 2022; this year’s visit to their premises was a logical next step in our partnership. Again, they ‘did us proud’.

Environmental Manager Bryan Winn gave our party a splendid talk about his company, embracing the origins of this long shelf-life product with its ‘secret formula’ yeast, the steady growth of Pasquier globally and the development of new products attuned to emerging new tastes. Our group put many questions to Bryan, and we were then shown the production process from raw materials to the shaping of the rolls and ‘bagging up’; a mesmerising sight. A fascinating afternoon with much to see and learn about, and the prospect of broaching our generous goodie bags once we arrived home!

Bancroft Roman Villa – Just two weeks later another group visited the site of a designated Roman villa, the foundations of which have been re-built to show the layout of this sizeable building located at the very centre of the Bancroft grid square. We were fortunate to have as our guide Tabatha Barton, archaeological expert to the nearby Milton Keynes Museum. In her introduction, Tabatha spoke about the rich archaeological history of the Bancroft/Bluebridge new city area over a period spanning some 800 years. This included the period of Roman occupation which saw a switch from farming to residential/villa use.

Bad weather had been forecast for the day and our intended walk around the foundations had to be delayed by the onset of a truly drenching thunderstorm which caused us to seek shelter and coffee in the nearby Rose and Crown. This allowed us to dry out and warm up. It also enabled Tabatha to share her detailed knowledge of the site and to show us shards of pottery and other finds stored in her ‘treasure box’ of local artifacts.

With the cessation of the rain we were able to visit the foundations. What is readily apparent is the sheer scale of the building, which is thought to have been at least two storeys high. This realisation, and other factors such as the existence of two separate bathing areas, has caused the Museum to question the description of the building as ‘a villa’. Was it instead a hostelry for traders and general travellers, a place to spend the night? This is a fascinating unanswered question, something for us all to wonder at.

Do visit the MK Museum which has an excellent Roman section; this includes a model of of this enigmatic building.