Brighten Up Great Ayton

The Brighten Up Great Ayton (BUG) group work with Great Ayton Parish Council to help realise the vision outlined in the village Plan for Pollinators. The BUG group is currently not meeting on Thursday afternoons due to family commitments of team members. If you would like to help look after a particular area in the village please get in touch.

We aim to look after the planting at Chapel Steps, the Cook Family Memorial Garden, the Discovery Centre garden, Waterfall Park and the tubs at the GPs Surgery.

Yatton House Community Garden

The garden has been much appreciated by visitors, both young and old, this year. They particularly like being able to taste some fruit or even take some away to eat later.

What can I do now?

This month’s working party will be Tuesday 9th December from 1:30-3:00pm. The main task will be tidying up the main beds but making sure to leave some places for insects to hibernate in over the winter. Just turn up and join in on the day and enjoy time in a beautiful garden.

Thank you to the group of children from Marwood CoE Infant School who came to help in the garden in July. They sowed some vegetable seeds, planted out some flowers, weeded one of the paths and hunted for bugs. They also brought along their fantastic design for a sign for the reflective space in the garden.

Areas around the village

Thank you to those that are keeping an eye on the different areas around the village.

Floodplain meadow

Climate Action Stokesley and Villages group held a successful a visit to the floodplain meadow in Great Ayton to count butterflies on 31st July 2025. Dr Martin Partridge (Yorkshire Branch Chair of Butterfly Conservation) gave a guided tour. The group were helped to identify a range of species not only by their appearance but also by their behaviour and typical habitats. Species spotted included the white letter hairstreak butterfly, only very recently recorded locally for the first time. Martin also shared a range of resources including identification guides, a recording app and the importance of conserving and protecting these fascinating wildlife nature/butterflies

The group also runs the Seed Share box in the Discovery Centre.

New volunteers always welcome.

For more information phone Angela Taylor on 01642 724401, email Caryn Loftus or follow Brighten Up Great Ayton on Instagram.

BUGs thank CASaV for publicising the work of the group.

The work of the Brighten Up Great Ayton group within the village is complemented by:

• the Bug Trail managed by Climate Action Stokesley and Villages group;
• the work of the Friends of Great Ayton Station to create a wildlife friendly station area;
• Christ Church’s work on improving the biodiversity of All Saints churchyard;
• the development of the Yatton House Community Garden and
• the creation of a floodplain meadow by the Parish Council

Background to Improving Great Ayton for People and Wildlife

Following the work in Waterfall Park in Great Ayton in 2018, Moor Sustainable CIC worked with Great Ayton Parish Council and the Brighten Up Great Ayton group to improve planting in some of the public areas of the village to make it more attractive to people and wildlife.

The first phase ran from January – June 2019, funded by North Yorkshire County Council’s Stronger Communities Programme with support from Great Ayton Parish Council and the Brighten Up Great Ayton group, with:

• A launch walk around the village, leading to a plan for the village identifying a planting scheme which is resilient to climate change, including where and what to plant to benefit pollinators and look attractive, that is easy to maintain for a group of volunteers;
• Training for those involved in the Brighten Up Great Ayton group and those that offered to help maintain Waterfall Park related to the role of bees in pollinating and how to maintain public planting;
• Equipment for volunteers;
• Bulbs, plants and seeds that are attractive to pollinators;

As a result:

• Wildflower seeds provided by Grow Wild have been sown in the Village Hall garden, up the side of Chapel Steps and in Waterfall Park.
• The Brighten Up Great Ayton group helped plant the new Cook Family Memorial Garden.

Cook Cottage Memorial Garden Planting

• An area of grass in the cemetery has been left uncut so that already existing wildflowers (oxeye daisy, common sorrel, bulbous buttercup, cat’s-ear) can flower and their seed be collected to use elsewhere in the village. Leaving the grass longer and letting it flower will enable identification of what grass species are growing here.
• Broadacres Housing Association donated funds for trees and plants for the small grass area at the end of Beech Close. Staff volunteers helped plant five fruit trees and a 25-metre wildflower edge. The trees chosen for the mini-orchard were a mixture of heritage varieties (Bramley and Ribston Pippin apples plus Victoria plum) and modern varieties (Core Blimey and Scrumptious apples) to cope with a changing climate.
• The fruit is available for anyone to pick and any excess apples will be turned into apple juice as part of a community apple pressing. Broadacres will help maintain the new mini-orchard.
• A grant was given, from North Yorkshire County Council’s Locality Fund, to provide seating and planting for a community garden at the Village Hall which will be maintained by the Brighten Up Great Ayton group.

Phase 2 is now complete with additional planting up the side of Chapel Steps and also in the grounds at the back of the Discovery Centre.

Bug Trail

Following on from the above work, Moor Sustainable CIC received a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant for an exciting Bug Trail Project, creating a rubbings trail along the High Street in Great Ayton. An activity booklet and leaflet is available from the Tourist Information section of The Discovery Centre and the Bug Trail app is available to download from the Apple App Store and Google Play. Further information can be found on the Bug Trail profile page on Visit Great Ayton. Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the project focuses on the story of Great Ayton’s High Street through the eyes of pollinators from the earliest records to planting for the future. The Bug Trail is now managed by CASaV.

Images and information provided by Caryn Loftus of Brighten Up Great Ayton