Malmesbury and District Natural History Society

Enjoying and preserving nature in Malmesbury and the surrounding area now and for the future

Walks

We lead nature walks in and around Malmesbury to enjoy the wildlife in our local area

Talks

We organise talks from experts on natural history to learn more about our local wildlife

Projects

We run surveys and activities to support local wildlife

Next Upcoming Event

Bird Ringing demonstration 1
27 September 2025
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Events

Current and Future Events
27 September 2025
Bird Ringing demonstration 1
07:30 - 09:30

Get up close to see local bird ringers identify, weigh, measure and ring wild birds in the interest of scientific research. Location tbc. Members = Free; Non-members = £3

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27 September 2025
Bird Ringing demonstration 2
10:00 - 12:00

Get up close to see local bird ringers identify, weigh, measure and ring wild birds in the interest of scientific research. Location tbc. Members = Free; Non-members = £3

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01 October 2025
Harvest Mouse Nest Surveys
All day

Search for the iconic Harvest mouse nest in long grass and reeds to find out if they are still living in our part of Wiltshire. Location tbc. Dates tbc but […]

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26 October 2025
Fungi Foray 1
10:00 - 12:00
Ravensroost Wood, Braydon, Malmesbury, Wiltshire SN16 9RN United Kingdom

Now an annual institution, come and find out about the many different kinds of fungi in our area. Members = free; Non-members = £3

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26 October 2025
Fungi Foray 2
12:30 - 14:30
Ravensroost Wood, Braydon, Malmesbury, Wiltshire SN16 9RN United Kingdom

Now an annual institution, come and find out about the many different kinds of fungi in our area. Members = free; Non-members = £3

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Please see the EVENTS page for a full list of our past and future events – Events

Past Events
04 July 2025
Night Safari
20:30 - 22:30
Cotswold Water Park,

A walk in the Cotswold Water Park looking for owls, bats and other nightlife Members = Free; Non-members = £3

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29 June 2025
Swift walk
20:00 - 21:30
Cross Hayes Car Park, Malmesbury, Market Lane
Malmesbury, Wiltshire SN16 9BZ United Kingdom

Join us for an evening wander around Malmesbury with our group bird expert to observe our town's precious population of swifts and learn more about what we are doing to […]

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08 June 2025
Wildflowers, Butterflies and Bees
10:00 - 12:30
Echo Lodge Meadows, Wood Lane
Brinkworth, SN15 5EF

A walk around Echo Lodge Meadows spotting wildflowers, butterflies and bumblebees. Members = Free; Non-members = £3

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Please see the EVENTS page for a full list of our past and future events – Events

Latest Posts

Our latest news

13th June 2025
Blog / News
On the 16th May a group of us went to St Mary with St Ethelbert Church in Luckington to carry out an emergency survey. This was prompted by the discovery of a rare Lesser Horsehoe bat close by last year and we wanted to know if this was an isolated occurrence or whether there were more in the area. Furthermore, the individual found was a juvenile, suggesting there may be a maternity colony close by. Within Luckington the church tower looked a probable place for use as a roost with multiple possible entry/exit routes on the tower and roof. We positioned ourselves at 5 points around the church, each group with a bat detector. So with camping chairs and flasks at the ready we waited for the sun to go down…. Luckily we weren’t disappointed. Plenty of bats flitted over our head once dusk hit and we could discern at least a couple of different species by sight – the quick flitting pipstrelle overhead and larger serotines zipping along the hedgerows. We also wandered down to the river and were treated to a beautiful display of Daubenton’s bats skimming low across the water up and down. We recorded bat calls on a variety of different detectors – EchoMeter Touch 2 Pros which make recordings of the calls and provide suggsted IDs, a basic but reliable heterodyne detctor and Phil Atkins’ (aka ‘Pip Detector’) new “Griff” detectors which turns your phone into a bat detector with the help of a bespoke microphone and some software he has developed. As an aside, Phil has put in an incredible amount of effort to develop affordable bat detectors, which is making bat surveying so much more accessible to all. We spent some time verifying the calls with the help of Phil Atkins, some auto-ID software(s) and visual checking of the call recordings, and were pleased to confirm the following species: Daubenton’s (Myotis daubentonii), Common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipstrellus), Serotine (Eptesicus serotinus), Noctule (Nyctalus noctula), Brown long-eared (Plecotus auritus) and the rarer Barbastelle (Barbastella barbastellus) and Lesser Horseshoe (Rhinolophus hipposideros). Some of the calls are shown below (in order from top to bottom: Common pipstrelle, Daubenton’s and Lesser Horseshoe). All of these records were submitted to the Bat Conservation Trust to help with local and national monitoring efforts. Strangely enough we didn’t see any bats emerge from the church tower. Therefore, where the Lesser Horseshoes roost remains a mystery we have yet to uncover! However it was still a fantastic night with some excellent species recorded. We would like to give a huge thanks to St Mary with St Ethelbert Church for allowing us to carry out this survey on their grounds. [...]
6th February 2025
Blog / News
30th June 2024
News
On Tuesday 2nd July at 2.30pm in Malmesbury Town Hall, our Chair, Miranda Shirnia, will be giving a talk as part of the Athelstan 1100 celebrations comparing wildlife in Malmesbury in 924 and today.   Here is a short film as a little introduction…   Tickets available here: https://www.athelstan1100.co.uk/…/talk-one-day-in-may…   [...]
29th June 2024
Blog / News / Projects
Swift Awareness Week is a national event which was first held in 2018 with swift activities promoted by groups throughout the country. This year it takes place from Saturday 29th June to Sunday 7th July. In the Malmesbury area we are behind a lot of other small towns in that we have only recently founded a Swift Group to study and safeguard these birds. Our focus during Swift Awareness Week therefore is to try to get a good initial estimate of the numbers of nesting birds and thus provide a baseline to monitor how well they are doing in future years. Our swifts should have young in the nest at this period, which means they will be bringing food to the nest location every hour or so, at least on mild days when there are plenty of insects available. Hence our focus during the week will be to try to confirm as many nests as possible by observing the behaviour of the swifts around the streets. Our surveys so far have shown that there is an extensive colony of swifts in the area of Horse Fair and adjacent streets, particularly Burnham Road and West Street. There is a smaller colony which extends along King’s Wall and Burnivale. Please keep your eyes open for any swifts, either in these areas or elsewhere, and if you find any apparently using nests we would greatly appreciate a report.     [...]
25th June 2024
Events
On Saturday, 20 of us went for a walk around Lower Moor Farm looking for Dragonflies and Damselflies.   We found Common Blue damselfly, Blue tailed damselfly, Red eyed damselfly, Common Darter, Four spotted Chaser and Black tailed skimmer (both female and male), a male Emperor Dragonfly patrolling his territory and a female egg laying.   We also found a number of Exuviae from both Common Darter and an Aeshna species. Oh and there were quite a few froglets about too…   Many thanks to Teresa Farr for the photos!               [...]
6th June 2024
News / Projects
Are you aware of the pollution being pumped into our river and does it worry you? Here are some photos of the impact of sewage discharges from the Noah’s Ark pumping station in Garsdon. Quite honestly they are revolting! Sewage in the river at Garsdon In 2023 there were 50 days of discharging from this pumping station alone – that’s roughly once a week and the people living nearby are noticing that wildlife is being damaged by it. If this concerns you too, and you often walk along a section of a river near you, why not become a Water Guardian? This involves, walking the route regularly and reporting on the quality of the water. You can sign up on Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s website https://www.wiltshirewildlife.org/water-guardians You might just want to be involved in pressurising the water company to clean up their act. If so please contact us and we will be in touch. Letters have been sent to all the candidates to become the new MP for the South Cotswolds constituency asking for them to commit to supporting our campaign to clear up our rivers and brooks should they be elected on 4th July. The sewage spills must stop and we want their support to do this. [...]

Please see the NEWS page for all of our posts – News

Featured Projects

Please see details of some of our long-term projects

Hedgehog Friendly Project

Hedgehogs are in real trouble. Numbers have plummeted in recent years mostly due to loss of habitat and less food for them to eat, with rural areas seeing greater declines.

Swift Project

In early May the skies around Malmesbury are filled with the screeching and swooping of Swifts (Apus Apus)

Dormouse Project

The Hazel dormouse (Muscardinus Avellanarius) is a charismatic and distinctive native British mammal. It has gingery-brown fur, large black eyes and a long fluffy tail. They are typically active from mid-April to late October

Please see the PROJECTS page for details of all of our long-term projects – Projects

Partners and Resources

We work with a number of local groups to deliver our events:

Malmesbury River Valleys Trust who manage the local nature reserve Conygre Mead
Wiltshire Mammal Group support mammal conservation in Wiltshire by running surveys, organising training workshops and events, encouraging submission of records and loaning equipment
Wiltshire Bat Group, linked to Wiltshire Mammal Group, coordinate volunteers to deliver a number of projects and surveying of bats across Wiltshire.

Please see our Resources Page for links to our partners, useful tools and apps and other local and national groups and resources.

Our Volunteers

Our committee is made up of volunteers

If you’d like to learn more about the Society please see our ABOUT page for details  – About

If you would like to join our small team, or if you have other queries please email us using the Contact Form.

If you would like to become a member of the Society please complete the New Member Joining Form.

You can also find us on Facebook – Link to Facebook page

Malmesbury and District