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What happened to the plans of 2002 to spend £220,000 renovating seven Victorian follies which are home to four species of protected bats? Well, they appear to be delayed
The conservation work at Ingress Abbey meant bars were be placed across the follies to stop the animals being disturbed by people.
This is a legal requirement and is absolutely vital for the bats during winter hibernation, because if they are woken up they can lose their stored energy and may not survive until spring.
The follies, which can be any type of ornamental building, include The Cave of the Seven Heads, The Grotto, The Grange, The Monks Head Well, The Lovers Arch, The Georgian Wall Tunnell and The Kilns.
Used by the Victorians to amuse themselves, these examples are carved out of chalk, lined with flint and spread across the grounds of the abbey in Greenhithe.
The hibernating bat species include the Pipistrelle, Daubenton, Natterers and Brown Long Eared Bat, they sleep in the crevices between the chalk and the flint. The above links will take you to information provided by the Bat Conservation Trust.
Kent Bat Group contact Shirley Thompson, who is worked on the conservation project in 2001, said: “The bats only hibernate here in the winter months. It's absolutely brilliant that the law now stops them from being disturbed, as all bat species in England are in decline.”
A spokesman for property developer, Crest Nicholson, which owns the building and is applying for planning permission to Dartford Borough Council to restore the follies, said: “We would like to start work now but will have to wait until the bats have finished hibernating, in May 2002" Hmmm, THAT was a long time ago.
The follies were due to become part of the heritage trail in Ingress Park which has been there since the 16th Century by autumn 2002 but the work seems to be stalled.
For more information on bats, contact Shirley Thompson at the Kent Bat Group, 5 Manor Road, Whitstable, CT5 2JT.