Who we are
After a couple of years of different individuals expressing their concern about biodiversity losses to both the Parish Council and the University of Bristol, the founding members of The LANCE Trust (previously, LANCET) came together early in 2021 to meet key members of Fenswood Farm to discuss ideas and ways of working together.
Since then, we have also started to work with the Parish Council, Northleaze School and Holly Hedge Animal Sanctuary to increase opportunities for wildlife within and outside the parish. To get a idea of what we’re up to, visit Our Projects page.
The Trustees have a mix of skills, experience and interests to ranging from communications, to IT and local in-depth knowledge of key habitats and species that need our help. Several have family or other connections in the farming world.
Amanda Barrett, Trustee
Background: early days spent in rural Hampshire watching wildlife. Migrated to a life divided between the Welsh borders and Bristol. Twenty years ago, moved to the rural/urban fringe of North Somerset.
Career: wildlife film-maker recording the dramatic lives of animals from aardvarks to zorillas.
High-points: camping in the midst of a snow goose colony, on Russia’s Wrangel Island, and experiencing the sights and sounds of the winter turning to high summer.
Low-points: witness and participant in the Sixth Great Extinction
Hopes: working together we can mitigate, and even reverse, the climate and ecological crisis.
Jenny Hyndman, Trustee
I joined The LANCE Trust to be more proactive in preserving my local environment and to collaborate with others who want to do the same. I wrote about my Long Ashton garden here.
I enjoy the natural world through outdoors sports and increase my learning about ecology and natural history through books and podcasts. In summer I assist a local Ecologist in the Bath/Bristol area and, day-to-day, I work in marketing for a company that helps businesses invest in nature-based solutions.
Joseph Fenton, Trustee
I moved to Long Ashton in June 2021 and immediately felt the sense of identity it has.
I have recently finished working in the realms of restoration and conservation with WWF, RSPB and the National Trust and wanted to get involved in my local area, to ensure we are doing our part to future proof our environment that we all rely on, for clean air, water and our mental wellbeing.
Never underestimate the power of small, committed groups of people to make changes in the world, in fact, it's the only thing it has!
Laura Thain, Trustee
Growing up in South Gloucestershire I have always had a deep connection to the wider Bristol area. Spending time in nature has been important to me since I was young, and I studied zoology and then ecology at university. I have carried this passion into my career where I have worked on biodiversity and climate change issues for over 20 years at the Environment Agency, both at a local and national level.
I moved to Long Ashton in 2012 and love the wild green spaces surrounding the village. I have spent many happy years wandering through our fields and woodlands as a dogwalker and runner.
As a parent I see the value to my children of being more connected to nature and encouraging them to step outside and away from screens. By working with the LANCE Trust, I want to help provide opportunities for everyone in our community of all ages, to enjoy wildlife and get involved in creating new and improved habitats to help our biodiversity flourish.
Owen Newman, Trustee
Early life alongside The Great Ouse, bream deep, reed fringed, slow running water, gliding constrained through the black soiled Fens, once a Great Marsh. The sheer abundance of wildlife, filled my life. Time passed and somehow, I spent nearly 40 years making wildlife films leaving me with sharply etched memories, a dormouse giving birth, a female jaguar with her cub, in a pastel twilight, walking just by me to drink from a Pantanal pond.
Over the years of home being Long Ashton, our garden has been wilded and now it’s ponds, nectar flows, vegetation, seeds and fruits attract and support abundant life.
I became part of The LANCE Trust with the express hope of radically increasing biodiversity around us. There are presently many pressures on us, but without nature we are lost.
Pete Andresen, Trustee
I have a keen interest in the natural world and having spent much of my professional life
working at sea mapping the seabed and the shallow geology underneath, I now spend time
closer to home in Long Ashton helping with wildlife projects and community initiatives. In
addition to Lance Trust, I am involved with coppicing in Keeds Wood and producing
furniture from green wood on a pole lathe at Tyntesfield.
I am keenly aware of the loss of habitat and reduction in the numbers of birds and insects
due to changes in farming practices and want to be a positive influence on helping to reduce
this decline in the local area.
Sam Rogers, Founding member
An experienced organic horticulturalist and teacher, Sam worked in therapeutic and educational horticulture settings for over 25 years. As a founding member of the Trust, Sam loved to grow medicinal herbs and native wild flowers.
She was passionate about helping people to connect with nature to enhance their own well-being. One of the ways was through small group nature connection sessions, helping people to appreciate their own deep nature. And as a holistic health practitioner she also offered reflexology, somatic bodywork and Intuitive Herbalism as 1:1 sessions.
Sam passed away peacefully on Sunday, 16 April 2024 surrounded by her family. The celebrations of her life revealed her to be loved by many around the world. Creative, vibrant, generous, fun and kind, she will be sorely missed by many but never forgotten.
Having witnessed a decline in bird species and populations since her childhood, she was keen to create and restore habitats to protect natural biodiversity for future generations. As a result, she asked for donations in her memory to be given to the LANCE Trust to enhance our future work. Much appreciated by us all, we will do our best to carry on the work she loved so much. More can be found on her tribute page.