This meeting was being held in the reserve because it was a warm summers night back in August 2009 in those days attending were from left to right Shirley Steel, Patricia Flagg, Lucy Corner, Steve Plumley, Lucy Edwards and James Edwards was the one behind the camera taking the pictures who were available for this meeting.

As a committee we do try and vary where we meet when having our meetings but unfortunately our climate does not always oblige so we cannot hold many of them in the reserve like this one but this evening was an exceptionally warm one. The meetings are always friendly, veryenjoyable and well attend they are open to all members not just the committee, look out for the notices and keep the minutes which are sent to all members with email addresses.

The Friends Group consists of a wide and varied selection of people from all walks of life all are extremely friendly. They consist of a few retired people, others are in full-time employment some of the youngsters are still at school while others just want to be members including a few from overseas Australia and now Sweden they just want to support us because they believe in what we are trying to achieve here.  

The Friends Group aims are based on the belief that the needs of this ancient woodland is of the utmost importance, for all it's wildlife and it's natural habitat, also the well being of us and the local community as we all need open green spaces without having to use our cars to get to them. The whole group are entirely committed and united in meeting those needs by working today for a brighter future.

The woodland, was once part of the Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust's, Midsomer Norton South Railway Station but the woodland area and the meadow did not fit into their overall plans for the future. They leased the whole site from The Bath & North East Somerset Council who own the site. They approached the council and informed them they did not want the responsibility or upkeep of the them. It was suggested by Shirley Steel now a retired Local Councillor that the two sites could be separated from each other and the woodland and meadow become a nature reserve. This was agreed and in 2005 was named Silver Street and declared a Local Nature Reserve.

In the beginning Shirley was asked by the Council to invite some of the local people of Midsomer Norton to form a Conservation Group, who would run and look after the reserve for the future and we have been doing that ever since. But a few years ago we thought the group was just drifting along and not really achieving anything.  We all agreed that something had to done about it, so we became a constituted group with an elected committee voted for at our first Annual General Meeting 25th June 2012 and we have not looked back since. 

What we have achieved with our efforts are there for all to see and we do appreciate the support given to us by the Bath & North East Somerset Council especially all the hard work put in by our liaison officer Jane Robson of Parks and Green Spaces. We also acknowledge the help and support given by our Local Town Council of Midsomer Norton, who gave us £1,850.00 to restore the springhead of which the building work has now been completed all we have to do now is landscape the area and install an interpretation board with a brief history of the Springhead and this was achieved almost within the original budget, the amount overspent was £9.00 we are pleased with the outcome.