Last year, Haringey’s Railway Fields Nature Reserve won a “Hero” award from the conservation charity, TCV.

Which is how I first heard of David Bevan and his work for the people, creatures, plants, fungi, trees and general wellbeing of Haringey.

He was Conservation Officer for the borough from 1989 until he retired in 2005, but he continued to share his great and knowledgeable enthusiasm for the natural world.

Ham & High: David Bevan was a conservation officer for Haringey from 1989 until his retirement in 2005David Bevan was a conservation officer for Haringey from 1989 until his retirement in 2005 (Image: Nigel Sutton)

David liked the idea of reminiscing for the Ham&High, so I visited him and his wife, Barbara, in Bounds Green. While Barbara calmed the dog, he and I sat in their kitchen, with bright spring greenery beyond the window.

Then we moved into his study, overflowing with books, boxes, pictures, to look at photos. He makes no bones about how ill health now restricts his life, but still sounds joyful, remembering decades of an urban life spent out of doors, among plants, animals, and people responsive to them, especially children.

Since a very young age, David loved flowers but his progress towards the career that would suit him so well was indirect, taking in medicine, photography, teaching and a retraining in ecology and conservation.

Haringey was apparently the first borough to have a conservation officer, David Hope. It was looking for its second one when, to his pleased surprise, it chose David Bevan, above others with higher academic claims.

He puts this down to his friendship with David Hope, familiarity with the area, and his being a ‘people person’. This now sounds a list unlikely to please an employment algorithm, but still, things turned out fine. He happily took to the work, based in Station House along the Parkland Walk.

The Parkland Walk and Railway Fields already existed, but needed protection from development, so getting them the legal status of Nature Reserve was an early priority.

Then the rate-capping of the late 1980s led boroughs to cut budgets.  David lost his job, but thanks to well-supported local opposition, he was later reinstated, this time based in Railway Fields, N4, opposite Harringay Green Lanes Station.

This woody site is small enough (two acres) for David to get to know it practically leaf by leaf. It was here that he loved introducing children from local primary schools to detailed knowledge such as how different kinds of caterpillars move, feed, pupate, or how a chance pollination between Russian Vine and Japanese Knotweed produced a new plant, Haringey Knotweed.

Sometimes the children put on plays, listened to poetry or camped overnight, accompanied by the hooting of owls. Some of them will be parents themselves by now.  Let’s hope they’re passing on a sprinkling of the magic that David shared with them.

THINGS TO DO

Keep on sowing seeds, even if the packet makes it sound too late… it won’t matter because it’s been so cold.

The London National Gardens Scheme (NGS) ngs.org.uk lists lots of local gardens to visit, eg 17 & 26 Princes Avenue Gardens, N10 on Sunday May 19 from 12 – 6.00pm.

Plant Sale, Hampstead Garden Suburb Horticultural Society, 10.30 – 12.00, Sunday, May 12 at Fellowship House, 136 Willifield Way NW11.