Features / Animals
Why these goats are Bristol’s newest tourist attraction
A group of half a dozen workers have been given a very important job to do on Stoke Park and are taking their new role very seriously.
They don’t need paying either, because a perk of the job is being able to eat to their hearts’ content.
Grazing the scrub that has grown up around the Purdown gun battery, the goats’ temporary home is a fenced-off area where they are managing the land without the need for any machines.
is needed now More than ever
Grazing helps the land for a number of reasons, helping stop the spread of scrub and invasive, fast-growing trees, so that a wider range of grassland plants and wildlife can grow; and providing a more sustainable and natural way to manage the land.
The animals are part of the Street Goat project, an urban goat farming cooperative whose aim “is to connect communities to sustainable food production and regenerative land management”.
A small shelter for the goats near the Purdown BT tower is meant to provide them with some protection from the weather and a quiet place to rest, but the goats don’t like to use it much so far.
Volunteers and the Street Goat team are regularly on site to keep an eye on the animals and to provide them with hay and anything else they may need, with the goats tame enough to not mind human visitors keen to see them at work.
Goats graze near the Purdown BT tower – photo: Martin Booth
The animals will likely be off the site come spring but the Street Goat team hope to bring them back in the summer, dependant on vegetation around the precious piece of Second World War heritage in Bristol.
And while you are in the area, keep a look out for Elliott and ET:
Main photo and videos: Martin Booth
Read more: Pandemic forces permanent closure of Lockleaze community cafe
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