Tattershall Castle , Lincolnshire - Work affecting great crested newts
Client - The National Trust - East Midlands Regional Office
• Securing Defra licence in respect of work affecting great crested newts
• Designing and implementing mitigation strategies
• Working under archeological constraints
• Installation and maintenance of newt fencing
• Habitat creation and enhancement
Urgent repair work was required to an area of the castle which projected out into the inner moat. The site supports a breeding colony of great crested newts and the repair work was to be undertaken in areas where they were known to breed and shelter.
Under a derogation license issued by Defra, the section of moat around the Kitchen Range was bunded and gradually dewatered. A newt exclusion fence was then erected around the working area.
Great crested newts as possible were then trapped out of the exclusion zone and relocated to either the outer moat or a substantial purpose-built refuge/hibernaculum which was constructed elsewhere on site ahead of the work.
An overall total of 45 great crested newts and 3 larvae were rescued and transferred safely out of the work zone during the course of the project.
At the end of the works permission was granted by English Heritage to install an additional, smaller newt refuge/hibernaculum, hidden by turf to a space lying between the repaired walls of the Kitchen Range .
Installation and maintenance of exclusion fencing - methods were adapted to avoid damaging the archaeological interest of the site.
 
Trapping and translocation of newts under licence
Habitat creation and enhancement
 
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