Pressed flowers from Birley Gate

The pressed flowers were collected in Ocle Pychard by Rachel McDougall (now Prof Rachel Jenkins), 17.4.49 during the late 1950s and early 1960s when she was a 7-11 year old growing up at Burley Gate School House, where her parents, Beryl and Peter McDougall were the village school teachers. Her parents were largely interested in birds, so she was mentored by Miss Mary West, a local botanist, who was head teacher at Stoke Prior. The flowers were identified using the Oxford book of Wild Flowers and the Collins Guide to wild flowers by Fitter and McClintock. They were glued with balsa cement to quality paper bought from a printers in Owen St. Rachel went away to board at Monmouth School for Girls in 1960, where she was only able to advance on the collection during the holidays and therefore it ceased altogether by around 1963.