Page 114 - FINAL Phillips 66 50 Year Book

Houlton’s Covert

The Humber Refinery and Nature

A historical concern for conservation has seen the refinery operate
in harmony with its surroundings. Today, Phillips 66 has a strong
desire and determination to maintain the quality and scenic beauty of
wherever it operates.

Employees developed 30 acres of scrubland into Houlton’s Covert, an
award-winning nature reserve teeming with red and fallow deer, owls,
squirrels, sycamore and oak trees and much more. It also provides a
valuable educational facility for local schools, with projects created to fit
into the National Curriculum.

It is named after a farmer who lived at Walmer House, an early 18th
century farmhouse which was later retained by the refinery and is now
used as a guest house for visitors.

Houlton’s Covert was first recorded on an Ordnance Survey map in
March 1824. By direction of the Earl of Yarborough, the area of about
15 acres was put up for sale by auction at Brocklesby Park on June
7, 1944. The brochure described it as a ‘very useful wood comprising
some exceptional ash, also well grown oak, sycamore and elm, and a
quantity of mixed hardwood poles suitable for pit timber. The wood is
level and there is good removal.’ It was part of a wider sale of the Earl’s
land and realised £3,400 at auction.

Refinery staff helped develop the reserve in their own time to create an
oasis for all kinds of plant and animal life, including a thriving herd of
red deer, proving industry and nature can successfully co-exist.

The land is located at the south-eastern corner of the refinery plot
area, covering about 30 acres, 18 of which is woodland and the rest
grassland, scrub and bramble thickets. The grassland is composed
of two main areas – one predominantly wet, the other dry. It provides
an invaluable habitat for frogs and newts. The dry area is inhabited by
numerous small mammals and insects, and the wild flowers provide