VILLAGERS who clubbed together to buy a meadow to save it from developers are seeing a haven for wildlife spring up there.

The meadow in Charminster is being transformed into a 10-acre wood thanks to a team of volunteers, who are planting 500 trees to encourage wildlife to establish natural habitats.

Students from Kingston Maurward Agricultural College and village volunteers are joining Rachel Palmer of the International Tree Foundation and the Kenneth Miles Trust in the first of the foundation's projects to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

Villagers bought the meadow, which lies next to a new housing development in Charminster, fearing that natural habitats for birds and small mammals would be lost unless they did something about it.

Now work has started to dig 500 holes to plant a range of oak, wych elm, ash and aspen on the site, which will provide a sanctuary for threatened species such as the song thrush.

Miss Palmer said: "It is a very exciting and busy time for the foundation at the moment, with national tree week and this is a very important planting at Charminster.

"So much wildlife has been lost with new developments and the foundation has a little pot of money for projects such as these.

"Eventually we hope that there will be the garden song thrush, warblers, blackbirds, blue tits, great tits and chiff chaffs there - it will be wonderful for garden birds."

Villager Eliza Oxley said: "The land originally belonged to a well-known local character called Kenneth Miles and villagers wanted to keep that piece of land free and green.

"Quite a few of the trust members are helping with the planting and in fact Kenneth's daughter Olive is very much in favour of the whole thing.

"We've had all sorts of people from the village turn out to get their hands dirty, from two-year-old Gabriel Roth to 77-year-old Hugh Hill."