Troopers Hill Local Nature Reserve
Interpretation Boards
There are currently four interpretation boards on Troopers Hill Local Nature Reserve and one on Troopers Hill Field.
Thanks to a Active Travel Grant from Bristol City Council a new welcoming information board at the Malvern Rd entrance to Troopers Hill Field will be installed later in 2025. This will replace the old tatty notice board and include a revised map showing the paths around the Field and through the woods.
Where there are maps on these boards they are drawn so that they are the right way up for people looking at the boards. The 'QR' code on the bottom right is linked to our website
All the boards are designed by Clare Challice of Inkwood Design; the wildlife illustrations were drawn by Abi Stubbs and the boards were supplied by Arien Signs
The design and installation of the three boards installed in 2012 was funded as part of our Stepping Forward Project. The Geology board was jointly funded by Bristol City Council, as part of a project to help promote greater enjoyment and understanding of Bristol's Local Nature Reserves, and The Geologists' Association through their 'Curry Fund'. Thanks to National Lottery players our fifth board describing the fungi on the hill was installed in July 2019 as part of our Ways to Nature Project.
There are also four 'Welcome to Troopers Hill' signs at entrances around the Hill, three of these were installed in 2009, and the final one in 2019. These replaced signs originally installed in 2004 and fixed to the fences.
On Troopers Hill Local Nature Reserve
At the second entrance up Troopers Hill Road - Fairy Tale Fungi - Installed July 2019
By the Upper Chimney - Mining Coal and Mining Bees - Installed 2007, Refreshed 2012.
Learn more about the Wildlife of Troopers Hill >>
A spare copy of the printed part of this board (indentical to the 2012 version) was installed in May 2025 as the original had become scratched and marked.
By the Upper Chimney - Tropical Rain Forest - Installed 2016
By the Lower Chimney - Shaped by Industrial History - Installed 2012
On Troopers Hill Field
Malvern Road Entrance - Bees welcome you to Troopers Hill - Due to be installed later in 2025
A new interpretation board to replace the tatty notice board at this entrance is now being designed
Summerhill Terrace Entrance - Gateway to Troopers Hill - Installed 2012
This board was removed briefly for repair to its rusty legs in June 2025.
Welcome Signs
A new welcoming sign to the site on Troopers Hill Road was installed installed at the end of August 2019 as part of our Ways to Nature Project.
Three entrance signs were funded by YANSEC in 2009. The design of these three signs was agreed between Bristol Parks and Friends of Troopers Hill.
2007 Interpretation Board
The 'Mining Coal and Mining Bees' board by the upper chimney is an update of the board installed in 2007 (photos below) which was funded by Bristol Parks with additional funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund through the Nature in the City Project. The illustrations were jointly funded by Friends of Troopers Hill as part of the leaflet design for our Breathing Places Project and Nature in the City. The same illustrations were then able to be used on both the leaflets; the board and this website.
2004 Welcome Signs
With funding from a National Lottery Awards for All Grant (the Friends of Troopers Hill's first grant application) five signboards, with clipframes for laminated A4 notices, were installed at each entrance to the Hill during work parties in 2004 & 2005. At the entrance from the Field the sign was installed on the frame and legs of the 1990s interpretation board (below) the others were fixed to the wooden fencing along Troopers Hill Road. All these signs were gradually replaced as we installed the more colourful signs described above, but we retained the successful idea of having clip frames on each sign, with the last two being removed when new fencing was installed as part of our Ways to Nature Project in 2019.
1990s Interpretation Boards
Two of these boards, funded by the Bristol Development Corporation, were installed at around the time that the Hill was declared as a Local Nature Reserve in 1995.
One was at the top of the Hill at the entrance from Troopers Hill Field (shown below), it was removed in 2004 having become hidden in the dogwood. The second one was at the Greendown entrance and can be seen in position in the photo of our 2004 sign above, it was removed in 2007.
These signs featured the grayling butterfly, sadly this has not been recorded on the Hill since the summer of 1996, it might be that the large fire on the Hill in 1995 reduced its population so that it was no longer present in sufficent numbers to maintain the colony. In 1992 a Management plan for the Hill had also been produced with funding from the Bristol Development Corporation.
