Legacies from two good friends who loved nature helping save "Yorkshire's Wild Isle" from developers

Severus Hill is owned by Keyland Developments Ltd, the property trading arm of Kelda Group and sister company to Yorkshire Water and was put up for auction last year to the highest bidder, alarming local residents.

The water tower on top of the hill, 200m from the main A59 through Holgate, was last used more than 40 years ago and left undisturbed the outcrop, that had its origins in the last Ice Age, has become a "hidden environmental gem".

The landowner agreed to postpone the sale and give residents the first call. Locals are now in a race against time to raise £170,000 by the end of June.

A £10,000 donation from the family of farmer's wife Joan Wells and her brother in law Roy Boyson, who died last year at the ages of 100 and 97, has given the campaign a massive boost. Mrs Wells and Mr Boyson were close friends who shared a passion for nature and wildlife.

Their family, who want to remain anonymous, said: “Both left behind a strong desire for us as their family to improve the natural world and therefore this donation is being made in both their memories.

"As a legacy of their passions to see the natural world flourish around them. Joan and Roy were great friends and shared a love for walking, poetry and art. Their conversations and creative collaborations would always end up at their shared love for nature and wildlife.

"In the beauty of the seasons they both found security, direction and peace that served them into their long lives. We miss them both."

Jo Patton, of Friends of Severus Hill, said the site had been locked up for years: “Essentially nature has reclaimed it so the plan is to keep it with no public access. It will be a private reserve for nature. We’d like to do conservation and try to improve biodiversity but not mess with the things that are already there – we wouldn’t like to manicure it.

"There's two families of foxes, hedgehogs, which are endangered, tonnes of birds, including a sparrowhawk, which implies the infrastructure is there. The really special thing is the limestone basin which was the reservoir and has broken down and now forms a calcareous grassland.

"Nature has done the landscaping and turned it into this amazing haven. I call it our Wild Isle, a very natural open space that is doing its own thing. If it goes into the wrong hands it’s gone.”

In 2017 locals defeated a planning application to build 43 houses on the four acre area, which is a designated “Site of Interest for Nature Conservation”. They now plan to launch a crowdfunding appeal in the coming weeks to raise the money.

Local resident for over 60 years, David Ryder, who was instrumental in the previous “Save Severus Campaign” said: “It’s not just the people who are lucky enough to live around the hill that benefit. Birds travel. They rewild spaces over decades and they do it for their own good. Nature working with nature. We need to maintain that.”