New year walk 30 Dec 2012

Five MNTV volunteers met at Styal and did a round walk out of the estate through the North Woods, back up through villages and fields to Wilmslow Carrs and the South Woods. There was even sunshine (and quite a lot of mud).

Hedge laying at Alderly Edge 16 Dec 2012

Four volunteers turned out to Alderly Edge and layed a short section of hedge along side the NT carpark near the wizard tea room.

We did not complete as much as was hoped, but did get a small fire going to dispose of the cut material.

No photographs - I forgot to pick up the camera.

Manchester Christmas markets (and to see Ally sing) - Tues 11th Dec 2012

Five of us met in time to watch Ally sing with her Rock Choir outside Manchester cathedral, in the freezing cold - wearing only a T-shirt!! (see photo).

The Rock Choir sang for about 30 mins before they, and other choirs, went inside the cathedral to perform in a concert in aid of the North West Air Ambulance service. At this point, we left Ally and headed off to explore the bars and eating establishments in the Christmas markets in Exchange Square. We had a few beers and glueweins before Andy decided he just HAD to have a bratwurst sausage. After he'd eaten it, we found a stall selling a very tasty chicken paella which we all had - it was delicious!!

As we'd all arrived in Manchester on public transport, once we'd eaten and drunk enough, we headed back to the train station - it was a relaxing evening and a chance to have a good chat:-)

Fence removal and plantation thinning at Hayfield 9 Dec 2012

Five volunteers turned out to Hayfield and met up with the local ranger to do some work on the National Trust land around Kinder Scout.

The first job was removing a fence ready for contractors to come in and install the new one.

In the afternoon the task was "thinning" - selective felling a plantation.  For some reason lost in the history of the site - the plantation had a number of inappropriate species in it - these were removed by Shane with a chainsaw.  A task made easier by the fact that the fence is also being replaced on the boundary of this plantation.  We the volunteers followed at a safe distance with hand tools - cutting up the felled trees and stacking them clear of the line where the new fence will go.

montage and team photo added 19/12/12 with thanks to Nathan

Victoria Baths workday on Sunday 18th November

Five of us spent today at the Victoria Baths in Chorlton doing housekeeping jobs with staff members Neil and Martin.  This was our first visit to the Baths in 2012 and a year after our last visit.  The jobs we did were:

- Fitting rubber feet to 100 fold-up chairs

- Scraping whitewash off the floors around the sides of the Second Class Males pool

- Power washing said floors and the ramp at the rear of the building

- Removing builders’ rubble from the heating pipes beneath the Turkish Baths

 

Gala/First Class Males Pool

Over lunch and at the coffee breaks we heard from Neil about recent developments at the Baths. Of note in 2012:

- All three pool halls and the Turkish Baths Rest Room have been granted marriages licences and eight marriages/civil partnerships took place this year plus several more receptions

- £13,000 has been collected to restore the “Aqua” stained-glass window in the Gala Pool and a local stained-glass maker has been commissioned

After we'd finished work Neil took us on a tour of the Turkish Baths.  They have discovered recently how all the plumbing worked to get the hot air and steam from room to room.  Next we visited the Superintendent’s flat at the top of the building and ended by climbing the clock tower. The views from up there across Manchester were fantastic as the light faded.  We had no sooner finished than the bell noisily struck the 4 o’clock chimes!

 

 

 

Hayfield an unplanned walk - or a day not gully blocking

For the first time in living memory we failed to find our work. The weather forecast suggested that the mist would lift from the landscape by about 10am - which was about when we got more or less to the top.

If it had it would have been a simple task to spot the shed and bags of stone that had been helicoptered onto the top of Kinder Scout - a extensive gullied  peat and grit stone plateau that we have worked on previously......

In the event visibility was poor - we went up, we had a walk around, we gave up, we came down - then the cloud lifted - but too late for our work.

It has been suggested that GPS could have been used to find the work site - but in practice that wouldn't have been safe as in that visibility or lack of it we wouldn't have been able to see enough to keep track of the safety of the individual volunteers.  So the descision to come down again was the correct one.

Guided Walk around Manchester - Saturday 10th Nov 2012

We were lucky enough to persuade Liz to take us on a walking tour of another part of Manchester this time.
The walk was advertised as 'Back Street Bohemia to Big Bucks and Big Books' to loosely describe the area's we were visiting.

We met at the The Mayfield in the Piccadilly station concourse at 11am and headed off towards the Northern Quarter, stopping at places of interest and even going into the foyer of the Abode hotel to admire the tiling and the fabulous staircase of the original warehouse that it was.

Liz also took us into the atrium of an office complex in the Northern Quarter which was originally a warehouse and you could still see where the carts would have driven up full of cotton to be unloaded and the hoists used to get it to the upper levels - it's incredible that it is still possible to see such a fabulous example of the 'King Cotton' Victorian era, when Manchester was a thriving city turning raw cotton into cloth.
Continuing our way through the Northern Quarter we found out, amongst other things, why some of the road signs have white writing on blue backgrounds and other blue on white, and why some of the pavements have metal edges.

We then visited the old Fish Market which is now the Manchester Craft and Design Centre. After admiring the stalls and shops, we stopped for a photo! 

As we left the Norther Quarter, we started to walk through the old Banking district and had a coffee break at Browns Restuarant, which was originally Parrs Bank, one of the city's former opulent banking halls. The building was designed by Charles Heathcote in 1902 and is a superb example of Edwardian baroque with some increasingly fashionable art nouveau detailing, particularly in the wrought ironwork.
Sitting in such spendour having a coffee was a real treat. Afterwards we continued through the old Banking disctrict, ending up on King Street and admiring various architectural features. We continued towards John Rylands library and into Spinningfields where the walk 'officially' finished. Most of the group then headed off for lunch at a local pub.

It was a fantastic tour of parts of Manchester that some of us didn't even know existed!

Our thanks go to Liz for making it such an interesting morning:-)

Quarry Bank Gardens (Styal) on Sunday 4th Nov 2012

Nine of us worked on the grassy slope by the side of the drive to Quarry Bank House, digging up tree saplings, cutting back brambles and generally clearing away all the 'unwanted' vegetation from the area.

 

While we were there, we were lucky enough to see some wildlife when we 'surprised' a frog which had set up home under our pile of unwanted vegetation! It must have got under there quite quickly as it hadn't been there when we'd started to make the pile of samplings and brambles, in fact we only saw it when we were shifting the pile to the bottom of the slope to enable the wardens to get to it and clear it away during the week. However, once we'd spotted the frog, Mick moved it away so it was safe while we continued with our work (see photo). A little later a large fox ran across the lawn in front of Quarry Bank House:-)

 

It was a lovely crisp, dry day - a brilliant day to be outdoors and the sun even shone on us at times:-)

Snowdonia Marathon weekend - 27/28 October

Five of us travelled over to north Wales on Friday for the 30th Snowdonia Marathon on Saturday.  We reckoned the five of us have been to 60 Snowdonia Marathons!!  Adrian and Hazel have been every year since the mid-90s.  Only Daniel was foolhardy enough to run this year and Ally, Adrian, Hazel and Sue manned the feed station at Bryn Gwynant at the 8.5 mile marker.

The weather for the race was ideal for once - no wind, cool and high cloud.  All the summits, including Snowdon itself, were out of the cloud all day and the autumn colours were beautiful.  Daniel stopped at several points on the course to take photos.

After all the runners had passed Bryn Gwynant the four returned to Llanberis and after parking in the volunteers spot behind the Electric Mountain Visitors Centre spent a couple of hours on the finish funnel, handing slate coasters to finishers, wrapping them in foil blankets and directing them to the Army Cadets hut for hot drinks, biscuits and massages.

Daniel met the others back at the basecamp at 6 o'clock and an hour and a half later we were tucking into a delicious supper of spiced lentil & tomato moussaka (watch out for the recipe in the next newsletter!) and Eve's pudding.  The evening was spent chatting, reading the papers and trying to solve two 1000 piece jigsaws (both very difficult because of acres of blue sky).

The wet weather arrived overnight and after an extra hour in bed and bacon butties for breakfast we packed, did a few more pieces of the jigsaws and went home at lunchtime.

Alderley Edge 21 October 2012

I hadn't got organised enough after my holiday for this one - so thanks to Tim the volunteer for most of the words and the pictures.  This work is on the same path that we visited on 16 September though I get the impression from Tim that on previous trips we may have ended up carrying the tools far further than we needed to!

Just a brief note to let you know what we got up to on Sunday 21st.  Four volunteers met up at the car park at 9.30 where we met Tim the ranger.

The main task was the installation of a path extending from the raised path already there for about 25 to 30 meters up the track thus bypassing a very muddy hollow. First we installed an edge consisting of holly logs felled previously about 1.25meters from the sandstone cliff face,then by scrapping the accumulated soil and sand from the cliff we filled in the area from its base to the log border.

After compaction, aided by the numerous walkers and some enthusiastic stamping by their kids, the resulting path looked very impressive with the red sand contrasting with the black mud and the silvery holly log edging.  We also dug a meter wide drainage ditch along the side of the path to help drain the track farther up. 

The second part of the task was great fun chopping down some fair sized trees and piling them up to form a barrier to stop people straying on to the adjacent farmland. The feed back from the public was great and they all seemed really appreciative of our hard work.

Sunday 14th October - holly fencing at Styal

Today had been advertised as a "mystery workday" in the programme.  It became a workday in the southern woods at Styal.  Eight of us worked with ranger John building "dead" holly hedges to demarcate a footpath. We cut down holly saplings/trees in the nearby wood and then cut suitable trunks in to four-feet stakes. The stakes were hammered in to the ground either side of the path and the rest of the holly cuttings were woven in between the stakes.

After the workday we walked over to the Apprentice House and had a look round the Apple Fair on the lawn at the back.  There were a lot of English apple varieties on display with free sampling.

Meal at the Imperial restaurant in Cheadle, Thurs 11th Oct

A select group of MNTVers met at the Imperial chinese restaurant in Cheadle to take advantage of the 'Imperial Deal'. This consisted of a choice of starter, main course and a drink for just £7.50 - although some of us paid extra to have a pudding afterwards!

We all chose to eat with chopsticks and bowls although not everyone was still using chopsticks at the end!! The food was lovely, the conversation lively, the staff were attentive, humerous and were happy for us to linger - a thoroughly enjoyable evening:-)

Dunham Massey 7th October 2012

Thanks to Sarah for the following words for a work day that I missed

We had a good turn out at Dunham yesterday, with nine volunteers showing up to Rhodi bash in the Woodman's covert. The area has improved massively since we first started working there and the natural flora and fauna is finally taking over from the Rhodi. We had fun playing french cricket with a Postman Pat ball that Adrian found and despite a slow start we ended up with possible the hottest bonfire I have ever known.

Birch removal Thurstaton Common 30 Sep 2012

Two manchester volunteers shared a car from Styal to Roydon Park on Thurstaton common on the Wirral. Where we met up with two volunteers from Merseyside and the local ranger. A third Merseyside volunteer arrived nearer midday. The task for the day was removing birch saplings from one of the paddocks.... Three areas of the common have been fenced and are now grazed - in an effort to maintain the rarer open heathland habitat holding back the natural process of "succession" which would see it reverting to woodland - which has a lower conservation status. With all the rain this year the grazing animals had plenty of lush grass to graze on - and as a result it took longer than normal for them to graze off the birch in the paddock they were in. The net result they never got moved into the other paddocks - leaving the birch to grow unchecked. Once it gets too big - the grazers won't manage it - and then volunteers are needed to either cut it down or pull it up. We got some done but there is a lot left to do.

Quarry Bank Gardens (Styal ) 23 Sept 12

Four volunteers turned out and spent the day in the upper part of the garden clearing undergrowth and brambles.

Musical comedy - Chess Pieces 21st Sept

Eight of us went to support Kate's acting debut in a musical comedy called 'Chess Pieces' written by John Waterhouse.

The play was based in a 'lesser part of Hell' where 2 demons challenge each other to a game of chess using the souls of mere mortals as the chess pieces. Multiple characters were manipulated in and out of tricky situations with a final twist at the end!

Kate played a Women's Institute Campaigner and dressed the part in clothing borrowed from her family and friends. The photo above shows her in character, brandishing her umbrella against the characterful 'lager lout'.

An entertaining evening, which started when some of us went to eat at The Art of Tea in Didsbury before the play...................................well done Kate:-)

Alderley Edge 16th Sept

A good turnout of 11 MNTVers who joined with another 14 or so Sale and Congleton volunteers to clear vegetation along a boggy part of a path in Clockhouse Wood, Alderley Edge - felling and cutting back holly and other tree's to allow the light onto the path and help dry it out.

Some of us, using mattocks, created a number of gullys to divert the rainwater off to the side to stop it running down the path making it boggy.

During the afternoon some chickens from a nearby farm came and visited us!! Picture shows the chickens and, behind them, one of the gullys that we made.

At least the bad rainshower waited until we'd got home but, in some ways, it would have been good to see how well the gullys worked if it had rained while we were still there!!!

Two other views of the path - uphill into the area done on this day

and down hill into the area worked on previously

Dunham Massey 9 September 2012

After a period of confusion as the committee were unable to find a leader for the day, 5 volunteers turned out to Dunham Massey and met up with the Ranger on duty - John.

We had some discussion about potential task, the tools available that we had with us, those that could be borrowed from Dunham Massey, and the other equipment available (one of the task would have been made a lot easier if the tractor / trailer were available).

We settled on Rhodi bashing.

The fire didn't go smoothly so we managed to bash a lot more than we burn.

MNTV social on 5 September 2012 - quiz night at the Unicorn Inn, Wilmslow

A good number of MNTVers met up at the Unicorn Inn in Wilmslow for the first of the two September socials, to see if we could continue our good run of success in local pub quizzes. As usual, there was a good spread of knowledge across the team, with plenty of obscure (but yet correct!) answers being submitted. The team ended up with some prizes of drinks vouchers after winning the music quiz by a clear 3 points, after some last minute answer changes to a few of the suggested song years - seemingly this gamble paid off! The main quiz wasn't quite as successful, and there appeared to be a number of "regular" teams in attendance who were just that bit stronger with their general knowledge. All in all, it was a really enjoyable night, and hopefully one which can be repeated soon with the "unofficial" MNTV quiz team.

Gardening - Quarry Bank Garden 2 Sept 2012

Seven volunteers turned out to the Gardens at Quarry Bank near Styal and spent the day (for almost the first time in recent memory) gardening in a garden.

The task was hard work and felt slow.  It was removing perrenial weed from an area of ground near a gravel drive that leads to a holiday cottage.  We were pleased to stop for some cake and somewhat latter for lunch.  We completed the area at about three pm and left for home.  The weather was overcast initially but the sun came out in due course - and as we were working in a sun trap got a little warm...

Photographs with luck in due course.....

Gulley blocking on Kinder: Sunday 26th Aug '12

Seven of us joined with 3 of the High Peak Rangers to travel to the top of Kinder Scout for our work-task of 'gulley blocking'. We 'off-roaded' part of the way in the Rangers Landrovers before completing the journey on foot with a 40 minute walk and climb. By the time we got to where we were working, we were ready for elevenses!!
After our drink, we went to see some of the 'dams' that have already been put in place to try to prevent the peat being washed off Kinder and into the local reservoirs, where it costs the water authorities large amounts of money each year to clean the water so it is suitable for drinking.

Once a dam is in place, most of the water in that small area is stopped from running off Kinder and, instead, the peat silts up behind the dam, eventually making ideal conditions for cotton grass to be planted. As the roots of the cotton grass spread, they help stabilise the peat so it's not as easily eroded away and heather can then be grown as well.
Dams can be made from many different materials: planks, tree trunks, plastic piles or rocks, all of which have been used on Kinder. We were using rocks which had been helicoptered in place in one-ton helibags so we could unload them to build our dams.
Although it rained on us for a short time in the afternoon, we managed to empty many helibags between us and were pleased with what we had achieved :-)

Pitching on Bosley Cloud 19 August 2012

Four volunteers turned out from our group and met up with 5 from the Congleton volunteers and spent some of the day working on the grit stone trail towards the top of Bosley Cloud.

We spent the day working on "pitched" grips or gutters - lines of stones fitted together diagonally across the path designed to direct rain water off the path.  This stops  water collecting on the path and running down hill - so preventing erosion.  Unfortunately not all walkers / cyclist recognise the long term advantage of having these structures and attempt to remove.  Others walk round the end of them or force their way through the vegetation making new parallel scars, sometimes known as a braided path.  The stones we were working with were quite manageable - though some of the structures were finished with larger stones / boulders on the ends - to encourage people to stay on the established path.  The work had been described to us as involving moving boulders but it turned out to be nowhere near as heavy as we had feared.

It started raining shortly after lunch and the weather forecast was poor for the afternoon - so we finished what we were doing and walked down to the cars.  In the event it has stopped raining by the time we were ready to drive off.

Hay raking at Speke Hall 12 August 2012

Seven volunteers turned up at Speke hall and spent the day in a field near the car park "hay raking".  The NT want to convert the field into a flower meadow containing "hayfield" flowers - in order to do this they need to reduce the soil fertility - so that the flowers have some chance of competing against the grass.

The normal way of doing this is to cut and remove  the grass as if making hay.   As it was not practical to remove the cut grass from site it was decided to burn it in small fires - so that most of the field will have lower nutrients but with small patches of richer soil where the fires were.

It rained during the morning which slowed the fires down dramatically - and we raked far more than we were able to burn.  They day dried out again (so did we!) and the sun came out later.

10 mile cycle ride from Gatley station with SCCC - Weds 8th Aug.

Three intrepid MNTVrs joined Stockport Community Cycling Club (SCCC) on one of their Wednesday summer evening rides. Together with members of SCCC and some other 'newbies' that turned up, there were about 40 of us who split into 3 groups to go out cycling - 2 groups doing the same 10mile route a few minutes apart and a smaller group doing a different 6 mile route.

We set off through Gatley, riding on the smaller (less-busy) roads towards Heald Green, cutting down Brown Lane to come out on Styal Road. We continued up Styal Road, passing the airport on our right turning down Moss Lane and passing the airport runway as we looped round past Quarry Bank Mill and over to Handforth. Again, using smaller roads and passages (that I never knew existed!) we headed towards Bruntwood Park, which we rode through before heading back to Gatley station.

It was a fabulous ride on a lovely, warm evening, with good company. Many thanks to the members of SCCC for organising such a pleasant evening:-)

Post and rail fencing at Styal 5 August 2012

I've been on holiday swimming and working in Devon with the NT.  Thanks to Daniel for text and photos

Eight of us and six volunteers from the Merseyside group spent today at Styal replacing a post-and-rail fence near Norcliffe Chapel.  The two groups put in 15 posts and 50m of fence.  The posts and rails were sweet chestnut and came from a forestry plantation in Kent.  Each post had pairs of pre-cut slits at both heights and rails ran “front to back” between adjacent posts.

The warm weather brewed up a spectacular thunderstorm at 3 o’clock and we took shelter from the fat raindrops and ate the last of Daniel’s homebaked chocolate brownies.  As we wound down the work the ranger tweeted about our handiwork (#NTStyalEstate).  The storm soon passed and we all walked the tools back to the toolstore – the first time some in the group had been there.

Footpath work Alderley Edge 29 July 2012

Five volunteers tuned out to Alderly edge and spent the day removing overhanging branches and opening up  foot paths

Balsam Bashing Dunham Massey 22 July 2012

Thankyou to Daniel for words

view into wood at lunch time - quite a clear pach

Eleven of us spent today in the sunshine at Dunham Massey uprooting Himalayan balsam from a stretch of riverbank beside the Bollin and in the wood near the Scout camp. In the wood we cleared an impressive 800 square metres! One advantage of the wet summer is that the ground in the wood was soft and the balsam, which are shallow-rooted plants, were easy to pull out. In places they had grown 8 feet tall! We separated the roots from the stems and piled the plants up. They will soon begin to rot down.

heap of Balsam

90 degree panorama of area cleared

Cotton Grass plant packing - ~Hayfield 15 July 2012

Thanks to Sue for the words.....

.. great day. Thirteen of our members joined with a dozen youngsters doing a Working Holiday as part of their DofE syllabus.

It was really nice to join with another group and chat to them while we were doing the work.

The weather was kind to us, a bit cloudy and cool in the shade but sunny at times and NO RAIN!!

We worked well together with Shane, his team and the Working Holiday leaders, loosening cotton plants that had become root bound in the trays they were stored in then stacking the plants into giant helibags so the helicopter could take them up to Kinder later in the week. The part filled helibags were placed on the trailer then filled to capacity before being driven to the side of the field where the helicopter pick them up.

I can't quite remember how many cotton plants there were (80,000?) but we completed the task in good time before re-grouping at the Sett Valley Trail carpark to get into our cars for the journey home.

camera and computer have decided not to talk to each other tonight so no photos yet!  Thanks to Nathan for the photos - camera still not talking.... - finally got the other photo to transfer....

Formby 8 July 2012

Eight of our volunteers turned out to Formby and met up with a number of others from the Merseyside group.


We spent a beautiful sunny day on the beach - sorting out a fence.  It was originally installed to keep people off a dune, with the aim of reducing erosion and eventually allowing nature (in the form of Marram grass) to stabilise the sand.  The dune has also been planted with dead Christmas trees to help trap and retain sand.

The sea had its own ideas - undermining the fence and the burying part of it in the beach.

First we recovered the materials (posts / rails and chestnut paling fence) out of the sand and then we re-erected the fence in a new position on the beach.  Where it will hopefully stand - protecting the face of the dune from some of the force of the sea and from scores of visiting feet.

Three of us took the opportunity to have a swim before we returned to Manchester.

thanks to Nathan for additional photos...