Rhodi at Dunham Massey 17 Feb 2013

Seven volunteers turned out to Dunham Massey and returned to Headsman's Covet (a patch of woodland just outside the wall of the deer park).  We have been cutting and burning "Rhodi" on and off in this area for some time and it looks very different now compared to a few years ago...

Before

This time the instructions were slightly different - with all the wet weather this year the farmer has concluded that he needs to do some work on a drainage channel that runs through the woodland and probably under the wall into the park - and out via either the moat or island pool.  So we were asked to concentrate on a 5m strip beside the channel so that a machine can be brought in to clear it out.

The weather was bright but there was some breeze and it had a bit of bite to it, however a few days of dry weather and a couple of dead "rhodi" plants gave the fire a good start... Shortly before lunch I noticed the fire was starting to migrate down wind and asked the team to only feed the upwind half - soon we had half a fire! 

Forcing a fire slowly up wind - half fire

With some care we nursed it through this stage - and managed to burn almost everything that we had cut without the fire moving from where we wanted it to be..

This left an open strip most of the way to the wall - though someone will have to go back with a winch or tractor to remove the roots.....

After