Sunday 30 November 2014

Gorsebashing at Formby on 30 November 2014

Today we had our second workday of the year at Formby on the Lancashire coast.  Three travelled in Daniel's car from Styal and four others made their own way there.  We worked with six Merseyside NTVers and the 13 of us spent the day gorsebashing on an area of dune heathland a ten-minute walk from the rangers' office on Blundell Avenue.  The work was akin to rhodybashing but with a lot more prickles and no bonfire!

We all went at it 100% and by the time we finished at 3pm had cleared gorse from a large area:

Panorama photo showing large piles of cut gorse


The rangers will remove all the gorse cuttings from the heathland and in time the area should return to its natural heather cover.  There is a lot more gorse to be removed and Formby's regular Friday volunteer group will resume next week from where we left off.

As Christmas is fast approaching Daniel had baked a Christmas tree-shaped chocolate cake and this was enjoyed by everyone at the 11:30 coffee break and at lunch.

Tuesday 25 November 2014

Pub quiz at the Hesketh Tavern on 24 November 2014

Six of us went to the Hesketh Tavern in Cheadle Hulme last night for their Monday night pub quiz and our November social.  We caught up on each other's news, heard about yesterday's workday at Hayfield and discussed some committee/group matters.

Team MNTV came third out of the 18 teams, scoring 85 points out of a possible 105, and won £10 of pub food vouchers!  Key to our success was scoring 15/15 in the Wipeout round (in which you got one point for each correct answer, a five point bonus if you got all ten correct but lost all points if you got one wrong).  A very good team effort.  As Megan said: “Collectively we’re quite clever”!


Sunday 23 November 2014

Rhody clearance at Hayfield on Sunday 23rd Nov 2014

Twelve of us (including 2 'newbies') met the National Trust Rangers and their dogs in the Sett Valley Trail car park and we drove or got lifts to nearby Park Hall.

It turned out not to be one of our usual 'rhody bash with a fire' activities but, instead, we were pulling up rhody re-growth to ensure it didn't get established. Anything that wouldn't easily pull out was left alone and would be sprayed later to kill it off.

There used to be lots of rhody around where we were working and it was good to see that huge area's were now devoid of rhododendron ponticum.
Although it was sometimes hard to spot the small rhody, it was quite tiring to keep bending down to pull it up, it was quite cold and a bit windy, nothing can beat the views you get from working in the High Peak and that alone makes working at Hayfield a pleasure every time.

At the end of the day, when most of us were still there, we took a group photo. Some members reckon it's getting a bit 'cheesy' to include a group photo in the Blog but I think it's a great reminder of the day:-)
 

Monday 17 November 2014

Birch clearance at Thurstaston Common on 16 November 2014

Over to the Wirral for the day to remove birch, a task the group has been doing at a few properties recently, but this time with added spiky bushes (the birch is growing in the gorse of the heathland areas at Thurstaston Common).  The heathland here is what makes the area a Site of Special Scientific Interest, with rare bird and plant species, including the carnivorous sundews, and the birch needs to be prevented from starting the process of woodland recolonisation.  There were numerous Scots Pine saplings which would rapidly take over if not removed.


Six volunteers from our group joined with the Merseyside and Cheshire groups, and the ranger, who was treating the birch stumps to stop them regrowing, had trouble keeping up.  The weather was warm and pleasant, a fine chocolate spice cake eaten and a satisfyingly large area of the heath was cleared.  Mick

Tuesday 11 November 2014

Holly clearance at Quarry Bank Mill on 9 November 2014

Twelve of us met up in the car park at Styal on a bright chilly autumn morning this Sunday to carry on a project started by the group a few weeks ago.  The task consisted of the removal of holly from the steep banking bordering the mown field at the back of the mill.  The bank is an established beech woodland but the holly has grown between the beech trees shading out the earth beneath preventing the establishment of a more diverse understory.  The understory should regenerate naturally due to the seed bank being a natural store of native plant seeds that has lain dormant in the earth since the holly took over.  Once the understory has reestablished it will attract a far greater variety of wildlife.


Scrambling about cutting and dragging the holly trees down the steep soft bank was a particularly strenuous job and I expect there were a few sore muscles the following day.  After being dragged down the slope the holly was humped over the fence and taken to the chipper where the big orange machine munched the trees up into sawdust and spat it back over the fence.  Unfortunately John the ranger's knob came off in his hand and the machine stalled so we had to stop a bit early, but we got plenty done and had a lot of fun.

The cake provided this week was an Irish Whiskey cream sponge made with instant Horlicks because Tim had no cocoa powder - but it tasted okay anyway!  Tim

Sunday 2 November 2014

Removing a yew hedge at Biddulph Grange Garden on Sunday 2nd Nov 2014

Five of us arrived at Biddulph Grange(including one newbie) and were met by Paul, the head gardener. We were supposed to be lifting dahlia's but, because it had rained overnight, the ground would have been too muddy to do this, so we were taken to the yew hedge instead. Sections of the hedge are 150years old but it's growing in heavy clay and some parts cannot grow because of the clay. We were told that the entire hedge, on either side of the path, is to be cut down so a trench can be dug to remove a large quantity of clay, drainage laid and better quality soil added to fill the trench, before a new yew hedge is planted.

The 'before shot' of the yew hedge behind Sam and Sue
 All this takes time and there was only so much we could do in a day, but we gave it our best shot!

We quickly got the fire going and were amazed at how quickly the yew burnt. Four of us lopped and bowsawed the yew and dragged the off-cuts to the fire while Adrian (mainly) loaded the fire. We worked hard, stopping only for a mid-morning break and a spot of lunch, before getting back to the task in hand. We managed to remove 2/3rds of the hedge on one side of the path, as requested, leaving 18inches or so of each trunk, to enable it to be winched out later.

There were plenty of visitors to Biddulph Grange that day and we were able to chat to them as they walked past asking what we were doing.

We finished around 3pm and Paul had arranged that we went into the café for a cup of tea and biscuits - a lovely touch at the end of the day:-)
Group shot at the end of the day without the yew hedge!