SADLY, WORKDAYS CANCELLED FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE DUE TO THE COVID-19 (CORONAVIRUS) PANDEMIC

Although, currently, we cannot hold our Sunday workdays or weekends away, the National Trust and the Ranger teams at the National Trust properties we visit are working hard to ensure we can get back to what we do best - rhody bashing, footpath work, pond clearance, fencing and (hopefully) dry stone walling, as soon as possible, so please don't let it stop you getting in touch with us if you are interested in the type of work we do.

If you'd like to find out more, email us on info@mntv.org.uk so we can send you additional information about MNTV and add you to our mailing list if you would like us to.  That way, as soon as we find out when we can start volunteering again, we can let you know :-)

Cheers

MNTV Committee

Rhodybash at Park Hall, Hayfield on Sunday 15th March 2020

With the threat of coronavirus hanging over the country, there was some doubt over whether today's workday would go ahead. As it happened, this was the last time we would be out before stronger measures around social distancing put a stop to our activities for the foreseeable future.

There were ten of us on a day that promised some iffy weather, but turned out much better than we'd expected. Mark and Iain from the Hayfield team took us onto Park Hall Moor to pull small rhody regrowth on a patch that was extensively cleared, and which we've revisiting many times in recent years.

Thankfully, given the chilly wind on the moor, we then retreated to the woods, where we've also previously worked recently, to continue.

Matt

MNTV social: pub quiz at The Hesketh, Cheadle Hulme on Mon 9th March 2020

Five of us, a smaller group than usual (partly due to concerns about the current coronavirus outbreak) met at The Hesketh this evening. Sue, Phil and Andy had a meal before the quiz started while Karin and Richard joined us a little later.
As the quiz papers were being handed out, we were told that the format of the quiz would be different this evening because the sheets had been prepared to raise money for charity. We would be taking part in the World's Biggest Pub Quiz, which was running between
8-12th March, raising money for Action Against Hunger. A donation bucket was circulated before the quiz began.
The quiz started with a picture round, all the names of the people in the pictures had a link to food or drink, then we were asked questions from 5 different sections and the answers in each section had links to something, be it sport, colours, mathematical terms, writers or elements. This was fun and helped us decide if an answer was likely to be correct.
Although there wasn't 'officially' a music section, the quiz master likes doing a music section, so added that in as an extra.
After we swapped papers with another table, the answers were marked before the papers were handed in to the quiz master to be collated. When the scores were read out, we came 7th out of, approximately, 20 teams - so not a bad result (mainly thanks to Phil's amazing contribution!)

Richard took the photo

Edging the drive at Dunham Massey on Sunday 8th March 2020

Nine MNTVers met ranger John in the car park at 09:30 for our second workday this year at Dunham Massey. We’d had no info about what job we’d be doing and it turned out the ‘routine’ bow saws and loppers we’d taken with us weren’t needed. We worked most of the day on our own as John was the only ranger on duty and had to spend most of his time supervising the carpark.

The task was trimming the edge of the main driveway leading to the house, a job well known to everybody who has a lawn in their garden, but in this case the ‘lawn’ was the park and the driveway is 1km long!

We hammered in metal posts, strung string between them, then used a hoe to cut a neat edge. This was a basic, straightforward but useful job; too big a job to complete in one day but we made a good start.

Once the trimmings and winter debris had been cleared way, the drainage and appearance of the approach to the house looked a lot better. The location was very visible to visitors and gave us lots of opportunities to chat and spread the word about MNTV.

Afterwards:-)

The weather was wetter than forecast but the showers didn’t last too long and were followed by sunshine. We managed to have lunch during a sunny period; the cake selection today was multinational, stollen from Germany and Bolo de Mel de Cana (cane sugar) from Madeira.

 Text from Jean, Photo's from Jean and Karin

Rhodi bashing at Lyme Park on Sunday 1st March 2020

Twelve of us from MNTV met Ranger Dan in the main Lyme Park car park at 9.30am, together with a couple of Lyme Park volunteers.
Although it was a nice day, Dan suggested we wear our wellies if we had them because it would be very muddy in the area of the park that we would be working.
We loaded his vehicle up with our tools and rucksacks and walked to met him up by the kennels, where we unloaded our gear and continued on foot to Coalpit Clough, in the Red Deer Sanctuary, through some exceptionally boggy area's due to the recent rain!
After a health and safety talk, Dan told us about the work that's been done in placing 80 bird boxes in the area. This is to encourage migratory birds, such as Pied Flycatchers, who travel from sub Saharan Africa to Lyme Park each year. He told us that some of the individual Pied Flycatchers use exactly the same bird boxes that they'd used the previous year!

Loading the fire

Then, while a couple of us started a fire, the rest collected the tools and, in small groups, started cutting down the rhododendron, dragging it to the fire where it was cut into smaller lengths before being burned.

By mid-morning, the decision was taken to start a second fire which was nearer to a large clump of rhodi, so anything cut from it didn't need to be dragged very far.

In amongst the rhodi!

Although it was a cold day (we had 30 seconds of hail at one point!), it stayed dry and bright, and we all enjoyed a great workday and a break from the rain of the past week.

End of the day group photo (two MNTVers had left before the photo was taken)

Photo's from Tricia and Sue