Balsam. bashing at Dunham Massey on Sunday 29th June 2025

Eight of us from MNTV (including a new volunteer) met with Ranger Jon and four Merseyside volunteers on this warm and humid Sunday, to "bash" as much Himalayan balsam as possible before it burst its seed heads and spread further around the wooded area beyond the overflow carpark.

Ranger Jon wasn’t particularly concerned about us tidily piling up the balsam once we’d pulled it up and snapped the lowest node of the stalk off to make it difficult to re-root.  He was more focussed on us pulling up as much as possible so the balsam didn’t have the chance to spread its seeds into the Park.

In smallish groups we went into the wood and found patches of balsam to destroy - which was a very satisfying feeling.  After our morning coffee break we continued the task, moving further into the wood.  By lunchtime we were getting tired and were feeling a lot warmer than when we started.  Most of us were in long sleeves to try and protect our arms from the brambles and nettles and some had caps on too to stop the midges and twigs from trees getting tangled with our hair.

We carried on after lunch and were pleased by the end of the afternoon to see how much balsam we’d actually cleared - unfortunately though, there’s still a lot more to still do,

Sue B

Balsam pulling at Speke Hall - Sunday 22nd June 2025

 It was a small turnout for our return visit to Speke Hall on 22nd June... just three volunteers.

We were again working in Stockton Wood but this time we were working right at the back of the woods next to the tyre factory.  The task was balsam pulling but with hardly any balsam it was more like weeding the woods!

Due to the balsam being spread out across the woods we could not really get a before and after picture.

As you can see below the wood is very dense with prickly bushes which made the task quite difficult at times.

The balsam was mostly quite small but we did occasionally find a larger plant!

We ended the day just after lunchtime as we had cleared everything and the ranger did not have anything else for us to do.  A bonus to get to the supermarket before the shops close!

Photo above is a lovely wildflower bed just in front of the visitor centre.

Denise Clark
Worksite Leader

Cutting down poplar saplings at Formby on Sunday 15th June 2025

Six of us met Ranger Al in the Lifeboat Road carpark.  The forecast said cloudy but there wasn’t a cloud in sight so we slapped on the sun cream just in case it stayed like that.

We drove from the public carpark to get closer to the worksite which was on land south of Lifeboat Road recently given to the NT to manage by Sefton Council.  We went through an automatic gate into a very exclusive housing estate with a very large new manor house which would rival several NT stately homes!

The task was chopping down White and Grey Poplar saplings to reduce the vegetation in the area and allow for more sand dunes.  The saplings spread along root systems, so are clones:

They plan to have contractors in to take out the big trees ...

... but the smaller trees will grow rapidly when the larger tress are removed, so needed to be nipped in the bud.

Al explained that Formby has about 10% of the country's entire population of Black Poplar, which we were leaving alone.  They have done genetic testing and the 800 mature black poplar trees in Formby are all clones from just two trees!  The black poplar is an endangered species and most of the trees are male.

During the day we had a walk over to “Devils hole”, an area of shifting sand dunes deep enough to have a pond at the bottom – although it has been so dry recently there wasn’t much water in it.

Ariel view when there was more water about:

We slowly worked our way around a patch of established woodland cutting down the smaller poplars and stacking the brash in the trailer.  The brash will get used for dead hedging to make a stockproof fence to help control the longhorn cattle they hope to have grazing on the land in the winter.

The day continued warm, but with an onshore breeze it wasn’t too bad.  We managed to clear a long strip beside the wood, but there is still plenty of work left for the local group to do cutting the rest of the poplars down.

Jenny

-        

Putting in fence posts at Styal on Sunday 8th June 2025

Six of us met up with Ceara including a new volunteer Sam, who travelled from Rochdale by bicycle!  OMG, I am tired at just the thought of it!

We had a change of task from the original balsam bashing to putting in fence posts.  The worksite was around the fields off the footpath from the visitor centre to the village.  The reason for the change is that that they want to put Highland cattle in the these fields in the next few weeks.  The cattle are currently at Bank House Farm and they need to be moved soon, so this has become a bit of an urgent job.

The fields are currently wild flower meadows and the cattle will help to maintain the natural growth.

We had a great day.  It was hard work but we had lots of people stopping and asking what was going on in the fields.

Thank you to Ceara and my colleagues for their hard work and good company.

Christine

Staking out the dahlias at Biddulph Grange Gardens on Sunday 1st June 2025

I could just refer you to a previous blog for Biddulph...late spring, but that would be unfair.

Our annual pilgrimage to Biddulph to put the stakes in for the Dahlias along the famous Dahlia walk.   

The day started well with some sunshine poking between the clouds.  The Biddulph gardening team had organised everything with the end stakes in each bed set out, and the right number of stakes set out by each bed.  

 We had to put a line across between the stakes measure the gap divide the gap by the number of SPACES required in the map. Then place the stakes equal distance apart.   It turns out that despite my maths degree, arithmetic  is harder than it looks. But we did get the hang of it eventually.  The stakes were hammered in to make a solid support for the Dahlias.   

 We had a break for 11's when the local church bells peeled. 

                                                            

We went back to work and managed to get all the stakes in by lunch time. 

We just about managed to dodge the short shower. After lunch we set about digging holes in front of each stake so the gardeners could easily plant the Dahlia corms out this week.  We met a lots of members of the public during the day. We often paused to explain who we were and what we were doing, despite our earnest efforts no one  believed that the stakes would bloom once watered. 

We plan to be back in the autumn to take the stakes back out and label up the Dahlias ready to rest for the winter. 

Sunday 25th May 2025 - Spring Bank Holiday weekend - no workday

'Ladies Day' Digging Drainage Trench at Speke Hall - Sunday 18th May

Well it was an all girls workday on Sunday 18th May at Speke Hall, in all my years vounteering I don't believe we have ever had this before.

Five of us spent the day in Stockton Wood (next to the car park).  Ranger Ian explained that the wood can be quite waterlogged so drainage trenches had previously been created throughout various parts of the wood but over the years these have filled up with soil and leaves.

When we arrived at the site there was little evidence of a trench been there previously.

We split up into groups to work on the trench in stages so that we would eventually join up the line.  

               

      

It was hard work digging the trench as tree roots were found in the soil.

After a back breaking day we eventually finished the trench.

At the end of the workday Ranger Ian took us down to the Hall for a tour around.

Despite it being hard work we all had a lovely day and enjoyed our tour of the Hall.  We will be back again in June.

Denise Clark

Worksite Leader

Removing fencing and tree guards at Lyme Park on Sunday 11th May 2025

Today should have been at Erddig but unfortunately they had to cancel at the last minute so a big thank you to Lyme Park for coming up with a workday for us.  It is much appreciated.

We met ranger Jason in the main car park and as there were only four of us he said we could park in the volunteer car park by the stables.  Phew!  That saved a steep walk.

Our job was to remove deer fencing up in Lantern Wood, so Jason loaded up the Kabuto with our bags etc. and we met him up at the top.

Youth rangers had been working on the two sections in the week so it turns out that we didn't need to remove many staples or lift out many of the inner posts we mainly had to collect the posts and stack them.  Then we pulled all the metal fencing down onto an even path and rolled it up.  Easy bit done now we had to take out the straining posts.

Well to cut a long story short, after a lot of hard work, especially in the heat, we managed it, and I do mean hard work as they were tall posts that were in the ground by a good 3 feet.

After we had moved everything from both worksites and stacked in one spot ready for collection, we made our way down to an area behind the gardens where we started to remove tree guards.  On the way down David and Victor decided that the way to get from one side of a wall to the other was via the dog hole rather than the stile!

It was a very hot day and a big thank you goes out to my colleagues and Jason for their hard work in these conditions, and also for their company.

Christine

38th AGM on Thursday 8th May 2025

We held our AGM tonight by zoom starting at 7:30pm.

Eight members attended:
Adrian Potts, Ally Hardy, Daniel Black, Denise Clark, Emma Summerhayes, Hazel Pryor, Jenny Pitcock and Sue Bonner.

Apologies for absence were received from:

Andy Hill, Christine Hill, Andy Screen, Charlie Spiller, Jean MacDonald, Neil Bonner and Karin Frood

The following matters were covered:

Minutes of 2024 AGM

Chairman's Report for the year ended 31 March 2025

Treasurer's Report for the year ended 31 March 2025

Election of the committee for 2025-26

AOB

After the AGM we had an interesting talk for an hour (including Q&A) from Issy Bovaird, ex-MNTV and now Lead Ranger, Alderley Edge.

Issy joined Alderley Edge from Lyme Park one year ago and has been getting to grips with what’s happening and what’s not quite right.  It’s been a difficult first year impacted by funding cuts post-covid (recruitment freezes, spending freezes) and to mitigate enforced cost increases (National Minimum Wage, employer National Insurance).  Alderley Edge has had to make cutbacks, for example plans to give visitors a better welcome (car park project) have been paused.

 

She talked about current and future projects at Alderley Edge in the context of the Trust’s recently announced new strategy for the next decade and beyond:

 

To restore nature – not just on National Trust land, but everywhere

To end unequal access to nature, beauty and history

To inspire millions more people to care and take action

 

To restore nature:

Examples at Alderley include insect surveys (to get a baseline for the insects Alderley has today) and “veteranising” trees (deliberately damaging their bark) to make them more hospitable to bugs.

Nine volunteers have been trained in baiting and trapping badgers so the badgers can be vaccinated against TB.

New groups are volunteering at Alderley: five schools have made bug hotels and some companies have done footpath work.

 

To end unequal access

Alderley have removed some gates and widened others.  They are doing lots of footpath work so that people can get around the woods.  The new Holy Well bridge went in to today.

 

To inspire people:

Trust staff are getting older and it is very important to get young people involved with the Trust and its work.  Alderley have an apprentice ranger for another year (who can work with us on Sundays) and Hare Hill is getting its own apprentice ranger.  Meanwhile, Tim Ryan (also ex-MNTV) continues to work two days per week.

See above re other volunteer groups getting involved at Alderley.

  

Bosley Cloud is a property covered by Issy and her team.  We talked about the access difficulties (uphill slog with tools to worksites) that we know deter members from going and wondered if anyone in MNTV has a 4x4 to drive tools up Gosberryhole Lane to the boundary with the open land.  The Congleton Harriers no longer do workdays there with Tim.

 

All in all, Issy’s first year at Alderley has been busy and next year is likely to be busier still with the requirement to do more for less.  We have several Alderley workdays in the programme and look forward to helping her out.

Daniel Black
MNTV Chairman

Sunday 4th May 2025 - Early May Bank Holiday weekend - no workday

Fencing and footpath repair at Styal on Sunday 27th April 2025

Six MNTVers met Ranger Stu on a warm and sunny morning to do various fencing tasks around Bank House Farm.  This is in preparation for cattle to be grazed in the surrounding fields.

The first job was to repair a couple of gateposts.  The base of one support post had rotted away but was still embedded in hard ground.  It needed lots of brute force with various post hole diggers and bars to clear it out.

The second gate had an unstable support post that was still usable.  Once the upright was reseated and level, stones and soil were used to anchor it in place.  As good as new!

The second job was to put a patch on a section of fencing that had been completely cut through by vandals.  A fresh strip was cut then ‘woven’ into the existing fence, filling the gap.

The last job was footpath repair.  A new path has opened up the area near Giant’s Castle steps for walkers but erosion has increased near the boardwalk.  This is at the bottom of a steep slope so we had to wheelbarrow stones down the hill and lay them amongst tree roots as a protective layer.

A picture of a pile of stones isn’t of much interest - unless you turn it into a group photo.  This was an unusual day, lots of smaller jobs instead of one big one, but it shows how the NT is balancing use of the area for farming and leisure.

Jean

Sunday 20th April 2025 - Easter Sunday - no workday

Cancelled - workday at Speke Hall on Sunday 13th April 2025

Unfortunately, today's workday at Speke Hall was cancelled at short notice because of a lack of staff availability.

There is no workday next week because it's Easter Sunday and so we resume our activities on Sunday 27th April at Styal.

MNTV Committee

Broom and gorse clearance and log bagging at Formby on Sunday 6th April 2025

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, oh I do like to be beside the sea ... well we almost were.

Six of us made the trip over to Formby to work with ranger Jess on what started out as a rather cold morning but with a beautiful blue sky.

We walked from the rangers offices to the worksite at Larkhill Heath.  This is an area we have worked in before when we laid the hawthorn hedge.  Today we were to chop down the broom and gorse which was growing very well and if not controlled would kill off the heather and overshadow other plant species as well as damage the hedge.

It didn't take long before the layers of clothing came off and the sun became quite hot - so much so that when we broke for lunch we changed jobs to give us some cover.

Formby cut and sell their own timber for log burners, so in the afternoon we moisture tested samples from each bay and as long as they tested below 19% they were bagged up and put into storage.  We also moved bags around to make room in the sheds nearest to the logs that are still drying.

Currently Formby have plenty of trees to be processed because they have started clearing the area that is going to be the new car park, so plenty more logs to be cut and split.  Some of these trees will be used to make more tables and benches - maybe a job for MNTV next time we visit.

Thanks to Jess for looking after us and thank you to my colleagues for their hard work in very warm conditions.

Christine

Constructing a cleft fence at Alderley Edge on Sunday 30th March 2025

We gathered at Alderley Edge carpark at 10am on clock change day, a little later (or earlier) than usual depending on whether you were on Saturday's time or Sunday's.

We left most of our cars in the main carpark and took one and the NT pickup loaded with equipment round to the Mottram Road quarry where there is only a small carpark.  The job was to remove the old fencing and replace with cleft fencing next to the carpark.

The new fence posts and cleft rails were being made from trees cut down on the Alderley Edge estate and are untreated wood, which means they are better for the local flora and fauna and have a low carbon footprint.

As the logs are locally sourced they didn't come presplit or with rail holes so we had to split one of the logs  to create a half post using wedges and hammers.  Splitting the log by following the natural grain of the wood gave it a rustic look.

We also shaped the ends of the cleft rails using hand axes so that they would fit into the holes we had to cut in the posts.

It was satisfying taking local timber and creating a fence with (mostly) hand tools. 

Jenny 

Woodland work at Chirk Castle on Sunday 23rd March 2025

Three of us met up at Quarry Bank Mill at 8:40 to carshare to Chirk Castle for 10am where we met up with four more members of the group.  The castle is an impressive sight on the hill.  We were working just inside the entrance (on the right) so we took two cars round the one way system to get to the worksite.

The mixed wood has had extra trees planted there over the last 10 years to fill in the gaps.  The trees still had plastic guards round them that had been put on to protect the saplings from rabbits.  Our job was to remove the guard from any tree with a stem bigger than our thumbs in a glove.  We set to work removing the guards and bagging them up.  By morning break we had filled two bags, so the ranger went back for several more.

By lunchtime we had filled enough bags to put on the back of a flat-bed truck, so one of the group went to help empty the truck.  The tree guards will be recycled by a specialist company and the stakes and reusable cable ties will be salvaged and reused.

We had another break for lunch.  Although the weather remained dry it was a bit cold to sit around for long so we went back to work.  By the end of the day we had collected guards from over half the trees and filled two flat-bed truckloads of large rubble bags with guards for recycling.  We drove back up to the castle to reunite people with their cars and travelled home.

The ranger was very happy with our progress and asked how to get us back to help again.  At the moment there are only two staff to look after the whole estate land so they really appreciate help from volunteer groups like MNTV.  The next time we visit the ranger. who we met on Sunday, will actually be living in the castle as warden.  What a fabulous address!

Jenny

Rhodybash at Lyme Park on Sunday 16th March 2025

The programme said Styal, but due to staff illness there they cancelled and so we contacted Lyme Park and asked if they would like some volunteers on Sunday.  Chris said he would be delighted to have our help and confirmed that the staff rota showed they had someone who could join us.  Ten of us gathered in the carpark at Lyme at 9:30, joined by Duty Ranger Claire, who had been in the park since 7am, enjoying the countryside.

We made our way up to Lantern Wood via the stable yard to pick up tools and fire lighting materials.  We followed the Kuboto up the right hand side of the wood until we reached the path taking you across to the Lantern.  Halfway along the wall up the hill beside Lantern Wood there is work being done to create a vehicle entrance and move the ladder stile.  When we stopped to catch our breath and take in the view across the Cheshire plain Claire explained what was going on:

The deer to the right of Lantern Wood have been overgrazing the moor and struggling to survive.  Although numbers have been reduced to an estimated 80 deer, Lyme decided that the best thing to do was to move the deer to the deer reserve along East Gate road on the other side of Lantern Wood.  They started to feed the deer with deer nuts from the back of the Kuboto whilst driving across the moor.  Over a few weeks the deer were happy to follow the vehicle to get the nuts.  Once they had about 60 deer willing to follow the vehicle they opened up the path through Lantern Wood and Pied Piper style led the deer through the wood following a trail of deer nuts!  The deer then mingled with the herd on the other side.  Buoyed by their success they decided to go through the same process to gather the remaining deer.  The remaining deer were more cautious but after a while they would recognise the vehicle and follow it.  This time they collected another 50 deer, more than expected, and after several more weeks they managed to lead this group through the wood to the better pasture on the other side as well.

After morning story time we made our way to the rhody to cut and burn.  There was a lot of rhody already cut and quite dry so we managed to have two fires going and also cut more rhody ready for another group to burn.

Jason swapped places with Claire in the afternoon and explained that the cutting season in Lyme is a bit longer than other places because the weather is a bit harsher up there and bird nesting is a bit later.  We did hear several birds, including a curlew.

Jenny