Halloween at Biddulph Grange Gardens

You find me on my way home to Edinburgh I'm currently on train bound for York as with the West Coast Main Line is closed between Preston and Carlisle due to a train derailment at Shap, in the early hours of this morning I'm heading for the East Coast Line.

I was in Manchester to join the group for a workday at Biddulph Grange Gardens. I was joined by 8 others on a chilly but sunny Sunday morning, for our annual task for taking out the Daliahs. This task involves cutting down the Daliahs, taking out the stakes which we had put in earlier in the year, making sure to keep a hold of the labels so that they can be tied on to the tubular and then put in a crate with other plants of the same name. There were names such as Boom Boom Yellow, Edinburgh, Purple Gem and Golden Sceptre. Some of the Dahlias were still looking good but it was time for all of them to come out.

Before we started we were asked if anyone wanted to cut a bunch of Daliahs for the cafe so I offered…you can see my arrangement below.

We had our coffee break at outside tables that belonged to the cafe and although it was in the shade and a little chilly it was great to be able to enjoy being outside with nature, Robin Redbreast joined us in the hope of getting some crumbs leftover from our Mr Kipling cakes Sue had provided. 

Work carried on and some of the daliah beds were in sunshine which was actually quite warm and others were in the shade and coats were needed. But we worked away at our different tasks wherever we were. Lunch was eaten near to the worksite some of us in the sunshine others not. It did make me smile that out side the gardens was a sign that said no picnics and there we were eating our picnics. Whilst working we had been passed by many visitors asking for advice about Daliahs also saying how much they had enjoyed seeing them on previous visits. We even got asked about the group, hopefully they will join us on future workdays. 

Many of the visitors to the gardens were families on the look out for Halloween related objects, we found this chap working hard near the truck and trailer where we were putting the cut off dahlias, he was dead pleased to see us as his heart was no longer in it. His name badge told us he was called Albert Spinestein....

We finished our day at about 3.15pm we didn't quite manage to take out all the Daliahs but Gardeners Holly and Jack were delighted with what we had got done.

Afterwards Sue, Jean and I went in search of a Red Maple Tree in the China Garden, Sue had been told about. It was fabulous to see, particularly with the colours of the Chinese Garden.  

Sue and I also followed a sign I had seen on the way in, it was an arrow with Kitchen Garden painted on so we went exploring....

Thanks to everyone who joined Me we had a great day...and yes I made it back to Edinburgh

Putting up bird boxes and bashing rhody and birch at Alderley Edge on Sunday 26th October 2025

We got an extra hour in bed this morning because it was clock change day.  Is this why we got ten people meeting up at Alderley Edge on a damp Sunday?

The rain was intermittent all day.  It was one of those days when if you’d been inside you would have thought the weather was horrible, but it wasn’t so bad being out.  We managed to find a dryish spot for lunch.

 

We had a variety of tasks to do in the same area, so plenty of choice.  Two pairs went off putting up bird boxes that had been made by local school children in the summer.

Two others went off to hunt down and destroy any rhody they could find in “Rhody wood”.  Others went off in search of birch to pull up with tree poppers or by hand.

Any oak saplings they found were carefully dug up to preserve the roots and transplanted to the new tree nursery.

 

It has been a fabulous year for fungi - and since it’s Halloween I have included a disembodied hand for scale ;-)

We had a good day, removing unwanted vegetation - to keep the habitat as heathland.  Hopefully some birds will find the nest boxes in the spring.

Jenny

Cancelled - workday at Bickerton Hill on Sunday 19th October 2025

Due to lack of volunteers and looking at the weather forecast we have decided to cancel today's workday.

Our next workday is on 26th October at Alderley Edge.  Jenny is leading and will be in touch this week with all the details.

Ally
MNTV Chair

Seed Spreading at Marsden Moor - Sunday 12th October 2025

On Sunday 12th October a small group of us made the journey up to Marsden Moor.  The task was  heather seed spreading on Holme Moor, the rangers also invited members of the public to join in and we were joined by a lovely gentleman who volunteers at the rangers plant nursery.  

We met the ranger at the bandstand in Marsden Moor and then walked up to the site (approx 45 mins), it was a lovely sunny day and quite warm for the time of year so we had a quick tea break before getting to work.  The task was done by hand and we had to scatter the seeds in between the clumps of purple moor grass (tussocks), to do this we had to scarify the soil to reveal the peat below.

View from top of the moor

Work area containing Tussocks grass

Bag of seeds

Working away

Seed spreading

End of Day group photo

The catch water drains

We finished quite early and made our way back down to Marsden Village and some of us decided to stay on for a drink as there was a jazz festival on.  This was my first visit to Marsden Moor and it certainly won't be my last, the village is lovely and the scenery is amazing.

Denise Clark
Worksite Leader

Cancelled - workday in the High Peak on Sunday 5th October 2025

Today's rhodybash in the High Peak on Park Hall Moor was cancelled because fewer than five people (the minimum number stipulated by ranger Chris Lockyer) had signed up.  That's obviously a shame, but with Storm Amy blowing in perhaps no surprise.

Hopefully we will have sufficient numbers for our next visit to the High Peak on 9th November to go ahead.

Daniel

Removing birch trees at Alderley Edge on Sunday 28th September 2025

It was lovely to meet up with several members of MNTV where we welcomed two new members on a lovely autumn day.  We walked along the track from the rangers yard with two wheelbarrows full of tools, tree poppers, saws, loppers, etc.  We unlocked the gate to the Engine Vein mine entrance and went through locking the gate behind us just in case the public decided to follow.  One of the fun bits for me of volunteering with MNTV is getting to go places the public don’t have access to.

The task was to remove vegetation, mainly birch trees, from the rocks above the mine to prevent the roots damaging the mine.

We set to work. Any trees that we couldn’t get out with the specialist tree poppers we removed the tops and left a stump so it could be winched out later.

We found some lovely examples of Amanita muscaria  mushrooms amongst the saplings – they look just like the mushrooms in children’s story books:

The second task was to use the saplings we were removing to create a basket weave fence around the area.

This will help keep people out and disguise the metal stock fencing. 

We worked all day but found time to eat cake and chat.

By the end we had cleared a lot of the birch saplings off the rocks and had had fun “basket” weaving the brash into the fence:

Once we had collected all the tools we went to look at the mine entrance which is hidden in the rocks unusually above the gully. The door is an old bank vault door.

We walked back to the cars tired but satisfied that we had done a good job in good company.

Jenny

Cutting back Blackthorn at Lyme Park - Sunday 21st September 2025

Seven MNTV-ers met Rangers Chris and Jason in the main car park at Lyme Park on a cool but dry morning (a huge difference to the deluge of rain that fell yesterday!!).

We were transported back to the admissions hut in the NT vehicle in a couple of trips, and driven up the short drive, through the wooden gate, to Red Lane, which is just outside the boundary of Lyme Park. 

Part way up Red Lane, we went into a Council owned field where we've worked previously, pulling Hymalayan Balsam.  This time we were cutting back Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) - a thorny native British shrub/small tree known for it's early white blossoms in Spring and the dark blue-black fruit (called Sloes) in Autumn. We were cutting it back to the fence line so that the meadow became much larger and could be used for a variety of purposes in the future by the NT.

We were SO lucky with the weather as it improved during the day, and was very sunny for most the the afternoon.

Initially we loaded the dead Blackthorn that had been previously cut onto the back of the trailer, so it could be transported into Lyme Park and disposed of another time. The trailer was re-filled multiple times during the day as we continued to cut the Blackthorn back.

We had our usual break for coffee and cake in the morning, and a lunch break at 1pm, finishing the day soon after 3pm.

We were pleased with what we'd achieved but, as there is still more to deal with, it may be our task next time we visit Lyme Park.

Sue B

Various jobs at Formby on Sunday 14th September 2025

Four of us joined Bree and Jess for a day at the seaside.  The original job planned for today had to be changed due to machinery malfunction, but they had some good alternatives for us to get stuck into.

The first job involved a fire - eat your heart out Neil, Andy & Jack!  There were large piles of brash and cuttings plus loads and loads of chestnut fencing that had all been removed when dismantling Victoria Road car park.  Our aim was to get this done before the rain started at lunchtime.  Talk about precision work - as  the last lot was put on the fire the first spots of rain started to fall!

The second job was to complete a wall of double/triple layers of fence posts.  This is to replace fallen down fencing which was to separate different size stones for the paths.

Finally, we dismantled, de-nailed and cleared timber from the yard and stacked it in a massive skip.  Again a lot of this had come from Victoria Road.

As far as the new car park is concerned, it is well under way and surprisingly is ahead of schedule with it hoping to be complete for next spring.

Bree and Jess were more than happy with what had been achieved, as these were jobs that kept being put on the back burner for more pressing jobs.

Thanks to my colleagues for their hard work and good company.

Christine

Social and Workday at Alderley Edge - Sunday 7th September 2025

On Sunday 7th September we had our first combined social event and workday.  We were due to work at Chirk but due to low volunteer numbers the workday was cancelled and we instead had a last minute change of plan...

During the morning we had a tour of Wood Mine which was a guided tour conducted by the Derbyshire Caving Club as part of their open weekend.  Four of us attended the tour and had an amazing morning learning about the history of the mine and touring the underground tunnels and chambers.  Please see a selection of photos from the mine below.

After exiting the mine we encountered torrential rain so had a very wet walk back to the rangers yard to contemplate whether or not we could go ahead with the afternoon workday task of putting up bird boxes.  There were only three volunteers for the afernoon session but due to the nature of the task it was easily completed with such a small group.

After a short lunch break the rain stopped and we managed to get out in the woodland to put up bird boxes, it's the first time I have used a drill on a workday and we discovered that silver birch are the best trees to drill into!

We all had a lovely day.  We plan to organise another mine tour social in Spring 2026.  There are plenty more bird boxes to put up in future workdays.

Denise Clark
Worksite/Social leader

Cancelled - workday at Dunham Massey on Sunday 31st August 2025

Today’s workday was due to be a balsam bash near the main carpark at Dunham Massey but was cancelled because of forecast high winds (> 40mph).  We would have been lone working for most of the day with occasional visits from the one ranger on duty and an alternative work task couldn’t be provided that was not under trees and near his duty area (mansion house).

Daniel

Sunday 24th August 2025 - Summer Bank Holiday weekend - no workday

Snowdonia Weekend - 15-17th August 2025

Starring Andy, Clare, Daniel, Denise, Jack, Jenny, Neil and Sarah plus David and Di from Merseyside and Eryri ranger Lewis.

For our first weekend away of the year we went to Snowdonia - this time in the summer not at Christmas.  A last minute change to accommodation arrangements meant we stayed at the Glan Dwr Mountain Lodge in Capel Curig not Hendre Isaf.  Glan Dwr is the Eryri base of the New Forest Climbing Club and is beside the Avon Llugwy.  After weeks of drought the water was still churning past so it'd be a spectacular sight after heavy rain.

The weather both days was glorious - sunny and warm with a cool breeze.  The contrast with Storm Darragh last December could not have been more stark.  Both mornings there were terrific views of Snowdon from Capel and each night the sky was inky black and you could see thousands of stars and the Milky Way.

Both days we worked in the valley a few miles south of Hendre Isaf:

On Saturday we  worked in woodland south of the road (red square on map).  We travelled there by minibus (Lewis picked us up at Glan Dwr) and met Andy and Clare at Hendre Isaf because they were staying near there in an NT cottage (chosen because the rest of us were staying at Hendre Isaf - only we didn't!).  Lewis explained that the aim is to open up the wood to the public by creating a footpath through the wood.  He and a previous group had marked out the footpath and we filled in holes in the path to make the surface more level and slashed bracken to extend the path in one section.  The conifer plantation above the wood had recently been felled and replanted with hardwood (alder, birch, oak, etc).

Jack took some remarkable photos with his 360º camera:

On Saturday evening, Daniel, Jenny and Denise cooked up a hearty dinner of spaghetti bolognese with garlic bread followed by apple & blueberry crumble with custard.

After dinner David set us all a quiz.  We did it in two teams (girls v boys) and tied with 37 points each.  The most fun part was picture 2 in the Faces round - David as a 12-year-old schoolboy.  None of us guessed him!

On Sunday we worked in the same valley but in woodland to the north of the road (red chevron on map).  We drove our cars there so that we could go home directly from the worksite and anyone who needed to leave early could.  Across the valley you could see Saturday's worksite:

We did two tasks.  Half the group slashed and cleared bracken to make a switchback footpath on a very steep slope ...

... and the others with Lewis made a stepover stile.  The stile is tightly screwed together and anchored in the ground and should give many years of use when the footpath is opened.

All told it was a super weekend full of enjoyment and good company.  Thanks to Lewis for having us to stay and giving us satisfying jobs to do.

When we are next at Hendre Isaf it will be interesting to go up the valley and see how both worksites look months later.

Daniel