MNTV Social - Sunday 5th January - What should have been a walk at Tatton Park

With no Ranger picking up the first Sunday of 2025, it was decided that a walk around Tatton Park and a bite of lunch after would be the order of the day. Unfortunatley with amber weather warnings in force with the threat of snow we decided to cancel the meet up.

We will be back out and about at Lyme Park on 12th January, we hope to see you there!

What's in store in 2025!

 

Dear All, it’s the 8th of December and you find me in Dunbar. I'm enjoying a week off before the hoards arrive in Edinburgh. This weekend with my parents away so I came for a break from the city and to put up their Christmas tree. I didn’t get quite the break I wanted as today I was back in Edinburgh singing with my Choir the Summerhall Singers at the Summerhall Christmas Fair. There were many stalls selling goodies from Candles, Cards, Felt Crafty goodness to Wooly hats with lots of jewellery thrown in for good measure. I did however get the chance to see the Polar Express leave Edinburgh Waverley Railway Station, as I waited for my train home. The Steam Train and carriages were full of smiling happy children all hoping to catch a glimpse of Santa himself. These things remind Me that Christmas is just around the corner as is a new year. With a new year comes a new programme and I would like to say it is confirmed but with Rangers being very busy and some just not getting back to Me it’s still not confirmed. But let me tell you what I do know, it’s time to get those diaries out….

Firstly weekends….Some of the group have been in Snowdonia this weekend, I took the year off and from what I have been told it was another very wet and incredibly windy weekend which meant that Saturdays workday was cancelled, the team decided to partake in jigsaws and in a break from the rain managed a short walk, we will no doubt get a full report in due course. We return to Snowdonia in 2025, if you would like to join us then please put 15th to 17th August into you diary for our Summer in Snowdonia Weekend
. I'm hoping that the weather will be far more pleasant than this weekend.

Our other weekend is a bit up in the air at the moment as when I contacted Vicky at Calke Abbey in October she wasn’t sure what work would be available and booking the basecamp so far ahead is just not the done thing, the team at Calke are also looking into ways of looking after the Basecamp a little better, those of you who have been there will probably agree if I said it was rustic and although only used for Volunteer Groups, which is good for us and them it still needs looking after which could mean paying a little something for the use of it, which is totally understandable. My hope is that we go there on the last weekend in November - 28th - 30th November - whether it be a Christmas Weekend is yet to be determined, perhaps we could take a few elements from a Christmas Weekend and make it a Non Christmassy Christmas Weekend.

As a point of interest Merseyside NTEV group have a weekend at Calke Abbey on 28th to 30th March, which if they have any spaces left we will get an invite, if interested please look out for an email about it and if you are desperate to go do get in touch with the Committee and they can get more information for you. If we have space in August we will of course be inviting them in return.

That’s the weekends out the way….

It’s now ten days later, last year I emailed you about Dunham Massey rethinking how they use Volunteers. The Ranger Team there have had volunteers back, just not us, yet, yes, those are the ones I was waiting for a reply to when I began this report. But I’m pleased to say that at the 11th hour they emailed to say they would be delighted to have us. Merseyside returned to Dunham in 2024, so I have piggybacked onto some of their workdays in 2025, we also have a couple of workdays there on our own. Having finally got the reply from Dunham that I’d been waiting for, let me tell you what else we have in store for you in 2025.

The first Sunday of 2025 was not picked by any Ranger, so Christine and Andy have kindly offered to lead a walk round Tatton Park, finishing with Lunch in a pub for lunch. Tatton Park isn’t fully owned by the Trust this is the reason we don’t travel there. More details of this Social day will be sent out to you nearer the time.

With the first Sunday of 2025 a social, our workdays kick off on the 12th January and we will be travelling to Lyme Park on this day. Your worksite leaders for the day are Jenny and Myself. I’m very much looking forward to it and to properly meeting the Rangers at Lyme. In January we also travel to Alderley Edge and Hayfield helping the Rangers who look after Kinder Scout and the Dark Peak. 

February brings us our first trip to Dunham and one of 2 trips to Hardcastle Crags we will also visit Styal and Alderley Edge. 

Our first Sunday of March brings us another trip to Lyme which I may or may not make an appearance at. We also travel to Hayfield, Styal and one of 2 visits to Chirk Castle in North Wales. 

April brings us Easter and our first visits to Formby and Speke. When I got in touch with Speke asking for dates Ranger Ian came back with 3 dates and said if any were available he would love to see us, so when I said that all 3 were free were available he immediately said Yes so we will be at Speke in May and June. We also visit Styal between the 2 bank holidays on 27th April. 

May brings us 2 workdays, the aforementioned trip to Speke and our first of two trips to Erddig near Wrexham. Did you know Erddig has an Apple Festival it celebrated its 40th Anniversary in 2019!

June brings us our traditional trip to Biddulph Grange, with an added attraction, see “in other news”….we also visit Formby, Speke and Dunham, on this trip to Dunham we join Merseyside, this will hopefully mean that there is a big group so we can get lots done.

In July we visit Styal, Erddig with Merseyside, Alderley Edge and Hardcastle Crags. Did you know that Gibson Mill is now the National Trust's flagship sustainable building. It's powered by solar panels, water turbines, and a log-burning stove, and is self-sufficient in energy, water, and waste treatment?

With Dunham being late to the party they have been given 2 dates in August we also have a day at Lyme and our weekend to Snowdonia. The Snowdonia National Park is now known as Eryri but I’m not sure Summer in Eryri has the same ring to it as Summer in Snowdonia!

With the summer holidays over, in September we have 2 longer distance work venues. We join Merseyside on our second visit to Chirk we also take a trip to the seaside at Formby and we fit in Styal and Alderley.

After September comes October and with it cooler weather and 4 workdays we travel to Hayfield, have our only visit to Marsden Moor and Bickerton, at Bickerton we will be joined by Merseyside and we finish October with a visit to Alderley.

November brings shorter days but we still have 4 workdays to fill. On the 2nd November we return to Biddulph to no doubt partake in the Dahlia destruction day. We are, I think, professionals at this job so if you have never done this task before then there will be plenty of people there who have and can talk you through it. We also travel to Hayfield, Formby and Styal. As mentioned before we hope to have our Calke Abbey Weekend. 

December brings just 3 workdays Alderley, Lyme and we finish the year at Dunham on 21st December.  

I sent out the programme to the worksite leaders earlier this week so they could sign up and plan their bakes. If you want to give leading a go do let either Myself or another Worksite Leader know and we can talk you through it. My thanks go to the worksite leaders for agreeing to lead.

Don't forget if you would like to come on a workday then, just wait for an email in the days prior to the workday that will give you all the details and just reply to that email to let us know you would like to join us for the day.

 

So that’s what is in store for 2025. 

In other news, I’ve been doing a little bit of networking. I contacted our nearest sister groups to find out how they plan their program, organise weekends and to see if we could join forces. I’m very pleased to announce that on 1st June 2025 we will be joined by Shropshire and Staffordshire NTVs at Biddulph Grange it is at the Northern tip of their patch and they rarely go there, but the publicity contact for their group was very pleased I got in touch and said that as MNTV will be there it will be an incentive to travel to Biddulph. I’m hoping that going forward into 2026 and beyond we can join forces with them and other groups. This brings like minded people together and hopefully makes workdays and weekends bigger and better. It also means more work can be done. 

Whilst networking I also learnt of some sad news, Northumbria National Trust Volunteer Group have decided to call it a day and have disbanded, they covered the areas of Northumberland, Tyne & Wear and County Durham. I sent them a message from the group saying how sorry I was to hear this news. I was also told that the Basecamp at Cragside in Northumberland had closed too, perhaps there’s a link. Should we perhaps organise a working party up there, perhaps there’s the option of helping for more than just a weekend, you tell Me?

It was West Yorkshire NTV group that informed me of the demise of the Northumbria group it was due to an aging group and a drop in numbers, having had a long conversation about it we realised that when we do get new starters, the one's that stay tend to be a similar age as those in the group already, which I guess is understandable. It does however mean that we too are an aging group and our eventual demise may be inevitable if we can't entice along younger volunteers. This could be the same for us, if you have any ideas of how to attract younger people please shout up or if you do know of any younger (18+) people who would like to join, bring them along on a workday!

When I contacted SSNTV they also said that if any of our group fancied a change of scene we would be more than welcome at any of their workdays, if you would like to go along to any of there workdays then please email them directly all the details on their website https://ssntv.co.uk/current-events/. I’m sure if you wanted to join any other group you would be more than welcome too. I hope in future to meet up with more groups so that we don’t end up going the way Northumberland have.

Formby have sent sent their Autumn/Winter Edition of their Newsletter to us this includes :- Victoria Road Carpark Plans, Ranger tasks round up, Woodland conservation work update, A DIY step by step guide to making a garden bird feeder from a pinecone and just some of the ways Formby are working with and supporting the local community.  

Also attached is a sneak-peek at a new illustration, which will be part of our information signage going up on site during the Victoria Road project. This visual has been created to help explain the tasks involved in the project, how the sand dune habitat will be restored and to show what the sand dunes may look like after it is all completed.  

They also wished us a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year - We as a committee sent the Rangers a Christmas Card to show our appreciation for them and all the work they do. 

Chris Hunter Acting Area Ranger at Formby also sent us his Volunteer Impact Report, it’s an interesting read and we get an name check, along with Merseyside, the two groups donated a combined 516 hours of our time, all I can say to you now is Get In! and Thank You. 

News from Lyme:

Back in November, Alex Swift who is Volunteering and Community Manager at Lyme Park, sent us an email to tell us about the plans to upgrade the Admissions Hut at Lyme Park. Alex wrote to confirm that they have now submitted a planning application to make improvements to the admissions hut at Lyme. The application aims to increase efficiency and reduce queueing at the entrance to the estate, to reduce the impact of busy days on tenants, neighbours, visitors and Lyme team members.

 

The proposal is to create a new building at the site of the current hut. We intend to increase the number of windows to allow more transactions to be carried out simultaneously, in order to be more efficient in welcoming visitors to Lyme. The plans also allow for the hut to be reconfigured to allow payments to be taken on exit, which will reduce queueing into the estate on extremely busy days. - If you don’t mind me saying so I managed fairly well when I worked at Lyme nearly 15 years ago and that was with one window, I think there was only one Summer's Day when I heard over the Radio we were backing up onto the A6!

You can find summary boards outlining the key points of the application in the Timber Yard, at the Muddy Paws area during opening hour

Lyme also sent their Looking after Lyme newsletter - Winter 2024 

This edition features a Christmas look ahead, overview of recent conservation work on the east elevation of the house, and spotlight on the moorland and deer rut at Lyme.

News from the Lake District. 

Many of you know that with the pandemic that swept the world, the Trust has put an end to it’s working holidays for which the basecamps were an important part of. High Wray Basecamp close to the shores of Lake Windermere was mothballed, we had travelled there for a number of weekends, our last one in the Summer of 2019, so we were disappointed to hear this news. I kept in contact with Philippa on a sporadic basis and in August I made contact again and asked if there was any news about the basecamp, she said there was a meeting on 5th September, so I got back in touch and here is what she said “It brought cautiously good news!  It was more of a fact finding mission, the outcome is people would like to see the Basecamp come back but its going to have to be rebuilt so its sorting out the funding for that.  There is some funding set aside but that’s not available until 2027 so its still a case of watch this space!  I’m keeping positive about it.”  I too am keeping positive that we will eventually get back to High Wray Basecamp. 

Finally, I know it’s a very long way in advance but MNTV will be 40 in 2026 and we will be celebrating that milestone in June 2026, more information will be coming to you in Summer 2025. Did you know we have a tree at Lyme Park with our name and birthday on it!

It’s now the 20th December as you can see it has as usual taken me a while to write this “Keeping in Touch”, all my presents are wrapped and Christmas cards sent out. I think all that I need to say is on behalf of your Committee have a very Merry Christmas and a fabulous Hogmanay or New Year.

 

I look forward to seeing you all in 2025

 

Ally

Programme Planner

Ivy clearance at Quarry Bank Mill on Sunday 15th December 2024

We had a good turnout for our last workday of the year as ten of us joined ranger Stuart for a bit of hedge maintenance.

We were working in Apprentice Lane, which runs from the apprentice house to the Methodist church in Styal village.  The hedges had not been cut back for many years and therefore had ivy growing right through them.  In fact in places the ivy was the only thing keeping the hawthorn hedge standing!

So we set to trying to untangle the ivy by cutting/pulling it out.  Time passed so quickly because you actually felt you were achieving something that it was time to pack up before we knew it!

We had a lot of people passing by as we were working, some asking what we were doing and some very kindly thanking us which makes it all worthwhile.

Thanks to Stuart for a great workday and thank you to my colleagues for their good company and hard work.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Christine 

Christmas in Cymru ... not quite the weekend we were expecting ... 7th/8th December 2024

It's becoming a tradition ... the first full weekend in December is our Christmas meet - once again in Snowdonia because the bunkhouse is free!

Six of us travelled across to Hendre Isaf on Friday evening, all glad to arrive before Storm Darragh hit.  We all received the Government red alert message as we drove - saying the red alert began at 3am on Saturday and giving advice about how to prepare for loss of power/electricity and generally keep safe.

Sure enough, the gales blew all night and it was no surprise that Saturday's workday was cancelled because of the danger of working near trees, flying debris and it being unsafe to be out and about.

What to do now ... well, Denise and Martin both reached for jigsaws of which the bunkhouse had several and we set to work solving them.  We had this 500 piece one done by 11am.  Neil was given the honour of putting in the last piece!

On several occasions the lights all went out, only to (thankfully!) come back on seconds later.  The rain hammered down and the wind blew - at times shaking the road sign outside the bunkhouse!

After lunch the weather had calmed down a little and the rain had stopped.  Five of us went on a safely-away-from-trees walk on the road up the valley to the tiny hamlet of Ysbyty Ifan.  The river was in spate and was thundering under the bridge.  We looked round the church then headed back.  Denise used the privvy of a widow who at 86 years old is still farming sheep!

Back at base we freshened up and after a couple of hours were tucking into a scrumptious Christmas dinner of turkey (nut roast for Tim) with all the trimmings followed by Mary's homemade Christmas pudding with brandy sauce.  That was a good meal!

Secret Santa then called and everyone received a gift:

We were determined to complete the 1000 piece jigsaw that Martin had started in the morning, and got it done by 10:15pm.  Trees and sky held us up for quite a long time at the end.  Neil again fitted the last piece!  Three pieces were missing and Daniel noted this on the inside of the box lid.  It was eight months to the day since the puzzle was last completed and on that date there were two missing pieces!

On Sunday the wind had died down a lot and Lewis confirmed by phone that the workday was on.  He met us at Hendre Isaf at 9:30 and we drove in his pickup and Neil's car to the worksite near Ty Mawr.  We passed last year's worksite on the way!  The task was to remove tree guards from oaks that had not been tended to for years and cut down any invasives like birch.  The ground was very steep in places and we had to work and tread carefully.  The old guards were bagged up and dragged down the slope to the carpark.

Lewis is the TWIG (The Woodland Investment Grant) ranger and will be with the Trust for about 2 years to oversee planting of 100,000 saplings across Snowdonia.

We finished the workday at 12:30, had lunch at Hendre Isaf, tidied and swept up then left for home.  All in all it was an excellent weekend, and more sociable than ever because of the enforced day indoors on Saturday.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Daniel

Tree thinning at Alderley Edge on Sunday 1st December 2024

We gathered at a small carpark at the bottom of Alderley Edge, by an old quarry on the first day of winter.

There are two patches of meadow above and below the quarry face that have saplings in and the task was to remove the samplings so it stays an open area.

We set to work in the upper meadow, pulling up birch, beech and sycamore saplings, but leaving the oak and broom.

We took tree poppers. spades, mattock, saws and loppers. The poppers weigh around 10kg, so they are hard work to carry around, but they do a good job at pulling up trees by their roots.  The trees were well anchored in and even with the tree poppers hard to get out.

We quickly realised that despite it being December the weather was warm, so when the drizzle stopped we took off our coats - I even took off my jumper.

We had Ginger cakes and mince pies at morning break. It was a lovely spot in the winter sunshine - we could hear woodpeckers in the trees.

Some of the “saplings” were too big to get the jaws of a tree popper round, so after lunch we moved to a different area above the quarry face and picked out the “easier” ones.

We had a good day, and you can see from the photo that we made a difference.

Jenny

Cancelled - workday at Hayfield on 24th November 2024

Unfortunately due to the recent snow and continued freezing temperatures up until the weekend the ranger could not confirm whether ground conditions were going to be suitable for the planned task until Saturday at the earliest.  As such, he decided reluctantly to cancel the workday.

The Hayfield rangers look forward to hosting us in January when hopefully the weather will be more favourable!

Tree thinning at Lyme Park on Sunday 17th November 2024

Six volunteers from MNTV turned up today, despite rain being forecast for most of the afternoon.

We met Chris the Ranger in the main car park and drove from there to the Knot car park.  Two joined Chris in his vehicle with the rucksacks and tools to drive down West Drive and up towards Paddock Cottage where they waited for the rest of us to join them.

From there we each carried a bowsaw and pair of loppers to the worksite, which was a densely wooded area, which we got to along a narrow, muddy and steep path.  We took it carefully!!

Once there, Chris sprayed white spots on numerous birch trees and a few oak that needed felling so that more light would flood the area enabling the remaining oak to grow strong and proud.

It was dry to start off, then the rain came - the question was asked "Is this the rain that's forecast at 2 o'clock and will last all afternoon, which has come a bit early?".  Fortunately, no it wasn't.  The rain ceased after a while - phew!!

We stopped for a coffee and cake break and it started raining!!  The same question was asked -  "Is this the rain that's forecast at 2 o'clock and will last all afternoon, which has come a bit early?".  Fortunately, no it wasn't.  It stopped after a while - phew!!

We tried to start a fire using an out-of-date bandage with a lint pad of Neil's, some paper of Adrian's and Mary's flint and steel fire starter kit.  It all worked well until we realised that the wood we were using as kindling wasn't dry enough to burn.  That was very frustrating!

However, overall we made good progress, felling plenty of trees and leaving them to rot down where they lay.  Then, just us we were starting to feel pleased with how things were going, the rain came again - it wasn't even 1 o'clock by then but the response to the question asked this time was Yes, it did seem likely that this was the 2pm rain that had come early, and it would likely continue all afternoon.

We agreed not to stop for lunch, but to finish felling all the trees with the white spots and then head home.

We enjoyed the day, working hard and having a chat, but it was a shame we couldn't get even more done.....maybe next time?

Sue B