Sunday 5th April 2026 - Easter Sunday - no workday

A trip to Wales, Chirk Castle - Sunday 22nd March 2026

Five of us met members of Merseyside NT volunteers and ranger Keith in the car park at Chirk on a bright and sunny morning.

Chirk is a small property but the whole estate is a SSSI so is of particular conservation importance.

The rangers have been felling trees that were encroaching on a species rich meadow that’s important for fungi such as waxcaps.  Brash, mainly laurel, needed clearing away, but what’s normally straightforward can be difficult in a protected area.  It couldn’t just be left to biodegrade or provide habitat as laurel is poisonous (it contains cyanide!) and it couldn’t be burnt due to the fungi.  An added complication was the brash was in an area boggy due to recent rain.  So the main job of the day was dragging brash from one end of the field to a firmer section for disposal.

Keith brought a wood chipper to chop up the brash and throw the chips into neighbouring woodland.

But it’s a small machine and only two or three people could work safely with it at any one time. So there’s still a job for the ranger to do in the coming weeks.

The last hour of the day was spent taking down fencing from around some saplings.

The area had been used temporarily for grazing but as the sheep had moved on to pastures new (literally!) the fencing was no longer needed.

The sun shone and the job gave us time to catch up with the Merseyside group.  And working at Chirk is always interesting due to the ecological diversity of the site.  A good day all round.

Jean

Rhodybash in Lantern Wood, Lyme Park, on Sunday 15th March 2026

Eight from MNTV met Chris, Lead Ranger at Lyme Park, in the main car park at 9:30 for a chat about what we’d be doing today then in two cars we drove to the accessible car park and walked round to the Stables where we met Ranger Jason and collected the tools for the day.

After loading the Lyme vehicle with the tools and our rucksacks, two of our group got a lift up to the stile over the dry stone wall by Lantern Wood, while the rest of us walked.  We climbed over the dry stone wall and then carried the tools and our bags further up the hill to where there were multiple piles of pre-cut rhody waiting to be burned before the start of bird-nesting season.

A couple of fire sites near the piles of rhody were selected and two fires were started.  By then two Lyme Youth volunteers joined us to help.  We had a productive morning.  The weather was dry and we got the fires started by morning break and we were pleased with our progress.

After lunch was a different story because the rain started and it turned much colder.  We struggled to stay close to the fires for warmth because the wind would erratically change direction, blowing smoke into our faces, so we kept a reasonable distance.

By the time we finished we had managed to clear a few of the piles of rhody so were pleased by what we’d done, but we were all feeling very tired, cold and wet.

Despite this, we enjoyed the day and ate lots of cake 

Sue B

Sunday 8th March 2026 - Planting a Living Legacy: MNTV’s 40th Anniversary Hedge

To celebrate MNTV’s 40th anniversary (we were founded in April 1986), volunteers gathered at Alderley Edge today for a special conservation project: planting a new native hedge which will stand as a living tribute to four decades of MNTV’s work - and with care and patience will continue growing long into the future.

If you'd like to find the site, park in the layby just at the top of the hill as you drive out of Alderley on Macclesfield Road (B5087), cross the road, walk south down a footpath and after about 5 minutes you’ll find a field on your right with a nice white NT sign . Walk along that path and the hedge will be along the fence to your left.

In total, 420 saplings were planted, generously donated by the Woodland Trust as part of their “Wild Wood” Tree Pack. The pack includes a diverse range of native species that should thrive in the local conditions: Downy Birch, Hazel, Holly, Hawthorn, Goat Willow and Crab Apple. These species will eventually form a dense, wildlife-friendly hedge providing food, shelter and nesting sites for birds, insects and small mammals.

There are already some mature trees beside the old fence and the new hedge will go between these trees. We started by laying a string line between the trees and calculating how far the hedge would go.

We needed to plant two rows 15” apart with the plants in each row 18” apart and the rows staggered so there was a plant roughly every 9” along the hedge. This arrangement will help the hedge grow thick and robust over time.

The work paused for a well-earned morning break featuring three different cakes, kindly provided by Christine - refreshments worthy of a 40th celebration. As everyone rested, the group enjoyed the sounds of birdsong and watched a bumblebee fly past. With the warmer spring weather arriving, it was a reminder that nature was already waking up around us.

After the break, volunteers paired up and continued planting in teams of two. Each pair worked steadily along the line, placing a random mix of tree species to create a natural, varied hedge.

Later in the day, as the planting neared completion, a few members of the group explored further across the field. They removed plastic tree guards from other trees nearby and took the opportunity to admire some of the impressive houses overlooking the area. One particularly dramatic property was quickly nicknamed the “Bond Villain’s Lair.” Unfortunately, the combination of razor wire and CCTV cameras made photography feel a little too risky!

By the end of the day the planting was complete. At the moment the hedge may not look like much - just rows of small saplings and bamboo canes along a fence - but with time, careful trimming and traditional laying, it will grow into a thriving boundary full of wildlife and character.

More importantly, it will stand as a living monument to everything MNTV has achieved over the past 40 years - and a reminder of the work still to come in the decades ahead.

We hope to return many times in the future to care for the hedge as it grows, ensuring that this anniversary project continues to flourish for the next 40 years and beyond.

Jenny

Litter pick at Styal on Sunday 1st March 2026

Eight of us met Ranger Stuart in the car park then piled into two cars to follow him onto the airport perimeter road. The Styal Estate virtually backs on to the airport fence and there’s a raised bank that’s a popular spot for plane spotters.

We spent the day walking the road and surrounding paths looking for rubbish.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t difficult to find but not necessarily easy to get to.  We found lots of things like cans and bottles that had been just thrown away due to laziness.

The articles of clothing we found included an M&S Autograph label jacket and a sweatshirt, T-shirt and socks.  Almost enough for a fashion parade!

We had a very British lunch break sitting between the cars, but at least the ice cream van arrived.

We collected about 35 bags of litter.  Fortunately the job of sorting the rubbish for recycling belongs to Suez.

One of the plane spotters we spoke to live streams aircraft take offs.  After we told him we were NT volunteers who should have been planting trees, he promised to organise his Facebook followers to do some additional litter picking.

This was a satisfying day.  Annoying because the job should not be necessary, but satisfying because the results were so visible - or invisible!

Jean

Another rhodybash at Lyme Park on Sunday 22nd February 2026

Six of us were back in Lantern Wood with Ranger Claire on our second rhodybash of the year.  The midweek group had left us plenty of burning to do but getting fires started was the usual challenge (damp brash and no wind to fan flames).  Even though the weather was (comparatively) dry they produced more smoke than flame.  With the additional cutting down we did, we ended the day with more brash than we started.

A lot of what we did cut down is regrowth but with luck this may be the last time.  A trial is running in a couple of locations, including Coalpit Clough, to see if cutting grooves round the tree trunk and spraying in glyphosate will work better.  The tree’s system will transport the poison so it will in effect poison itself before being cut down.

As it’s been such a wet start to the year the rangers expect our next session at Lyme will be a mass burn of all (hopefully dry) remaining brash before bird nesting season starts.

Jean

Building a "dead hedge" at Alderley Edge on Sunday 15th February 2026

Today marked another visit to Alderley Edge to continue building the “dead hedge” in Clockhouse Wood – a project we started on 11th January and have been progressing alongside other volunteer groups ever since.

Seven volunteers (Adrian, Andy & Christine, Daniel, Holly, Gordon and Jean) met rangers Alysia and Mark at the Rangers’ yard at 9:30.  The rangers transported a few of us to the worksite in their pickup, while the rest walked the mile-long route, which took about 20 minutes.  After a brief introduction from Alysia, we got started.  Everyone except Daniel had worked on this hedge before and knew the routine.  We divided the tasks between us and largely stuck with them throughout the day.  Two of us searched the surrounding area and collected suitable branches to be cut into stakes or used as infill, two whittled cut branches into stakes, one hammered in the stakes to form the hedge’s framework, and two wove branches into the spaces between the stake walls.

The hedge essentially functions as a large habitat pile, filled with offcuts from the rangers’ coppicing work in the wood, and will hopefully serve as a wildlife corridor.  It also attractively edges the footpath and will stop it inching downhill.  Around ten dog walkers passed us over the course of the day, most of whom offered very positive comments about the hedge.

The weather turned out far better than forecast, with only one brief shower before lunch.  The worksite was situated down a slope and sheltered from the wind, though windproofs were still needed all day.  We took our morning break and lunch among the holly trees about 100 metres from the worksite in an even more sheltered spot.  Daniel had baked a sultana cake – a simple six‑ingredient “working holiday” recipe he believes came from Charlie Spiller (one of our Honorary Members).

By the time we finished at 3pm we had completed 15 metres of hedge and installed stakes for a further 5 metres ready for the next group to work on.  In fact, we reached the first section of dead hedge that Andy said he and Neil had built about two years ago.

All in all, it was an excellent workday and very satisfying to be building something for a change rather than our usual “seek-and-destroy” mission!

Our next visit to Alderley is on 8 March, when we might be planting the hedge trees received from the Woodland Trust to mark our 40th anniversary in April.

Daniel