Scything and raking at Hardcastle Crags on Sunday 2nd August 2026

Five of us from MNTV met up with five volunteers from the West Yorkshire National Trust Volunteer group and Hardcastle Crags Rangers Alice and Lily with high hopes that the 12 of us would make a big impact on today's tasks.

We loaded the Rangers' vehicle with the tools we'd brought with us and our rucksacks and walked from the Midgehole upper car park to a small area of grassland called Rom's Folly, which was on the left of the path as we walked towards Gibson Mill.

We quickly realised that most of Rom's Folly was a steep slope with a flatter area towards the bottom, which was nearer to the river.  There were lots of flies and midgey things about so we liberally applied our anti-mosquito spray to avoid getting bitten.

There were various tasks that needed doing today.  The whole area needed scything to get rid of the overgrown vegetation, but to ensure the land remained nutrient deficient we then had to rake the cut grasses and carry them to the side of the area and throw them over the wall.  After a demonstration of how to use a scythe by Ranger Alice, and the advice to 'walk' the area first to ensure no sleeping hedgehogs were hiding, Kate, James and David went down to the flatter area to work.

The rest of us stayed at the top of Rom's Folly, on the steep slope.  Some started removing the fern either by pulling up the smaller plants or slashing them or scything them or by using secateurs.  Again, we piled up anything that was cut down so it could be gathered together and thrown over the stone walls, so it wouldn't rot down in Rom's Folly and fertilise the land.

The third task was to gently remove the seed heads of the flowering Himalayan balsam that were on the steepest area, near the path.  We don't usually tackle balsam in this way.  Usually, earlier in the season we would pull the whole plant and its roots out of the ground, and snap the roots from the stem so it can't re-root and throw it to the floor to die.  However, the balsam today was so ripe that the seed pods were on the verge of bursting to spread seeds over a large area, for plants to grow next year.  If we had tried to pull the plants out as usual, the action would have spread the seeds at the same time, which we didn't want to do, so a gentler approach of using secateurs to cut the flowers and seeds off and disposing of them in a black bin bag was the best way of dealing with them.

I have to confess, the tasks were quite hard work, particularly because we were also on a slope in the full sun, but we kept ourselves hydrated, took breaks when needed, ate lots of cake at mid-morning break, and home-made flapjack (courtesy of the West Yorkshire group) at lunchtime.

It was, all in all, a great day, we got loads done, met some lovely fellow-volunteers, and chatted to members of the public that were walking past and curious about what we were doing.

Sue B

Balsam bashing at Dunham Massey on Sunday 26th July 2026

There is nothing more to be said about balsam bashing that has not been said over the last few weeks, as this is one of our regular summer jobs.  What I can say is that we had a very productive and enjoyable day with our Merseyside colleagues.

It was a day that wasn't due to take place as it was our weekend away at Calke Abbey but due to crossed wires it took place and we managed to muster up a few volunteers, which slowly reduced in numbers due to the forecast of rain.  In fact the rangers were surprised and pleased at the joint effort as we not only cleared our allocated target area for today but two others as well.

Great day all round, so thanks everyone.

Christine

Balsam bashing at Lyme Park on Sunday 19th July 2026

It started as a slightly cooler day today, a welcome change from the heat of the last few weeks.  Most of us met Ranger Jason in the main car park before getting a lift in the Lyme Park shuttle bus back to the entrance kiosk where we met Shirley and walked as a group through the gate, up Red Lane, and into the field where we’ve been Himalayan balsam bashing previously.

Today we had Emily joining us for the first time, and also Niamh, who’d only been out with us once before.  After putting our bags in the shade under some trees, Jason gave us a safety talk before we started destroying the balsam by pulling it up and snapping the roots off so it couldn’t regrow.

We were all doing really well at making our piles of discarded balsam and we had two of the Lyme Park Youth volunteers join us too, so we were getting a lot done before we stopped for a mid-morning refreshment break with cake.

Afterwards we continued with our task, before stopping a couple of hours later for lunch and a chat.

During the afternoon it started getting warmer.  Most of us had hats to wear and some of us decided to work in the shade under the trees.

There was a huge amount of balsam on the other side of a wire fence which I thought I could climb over and join David in destroying.  However I soon discovered it was harder than it looked to get into that area and, once I was finally over the fence, I found myself sitting precariously on the pile of balsam that David had pulled up and stacked against the fence.  For a while, I was laughing too much to be able to shift my body weight enough to get off it! - but fortunately I managed it in the end.

We all had a great time - we achieved a lot, had a good chat and really enjoyed being outdoors, admiring the butterflies, grasshoppers, bees, dragonflies, damselflies and other insects, on such a wonderful day.

Sadly there was too much balsam to destroy it all today, but hopefully we’ll be back soon to continue our quest.

Sue B

Balsam bashing at Dunham Massey on Sunday 5th July 2026

Replacing a fence at Formby on Sunday 28th June 2026

Eight of us met ranger Bree and five members of the Merseyside group at 10 o’clock on a warm and breezy morning.  After Gaynor sampled the ice cream from the kiosk already in full swing, we had a 10 mins walk to the work site, the play area near St Luke’s church.

The job was to dismantle the existing stock fencing and replace it with a more ecofriendly dead hedge.  The wood was rotten in places but the fence was overgrown with vegetation and still pretty sturdy.

All the material used to make the dead hedge was locally ‘produced’ by cutting down sycamore saplings growing close by.  The wonky stakes were a bit difficult to hammer into the ground but they give a real rustic feel suitable for a woodland.

Then the cut branches were piled up between the stakes with some of the outside ones woven round them to make it more stable.

We had an enjoyable day working with Merseyside.  We used a full range of tools - loppers, bowsaws, fencing pliers, wire cutters, hand axes, small hammers and big ones - so thank you to the National Trust for a tool refresher training day.

Jean

Balsam bashing at Dunham Massey on Sunday 21st June 2026

Another summer's day, another Himalayan balsam bash.

There was plenty of balsam for the ten of us to have a go at beside the north carpark at Dunham.  Luckily a lot of it was in the shade and plenty tall enough to pull without bending down.  We did however have to battle nettles and brambles.  A few of the plants were starting to flower, so we did try and get those first.

We found a picnic bench in the shade for the cake  and lunch breaks, and we were close enough to the Visitor Centre to keep our water bottles topped up.

 
We are back at Dunham on 5th July and may be pulling balsam then too.  Hopefully it won’t flower before then.

We posed for a photo by the picnic area on the way back to the cars.

Jenny

Balsam bashing at Lyme Park on Sunday 14th June 2026

Seven of us met Ranger Jason in the main car park and, as we were working down Red Lane which is near the entrance kiosk, Jason had arranged for the Lyme Park minibus to give us a lift back down the drive near to Red Lane.

We then walked part way up Red Lane and into a field on the left, over a stile.

As we walked towards the back of the field (which we'd removed Balsam from last year), we spotted some rogue plants, but the majority were down towards the railway line.

We found a convenient base to leave our rucksacks and the all-important cakes for elevenses, under the trees, and then we got to work.

The Balsam was still quite young, only David spotted a few plants during the day that would be flowering soon, the rest were fairly small (so lots of bending over required to get to them) and sometimes mixed in with nettles or brambles, but they usually pulled out quite easily without breaking the stems, so we got the roots out as well.

Part way through the morning, Ranger Claire arrived to help, bringing two youth volunteers with her.

At 11am we had our 'coffee break' and everyone gathered back under the trees. Usually the worksite leader provides cake by buying some or baking some, today was a bit more unusual because yesterday, at Lyme, MNTV had celebrated 40 years of volunteering - a massive achievement. A party was planned and a fabulous get-together of current and old members gathered to celebrate (see details in our 40th Blog). 

Ally, our Chairperson, and Jenny, one of the committee members, had baked various delicious flavours of cupcakes, many with 40 MNTV toppers on them, and I'd been able to bring some of the ones that weren't eaten with me today - a real treat!!

After our break, we resumed our quest to find and destroy more Himalayan Balsam. The aim is to prevent them spreading further when the flowers turn to seed heads, because the seed heads burst spreading hundreds of seeds over a large area, ready to grow next year

After lunch we continued again, moving to different areas of the field and, even as we left to go home, we were still spotting more to destroy.

We made a huge difference to the amount of Balsam in the field, but there is still more. Hopefully we'll get another go at it when we return to Lyme next month.

It was a great day - it didn't rain and in fact the sun came out in the afternoon. We welcomed newbie James, and also Emma who'd only been out with us once before. We had some interesting chats on our breaks and it was a very relaxed and sociable day,

Sue B (Worksite Leader)