Friday 28 November 2008

Shugborough 23 November 2008

Six volunteers made the one-hour journey to Shugborough, the ancestral home of the Earls of Lichfield, for a workday in the walled garden annexe. We worked with a National Trust archaeologist and 14 of the volunteers from the Wolverhampton group.

We spent the day clearing the garden of scrub (alder saplings, ferns and brambles) and burning the debris. Many hands made light work and we cleared a large area. The damp vegetation burned with difficulty and often the garden was thick with smoke.
Once the scrub clearance has been completed the garden staff will keep regrowth in check so that our efforts don't go to waste. If Lottery money is obtained the aim is to restore the garden to how it looked in 1805 by restoring the mushroom pits and rebuilding the greenhouses. With luck our efforts on Sunday will be the start of a multi-year project similar to the restoration of the pineapple greenhouses in Tatton that we helped complete last year.

Thanks to Daniel for the photographs and text

Monday 17 November 2008

16 Nov Dunham Massey


photo showing some of lastyears work before we started this years hedging

Over 10 volunteers turned out to Dunham Massey and spent a beautiful day hedge laying. The section done last year (some of which is visible in the left of the first photo) was looking good and had grown in the time since we saw it last.
photo of untouched hedge

While not strictly before and after photos of a single piece of hedge the pictures give an idea of the stages the hedge goes through. The untouched hedge is overgrown at the top, & has gaps at the bottom. The gaps don't show due to the view point of the photograph - at this site if you stand back and admire your work you are likely to get run over!
photo of hedge prepared for layingExcess material is cut from the sides of the hedge, and thinned from between the plants so that we can get to base and work on the individual plants. photo of hedge laying - more or less completed
Each plant is cut part through and folded "pleached" to create a dense barrier - this does not kill the plants and has an effect similar to coppicing - rejuvinated the hedge allowing the same plants to live for far longer than if left alone and making the hedge a better habitat for some of our wildlife.

Monday 10 November 2008

Hare Hill 9/11/8

Muddy water in 8 inch clay pipe about 2 feet downFour of the usual suspects turned out on Sunday to investigate and perform maintenance on the network of culverts, and field drains that the Victorians installed under the parkland around Hare Hill Garden.

The area was originally boggy ground - and was drained to create grazing parkland. The slope from the highest point to the lowest is less than 1 degree - the system is an engineering marvel to work at all. The problem with the small slope is that the water flows slowly so it doesn't clean mud out of the system. After over 100 years of neglect the accumulated mud in parts of the network caused blockages, Volunteers digging for drains during a period of better weathersome of the land flooded and trees started to die.

So now the staff with volunteer help are gradually finding the drains and clearing the accumulated mud....

The weather was mixed and the work muddy, but we enjoyed ourselves - stopping for a silence at 11am.

We opened the system at five points, and cleared the accumulated silt between those points using drain rods.

Tuesday 4 November 2008

2 November at Biddulph Grange

6 turned out to Biddulph Grange - braving a poor weather forcast.

The fire went well and the Rhodi fell.

The weather was overcast but we felt little or nor rain.

Staff were pleased - we cleared a section of Rhodi that was on the right of the Wellantonia Avenue as you look up the hill towards the country park.