Styal (Woods) 12 June 2011

Seven of our volunteers turned out to Styal and spent the day working in the Northern woods.

Since the National Trust has reacquired the gardens in the valley near the mill, the patterns and history of the wider estate around the mill have been more to the forefront of management minds. There have also been staff changes which may have altered the view from the top.

One thing that has been highlighted is that some areas of the Northern woods between Styal and Norcliffe hall (private) were actually historically managed as garden and would have been highly manicured.

So a current activity is taking back control of these woods from nature, to manage the wood more actively with a view to creating a more varied ground cover and more open structure. This will as a side effect improve the health of the woodland and allow the growth of "better" trees.

So today the task was to transform the woodland from being like the first picture dark and overgrown with lots and lots of holly to the second picture more open and lighter. The weather deteriorated over the day, getting damper with time, we wore ear protection as we were using a chipper to deal with the cut holly - so we spent less time chatting and more time working. As a result we finished a bit early, but pleased with our day in the woods

It is strange how you notice the rain more when you can hear it!