It started with a look out of the window to reveal a very
damp day, and a wish I could just go back to bed, but that was not why I had
travelled 180 miles for the weekend. I had come to visit MNTV for a day of pond
work and so we met in the car park at Alderley Edge at 9.30am. We had a turn
out of 11 Mick, Pip, Adrian, Gordon, Michelle, Susan, Neil, Lisa, Karin, Sue
and myself where we met NT Ranger ,Tim, who took us to the worksite, which was two manmade
ponds that had been part of the copper works that used to be part of the Edge.
Our job for the day was to make them look like ponds and not patches of solid
ground . This was because they were next to a newly constructed children's adventure area and it was important that the children playing could see that there were ponds there rather than thinking it was ground that they could walk over, as they could have got stuck in the sludge.
Pond 1 at the end of the day
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| Pond 1 - before we started |
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| Pond 2 - before we started (but the Rangers had already done some work on it) |
We divided ourselves into 2 groups, and some people donned
the most fetching item of work wear we have, waders they are just oh so
fetching, I for one gave them a miss, but Neil put some on and waded into what I can only refer to as quagmire and began shovelling. The pond was
quite deep as Neil, Karin and Gordon found out, Gordon in thigh waders and Neil
and Karin in chest waders, some people even got stuck in the mud, but I won't
name names because that would be a little on the harsh side and what happens on
the Edge stays on the Edge.
We raked, shovelled and dug our way round the ponds until
Lunchtime. When we sat on the tree stools that had been placed there as part of
a children's nature area.
After lunch, the rain stopped and the digging carried on.
Gordon and Karin went off to get some rocks to cover a piece of drainage pipe
in the path to make the path continuous. I’m not really sure what happened but
Gordon seemed to drop these on the path around the side of the pond and blamed
the wheel barrows handle, we believe you Gordon! Pip and Adrian went to help
Ranger Tim as he was doing some chain sawing and needed some people to keep the
public away, he was chain sawing some wood to make a children's activity log in
another location of the Edge, he said that after they had left it two children
went to play on it – RESULT!
We spent the afternoon digging, shovelling and raking and, when we all decided to draw a
halt on the days activities, we realised we had done an awful lot and Ranger Tim
was very pleased with the result.
Pond 2 at the end of the day
We returned to the car park tired but happy with our days
work, 9 of us went to the Wizard Teashop by the car park where we put two
picnic tables together so we could all sit comfortably around the table enjoy a
drink (Thank You Neil) some people even had something to eat.
I started this report on a very busy train to Edinburgh as
my home is now in Dunbar, from where I am finishing this report. My thanks must
go to Sue for the accommodation during my stay and I hope the next time I pay
visit I can see more of you.
MNTV you were ace,
here’s to next time!
Written by Ally Hardy:-)
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