A non-National Trust weekend at Boarfold Scout Camp, Chisworth

A 'thank you' letter from Neil, a member of MNTV as well as a Scout Leader:

Just a note to thank everyone who came to help at Boarfold Scout campsite this weekend, a lot of work was completed which has saved me, personally, a lot of work. 

As numbers dropped out, Myself and Jenny were the only ones staying over on the Friday night.

After taking a look around the buildings and  a walk down the site and explaining to Jenny the work that I hoped would be done over the weekend, we went back to enjoy a pizza together.

Morning arrived and so did Tim, and not long after that Christine and Andy. I took the car and trailer down to the new toilet block with all the tools in and the others walked down the site. There was agreement that the site was much bigger than they thought, and to their horror much steeper, it wasn’t easy coming back up afterwards.

We started off across the field at the bottom near the public footbridge, where we repaired the inner fence, putting in more posts to support the fencing. Putting up a notice to ask the people and Scouts to go around the fence to get to the scout camp, as the footpath does, and not through it !   We rectified the fence further down so that the sheep could not get into the boundary hedge, so giving it protection to allow it to grow.   We then removed another fence, using the wire to supplement the first fence we had worked on, and also to give us more barbed wire to attach to the previous fence to stop people coming over the fence. Afterwards we followed the fence up the hill putting in posts thus producing a 100% better fence.

After Lunch we decided to start cutting back the trees and hedges that had started to over grow the field. Cutting it back gave us a 5 yard perimeter extra to the field! Wow!

We wrestled for a while with all the cuttings and decided to down tools for the day, we ascended back up to the buildings, and prepared the evening meal, Sue joining us for the meal with Christine providing a choice of puddings with cream!  After the washing up had been done Tim, Christine and Andy left us.

Sunday brought with it rain. Adrian arrived as did Hazel and Alpay.  We had decided with the poor weather forecast to stay around the buildings.  Adrian was given the task of planting some hedging around the fence and some shrubs to segregate the camping sites.

The rest of us started digging a ditch to take a drain, to drain off the carpark near the buildings. Whilst we were digging the ditch and sieving the stones from the clay, it didn’t take long for the rain to fill the ditch, and Sue enjoyed the water play, pulling out the stones. Oh Sue!

As we completed the ditch it was decided that as the rain was coming down harder and harder, we would have an early lunch and then go home.

Again on behalf of the Boarfold Scout Camp Committee, I would like to thank everyone for their help over the weekend.

Yes, it rained!

Text and photo's from Neil

Putting up tree guards at Lyme Park on Sunday 19th August

We started in the rain for the second time on one of my workdays:-(
Twelve of us met Craig, one of the Lyme Park Rangers, and either walked from the main car park, or drove part way then walked, to Coalpit Clough, near the deer sanctuary.
A number of tree guards had already been erected by the Rangers or other volunteer groups. Today there were another 11 trees that had been identified by Chris, Head Ranger, as needing protection from the antlers of the deer and therefore needing tree guards erecting.

The guards were to be triangular and, as close as possible, pointing North. We started on a couple of guards of trees that were next to each other, so we could easily share tools.

 
As the day progressed, we were working at different stages on different tree guards which meant we were more spread out and the demand for needing the same tools at the same time decreased. The platform was in demand for a couple of tree's that were on the edge of a bank of soil, the levels around these tree were quite challenging!
The deer were never far away, keeping an eye on what we were doing. Luckily the weather brightened up as the day progressed and the sun even came out occasionally. 

Group photo

Photo's from Tricia and Adrian

Scrub clearance Speke Hall on Sunday 12th August 2018

Today we made our second visit of the summer to Speke Hall in Liverpool.  It followed our day balsam bashing there on 1st July.  Seven of us assembled in the carpark for a 10:30 start.  Daniel and passengers Laura and Hayley had the excitement of traversing the newly-opened Mersey Gateway Bridge.

Our task was cutting down brambles, saplings, tree branches and scrub along a 2 to 3 metre wide corridor on the boundary of the car park and airport.  This is done on a regular basis to be ‘good neighbours’ and allows airport security to more easily spot cuts in the fencing / damage.  We cracked on quickly and because the scrub wasn’t thick had cleared the 300 metre length by 2pm.

We were surprised that aeroplanes were taking off only every 10 to 15 minus compared to the every 60 to 90 seconds at Manchester Aiport.  Most of them were Easyjet or Ryanair but we saw a few single seaters too.

At 2 o'clock we met Ian Ford (Ranger) at the new Visitors Centre who took us to the hall, told us about its history and showed us to the old male and female yew trees (Adam and Eve) in the courtyard.  Ian then left us and we looked round the hall at our leisure before leaving at 3:30.

This was our last visit to Speke this year.  We will be back in 2019 and with the MGB open it is now just a 35 minute journey from Styal.

Daniel

Social: walk and pub meal on 9th August 2018

This evening seven of us met at the Leigh Arms just off the A49 in Bartington to do a walk along the Trent & Mersey canal, to Dutton Locks and the River Weaver and then have dinner in the pub.  We all arrived by car except John who rode up on one of his nine (yes, you read that correctly!) motorbikes.

We started in the shadow of the white Bartington Bridge over the River Weaver and walked half a mile to reach the T&M canal.  John told us that a few years ago a stretch of canal bank near here collapsed, emptying the canal!  After taking a group selfie on a bridge above the canal we turned left through fields to the River Weaver.  On the path we saw a tiny frog, no more than thumbnail size.

The Magnificent Seven

Alongside Dutton Locks was a row of immaculate Lockkeepers' cottages.  One set of lock gates was very leaky...

Dutton Locks and leaky lock gates

The third mile back to the Leigh Arms was along the River Weaver - peaceful and slow moving in the bright evening sunshine.  The Daniel Adamson (an ex-River Mersey ferry) was berthed near Bartington Bridge and was all set up for this weekend's 'open house'.

Bartington Bridge & the Daniel Adamson ferry

Back at the pub we all had a good appetite and, having pre-ordered food before we began the walk, tucked into platefuls of food at 8:30, enjoying each others conversation until a very noisy band struck up at 9 and deafened us all (!).

Thanks to Denise and Paul for organising the walk/evening and to everyone for their company.

Daniel

MNTV at Lyme Park tackling deer fencing on Sunday 5th August

A good turn out today on a sunny day with 13 of us to work on the deer fencing down in the gully of the main drive, to stop the deer getting into the wood.

The ranger had had contractors in to do the heavy work putting in new fence posts, our job was to remove the rotten old posts and staple the original wire to the new posts. As we were such a large group we also trimmed the vegetation hanging over the path through the woods.

We split into 2 teams to work on each side of the fence, but we still managed to pass tools and cake through the bars.

inside or out?

The rangers spent the day nearby with the tractor trying to find hay to cut for the deer as it will be in short supply this winter, due to the hot dry summer.

After finishing work for the day we walked back to the main drive and flagged down one of the park and ride busses for a lift back to the car park, saving a walk in the hot sun.

When we arrived at the carpark Chris the lead ranger bought us all an ice-cream. Thanks Chris. We will be back again in 2 weeks  😊

Text and photo from Jenny