The property has a grant to plant lots of trees, carefully placed in the park to recreate old plans for the grounds. The work we were doing was to protect the young trees from the grazing sheep and cattle.
You can see from the photo that the old guards hadn’t worn well and the ones still standing had to be dismantled. Where the old guards had broken you can see the damage cattle and sheep had done to the bark.
We were putting up something sturdier. The sides were pre-erected so “all” we had to do was dig some holes and nail the panels together. Digging is never as easy to do as it is to watch, but we all took it in turns to dig the holes through roots and boulders to erect the new tree guards.
We weren’t the only invaders of the castle. The medieval re-enactment group were also there, suitably dressed to take part in the battle of Crogen 1165 when King Henry II tried to invade Wales. The clashing of swords and battle cries from the castle slopes mixed well with the noises we made digging the holes.
At the end of the battle Henry, like us, returned home. Henry had been defeated but we were the victorious erectors of six magnificent tree guards which will keep the Welsh (livestock) at bay for several years to come.
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