Litter picking at Styal on Sunday 18th December 2022

Seven of us met up at Quarry Bank Mill for a litter pick on our last workday of 2022.

We drove to the track alongside the airport.  The slush had frozen and it was very slippery, but we stuck to the edges looking for litter.

We worked our way down the lane and around the grounds of QBM.  Most of the rubbish was on the airport side and was the usual mix of bagged dog poo and discarded cups and bottles.  We found a drinks flask, a few car parts and several house doors dumped near the hotel.  We also found a snowman:

Morning break was Christmas cake, but we didn’t stop long as the weather was still cold.

We headed back to the QBM carpark to meet ranger Stu and have lunch, but the rain started and some of the paths were still closed so we called it a day.  Most of us set off home but Victor discovered he had lost his car keys!  Stu took him back to the spot where we had the morning break, but couldn’t find his keys.  Eventually Victor’s partner drove over with the spare key so he got home before it got dark.

Happy Christmas and hope to see you next year.

Jenny

Dinner and quiz at the Jolly Sailor, Davenport, on Thursday 15th December 2022

Ten of us met tonight for our first social of 2022!  Plans to have socials earlier in the year hadn't come to fruition despite good intentions.  The venue was the Jolly Sailor in Davenport - nearby for some but an hour's journey for others - for dinner from 7:30pm then their weekly quiz from 9.

It was great to catch up with everyone, particularly those who aren't workday regulars, and have different conversations to those we have on workdays!  The quiz was the same multi-round format we'd enjoyed at The Hesketh in Cheadle and was hard (especially the artist/song round) but fun.  Ten was too many for a team so we split in two.  MNTV1 scored 68 points and MNTV2 scored 71.  The winners scored a lot more!

L to R: Sue B, Phil, Lydia, Andy, Megan, Sue D, Daniel, Paul, Denise and Chris

Thanks for Denise for organising the evening and to everyone for coming along.  Here's to having more socials in 2023.

Daniel

Birch thinning at Alderley Edge on Sunday 11th December 2022

Seven of us spent today at Alderley Edge thinning birch on the heathland across the Macclesfield Road from the NT car park.  This was a continuation of a job we last did on 30th January and which other groups have done since.  The temperature was about 0C but the ground wasn't frozen.  There was no wind all day and in fact it never felt particularly cold.

Ranger Tim Ryan was not on duty but had explained the task to Daniel during the week and left us a map with instructions:

We worked all day in the red circle in two groups.  Neil, Andy and Jenny established the fire (blow torch and leaf blower worked their magic) and kept it going while Adrian, Daniel, Victor and newcomer Charlie dug up the birch saplings using tree poppers and mattocks and dragged them to the fire area.  The rootballs were cut off and discarded and the trunks/branches burned.

At elevenses and at lunch we ate the Christmas tree-shaped chocolate cake that Daniel had baked.  It wouldn't be a December workday without this shape cake!

During the day we cleared a good sized area:

Before ...

... and after

At about 2:30pm we stopped loading the fire and let it die down.  We taped it off with high vis orange/white netting and ended the day at 3:15 after returning the wheelbarrows, tree poppers and mattocks to the rangers' tool store.

We heard from Tim in the following week that he is very happy with what we did.  We are next at Alderley on 15th January and will be doing this task again then.

Daniel

Burning pre-cut rhody at Lyme Park on Sunday 4th December 2022

Eight of us met Ranger Alex in the main car park at Lyme Park at 9.30am, and walked up towards the Lantern to where the was some rhody, in huge piles, waiting to be burned.

We soon got the fire started and the rest of us were kept busy un-tangling the rhody that had previously been left by other volunteers, so it could be dragged nearer the fire site, and then cut into shorter lengths to be loaded on the fire.

It was a dry but cold day. We managed to get all the pre-cut branches burned, before starting on other rhody in the area that was still growing, so we could cut and burn that too.

Lunchtime

Sue, one of our MNTV volunteers and also a Lyme Park volunteer, found us to say hello - today was a day she was volunteering at Lyme rather than with us.

Chris, the Lead Ranger at Lyme, took a break from doing paperwork and came to see how we were getting on as well. 

We loaded the fire until it was nearly time to finish, then we put orange netting round it (far enough away so it didn't melt!) to alert anyone who might walk through after we'd left. Then we walked back down to the car park, satisfied that we'd done a good days work!!

Thanks to Adrian for additional photo's.

Meadow Management at Dunham Massey on Sunday 27th November 2022

We had a bumper turnout of ten volunteers for Dunham today, it was lovely to catch up with some people that I haven't seen for a few years as I don't normally lead at Dunham.  

The task was meadow management which basically means raking cut grass from a field that had been laid to meadow since before Covid. 

Field before grass is moved

Armed with rakes and tarpaulin we moved the grass to the far end of the field to create a natural habitat for wildlife.  

Mini haystacks ready for moving

We were glad when lunchtime arrived so that we could sit down and take a well earned rest and wave at passing cars and the odd cyclist!

Lunchtime

Grass laying under trees

One final drag and we are nearly done

Field cleared of grass (not sure it looks any different!)

Group photo at the end of the day in the meadow

After the workday Nat took us on a tour around the gardens to see the Christmas displays and a few were lit up giving us a glimpse of what it would be like at night-time.

At the end of the day we managed to capture a lovely group photo with Dunham as the backdrop.

Christmas at Dunham - getting ready for the evening show

Denise, Worksite Leader

Laying hedges and clearing brambles at Formby on Sunday 20th November 2022

Five intrepid volunteers set off to Formby for the day, four car sharing from Styal.

We were working on a field near the Rangers station.  The field had recently been cleared of gorse by contractors using heavy machinery.  The forecast promised rain, but instead we got mainly rainbows.  You can just about see the rainbow, you can also see the cleared field.   

They have plans for the area:

The task for the day was hedge laying and clearing brambles ...

... so we split into groups and rotated the tasks.  Nathan, the new Ranger at Formby, was on hand to help with the hedge laying.  We had a wide range of sharp tools for the hedge laying - one- and two-handed bill hooks and axes.  It was interesting to try the different methods.

The laid hedge was woven between stakes knocked in the ground.  When the tree had branches that would have been higher than the hedge we put a second bend in the branch:

At the end of the day we had laid down a few more trees.

The experienced hedge layers amongst you will notice the stumps sticking up.  They will be cut off later by chainsaw so water doesn’t collect and rot the stump.  You might also recognise this as a Staffordshire lay.  Different counties have their own styles.

The tractor was used to take all the brash back to the Rangers station for burning.  We managed to clear quiet a large tangle of brambles from under a tree:

On the way back we saw a few more rainbows, this one was by Manchester airport.

Jenny

Clearing drainage channels on Edale Road (Hayfield) on Sunday 13th November 2022

We had brilliant blue skies over Hayfield and Kinder for this workday on Edale Road, clearing the grips (drainage channels across the road) and the roadside drain, a task that needs doing every year and that MNTV had done a year ago at the same time.

Four volunteers enjoyed the beauty of the moorland in the sunshine, a fine lemon drizzle cake (thanks Pip) and were entertained by two kestrels having a territorial dispute.

A small group, but we finished the task and slightly less of the road will be washed into the upper reaches of the River Sett than would otherwise have been the case.

Mick

3 different work tasks at Styal on 6th November 2022

How do you call break time when you are spread across 3 worksites?

Starring: Adrian, Ally (Myself), Andy H, Andy S, Anna, Christine, David, Gordon, Jack, Jean, Jenny, Martin, Mary, Neil, Sue and Victor

Guest starring: Ranger Craig

Having last been on a workday in September 2021 at Dunham, I was in need of another workday, so I booked my tickets for June and was ready for another workday at Dunham, however with the rail strikes playing havoc with holiday makers I asked for a refund and went to see my parents instead. It’s Saturday 5th November now and I’m finally on my way to Manchester for a long awaited and much needed workday. I’ve been awake since about 4am, thinking am I going to miss my alarm, as with the trains on strike again I booked myself a coach ticket and I am currently watching the Scottish night turn to day….I’m going get some shut eye and I’ll come back to you later.

It’s Sunday Morning now and after a great night’s sleep, no I didn’t manage any sleep on the way South, 16 Volunteers, yes you read that right, met Ranger Craig in the old car park at Styal. When the email first went out about the workday, the task was burning some pre cut Rhododendron but with so many volunteers signing up Craig had to think again. He had 3 tasks lined up for us, one was the aforementioned Rhodi burning, another was fence replacing and building and the other task was footpath maintenance. I started my day fence building which entailed digging a hole and using shovollers to get the soil out of the hole. Adrian commented that the spades that were provided where not up to his specification and he had a better one in his car, he went off to get it and it was used for about 5 mins before it preceded to break, it was at least 40 years old! Our 3 worksites were spread out over the estate so it wasn’t easy to call breaktime, after a few texts of “Are you coming for cake?"; we all met up by the fire side for Sue’s delicious Lemon Drizzle Cake. 

After break I swapped with Christine and went with the group doing footpath maintenance. Craig had originally said that this groups task was move the heras fence and bottoms from the path they were on that was providing a diversion round a fallen tree, the majority of this  was done by break time, the other part of this group’s job was to shovel some small stones that could be called hardcore into wheelbarrows and wheel it along the path a short distance and pour on to the path by a bridge, to make the path less boggy. As it was a rather damp and slippery underfoot day the stones didn’t seem to make much difference but I’m sure they will in the future. As it was about a 10 minute walk back to the fire site we stopped our shovelling and just before 1pm, our pre arranged lunchtime, and headed back to the fire but not before we thought we’d lost Andy H, he hadn’t realised the time! After lunch I decided to try our 3rd task, the Rhodi burning. There was a good fire going and a large pile of Rhodis to be burned. The fire and pile of Rhodis were on a slope and with it being wet under foot and the Autumn we had to be careful so as not to slip on the leaves and slide down the hill too far. The Rhodis in the pile were also a wee bit tangled, so it sometimes had to be lopped and sawed to make it easier to get it off the pile and on to the fire. Gordon, Neil and I decided to form a chain to get the Rhodis on to the fire, this seemed to work well. Some people dragged Rhodis, some people chopped and some people threw Rhodi onto the fire. At about 3pm with all the Rhodis on the fire, burning away merrily, we decided to call it a day. We barriered off the fire and gathered up all the tools, some were a little trickier to find as they had got buried under the autumn leaves, once all tools had been located we headed back to the car park. Craig thanked us for our help and it finally clicked to him who I actually was.

He said to Me “So you’re Ally who sends the emails?” Yes Craig, that’s the one!

The sun never really came out but the company was sparkling. It was splendid to see you all

I hope it’s not so long next time, 

Ally

Digging up the dahlia beds at Biddulph Grange Garden on Sunday 30th October 2022

Eight volunteers met with Leslie and Holly, a recent apprentice recruit, for the task of cutting down and taking up the dahlia tubers plus taking out the stakes we had put in earlier in the year [29th May].

I admit I thought it was just a case of digging them up and putting them in a pile.  WRONG!  As the tubers are to be used next year we had to cut them down, gently fork them out, dust off as much soil as possible and tie the label that was with each plant around the tubers.  This is so they can be sorted by species to ensure they have a uniform display ready for planting next year.  It's a lot more detailed than that but that's the abridged version!

It was a lovely morning with lots of visitors due to the Halloween trail they were doing.  We had a lot of people interested in what we were doing and why we were doing it as there were still a lot of lovely dahlias on show.  Then, unfortunately, the heavens opened so obviously after getting quite wet we had an early lunch after which the sunshine came out and the gardens got even busier.

Thanks to Leslie and Holly for their hospitality and to my colleagues for their hard work and good company.

Christine

Clearing Trees of Heaven at Dunham Massey on Sunday 23rd October 2022

Talk about dedication!  Nine MNTV volunteers turned out at Dunham Massey today in pouring rain to do a bit of Tree of Heaven removal.  Yes I had to google it as well.  It is a plant that was brought to Europe from China in 1740, so we can't blame the Victorians for this one.

We had a quick catch up with Colin, Lead Ranger, on what is happening at Dunham.  Previously, the rangers were responsible for just the immediate estate but now all 16 farms that make up the full Dunham estate are coming back "in house" so in the next couple of years a major restructuring will take place, including planting approx 750,000 trees, miles of hedgerows as well as making wild meadows and farming the land.

Anyway, back to today.  Tree of Heaven is an invasive species that unfortunately self seeds hence it spreads very quickly.  Our job was to cut back all except the trees that needed chainsawing and then take the cuttings to the yard to be burnt at a later date.  This looked a big job, especially in the rain which was persistent all morning.

We were fortunate to be able to use the benches in the gardeners' compound, which was undercover, for our breaks so at least our cake stayed dry.  It did stop just before lunch and someone even thought they saw the sun!

Once we had removed all the trees and small saplings we then cleared the path of overhanging branches and brash and just to finish off we raked up and removed all our droppings plus the sweet chestnut shells that were a slip hazard.

Before clearing saplings under a huge Tree of Heaven ...

... and after

Colin was made up with what we had achieved in the day and we look forward to being back soon.

Thanks to my intrepid colleagues for turning out on such a rotten morning.

Christine

Drinks with ex-chairman Tim Jarvis on Monday 17th October 2022

Tonight, for the first time this year we had a social!  Tim Jarvis, ex-chairman, was visiting Macclesfield from his home in Essex for a few days and four of us met up with him and his host Martin Swithinbank (also ex-MNTV) at the Waters Green Tavern in Macclesfield for an evening of reminiscences.  Many a photo was shared (some old, some recent), tales told and memories revisited.

(L to R): Daniel, Hazel, Martin, Tim, Sue & Andy

We last met Tim in this very same pub/table six years ago.  Hopefully we'll see him again long before 2028!

Daniel

Rhodybash at Park Hall (Hayfield) on Sunday 16th October 2022

Today, Adrian, Daniel and Sue rhodybashed with ranger Mark and apprentice ranger Tom at Park Hall near Hayfield.  There would have been two more of us but for covid cancellations.

We worked in a wood on the hillside above the hall.  It's a conservation area and in these and SSSI areas the Trust cannot now burn "on the ground" and instead builds its bonfires on metal platforms comprising a corrugated metal sheet on stilts.  Mark and Tom quickly got the fire going and the bone dry rhody (large piles cut by previous volunteer groups) burned very easily.  They were careful not to let the blaze get too big so that leaves and branches on the overhanding trees did not catch fire.

During the day we burned through all the big piles of rhody near the fire.  Jaffa drizzle loaf at elevenses and lunch kept everyone's energy levels up.  After 5.5. hours of burning all that remained of tonnes of rhody was a small pile of ash.

When the next burn happens the rangers will simply lift the platform and walk it round the hillside to other piles of rhody!

Thanks to Adrian and Sue for their company and for Mark and Tom for providing a good day's work.

Daniel