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