Delightful Derbyshire - 28th - 30th June 2024

Seven go to Calke Abbey - Bracken, Pizza and Sunshine

Starring: Jenny, Ally, Denise, Mary, Sarah and Neil with a cameo from Chris M

Guest Starring: Ranger Vicky

It takes a lot of planning to organise a weekend and with work not confirming my shift swap until a month before, I couldn't confirm if I was able to lead the weekend so I was very glad when Jenny said she would. With it being her first time leading a weekend it took some reassurance and advice from Myself to get the weekend off the ground, I had every faith in her.

My journey started at 9.00am with a bus trip to the station and then a 4hr 20 train journey from Edinburgh to Derby, meeting Jenny, we picked up the click and collect from Sainsburys Derby and then made our way to our Basecamp on the Calke Abbey Estate. Mary had already arrived but had decided to wait before unloading her luggage including 6 bottles of wine, apparently she takes 6 bottles on every NT working holiday she attends, long or short.

Shortly after our arrival Sarah and Neil arrived. With all our beds made and pyjamas out we decided to try the local watering hole, which is also a microbrewery, the Milking Parlour is owned by The Tollgate Brewery, tenants of the Calke Estate. As it was a lovely sunny and warm evening it was suggested we walk, Jenny offered to drive so she and Mary travelled there by car. As I had been sat on a train for a while Sarah, Neil and Myself decided to walk, using a map and working out where the right path was. We walked for about 30 mins to the pub. Neil didn't trust the women to get him there safe and sound, so he asked two men the way, one knew the way one didn't. Upon arrival we joined Mary and Jenny in the sunshine, Sarah wanted to try all the beers, for a forthcoming beer Festival she was helping to organise. Jenny returned to Basecamp with Mary to prep the evening meal. She returned later to pick the rest of us up, upon arrival back at Basecamp, we enjoyed homemade pizza with Salad and Garlic bread. As we were eating Denise joined us and our party was complete. She also partook in Pizza. We had enough pizza to feed an army. After food we sat outside and chatted and caught up on news, then went to bed.

The Basecamp

When I first made contact about another weekend at Calke Abbey it was because Vicky Naylor who use to work at Styal had got in touch to say she had moved locations. I thought that would be the perfect opportunity to see Her and Calke Abbey again. On Saturday Vicky arrived just before 9am and informed us that we would be travelling to Carvers Rocks Nature Reserve which is just outside the Calke Estate, it has recently been taken over by the National Trust and Vicky is heading up the team there.

Being a volunteer you get to go behind the scenes or through private gates and this was one of those occasions, with 3 vehicles making the journey we went through a pretty nondescript gate which, unless looking for it I think you would probably not see it. Passing through the gate we drove along the road to a carpark which I think probably used to be a well used car park as it had benches and picnic tables alongside it. Having dropped two vehicles there, Vicky took her vehicle back along the road to a pedestrian gate which lead along walking tracks around the reserve. We took the path for some distance and up onto the heathland. Vicky and the team are wanting to get rid of the Bracken but due to the heather being there couldn’t come along with machinery until the area around the heather had been cleared. We were having to pull out the bracken, this although hard work was actually quite a satisfying task because you could see how much you had done. It did involve a lot of bending or crouching and some folk decided to either sit on the floor or their sit stool they had bought with them, with differing levels of success. Denise managed to somersault off her stool it was so elegantly executed that she could have won a gymnastics gold medal at the Olympic games! At Coffee time we enjoyed Jennys Chocolate Brownies and Bakewell Slice. There was one large area of heather and after Elevenses the majority of the group worked on that. Whether we got all the heather exposed is unknown as it just kept appearing.

We called a halt to this area at Lunchtime, by now it was getting quite hot and with no tree in the right area to shelter under we moved to the second area and enjoyed our lunch of pizza in the cooler air. It was at this stage that member Chris who has recently moved to the Derbyshire from the Liverpool Area joined us. With the Trust only recently taking over the site and it being a lovely day Vicky decided that a litter pick was needed so Chris was joined by Jenny for the said pick along the shore of the Reservoir that makes up part of the nature reserve. The rest of us started on this new area which the machinery would not be able to reach. We had been informed that at some stage in the near future the trust were hoping to get Ponies for the area so we were giving the ponies a helping hand. At 3.15 we called it a day and headed back to the carpark, some went back to the basecamp and another car load went to the aforementioned pub. When the pub goers returned we found preparations for dinner in full swing, Chris was chopping strawberries into very small pieces, Jenny was mixing them into whipped cream to pipe into homemade profiteroles - what an extravagance. Mary was on wine duty and we were all offered a glass of wine as we stepped in the door, something told Me she didn’t want to go home with the 6 bottles she had brought with her. We all enjoyed a hot shower and some partook in a lie down out of the warm air. Prior to the weekend Jenny had sent out an email giving us the choice of what we would like to eat so that evening we dined on the most popular choice, Roast Chicken with potatoes and vegetables. We also enjoyed the profiteroles. We did think about going to explore the estate but we decided to stay put and enjoy the company of each other and being able to sit outside. We were all tired after our day so we headed for bed.

The Milking Parlour Beer Garden

Clearing Bracken from round the Heather

Sunday again dawned warm but cloudy. Neil was early to rise and early to leave, Denise and Sarah missed his departure. We ate a breakfast of Cereals with fruit and yogurt and bacon sandwiches. Mary left after breakfast with all 6 bottles of wine. Jenny, Denise, Sarah and Myself, aching from the day before, went to visit the Abbey gaining access to the gardens through the staff entrance. On our way there we came across a gardener working on the tractor and some wooden musical instruments. He let us have a go on them. Once in the garden we admired the sweet peas and the apple trees. We eventually found our way to the house via the shop and the admissions kiosk. Calke Abbey is advertised on the NT Website as “A visit to Calke Abbey, like so many National Trust places, is a step back in time. But Calke is not presented like other country houses of its day. Paintwork is fading and peeling; vast collections of personal belongings are left as they were found.” It’s not wrong, it’s stuffed full of objects some of which were broken. And yes it did feel a little unloved. We returned to basecamp for lunch and then did a last tidy up and headed for home.

The Abbey

The Wooden Instruments

My thanks goes to Jenny for leading the weekend and picking me up from the station.

I look forward to seeing you all at Christmas in Cymru (Snowdonia) - Friday 6th to Sunday 8th December

Ally

In the Gardens at Calke Abbey

Balsam bashing at Lyme Park on Sunday 23rd June 2024

We spent today balsam bashing at Lyme Park.  Seven of us met new rangers Jason and Alister by the kiosk in the main carpark at 9:30.  Alister has joined Lyme from Clumber Park and Jason was an evening ranger at Lyme but is now full time.  Neither ranger had heard of MNTV (!) so we introduced ourselves and the group to them.  Alex Bond, ex-MNTV and then a Lyme ranger, has left the Trust and taken a job with Natural England.

The worksite was a field beside Red Lane and we got there by taking the electric minibus to the entrance booth then walking the 400 metres to the field.  The field had been grazed by the Highland cattle but they'd been moved out.  The balsam was mainly growing in dense patches of brambles so we cut those back with loppers then pulled out the balsam by hand, breaking the stems near the root and piling them into "tonne bags" for the rangers to take back to their compound.  The balsam had not yet flowered or released seeds so this was an ideal time to bash it to hopefully ensure less balsam grows back next year.

We often had to look very closely to see the balsam:

It was hot work, especially when the sun came out, and we stopped for water breaks in the shade before and after cake and coffee at 11 and lunch at 1.  

We began to wilt in the heat by 2:30 and started to wind down and put all uprooted balsam in the bags.  At 3 o'clock we began walking back to the entrance booth where luckily we found the e-minibus waiting which took us back to the main carpark.

Daniel

Clearing brash alongside a footpath at Alderley Edge on Sunday 16th June 2024

After our workday at Erddig was cancelled, Ally asked around and Issy very kindly found us jobs to do at Alderley Edge, so four of us met up with Issy at the car park at Alderley.  Neil read as far as Issy in the email and went to Lyme - oops!!  He managed to join us by the time we had collected tools, walked to the worksite and Issy had showed us the various jobs we could have a go at.  At that point she had to leave us to our own devices.

We set to slashing back nettles, thistles, brambles, etc then started clearing the path.   After brew Andy and Neil cut down an overhanging tree (well, three trees as it was a multi-trunked tree) and repaired a bench.

We had plenty of people using the path and all were very appreciative of our work, plus we had a herd of young cows visiting us throughout the day and actually thought they could join us for lunch!

On the way back to the cars we spent a while cutting back a hawthorn hedge that although not belonging to the NT was making the path virtually impassable.

Thanks to Issy for helping us out and special thanks to my colleagues for their hard work on a tough job and on a warmish day.

Christine 

Woodland clearance at Formby on Sunday 9th June 2024

We met up with ranger Al at the Lifeboat Road carpark where he gave us directions for walking to the worksite.  This was basically back up Lifeboat Road then turn into woodland just before the houses.

Al explained that the area had been fenced off in 1991 and the children of the local primary school had helped to plant trees. It was intended to be somewhere schools could take classes to work with nature.  This year they have gone back to the same primary school and asked the children for ideas of what they would like in a nature trail.

As always, nature had started to take over the site.  This is were we came in.  We set to taking out self-seeded sycamores using tree poppers or, if too big for those, the trusty bow saw.  By lunchtime we had made a big impression though you couldn't tell for all the piles of discarded trees.

After lunch Al had us clearing ivy from the gate post and trees.  There was so much of it that you couldn't see some of the trees for ivy.  We had to leave one tree because a blackbird had actually nested in the ivy.  I am hoping that we didn't drive it away as she was sitting on eggs.

We were joined for lunch by a robin and a tree creeper.  I wasn't quick enough to take a photo as it moved up the tree very quickly.

Thanks to Al for a very enjoyable and productive work day, and we wish them luck building the children's trail.

Christine.

Staking the dahlia walk at Biddulph Grange Garden on Sunday 2nd June 2024

Today nine of us met up with Holly for our annual task of staking out the dahlia walk at Biddulph.  It was a beautiful day for the task ahead.  We had been led to believe we would be taking out the tulips prior to staking out the beds, but this had been done earlier in the week.

As all but Gaynor had done this job [staking] before we had it finished by lunchtime so in the afternoon we pre dug holes in front of each stake ready for the dahlia tubers to be planted, which will be in the next week or so.

We had lots of visitors asking what we were doing and thanking us for our hard work.  We also had questions for directions, not quite so good on that one though.

Thanks to my colleagues for their hard work and good company.  Also thanks to Holly who took over admirably from Leslie, who has left to become a postie!

Christine