Sunday 30th August 2026 - Summer bank holiday weekend - no workday

Footpath work and balsam bashing at Erddig on 23rd August 2026

We went to Wales this week and joined forces with the Merseyside NT group.

The task was to flatten the ground ready for a wheel-friendly footpath along the river. It was a warm day by any standard, but cooler than some this summer, and we had some shade. It was hard work with pickaxes, spades and shovels making sure that the rise from the new bridge over a stream wasn’t too steep to push a wheelchair up (or so steep on the way down that the wheelchair would end up in the stream).

We took it in turns and had the usual break for cake in the morning. By lunchtime we had the path level enough for easy access.

We sat and ate lunch in the shade, with the smell of wild garlic, which we had dug up when widening the path.

In the afternoon, we went on a seek and destroy mission along the riverbanks, looking for Himalayan Balsam. We found plenty to keep us going until it was time to leave for home.

We also found a few balsam hidden in trees that had grown rather large: 

It was great to see the Merseyside group again and thanks to the ranger for giving up his Sunday so that we could work on site.

Jenny

Ragwort pulling at Hare Hill on Sunday 16th August 2026

Today's planned workday at Hayfield was cancelled by ranger Chris due to the extreme fire risk and the need to allow for fire patrols and ranger response if required so instead five of us met ranger Issy at Hare Hill for a day of ragwort destruction.  Thanks Issy for providing us with a work task at short notice!  We hadn’t worked at Hare Hill since September 2018 because it is a garden property, not landscape where we normally work.

The estate includes farmland and the field we worked in is currently not useable for grazing because ragwort is poisonous to animals.  A corporate group had already done some work but there was still more than enough to keep us occupied for the day.

We used forks designed specifically to dig out the ragwort but it was still tiring as it was another hot day and the ground was so hard.  David managed to burst into life again after a supply of stem ginger cake.

We didn’t manage to clear the whole field but we did our bit to make the field useable for grazing.

Jean

Scything and raking at Hardcastle Crags on Sunday 2nd August 2026

Five of us from MNTV met up with five volunteers from the West Yorkshire National Trust Volunteer group and Hardcastle Crags Rangers Alice and Lily with high hopes that the 12 of us would make a big impact on today's tasks.

We loaded the Rangers' vehicle with the tools we'd brought with us and our rucksacks and walked from the Midgehole upper car park to a small area of grassland called Rom's Folly, which was on the left of the path as we walked towards Gibson Mill.

We quickly realised that most of Rom's Folly was a steep slope with a flatter area towards the bottom, which was nearer to the river.  There were lots of flies and midgey things about so we liberally applied our anti-mosquito spray to avoid getting bitten.

There were various tasks that needed doing today.  The whole area needed scything to get rid of the overgrown vegetation, but to ensure the land remained nutrient deficient we then had to rake the cut grasses and carry them to the side of the area and throw them over the wall.  After a demonstration of how to use a scythe by Ranger Alice, and the advice to 'walk' the area first to ensure no sleeping hedgehogs were hiding, Kate, James and David went down to the flatter area to work.

The rest of us stayed at the top of Rom's Folly, on the steep slope.  Some started removing the fern either by pulling up the smaller plants or slashing them or scything them or by using secateurs.  Again, we piled up anything that was cut down so it could be gathered together and thrown over the stone walls, so it wouldn't rot down in Rom's Folly and fertilise the land.

The third task was to gently remove the seed heads of the flowering Himalayan balsam that were on the steepest area, near the path.  We don't usually tackle balsam in this way.  Usually, earlier in the season we would pull the whole plant and its roots out of the ground, and snap the roots from the stem so it can't re-root and throw it to the floor to die.  However, the balsam today was so ripe that the seed pods were on the verge of bursting to spread seeds over a large area, for plants to grow next year.  If we had tried to pull the plants out as usual, the action would have spread the seeds at the same time, which we didn't want to do, so a gentler approach of using secateurs to cut the flowers and seeds off and disposing of them in a black bin bag was the best way of dealing with them.

I have to confess, the tasks were quite hard work, particularly because we were also on a slope in the full sun, but we kept ourselves hydrated, took breaks when needed, ate lots of cake at mid-morning break, and home-made flapjack (courtesy of the West Yorkshire group) at lunchtime.

It was, all in all, a great day, we got loads done, met some lovely fellow-volunteers, and chatted to members of the public that were walking past and curious about what we were doing.

Sue B

Summer at Calke Abbey - 24th - 26th July

 Planning an MNTV weekend takes time, energy and patience and this years Summer at Calke Abbey was no different. The weekend was booked in by March and with our 40th Anniversary Party on the horizon I wanted to get that out of the way before concentrating on Calke Abbey. 40th out of the way and Jenny and I got our heads together to formulate a plan….its now Thursday 23rd July and you find me on a train bound for Manchester, with my cool bag, filled with goodies, by my feet as due to a last minute cancellation by Jenny, I'm leading this weekend solo…with, I'm hoping, help from the rest of the group. With everything, I hope, under control, I'm going to kick back and enjoy the English scenery and I'll come back to you later.

Friday has arrived and after a quick trip to Quarry Bank Mill for a look in the garden I was picked up by Andy and Clare. There was quite a bit of luggage to go with me as some of the provisions were at Jennys. We managed to squeeze it all in and headed for Uttoxeter to pick up the shopping, I did think I might have to call on reinforcements to pick Me or some of the shopping up but Andy managed to fill every space including Mine and Clares footwells with food….it’s only 40 mins down the road. Upon arrival we found Sarah and Neil already there and enjoying the sunshine. We unpacked the food and my luggage from Andy’s car which left them to go to their accommodation in Ticknall and Me to sort out where the food went. Prior to the weekend it had been decided we would go to the local watering hole for our tea but with Jack and Tim not arriving til 7pmish it was decided we would get take away Pizza. Sarah found a lovely little pizzeria in Ashby-de-la-Zouch that did takeaway so she and I put in the order and headed over to pick it up. Whilst we were away Jack and Tim arrived after travelling together from Manchester along with Andy and Clare who had walked from their cottage in Ticknall. That evening we dined on Pizza and Salad on the outdoor furniture provided. After swapping stories and discussing the arrangements for the weekend we headed to bed.

Dinner outside - J Lyons

 

Saturday has arrived and the sunshine is still with us. We were up and breakfasted by 9.30 ready for a pick up by the Rangers, however it was at this stage we discovered that the fridge wasn’t working, the light was on but no cold air was in it, so we loaded up a bag of food that we thought would be best in the fridge and Sarah and Andy drove to Ticknell to put the food in Andy’s fridge and then onto the worksite. Ranger Emily drove the rest of us to the worksite in Calkes Minibus and Ranger Alice drove in the pickup behind us. They had been told by Vicky that we could be left to our own devices — a huge compliment from Vicky, Thank You! Sarah and Andy joined us at this point. The task was Ragwort pulling, there was a fairly large area to clear. We walked the first field and didn’t find any there so we carried on to the other areas and started pulling them out with some difficulty. The ground was very hard and pulling it out was not as easy as I thought it would be and I couldn’t get my head around the equipment we’d been provided with. At coffee time we went back to the minibus that Emily and Alice had left us with and got our bags out. We enjoyed Jenny’s Chocolate Brownies, Lemon Drizzle Cake and Ally’s Carrot Cake, I wouldn’t like to say whose won!

Our Worksite - A Hardy

With the bus and bags so far from where we were working we decided to take them with us, closer to where we were working. The sun beat down all day and when it came to lunch time we found a big tree that provided shade to sit under. Neil decided to stay where he was as he had found a tree to sit under on the other side of the field. We managed to get quite a bit cleared and the sun was still beating down. We finished our day at 3pm and with the food needed for that nights meal not at Base Sarah drove Andy and Clare home to pick up the food and the rest of us got a lift in the minibus. Upon arrival back at Base we went in different directions, Tim went for a walk around the Estate, Sarah, Jack, Niel and Myself went to our respective beds and had a rest from the sun and also showered. I took Myself off downstairs to start the preparations for dinner before long I was joined by others, most of whom sat outside partaking in some libation. We dined on Tomato Macaroni Cheeses with Garlic Bread and Salad finished off with Chocolate Cheesecake, Pomegranate and Raspberry Cheesecake with Berries and Cream. After dinner we were back outside to enjoy the last of the sunshine before heading for bed.

The Stables - T Leadbetter

Calke Church - T Leadbetter

The Hall with yellowing grass due to the hot weather - T Leadbetter

Sunday dawned cooler but bright with the possible chance of some rain. We breakfasted on cereal and bacon butties. We were picked up by the Rangers and again taken to the worksite….the same one as yesterday. However with the workday due to finish at 1pm we decided to concentrate on a smaller area of ragwort so that we could clear an area rather than leaving Ragwort still standing in many areas. We toiled away, chatting to each other as we went. Despite the light shower of rain we had made good progress by cake time and by 12.15 we had cleared the area Result!

Our day 2 worksite - S Hopes

We all then moved our bags to the minibus and took our ragwort forks into a feild close by that we had been asked to clear, as we waded through the long grass I was sceptical that there were any ragwort in this field, as it happened we found about 10 plants so it was another excellent result. At 1pm Rangers Emily and Alice came to pick us up and we were able to tell them that we had cleared two distinct areas. They were very pleased with our work. Upon arrival back at the basecamp we packed up our sleeping bags, divvied out the leftover food, changed out of our sweaty clothes, had lunch and headed for home. It was a great weekend and we missed you all. I hope to see more of you at our Winter in Wales Weekend on 13th - 15th November.

Balsam bashing at Dunham Massey on Sunday 26th July 2026

There is nothing more to be said about balsam bashing that has not been said over the last few weeks, as this is one of our regular summer jobs.  What I can say is that we had a very productive and enjoyable day with our Merseyside colleagues.

It was a day that wasn't due to take place as it was our weekend away at Calke Abbey but due to crossed wires it took place and we managed to muster up a few volunteers, which slowly reduced in numbers due to the forecast of rain.  In fact the rangers were surprised and pleased at the joint effort as we not only cleared our allocated target area for today but two others as well.

Great day all round, so thanks everyone.

Christine

Balsam bashing at Lyme Park on Sunday 19th July 2026

It started as a slightly cooler day today, a welcome change from the heat of the last few weeks.  Most of us met Ranger Jason in the main car park before getting a lift in the Lyme Park shuttle bus back to the entrance kiosk where we met Shirley and walked as a group through the gate, up Red Lane, and into the field where we’ve been Himalayan balsam bashing previously.

Today we had Emily joining us for the first time, and also Niamh, who’d only been out with us once before.  After putting our bags in the shade under some trees, Jason gave us a safety talk before we started destroying the balsam by pulling it up and snapping the roots off so it couldn’t regrow.

We were all doing really well at making our piles of discarded balsam and we had two of the Lyme Park Youth volunteers join us too, so we were getting a lot done before we stopped for a mid-morning refreshment break with cake.

Afterwards we continued with our task, before stopping a couple of hours later for lunch and a chat.

During the afternoon it started getting warmer.  Most of us had hats to wear and some of us decided to work in the shade under the trees.

There was a huge amount of balsam on the other side of a wire fence which I thought I could climb over and join David in destroying.  However I soon discovered it was harder than it looked to get into that area and, once I was finally over the fence, I found myself sitting precariously on the pile of balsam that David had pulled up and stacked against the fence.  For a while, I was laughing too much to be able to shift my body weight enough to get off it! - but fortunately I managed it in the end.

We all had a great time - we achieved a lot, had a good chat and really enjoyed being outdoors, admiring the butterflies, grasshoppers, bees, dragonflies, damselflies and other insects, on such a wonderful day.

Sadly there was too much balsam to destroy it all today, but hopefully we’ll be back soon to continue our quest.

Sue B

Balsam bashing at Dunham Massey on Sunday 5th July 2026

Replacing a fence at Formby on Sunday 28th June 2026

Eight of us met ranger Bree and five members of the Merseyside group at 10 o’clock on a warm and breezy morning.  After Gaynor sampled the ice cream from the kiosk already in full swing, we had a 10 mins walk to the work site, the play area near St Luke’s church.

The job was to dismantle the existing stock fencing and replace it with a more ecofriendly dead hedge.  The wood was rotten in places but the fence was overgrown with vegetation and still pretty sturdy.

All the material used to make the dead hedge was locally ‘produced’ by cutting down sycamore saplings growing close by.  The wonky stakes were a bit difficult to hammer into the ground but they give a real rustic feel suitable for a woodland.

Then the cut branches were piled up between the stakes with some of the outside ones woven round them to make it more stable.

We had an enjoyable day working with Merseyside.  We used a full range of tools - loppers, bowsaws, fencing pliers, wire cutters, hand axes, small hammers and big ones - so thank you to the National Trust for a tool refresher training day.

Jean

Balsam bashing at Dunham Massey on Sunday 21st June 2026

Another summer's day, another Himalayan balsam bash.

There was plenty of balsam for the ten of us to have a go at beside the north carpark at Dunham.  Luckily a lot of it was in the shade and plenty tall enough to pull without bending down.  We did however have to battle nettles and brambles.  A few of the plants were starting to flower, so we did try and get those first.

We found a picnic bench in the shade for the cake  and lunch breaks, and we were close enough to the Visitor Centre to keep our water bottles topped up.

 
We are back at Dunham on 5th July and may be pulling balsam then too.  Hopefully it won’t flower before then.

We posed for a photo by the picnic area on the way back to the cars.

Jenny

Balsam bashing at Lyme Park on Sunday 14th June 2026

Seven of us met Ranger Jason in the main car park and, as we were working down Red Lane which is near the entrance kiosk, Jason had arranged for the Lyme Park minibus to give us a lift back down the drive near to Red Lane.

We then walked part way up Red Lane and into a field on the left, over a stile.

As we walked towards the back of the field (which we'd removed Balsam from last year), we spotted some rogue plants, but the majority were down towards the railway line.

We found a convenient base to leave our rucksacks and the all-important cakes for elevenses, under the trees, and then we got to work.

The Balsam was still quite young, only David spotted a few plants during the day that would be flowering soon, the rest were fairly small (so lots of bending over required to get to them) and sometimes mixed in with nettles or brambles, but they usually pulled out quite easily without breaking the stems, so we got the roots out as well.

Part way through the morning, Ranger Claire arrived to help, bringing two youth volunteers with her.

At 11am we had our 'coffee break' and everyone gathered back under the trees. Usually the worksite leader provides cake by buying some or baking some, today was a bit more unusual because yesterday, at Lyme, MNTV had celebrated 40 years of volunteering - a massive achievement. A party was planned and a fabulous get-together of current and old members gathered to celebrate (see details in our 40th Blog). 

Ally, our Chairperson, and Jenny, one of the committee members, had baked various delicious flavours of cupcakes, many with 40 MNTV toppers on them, and I'd been able to bring some of the ones that weren't eaten with me today - a real treat!!

After our break, we resumed our quest to find and destroy more Himalayan Balsam. The aim is to prevent them spreading further when the flowers turn to seed heads, because the seed heads burst spreading hundreds of seeds over a large area, ready to grow next year

After lunch we continued again, moving to different areas of the field and, even as we left to go home, we were still spotting more to destroy.

We made a huge difference to the amount of Balsam in the field, but there is still more. Hopefully we'll get another go at it when we return to Lyme next month.

It was a great day - it didn't rain and in fact the sun came out in the afternoon. We welcomed newbie James, and also Emma who'd only been out with us once before. We had some interesting chats on our breaks and it was a very relaxed and sociable day,

Sue B (Worksite Leader)

MNTV turns 40 - Saturday 13th June 2026 - Lyme Park

Organising a celebration for such a big event takes time, the date was sorted and a room was needed - of the 3 properties we contacted(in 2024!), Lyme Park came up trumps and the room was booked.

‘Suddenly’ it was 2026 and next to sort were the speakers, Tim Jarvis (ex-Chairperson for MNTV, currently living in Essex) said he’d be honoured, but wasn't sure he could make it in person. Hazel Pryor and Charlie Spiller (both joined MNTV in the early days) would be delighted to, so that was sorted. 

Roll forwards to Thursday 11th July and, after a little persuasion, I set off driving in the pouring rain from my home in Edinburgh for Manchester with my parents with home made cakes in the boot of the car and my speech in my laptop case as that was coming too.

Friday arrived and it was raining again, I iced my cakes and practiced my speech that I had spent weeks perfecting, it still wasn’t perfect - it was still raining!

Lime Cakes, fully decorated - Jan-Christof Telford

Saturday dawned and after a poor night's sleep the car was packed with cake and party paraphernalia. Jenny arrived at Lyme Park just ahead of me and my family. Party Paraphernalia and Me dropped off. It was time to start setting up - we had given ourselves 2 hours to get everything ready before our guests arrived. Bunting was put up and cakes were arranged on our wooden cake stand. It was then that someone asked where the plastic glasses for the bubbly were? After a couple of words not to be repeated, I raced across the carpark to see if our car was still there. It was, but Mum and Dad were nowhere to be seen. Managing to track them down, there were no glasses in the boot, but they’d definitely come in the car from Edinburgh! Oh why had I unpacked them when we got to our accommodation, Mum and Dad very kindly said they would return to our accommodation and locate them in the cupboard I thought they were in. Thanks Mum and Dad.

Having got that under control there was another more fun problem, Daniel had been detailed to get two helium balloons, a 4 and a 0. Neil opened the bag they were in and the 0 came out perfectly attached to its ribbons and weight. The 4 however had different ideas and wasn't attached to its ribbons and weight and went sailing up to the ceiling, thus proceeded a game of ‘how many people does it take to get a helium balloon down’, the answer is 3! After trying this pole and that rod plus some sellotape it was finally retrieved but it was a bit deflated and would no longer stand proud, never mind. Thanks to Rangers Chris and Claire plus estate worker Jason for their expertise. 

With Bunting inside and outside, banners put up, care of Jenny, the tables and chairs were set up as was the laptop with pictures from the last 40 years projected onto a big screen - we were ready to go, just! By this time it was 2pm and our guests were arriving, still no glasses…they arrived at about 2.30pm (my thanks must go to my Mum and Dad for that and also for driving down with me for the event). With guests arriving it was time to start mingling…now you’ve heard about the set up I’ve asked Sue B to tell you about how the party went…..

Gosh - what can I say?! - apart from it being a lovely, happy and sociable afternoon; a gathering of current and ex-volunteers from our group, all  together to celebrate an amazing achievement - 40 years of volunteering on Sundays on National Trust properties mainly in the North West, with some weekends at further afield NT properties too.

Bag Design side 1

The committee, led by Ally as our most recent Chairperson, had done a fantastic job in organising today: plenty of nibbles, drinks and cake; lovely decorations and bunting; a fabulous slide show of photos from past workdays and social events as a reminder of what we’ve done over the last 40 years, and of the people we’ve done it with; as well as organising an MNTV ‘40th’ Tote bag, designed with the names of the properties we volunteer at, as a lovely memento of the occasion.

As well as past and current volunteers, and a couple of their dogs, we also had support from the Lyme Park Rangers who came along for the afternoon (some even on their days off) and formerly thanked us for all the volunteering hours we’ve put in at Lyme Park, as well as National Trust properties generally, over the past 40 years.

Bag design side 2

A National Trust photographer circulated during the afternoon taking photos while we were catching up with people we may not have seen for a while then, a little after 3pm, Ally gathered us together for the speeches. 

It started with Ally’s speech, written and read with the usual flair and enthusiasm that we would expect from Ally! 

As Chairperson (and also the program organiser for our workdays), Ally is immensely proud of everything that MNTV has already achieved, and is continuing to achieve, and this was reflected in her speech - it was not only informative but funny and uplifting, a speech with a sparkle, just like Ally:-) 

Ally giving her speech - Jan-Christof Telford

We then heard from our 3 guest speakers, Hazels in person was witty and full of stories,  Tim and Charlie hadn’t actually been able to join us themselves, both had sent their thoughts to Ally and these were read out by Daniel and Denise, two of our committee members. 

In particular Charlie, who lives in the Lakes and was so looking forward to being with us, but due to a last minute staffing issue at work couldn’t be here, was particularly upset at missing our 40th party. 

David receives his 10 year award  - Jan-Christof Telford 

Afterwards five long-service awards were presented by Chris, Lyme Park, Lead Ranger, these were David and Jenny who both received 10 years, Neil who received 15 years, Denise achieved 20 years and Adrian who has done a whopping 35 years. Also receiving long service awards but unable to be at the party were Martin with 10 years and Sue D with 15 years.

Jenny receives her 10 year award - Jan-Christof Telford

Denise receives her 20 year award - Jan-Christof Telford

Neil recieves his 15 year award - Jan Christof Telford

Adrian receives his 35 year award - Jan-Christof Telford

After the cakes had been eaten, or boxed up for tomorrow's workday at Lyme which I was leading, we took down the bunting and the fairy lights, the projector was turned off, and everyone made their way home. 

Neil gave Ally a lift to her accommodation, as the cottage where she was staying with her family was a few mins walk away from Boarfold Scout Camp where Neil is a Warden and where he was staying the night. We squeezed the balloons in the car for Ally’s 3 year old Niece, apparently she loved them!

The Balloons and fairy lights up in Allys accomodation - A Hardy 

 

It was a wonderful afternoon - a joyous celebration as well as a time of reflection for what we’ve already achieved - we’re certainly looking forward to getting back out there and doing much more volunteering.

Balsam bashing with West Yorkshire NTV at Hardcastle Crags on Sunday 7th June 2026

Two of us met 10 West Yorkshire NT volunteers at Hardcastle Crags for a job you either love or hate - balsam bashing. It was a Goldilocks day, not too hot and not too cold. And we worked near the river bank so it was even (comparatively) flat.

It’s quite early in the season, the balsam isn’t in flower yet, so we were met with just a mass of green.

After a full days work, it’s still a mass of green! But it’s the green of wood rush not balsam.

It may not look very interesting but wood rush provides a home and food for the Woodrush Moth. It’s also a natural way to control erosion as the shallow roots bind the soil together.

It was a good day made even better by the flapjack provided by West Yorkshire at lunch break, secret ingredient - peanut butter!

Joint workday with Shropshire & Staffordshire NTV at Biddulph on Sunday 31st May 2026

It is now an established tradition that MNTV visit Biddulph at least twice a year to put in and then remove the stakes along the iconic Dahlia Walk.

This year to make things a little different we met up with our sister group SSNTV (Shropshire & Staffordshire group).  This is where our territories overlap and we have worked with them on our weekend away at Calke Abbey.  So there were a total of 25 willing volunteers descending on Biddulph Gardens at 10am.  They had arranged a few tasks to keep us all occupied: 

1. Planting ivy - a few in the group thought this was a rather alien concept, as they spend a lot of time in their own gardens removing ivy. 
2. Putting in the dahlia stakes and forking over ready for planting. 
3. Clearing the banks of the ”long walk” so they remain bluebell banks and not choked with other things.

We split into three teams, the larger team doing the most urgent task of dalhia stakes.  We gathered together for elevenses and lunch on the old croquet lawn in the private garden.  A setting a little grander than we are used to!

After lunch we all went up to the “long walk” which is an avenue of Giant Redwood trees planted only 30 years ago.  They grow about a metre per year.  We all worked removing vegetation from the steep banks.

Between us we cleared around 200m of bank, which is about half of the work needed, removing small and large saplings with tree poppers and brambles and other “weeds” with forks and spades.

On the way back to the cars I admired the rhododendrons around the fishpond.  Nice to see some in flower that we haven’t demolished!

We left tired but happy to have done a good job, spent time with our friends in SSNTV and eaten lots of delicious cake :-)

Jenny