Burton Wood - 8 may 2011

Thanks to Daniel for this text.

Four of us travelled to Burton Wood today and spent the day rhodybashing with warden Phil and eight Chester NT Volunteers. It was our first visit to this part of the Wirral since November. Early heavy showers gave way to bright sunshine and the wood looked resplendent in its vivid spring green colours. Denis (Chester) got a roaring fire going and all the cuttings were burned by 4pm. Conversation topics around the fire and at breaktimes covered squirrel trapping, 1960's soft drink bottles, the Yorkshire Three Peaks walk and the Royal Wedding.

As well as the "heavy" rhoddi bashing about half the combined group spent the day roaming the wood, hunting down "regrowth". Theory is that by pulling out what roots we can, and stripping the regrowth from the ones we can't - we will gradually wear down the plants and eventually eliminate them completely.

The first photo is blurred (camera shake) and could have done with a back light adjustment, however the "trees" in the background including the ones with pink flowers are the main Rhoddadendrons being bashed - I've included this photo despite its poor quality to try to show the size of these plants..... ~18 feet high.

Burton wood 7 November 2010

Daniel has asked me to post the following text.
Today we went to Burton Wood on the Wirral and rhodybashed with the Chester group and warden Phil. In June when we last visited we cleared small clumps of regenerate growth but this time attacked the big stuff. Tim Jarvis would have been proud! The ten of us cleared a large area and kept the bonfire stoked all day. Several passersby asked what we were doing and one man reminisced about the rhody “castles” in which he played as a child (and which were going up in smoke before his eyes!).



In the absence of marshmallows to toast we had Daniel’s homemade bara brith at the tea breaks. Not bad at all, but next time I must remember the butter!

I dropped out at the last minute this week due to a very late night - thanks to Daniel for the following text and photos.

"Daniel, Sarah, Adrian and Alison travelled up the M56 today to Burton Wood for a joint workday with the Chester volunteers. Burton Wood covers about 30 acres of which 20 are owned by the Trust and 10 owned by the local council. Arthur Kilpin Bulley, the founder of nearby Ness Botanic Gardens, gifted the wood to the Trust once he'd settled on the site for Ness. Today was a rare visit - our work on the Wirral is usually at the much larger Thurstaston Common.

We spent the day cutting down, pulling up and burning rhododendrons. The Chester group had rhody bashed in the wood quite recently and we continued from where they'd left off. There aren't many big bits of rhody left in the Trust's patch because of all the clearing that has gone on over the years and it's now just a case of clearing the regenerate growth from time to time."