Woodland work at Chirk Castle on Sunday 23rd March 2025

Three of us met up at Quarry Bank Mill at 8:40 to carshare to Chirk Castle for 10am where we met up with four more members of the group.  The castle is an impressive sight on the hill.  We were working just inside the entrance (on the right) so we took two cars round the one way system to get to the worksite.

The mixed wood has had extra trees planted there over the last 10 years to fill in the gaps.  The trees still had plastic guards round them that had been put on to protect the saplings from rabbits.  Our job was to remove the guard from any tree with a stem bigger than our thumbs in a glove.  We set to work removing the guards and bagging them up.  By morning break we had filled two bags, so the ranger went back for several more.

By lunchtime we had filled enough bags to put on the back of a flat-bed truck, so one of the group went to help empty the truck.  The tree guards will be recycled by a specialist company and the stakes and reusable cable ties will be salvaged and reused.

We had another break for lunch.  Although the weather remained dry it was a bit cold to sit around for long so we went back to work.  By the end of the day we had collected guards from over half the trees and filled two flat-bed truckloads of large rubble bags with guards for recycling.  We drove back up to the castle to reunite people with their cars and travelled home.

The ranger was very happy with our progress and asked how to get us back to help again.  At the moment there are only two staff to look after the whole estate land so they really appreciate help from volunteer groups like MNTV.  The next time we visit the ranger. who we met on Sunday, will actually be living in the castle as warden.  What a fabulous address!

Jenny

Birch clearance at Chirk Castle on Sunday 3rd September 2023

We had a lovely sunny day at Chirk today removing birch trees from a woodland pasture.  The area had previously been grazed by ponies which kept the birch growth down, but they have been away for a few years allowing the birch to re-establish.  The ponies are planned to make a return next year.  The aim of the birch clearance was to help re-establish the woodland pasture, increasing biodiversity by maintaining  a low level grassland in amongst the surrounding woodland.

We had seven volunteers from the Manchester group along with five from the Merseyside group.  The ranger Keith was happy with the work we completed.  A couple of before and after pictures below.

Martin

Brash bashing at Chirk Castle on Sunday 12th June 2022 - a joint workday with the Merseyside group

Today we joined our Merseyside colleagues for a trip to Chirk Castle with the task for the day still to be decided.

We met ranger Keith in the car park where he gave us a quick run down of jobs he had lined up.  The first was a request from his facilities department to have an area behind the shop and toilets cleared of over grown bushes and brambles etc.  This is to enable them to look at using this area for a new cafe as the current one, up in the castle, is no longer big enough whereby they have long queues most weekends in the summer.

Once we had cleared the area we split into two groups, the first helping Keith load the cut bushes into the pick up, the second group headed to the woodland walk.  Here we used thrashers to clear about a half metre of brambles and unwanted plants from either side of the path.  This is usually done at this time of year to keep the path clear otherwise it would soon become overgrown.

We had a really good day, lovely weather, lots of people saying hello as they passed and it was nice to meet up with the Merseyside group again.

Thanks to Keith for a good day and to my colleagues for their hard work.

Christine 

Erecting tree guards at Chirk Castle on Sunday 1st September 2019

On the first day of autumn 2019 we went to Wales to invade Chirk Castle, a first for MNTV.  Seven pioneering MNTV members met up with the ranger, five members of the Merseyside group and one from the Chester group, to put up tree guards in the castle grounds.

The property has a grant to plant lots of trees, carefully placed in the park to recreate old plans for the grounds.  The work we were doing was to protect the young trees from the grazing sheep and cattle.

You can see from the photo that the old guards hadn’t worn well and the ones still standing had to be dismantled.  Where the old guards had broken you can see the damage cattle and sheep had done to the bark.

We were putting up something sturdier. The sides were pre-erected so “all” we had to do was dig some holes and nail the panels together.  Digging is never as easy to do as it is to watch, but we all took it in turns to dig the holes through roots and boulders to erect the new tree guards.

We weren’t the only invaders of the castle.  The medieval re-enactment group were also there, suitably dressed to take part in the battle of Crogen 1165 when King Henry II tried to invade Wales.  The clashing of swords and battle cries from the castle slopes mixed well with the noises we made digging the holes.

At the end of the battle Henry, like us, returned home.  Henry had been defeated but we were the victorious erectors of six magnificent tree guards which will keep the Welsh (livestock) at bay for several years to come.