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

Various jobs at Formby on Sunday 26th April 2026

Seven of us met up with nine from the Merseyside group to spend a sunny day at the seaside in Formby.  Ranger Chris explained the jobs and gave us the option of driving round to the new car park on Victoria Road.  With it being such a nice day and it being only a 15 minute walk through the woods and sand dunes we opted to walk.

Task 1: 400 saplings required tree guards

They already had the plastic guards around them but the winds proved these were not sufficient protection, so it was a case of inserting a stick at the side and, using cable ties, fastening them to the guards.

Task 2: Planting a bench

This was not just any bench. It had been made by one of Formby's volunteers out of pine that had been chopped down to make way for the new car park.

Task 3: Putting up a new sign at the exit to the site

We had our combined brew/lunch break in a new picnic area where again the benches and tables had all been made with local timber and built by volunteers.

We had a great day working with our Merseyside colleagues, made all the more pleasant by lovely weather.

Thanks to Chris for his help and guidance and to everyone for their hard work and great company.

Christine

Buckthorn clearance at Formby - Sunday 16th November 2025

Well what a bumper joint workday we had!  Over 20 volunteers from Merseyside NTV and Mancheseter NTV joined the ranger for a day of Buckthorn clearance.  The Buckthorn has been pre-cut and were stacked up in piles waiting to be burned.

We split up into four groups:

Group one group went off to treat grey poplar stumps with herbicide

Group two attempted to light the furnace and the generator decided to give up the ghost but we didn't need it in the end as there was a good breeze, after several attemps we managed to get the fire going. 

Clearing rubbish from the furnace

 

Generator not wanting to work

We soon had a roaring fire!

Group three dragged chopped Buckthorn to the furnace ready to be burned.

Group four were taken on a tour to look at a project to remove grey poplar which has been left unchecked for 30-40 years.  A contractor has been removing the poplar, the timber will be chipped and go to biomast to create fuel.  The area has been cleared to stop the grassland from converting into woodland.  Willow and hawthorn have been left in place.

Area of grassland cleared of poplar

At the end of the day we had the task of putting out the fire, it was very exciting pouring water into the furnace!

What a great day we had, lovely weather, lots of cake and good teamwork!

Denise
Worksite Leader

Various jobs at Formby on Sunday 14th September 2025

Four of us joined Bree and Jess for a day at the seaside.  The original job planned for today had to be changed due to machinery malfunction, but they had some good alternatives for us to get stuck into.

The first job involved a fire - eat your heart out Neil, Andy & Jack!  There were large piles of brash and cuttings plus loads and loads of chestnut fencing that had all been removed when dismantling Victoria Road car park.  Our aim was to get this done before the rain started at lunchtime.  Talk about precision work - as  the last lot was put on the fire the first spots of rain started to fall!

The second job was to complete a wall of double/triple layers of fence posts.  This is to replace fallen down fencing which was to separate different size stones for the paths.

Finally, we dismantled, de-nailed and cleared timber from the yard and stacked it in a massive skip.  Again a lot of this had come from Victoria Road.

As far as the new car park is concerned, it is well under way and surprisingly is ahead of schedule with it hoping to be complete for next spring.

Bree and Jess were more than happy with what had been achieved, as these were jobs that kept being put on the back burner for more pressing jobs.

Thanks to my colleagues for their hard work and good company.

Christine

Cutting down poplar saplings at Formby on Sunday 15th June 2025

Six of us met Ranger Al in the Lifeboat Road carpark.  The forecast said cloudy but there wasn’t a cloud in sight so we slapped on the sun cream just in case it stayed like that.

We drove from the public carpark to get closer to the worksite which was on land south of Lifeboat Road recently given to the NT to manage by Sefton Council.  We went through an automatic gate into a very exclusive housing estate with a very large new manor house which would rival several NT stately homes!

The task was chopping down White and Grey Poplar saplings to reduce the vegetation in the area and allow for more sand dunes.  The saplings spread along root systems, so are clones:

They plan to have contractors in to take out the big trees ...

... but the smaller trees will grow rapidly when the larger tress are removed, so needed to be nipped in the bud.

Al explained that Formby has about 10% of the country's entire population of Black Poplar, which we were leaving alone.  They have done genetic testing and the 800 mature black poplar trees in Formby are all clones from just two trees!  The black poplar is an endangered species and most of the trees are male.

During the day we had a walk over to “Devils hole”, an area of shifting sand dunes deep enough to have a pond at the bottom – although it has been so dry recently there wasn’t much water in it.

Ariel view when there was more water about:

We slowly worked our way around a patch of established woodland cutting down the smaller poplars and stacking the brash in the trailer.  The brash will get used for dead hedging to make a stockproof fence to help control the longhorn cattle they hope to have grazing on the land in the winter.

The day continued warm, but with an onshore breeze it wasn’t too bad.  We managed to clear a long strip beside the wood, but there is still plenty of work left for the local group to do cutting the rest of the poplars down.

Jenny

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Broom and gorse clearance and log bagging at Formby on Sunday 6th April 2025

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, oh I do like to be beside the sea ... well we almost were.

Six of us made the trip over to Formby to work with ranger Jess on what started out as a rather cold morning but with a beautiful blue sky.

We walked from the rangers offices to the worksite at Larkhill Heath.  This is an area we have worked in before when we laid the hawthorn hedge.  Today we were to chop down the broom and gorse which was growing very well and if not controlled would kill off the heather and overshadow other plant species as well as damage the hedge.

It didn't take long before the layers of clothing came off and the sun became quite hot - so much so that when we broke for lunch we changed jobs to give us some cover.

Formby cut and sell their own timber for log burners, so in the afternoon we moisture tested samples from each bay and as long as they tested below 19% they were bagged up and put into storage.  We also moved bags around to make room in the sheds nearest to the logs that are still drying.

Currently Formby have plenty of trees to be processed because they have started clearing the area that is going to be the new car park, so plenty more logs to be cut and split.  Some of these trees will be used to make more tables and benches - maybe a job for MNTV next time we visit.

Thanks to Jess for looking after us and thank you to my colleagues for their hard work in very warm conditions.

Christine

Pond work and Buckthorn removal at Formby on Sunday 13th October 2024

Seven volunteers met up with ranger Al at the Lifeboat Road car park who gave us directions to the worksite which was a good 10 minute walk from the car park in the dunes behind the caravan park.  We did manage to get slightly lost on the way to the pond and on the way back to the car park later!

Al explained that the ranger team have created a series of pond slacks with a hope that these could be used for newts to lay their eggs, over time the ponds have become overgown with vegetation.  Al showed us one pond that had been cleared by volunteers the previous week, it looked good and I thought easy task this will take no time..... how wrong was I.  

Each pond is double fenced (to stop dogs from entering), the first hurdle was actually getting over the fences as they were quite high and some of us have little legs!  This is where Al's step stool comes in, Al thinks of everything and even brought a tub of biscuits - thank you.

Pond - before vegetation removal

Shovelling out vegetation around the pond was quite hard work as the sand was quite wet and some plants had fairly deep roots.  There were three tasks around the pond: remove vegetation from the outer edge of the pond, dredge pond using plastic rakes and pulling out buckthorn using a tree popper.  We split up into groups around the pond and got to work.  

  

Pond dregding

After an hour or so it really was time for a break and we were able to sit down and sample Mr Kipling's finest fruit pies, bakewell tarts and chocolate logs.  We definately needed this break, the weather was fine and the sun was peeping through the haze so it was getting quite warm with the physical work and mild day.

We saw a few frogs and some newts...

Frog leaping into the water (top left)

Newt

At lunchtime Al was telling us about the plans for the overgrown dunes area (500 acres), the rangers are looking at the possibilty of grazing cattle in the dunes over the winter months as the vegetation is so dense that in places it is waist high and cattle grazing is the only way to reduce it.  The rangers have estimated that one cow and calf could munch through one acre per year so they are going to need quite a few cows and it will be a very long project!  The cows will be fitted with GPS collars that act as a virtual fence that will buzz if the cows are straying out of the area.  

Pond - after clearance

After lunchtime we had removed as much vegetation as was possible and it was decided to move onto removing buckthorn from outside the pond compound.  Again we split up into groups with some people choosing to use the tree poppers (this definitely needed two people as the roots of the buckthorn are very deep and the tree popper effectively snaps off part of the root) and other people used the good old loppers which were much easier to use.

Buckthorn removal with tree popper

What a lovely day we all had, we didn't get to see the beach or the sea (think the tide was too far out) and the worksite was too far to walk anyway.

p.s. apparently there are over 30 slack ponds.... to be continued at a future workday, no doubt.

Denise
Worksite Leader  

Log spitting and fence repairs at Formby on Sunday 1st September 2024

We thought we were in for a hot sunny day, well that's what the forecast said earlier in the week, but it was not to be.

Six of us met with ranger Al who had a plan A and a plan B.  We plumped for plan A to start which was log splitting and stacking said split logs.  Unfortunately, the log splitter decided it wasn't playing and started to leak oil very badly.  Two of us stayed and tried using long handled axes to split some logs that wouldn't go through the splitter, to no avail.  I suppose if a log splitter can't do it what made us think we could!

So to plan B.  Four of the group went to dismantle some of the damaged benches and tables and tried to repair them.  The bolts holding the benches together had other ideas, and although they managed to remove most of them at least one wouldn't budge. So... end of plan B!

Plan C was to make new benches.  We managed to complete one, almost complete another and half completed a seat with back.

We had a wonderful day and the weather stayed dry right up to us going home then the heavens opened.

Thanks to my colleagues for their hard work and ingenuity, and thanks to Al and all at Formby for a great workday.

Christine