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

Pond Clearing at Hare Hill on Sunday 9th September 2018

This week eight of us enjoyed a muddy day in the sun (during lunch at least) at Hare Hill near Alderley Edge with ranger John Mann.  At the start of the day, John showed us a path opposite the ticket office where you can walk through North park all the way to the Wizard pub/cafe in Alderley Edge.  To the right of us were a couple of Jacob sheep, a British breed that commonly have four horns, neither of which paid us any attention.

Once we were all waterproofed, wellied and wadered-up, we started clearing the garden pond of 100s of years worth of built-up leaf debris and mud.

Other finds in the murky water included a broom head, animal bones, a piece of pot and a lot of broken glass.

First, we held open the ton builder's bags using metal sticks (technical term, anyone?!) in all four corners and, from wooden planks projected into the pond, started scraping out the leaves using drag forks.

Once the bags were full, the ranger threw us a chain connected to his RTV to hook the bags up one at a time and drag them out of the pond.  By the end of the day we'd managed to fill up about 16 bags- that's a lot of forking!

 The purpose of clearing the pond is so that, in the future, it can become a living habitat as at the moment it is ecologically dead.  Once the bottom is fully cleared and vegetation is planted around the edges- hazel trees will be used to support the banks and prevent erosion-  pond plants will be introduced and hopefully insects, newts and other wildlife will be attracted.

Thanks to John for having us and to everyone for their hard work! 

 Hazel.

Stock fence removal at Hare Hill on 8th October 2017

Six of us turned out today to meet the ranger in the car park at ten o’clock.  The task was the removal of a stock proof fence surrounding a heap of spoil left over from the construction of the car park.  We really cracked on and had the job finished by lunchtime despite having to wade through deep viscous mud in places.

Before...

... and after

After lunch, we set to digging up the thistles spoiling the look of the boundary fence.  Having completed this task we were then led to a patch of reeds that needed removal to allow for the establishment of a wild flower meadow, however the weather looked set to rain so we decided to call it a day after about half an hour.

Tim

Fencing and digging at Hare Hill on Sunday 24th September 2017

Nine of us arrived at Hare Hill, not knowing what footwear to use as there were a variety of jobs put down for us.  Hallam arrived and suggested we all wore wellies, as it could be muddy.  As one person did not have them to hand he waited with Hallam to get some from the store.  This was a good move as he then had a lift in the transport while we walked down to the site.  ‘Just go over the hill towards the digger!’  As someone said later on the way up the hill, we did not notice the hill going down!

When we were all assembled, Hallam gave us the tasks, starting with taking the barbed wire fence down and putting a temporary barbed wire fence up again, to stop the cattle, if they got past a temporary electric fence, getting to the pool.  The pool had been dredged out by another digger and the pool made usable to collect all the drainage from the field.

Whilst four of us did this the other five set about starting a fire and burning off all the brash that had been taken from around the pool sides.  When all the posts for the new fence had been hammered home, and the barbed wire straightened, we stopped for some cake and drinks. (Mary Berry eat your heart out!)

We then continued with the burning and the fencing, putting up three strands of barbed wire and discovering a hidden roll of barbed wire in the undergrowth.  Whilst this was going on three went to put back the metal fence where the digger had got access to the pool on the other side.  After a lot of digging and blacksmith skills it stood upright and did what it should do.

It was then dinner time and the burning was burning down and the fencing was finished.  After dinner we all went on to the digging out of the drains!  Some were built better than others, but were very narrow, others were just very muddy channels.

After we all enjoyed our mud bath, Hallam went to rod some drains, trying to find where the junctions of them were.  We found that the junction was 14 metres from the pool, but not sure in which direction!?  We then cleaned up the tools and made our way up the hill to home, finishing at 1530.

Neil

(Emergency leader cover only!)

Hare Hill workday on 2 July 2017

Today we visited Hare Hill near Alderley Edge for the first time this year.  The NT are investing in the property and we arrived to the sight of a half-built permanent visitors building opposite the wooden kiosk.  The worktask had been billed as pondwork or culvert work but changed to ‘clearing out a silted up Victorian cattle trough’.

In the morning five of us worked on the cattle trough, using spades and shovels to clear the silt from the trough and wheelbarrowing the silt/mud to a nearby oak tree where it was dumped, while Hazel, Madeleine and Geraldine balsam bashed near the Cascades.  It became clear we had cleared this same cattle trough in March 2015 and it was striking how much the grass and mud had encroached across the cobblestones since.  We all gathered for lemon traybake at elevenses and lunch.  After lunch Hazel departed, Madeleine and Geraldine resumed balsam bashing and the five of us cut away the grassy sods covering the cobbles and cleaned the cobbles using handforks and trowels.

During the day several groups of people walked on the footpath near the cattle trough and came over to ask us what we were doing and why.

It was a beautiful summer day to be outdoors and we were pleased with the refurb we achieved.  We finished at 3 o'clock and returned the wheelbarrows and hand tools to the rangers' shed and gave them a good clean.  We strolled back to the car park through the walled garden which was full of flowers in bloom and families sunbathing and playing games on the lawn.

Daniel Black

Photos: Daniel Black and Karin Frood

Tree guard painting at Hare Hill on Sunday 25th Sept 2016

Six volunteers had a bit of a lie in this week before meeting John the ranger at 10.15 in the car park at Hare Hill. The job was tree guard painting, a task familiar to many of us, as this is an ongoing project and the fourth time this year the group has participated.

The tree guards are of a wooden construction and look a lot smarter after a good scrubbing with a wire brush and the application of the green preservative. Unfortunately after painting the first guard the heavens opened and after the deluge had to be redone, the rain having washed away all our good work. In total we painted ten guards a bit of a record for such a small group.

The weather was reasonable for the rest of the day with just the occasional light shower, so it was a happy if slightly paint speckled group that called it a day at three thirty. However one of us had a slight accident with the paint and left looking like a bedraggled green smurf.

John the ranger has been in touch since to say thanks for a job well done and promises us more painting in the future, so maybe I’ll see you there. 

Text by Tim. Photo's by Adrian.

          

Tree guard painting at Hare Hill, Sunday 4th Sept 2016

Nine enthusiastic MNTVer's turned up at Hare Hill today ready for painting more tree guards.

John Mann, the lead Ranger at Hare Hill, met us in the car park and explained that we would be continuing the painting of tree guards, this time in North Park. The Rag Wort had already been pulled so it we just needed to wire brush and then paint as many tree guards as we could.

We really got stuck in and, after lemon drizzle for coffee break followed by more tree guard painting and a well deserved lunch break, by the end of the day 12 tree guards had been wire brushed but we only had enough of the water-based Cuprinol to paint 10 of them - shame!

Tim modelling a wheelbarrow 'chair!'

John also entertained us telling us of how he was trying to make an orange wheel out of equipment he had on site because the Tour of Britain was going past Hare Hill on the Tuesday afternoon; we left him pondering what best to do.

A lovely day was had by all:-)

Painting tree guards and pulling Rag Wort at Hare Hill on Sunday 31st July 2016

Eleven MNTVers arrived at Hare Hill this morning, including Martin who joined us for the first time. We parked our cars in the new car park at Hare Hill, ready for a day of volunteering:-)
Although we were without a Ranger to show us where we were working, Peter the gardener had all the equipment we needed, plus some of our Group had been to Hare Hill a few weeks earlier doing the same tasks so knew what to do and where we were to start.

The work we did during the day               

We walked onto South Park and continued wire-brushing fence guards before we painted them with water-based green cuprinol. Instead, some of us walked around the field to finish pulling up the Rag Wort before any horses are put in there. We had a great day, the sun shone most of the day and we managed to paint 10 tree-guards between us and pulled up all the remaining Rag Wort.
Reporting this to John the Ranger later, he was delighted we'd managed to do so much and said, now we were in the swing of it, there was plenty more to do in North Park, when we next visit:-)


A happy bunch of MNTVers!

Drainage and tree guard painting at Hare Hill on Sunday 10th July 2016

Five of MNTV’s finest ensured that quality made up for quantity as Adrian, Christine, Jenny, Lisa and Matt turned out on a cloudy morning to carry out two different tasks at Hare Hill.

 

John Mann has made the short trip from Dunham Massey to take up the ranger’s role, and one of his tasks is to identify the many Victorian culverts that run under Hare Hill’s parkland, and find the site of any collapses which he suspects are to blame for some of the site’s drainage problems. We dug down at three points where John had already found collapses, removed the broken stone lids of the culverts and replaced them with large concrete slabs. Hopefully these will bear the weight of the cows that roam freely across the parkland, and are the cause of the previous collapses.

  

Meanwhile we also tried to find the line of a side culvert that could be causing flooding in the garden of one of the old gatehouses. This involved pushing a spike into the ground – this slid in easily where there was just grass, but made a hollow ‘thunk’ where it hit the top of a culvert or drainage pipe. It was a hit and miss process (literally!) and not made easy by the stone backfill that has been thrown in on top of previous works.

 

While the replacement of the concrete slabs went well, we couldn’t follow the side culvert back to its intersection with the main system, as the line started to go too deep under a hilly section and we’d have had to excavate something akin to a hobbit hole to get to the depth of the drain. We all enjoyed our work though – getting into a culvert in some wellies, carrying a spade, is the only thing that Adrian enjoys almost as much as a food break, so by lunchtime he was very happy!

 

Starting work on the tree guards

 

Lunch was taken under threat of a soaking – we had one short sharp shower in the morning, but the afternoon forecast promised much more wet stuff. As it happened, it cleared up and we enjoyed sunshine during our second task, which was to paint some of the tree guards. A bit of gymnastics was needed for those painting the inside of the guards to get in and out without getting themselves covered in green! We managed to do four guards in total, including the one that surrounds the tree we planted in 2008 in memory of our former chairman Jonathan Prance. His tree is flourishing, and its guard now looks the part too.

 

Jonathan's tree guard gets some TLC

 

Hedge laying at Hare Hill on Sunday 1st Nov 2015

Thirteen keen MNTVers, including a new recruit, met in the car park at Hare Hill. It started out as a foggy morning but at least it was dry!

It was the last day of the season that Hare Hill was open to the public and Halloween activities had been organised for any children who visited so Jack, the NT Ranger, explained that he couldn't work with us today as he was needed to supervise the children's activities.

Before he did, Jack walked us for about 20mins to the hedge we were going to be working on, explaining that Hare Hill were able to receive funding provided the hedge was laid by the end of the year. They had already had erected a fence along the side of the hedge which made life interesting as it meant that we had to climb the fence over to get to the other side of the hedge, before we could even start!

Once over, we split into separate workgroups. Matt showed a few of the group how to hedge lay whilst the majority of people walked along the length of the hedge clearing any tree's that were in the way and tidying up the top and sides of the hedge ready for laying. Tim started removing the old barbed wire that was on the far side of the hedge but it was quite a task as I hadn't brought any wirecutters when I'd collected the tools:-(

It was a lovely day, great camaraderie and we got plenty done as, once the length of the hedge had been tidied, others in the group turned their hands at laying some of the hedge.

 

By the end of the day, although we were pleased we'd managed to get quite a long length done, the hedge was quite old and it hadn't really been tidied previously, so we all decided that it wasn't the tidiest hedge laying that we'd been involved with, but we'd made a good start on it.

Culvert clearance at Hare Hill on Sunday 22nd March 2015

12 of us (including a newbie) spent a wonderful spring day clearing a culvert at Hare Hill with the Sale and Altrincham volunteer group. 

We are told what the task for the day is!

We split into groups to clear the drains, transport the mud away, and clear the mud and grass that supposedly hid the stone culvert underneath.  While the Sale group started on some rhododendrons.

We had red velvet cupcakes at break and lounged in the sunshine.

After a few hours, countless wheelbarrow trips and a lot of hard work we unveiled the culvert.  Matt and Neil placed stones to re-pave areas that needed repair.  The whole team joined together to fetch stones, clear the last of the mud, and wash down the paving (with Neil attempting to wash down several of the group). 

The culvert is exposed:-)

We all joined together for a fabulous team photo showing what a great job we had done.

Thanks again to everyone for a brilliant workday.
Lisa

Rhody bash at Hare Hill on Sunday 12th Oct 2014

A great turnout of 16 (including 3 'newbies') to rhody bash at Hare Hill with Julia the NT Ranger in a wooded copse near the lake. 

Gordon got the fire lit quite quickly and, in no time at all, most of us were in amongst the rhododendrons, cutting them down using loppers and bowsaws and dragging the branches to the fire where they were cut up smaller before being thrown on the fire.

The weather was wonderful and, at lunchtime, we sat by the lake in the sun, chatting and eating our lunch. Some of us saw a kingfisher while were there, a heron fly down and land on the other side of the lake and many dragonflies:-)


Lunchtime in the sun!

 

Although the majority of us rhody bashed and loaded the fire most of the day, a small group were at the other side of the copse with Julia, winching out stumps left from a previous rhody bash. Neil and Ross used the winch for most of the morning but, after lunch, a few more of us plucked up courage to have a go!

We finished around 3.30pm after tidying the fire site and throwing the rhody leaves that were strewn on the ground, onto the fire, so the cows didn't eat them and make themselves poorly after we left.

Thanks to Julia for a great day and for encouraging some of us to use the winch, which turned out to be a very satisfying experience.

Group photo at the end of the day

Rhody bashing at Hare Hill on Sunday 21st Sept 2014

It was beautiful sunshine for a day's rhodybashing at Hare Hill woodland gardens today. Eight volunteers turned out and continued the task of clearing Rhododendron ponticum from the parkland, working in a small copse and burning the rhody as we went. A warm, enjoyable day made hotter by the fire, which took well after the dry weather. Several of the volunteers took the opportunity of a stroll round the gardens after the workday finished, spotting the carved hares dotted around in between the ornamental trees.
Thanks to Mick for the text. and Adrian and Mick for photo's. 

Scrub clearance at Hare Hill on 10 August 2014

Five volunteers braved Hurrican Bertha and turned up to help in the woodland garden at Hare Hill. The task was clearing brambles, nettles, shrubs and trees from part of the perimeter fencing, so that the (no longer) rabbit-proof mesh could be checked and, where necessary, replaced.  The day finished earlier than usual due to the volunteers being in need of a warm bath and clean, dry clothing and also because we finished the last stretch of fencing.

The tea break and end-of-task lunch were both taken in the information room, so we had the luxury of a table from which to eat our food (including a fine cherry cake). The group is back at Hare Hill in a few weeks and the task may include replacing the rabbit-proof mesh now that it is accessible.

Rhodi Bashing at Hare Hill on Sunday 6th July 2014

Six volunteers meet up with the ranger Julia in the car park at Hare Hill this week. The first task was the removal and burning of rhododendron abutting the fence surrounding the pistol pond area ready for the replacement of the mesh netting at the fences base used to stop rabbits getting in. Don’t worry there’s plenty of grass in the fields for them to munch on without them getting at the good stuff in the garden. 

 

The second task was the removal of old wrought iron. Originally part of the old fence it had been left in the soil when the new fence was put in place and consisted of a rusted razor sharp spike on top of horse shoe arrangement buried in the earth with the spike sticking a few inches out of the ground. To emphasise the obvious danger of these spikes to the unwary walker one of the volunteers accidently stepped on one which easily penetrated the sole of her footwear narrowly missing her foot and ruining her wellies to boot. Unfortunately Tim the leader this week had a serious case of man flu but still managed to turn out and do a good days work, indeed Julia was heard to say that in her opinion he deserved a medal. 

 

Karin provided smashing rice crispy and dark chocolate squares as Tim was far too ill to bake.  The weather was fine all day until the heavens opened about 2.30pm when we decided to call it a day.

In total we cleared and burnt about 20 meters of rhododendron and dug up about 15 of the treacherous spikes.

 

Thank to Julia for organising a fun work day and staying with us all day.

Hare Hill on Sunday 13th April 2014

What a fantastic day - admittedly a bit cold when the wind was blowing, but otherwise dry and sunny for a mixed day of work at Hare Hill with Julia the NT Ranger.

Ten of us (including 3 out with us for the first time) spent the first hour just outside the Hare Hill car park, cutting tree branches that had already been felled or had fallen during the high winds, to a more manageable size. We used loppers for the thinner branches and bow saws to cut the larger ones. These were then dragged or carried to nearer the car park railings and out of the way of the main gate where the NT vehicles gain access to the lake. The ground is quite boggy in places in front of the gate and, without a larger area to drive over, the jeeps could easily get bogged down in the mud.

Once this was complete, we walked down to the lake where we looked at the copse where we would be doing a rhody bash after our morning coffee break. When we got back to work, Gordon got the fire going really easily and it wasn't long before most of the volunteers were busy cutting down the rhododendron ponticum and burning it on the fire. We managed to burn all that was cut down (that was the remit, so no cut rhody was left around, in case the cows ate it the next day) and left the site nice and tidy.

 

There was also a job to do painting the railings around the lake but most people were having so much fun with the rhody that only Adrian and Julia volunteered and went off to do this task.

It was a super day and a good time was had by all:-)

Hare Hill (Recent Enquirers Day 1)- Sunday 13th Oct 2013

Although it was a grey and miserable day, our group of 10 plus Julia the Hare Hill Ranger, spent a busy day cutting back rhododendron ponticum, burning what we could and assisting Julia winch out the roots of some of the largest shrubs.

Some of our group had joined us after seeing our advertisement in the Manchester Evening News and local Free papers to recruit new members. Others were contacted by email as they had previously made enquiries about our Group but hadn't actually been out with us.

After we all met in the Hare Hill car park, we walked into the garden to be shown where we were working for the day. The weather at this point was okay as we got a fire going and started lopping and bow-sawing the rhody and dragging it to the fire.

By the time we were stopping for 11's, it was raining so we sheltered in the visitors room while we chatted and ate the cakes that Sue had made!
Some of the group who had never been to Hare Hill before were shown where the bird hide was and the walled garden, before resuming cutting the rhody.

The rain was much lighter by lunchtime so we ate near the fire under the shelter of the tree's. After lunch the winching of rhody roots was started while the rest of us continued cutting the rhody and Gabor loaded it onto the fire.

A good, but slightly damp, day was had by all and a job well done!  :-)

Thanks to Gabor for the photo's.

Hare Hill gardens on Sunday 14th April 2013

What a fabulous day it turned out to be:-)

I must confess I was nervous at leading a workparty to clear some of the rotting leaves from the pond in the gardens, particularly when it was mentioned that the pond could be 12 feet deep in places, but I needn't have worried - 3 of our volunteers were very happy to don chest waders and go into the pond to drag out the rotting leaves using cromes (similar to rakes but the tines are longer and are bent at a 90 degree angle which makes them ideal for dragging debris from ponds).

Those of us on the bank then used rakes to grade the debris back along the edge of the pond so it looked neat and tidy.

We didn't see much wildlife while we were there, only a frog who was keen to get out of our way but we made sure that the frogspawn that was in the pond was safely moved along before we started.

There were a few visitors to the gardens and other volunteers who stopped to have a chat with us and, although it was a bit windy at times, it was a really enjoyable day!




I've since had a lovely text from Emma, the head
gardener at Hare Hill, to thank us all for the
splendid job that we'd done and the difference
it made - well done to all!!