Seed Spreading at Marsden Moor - Sunday 12th October 2025

On Sunday 12th October a small group of us made the journey up to Marsden Moor.  The task was  heather seed spreading on Holme Moor, the rangers also invited members of the public to join in and we were joined by a lovely gentleman who volunteers at the rangers plant nursery.  

We met the ranger at the bandstand in Marsden Moor and then walked up to the site (approx 45 mins), it was a lovely sunny day and quite warm for the time of year so we had a quick tea break before getting to work.  The task was done by hand and we had to scatter the seeds in between the clumps of purple moor grass (tussocks), to do this we had to scarify the soil to reveal the peat below.

View from top of the moor

Work area containing Tussocks grass

Bag of seeds

Working away

Seed spreading

End of Day group photo

The catch water drains

We finished quite early and made our way back down to Marsden Village and some of us decided to stay on for a drink as there was a jazz festival on.  This was my first visit to Marsden Moor and it certainly won't be my last, the village is lovely and the scenery is amazing.

Denise Clark
Worksite Leader

Bracken bashing at Marsden Moor on Sunday 28th July 2024

Four of us made the journey to Marsden in West Yorkshire for a day's bracken bashing.  Daniel did a carshare with Victor and Adrian, and they met Andy S at the rangers office at 9:30.  Ranger Francesca ferried us in the 4x4 to the access point to the worksite and we then walked up to the worksite in Oakner Clough.  The task was to clear bracken from around newly planted trees because the bracken was overtopping them and shading them out.  Slashers were very effective at cutting back the bracken, but it was sweaty work on steep ground and in hot sunshine.  The hot weather could not have been more different to when we were last here last August in rain and wind!

We stopped bashing at lunchtime and had a picnic lunch in the shade of trees near the 17th century Close Gate packhorse bridge.  The bridge's low sides allowed heavily laden horses to cross.

After lunch, Francesca showed us a fossil 200 metres from the bridge.  Adrian said it was a Calamites, a genus of extinct arborescent (tree-like) horsetails to which modern horsetails are closely related.  Unlike their herbaceous modern cousins, these plants were medium-sized trees, growing to heights of 30–50 metres and lived in the Carboniferous Period (around 360 to 300 million years ago).

Calamites

We returned to the 4x4, cutting back ferns and nettles on either side of the footpath.  Once back at the 4x4 we drove via Slaithwaite (pronounced Slawit!!) to the Buckstones car park on the A640 so that Francesca could empty the litterbin and we did a quick litter pick.  The views from the car park were fantastic.  You could see for miles in every direction.  We counted five paragliders in the air.  The views from up there must have been even better!

Thanks to Adrian, Andy S and Victor for an excellent workday and to Francesca for hosting us and telling us so much about the Trust's work in the area and the important bog stabilisation work the Trust and Yorkshire Water are doing.

Daniel

Molinia tussock bashing at Marsden Moor on Sunday 13th August 2023

A select group of three travelled to Marsden today to work with ranger Alice James digging out molinia on Holme Moor near the rifle range.  It was our first visit to Marsden since August 2016 (!) and the first visit for two of us.  Daniel knew of Marsden as being the start point of the 25-mile Marsden to Edale hike but hadn't done a workday there before.  The rangers office and adjacent visitors centre is in the Old Goods Yard building beside the railway line.  It took a bit of finding but we were all there on time.

We drove to the worksite in the 4x4 and worked from 10:30 to 12:30 with a short break for cake halfway through.  The molinia carpets the moor and we were digging it out to form fire breaks to halt the spread of wild fires.  It's shallow rooted and was easy to dig out using mattocks.  Marsden has suffered a lot of fires recently - seven already this year said Alice (!) and an extensive devastating one in 2019.

To our disappointment it began to rain heavily at 12:00 (not forecast) so at 12:30 we drove back to the rangers office and had lunch indoors.  Jack was wet through so left at this point.  After lunch Daniel, Adrian and Alice drove over to the car park at Buckstones (junction of A640 and B6114) where Alice emptied the litter bin and we did a litter pick.  The views across the moors and over to Holme Moss/Black Hill from the car park were sensational and you could see why it is such a popular spot.

Daniel

Marsden Moor - 8th May 2016

Three intrepid volunteers made the trip to the estate office in Marsden to meet with the ranger Julia.  Julia you may remember as the ranger at Hare Hill who after taking a break from the Trust to go travelling has made a welcome return to the National Trust.

After a short drive to the work site, a lay-by on a road in the middle of the moor, we unloaded the trailer and started digging the first of the two foot deep holes to take the posts for the fence we were about to build.  The fence, a three foot construction consisting of four inch by five inch posts with a v cut into the top to take the four by four inch rails, was concreted in place.  The rails are held in place with galvanised steel brackets that looped over the rails and were then fixed to the posts with four inch coach bolts.  Unfortunately the digging was quite difficult with plenty of large stones to be prised out of ground but we still managed to excavate five holes and construct about twenty five feet of fencing.

The weather was fantastic with bright sunshine and just enough of a breeze to stop use from overheating.  Lunch was taken on the grassy hillside adjacent to the lay-by with spectacular views over a nearby reservoir and the moor beyond.  At the end of the day we decamped to a local watering hole in Marsden for a quick libation before making our way home.

Tim