Cancelled Workday - Sunday 10th March 2024 - Chirk Castle and a Wedding

The plan for today was for a trip to Chirk Castle but with it being Mothering Sunday and the weather looking a bit dodgy we only had two people signed up, so it was agreed to cancel the workday and hope that next time we venture that way a few more people will sign up. 

The workday may have been cancelled but that didn't stop 4 members of the group travelling to the Lake District for the weekend to attend the wedding of former worksite leaders Matt Smethurst and Lisa Tyrer. The wedding ceremony took place at Cockermouth Town Hall on Saturday 9th March at 2pm followed by a great celebration at Buttermere Youth Hostel. It was a cold day but we wrapped up warm as much as we could in our finery, the photographer provided some confetti to throw over the happy couple. Lisa's dress was exquisite with embroidery on the skirt it had flowers and butterflies on it. 

                                                                                              

The MNTV committee were delighted to loan the MNTV bunting that member Tricia had made for our 30th Birthday and I can tell you it went round the room once and a little bit more, I hadn't realised quite how long it was. There was also a shorter section of bunting that hung in the entrance way of the youth hostel.

The evening consisted of woodfired pizzas and salads and much cake. There was also a quiz written and presented by the bride and groom.

On Sunday the majority of guests who had stayed at the youth hostel went home after a full cooked breakfast. The rest took a walk to or round Buttermere Lake and although the weather wasn't great it was still enjoyed by most. Once the walk was finished we commenced the big clear up, the bunting came down as did the fairy lights and the table cloths were packed away.

Monday dawned and as we had done the majority of the clearing the day before we hoovered and cleared the remaining bedrooms and divvied out the food.

I was delighted and honoured to attend, I had a great weekend, Many Congratulations to Matt and Lisa, come and see us soon.

A non-National Trust weekend at Boarfold Scout Camp, Chisworth

A 'thank you' letter from Neil, a member of MNTV as well as a Scout Leader:

Just a note to thank everyone who came to help at Boarfold Scout campsite this weekend, a lot of work was completed which has saved me, personally, a lot of work. 

As numbers dropped out, Myself and Jenny were the only ones staying over on the Friday night.

After taking a look around the buildings and  a walk down the site and explaining to Jenny the work that I hoped would be done over the weekend, we went back to enjoy a pizza together.

Morning arrived and so did Tim, and not long after that Christine and Andy. I took the car and trailer down to the new toilet block with all the tools in and the others walked down the site. There was agreement that the site was much bigger than they thought, and to their horror much steeper, it wasn’t easy coming back up afterwards.

We started off across the field at the bottom near the public footbridge, where we repaired the inner fence, putting in more posts to support the fencing. Putting up a notice to ask the people and Scouts to go around the fence to get to the scout camp, as the footpath does, and not through it !   We rectified the fence further down so that the sheep could not get into the boundary hedge, so giving it protection to allow it to grow.   We then removed another fence, using the wire to supplement the first fence we had worked on, and also to give us more barbed wire to attach to the previous fence to stop people coming over the fence. Afterwards we followed the fence up the hill putting in posts thus producing a 100% better fence.

After Lunch we decided to start cutting back the trees and hedges that had started to over grow the field. Cutting it back gave us a 5 yard perimeter extra to the field! Wow!

We wrestled for a while with all the cuttings and decided to down tools for the day, we ascended back up to the buildings, and prepared the evening meal, Sue joining us for the meal with Christine providing a choice of puddings with cream!  After the washing up had been done Tim, Christine and Andy left us.

Sunday brought with it rain. Adrian arrived as did Hazel and Alpay.  We had decided with the poor weather forecast to stay around the buildings.  Adrian was given the task of planting some hedging around the fence and some shrubs to segregate the camping sites.

The rest of us started digging a ditch to take a drain, to drain off the carpark near the buildings. Whilst we were digging the ditch and sieving the stones from the clay, it didn’t take long for the rain to fill the ditch, and Sue enjoyed the water play, pulling out the stones. Oh Sue!

As we completed the ditch it was decided that as the rain was coming down harder and harder, we would have an early lunch and then go home.

Again on behalf of the Boarfold Scout Camp Committee, I would like to thank everyone for their help over the weekend.

Yes, it rained!

Text and photo's from Neil