Weeding at Shugborough on Sunday 20th September 2026

Five of us met up with SSNTV (Shropshire and Staffordshire) at Shugborough on a warm and sunny morning.  It was our first time back at Shugborough since 21st August 2011, more than 15 years ago!  We were working with one of the gardeners, James, so expected to be in the garden, but instead we ended up in a big car park!

It’s coming to the end of the ‘Shaping Shugborough’ project which involves creating a second garden and building a completely new entrance, including reception building and carpark. 

The carpark is divided into sections by a combination of hedging and plants. The hedges are already in place and our job was to do the weeding before plants are added.

It’s a big car park and our combined group of 19 managed to clear 26 sections - but there's a long way to go yet.

James took us on a quick tour of the new Forest Garden. It’s a demonstration/teaching garden and includes only plants that have a use - in cooking, medicine, industries such as dyeing.  It also shows what beneficial plants can be grown in planters, small urban gardens, even industrial areas. The whole project has taken four years and has only been possible due to the hard work of volunteers.

But today at Shugborough will be forever remembered for cake!

The day was another successful collaboration with SSNTV and it was worth the drive to see the new garden. The grand opening will be in early 2027 and I highly recommend a visit.

Jean

Shugborough 21 August 2011

Nine of us travelled down the M6 today to Shugborough, the seat of the Earls of Lichfield.

We spent the day working with Derek digging up reeds (glyceria and water burdock) from the riverbank nearest to the mansion house.

After we’d pulled the reeds we cleaned up the sandstone embankment by removing vegetation that had taken hold since the last clearance three years ago.

The group’s new chest waders kept those working in the river dry, but it was messy work and after we’d finished we had a dip in the fountain to clean ourselves up.

From the worksite we had good views of the arboretum and Derek pointed out the new sculptures that had been installed since our visit in March, e.g. Pocahontas, Dream Catcher and a baby elephant.

We ate Daniel’s chocolate cake for elevenses and had a Victoria sandwich courtesy of the tearoom for lunchtime pudding!

There were lots of passersby in the afternoon including a couple who volunteer at Styal/Hare Hill and who had had supper on Saturday night with one of our members!

Derek appeared on the BBC’s Gardener’s World last Friday with Carol Klein! If you didn’t see the episode it will be on the iPlayer for the next few days.

Shugborough 20 March 2011

Five volunteers met up at Styal and car shared down to Shugborough - where we met up with one of the gardeners.

A new metal edge had been installed along the edges of some of the paths in the autumn, and the gardeners were hoping for some help tidying up the results. This involves...

Taking off a strip of turf,
Leveling off topping up and packing down the soil
Replacing the turf along the edge - creating a gap further back
Filling the gap with more fresh soil
The gap can then be reseeded with an appropriate grass mix.

This process has two advantages over simply filling the gap behind the new edge and seeding it - The turf is tougher than loose soil so it forms a more stable edge, and it easier to avoid planting fresh grass seed on the path! We split into two groups - on taking up and replacing the turf, the second filling the gap with fresh soil. Unfortunately the soil supply was rather stony - and anything bigger than roughly 1/2" had to be fished out as we went along.

Still - the gardeners should be pleased that they haven't had to do it all themselves. The photographs show the intermediate stage, and the end of the day ready for the seed, the second photo was taken from further back and shows a longer length of path.

or in Daniels words...
Five of us went down the M6 today to work in the garden at Shugborough. We spent the day working with gardener Jim edging a footpath. The job involved moving established turf up against the metal path edge and then filling in the gap left behind with topsoil ready for seeding in a few weeks. The topsoil was very stony and we had to pick out the stones and larger pebbles. The photo attached shows the general result. We did approximately 150 metres and Jim reckoned there was a mile in all to do – plenty to keep him busy all summer!

Spring had arrived in the garden and the lawns by the riverbank where we had lunch were covered in clusters of daffodils. After lunch the gardens were full of people, some of whom ventured over the river to the new arboretum. The sculpture trail - new in 2010 I think – caught our imagination. The highlight was this mosaic newt – as big as a Komodo dragon - which all the passersby were commenting on!

Joe Hawkins, head gardener, completed his Thomas Wright-inspired fundraising walk from Durham to Shugborough last autumn and has written all about it in his blog:

www.thelandscapedisciple.blogspot.com

Shugborough 11 July 2010

Five of us travelled down the M6 today to Shugborough for our second visit this year. We spent the day trimming back the hedge above the stream that flows past the Ticket Office and cutting off vegetation that had gained a foothold in the stream’s sandstone wall. Those who had Wellington boots stood in the water and those without worked from the bank. The water was crystal clear and during the day we saw about 20 white-clawed crayfish and several small trout.

Joe Hawkins, head gardener, was his usual ebullient self, and during the tea breaks talked at length about the estate’s history and his vision for the garden. He’s recently taken on management of the 14-acre arboretum too. He wondered if we’d like to have a weekend trip to Shugborough – camping in the grounds, using the toilet blocks and shower in the Ticket Office complex and cooking our meals on camping stoves!! He’d need to clear it with his bosses. Anybody interested?

We ended the day with a demonstration of the £37,000 state-of-the-art composter (a 25’ long stainless steel tank that takes in chipped vegetation at one end, heats it up to 65 degrees C and churns out fine compost at the other end) and a tour of the walled garden to see the many varieties of fruit and vegetable that are being grown.

Shugborough 14/2/10

Four volunteers turned out to Shugborough and spent the day working with the gardener there.

yet another day that I've missed "good workday on sunday great fire and plenty done"

Shugborough 4 Oct 09

I took a weekend off.... thanks to Daniel for words and picture.

MNTV had a joint workday today with Wolverhampton NTV at Shugborough near Stafford. The 16 of us did two jobs for Joe, the head gardener. The larger group spent the day cutting down elder saplings in the old pheasants enclosure and burning them on a big bonfire, while the smaller group worked in the gardens proper, trimming back a tall holly hedge. We all met up for lunch and swapped news about the two groups, demolished Daniel's lemon drizzle cake and heard all about the Staffordshire Hoard (the Anglo Saxon gold & jewellery that was found by a metal detective in July). Liz from WNTV had queued patiently for 3.5 hours last week to see it in Birmingham Art Gallery! We didn't meet Earl Thomas this time. He has recently got engaged to Lady Henrietta Conyngham so perhaps was away planning their wedding

Shugborough 12 July 2009

I was elsewhere for this one - thanks to Daniel for text and photo

Five of us made the trip down the M6 today to Shugborough. Joe Hawkins, head gardener, gave us his usual warm welcome, aswell as providing us with pineapple & apricot cake from the tearoom! Joe had recently returned from a three-week holiday in China where he'd visited the gardens of the Imperial Palace in Beijing. He had a lot of interesting tales to tell.

We did two worktasks during the day, one either side of lunch. In the morning we cut back branches from yew trees next to the coach house. This involved ladder climbing - a first for me in all my days with MNTV! After a picnic lunch on the banks of the River Sow we spent a couple of hours liberating a stretch of iron fencing on the edge of the car park from the holly, rhody and oaks that smothered it. Revived by ice creams (thanks Tim!) we wandered back to the cars via the marquees of the "People & Pets" weekend event. For pets read dogs...and a few ferrets!

Shugborough 23 November 2008

Six volunteers made the one-hour journey to Shugborough, the ancestral home of the Earls of Lichfield, for a workday in the walled garden annexe. We worked with a National Trust archaeologist and 14 of the volunteers from the Wolverhampton group.

We spent the day clearing the garden of scrub (alder saplings, ferns and brambles) and burning the debris. Many hands made light work and we cleared a large area. The damp vegetation burned with difficulty and often the garden was thick with smoke.
Once the scrub clearance has been completed the garden staff will keep regrowth in check so that our efforts don't go to waste. If Lottery money is obtained the aim is to restore the garden to how it looked in 1805 by restoring the mushroom pits and rebuilding the greenhouses. With luck our efforts on Sunday will be the start of a multi-year project similar to the restoration of the pineapple greenhouses in Tatton that we helped complete last year.

Thanks to Daniel for the photographs and text

Rhodadendron through and over the garden fence @ Shugborough

5 Manchester volunteers and 9 from a similar group based in Wolverhampton turned out to the Shugborough Estate last Sunday.

We had plenty of cakes - as Daniel had brought some home made chocolate muffins - while Joe (the Gardener there) had provided a 2 cakes with the assistance of the tea room (Cherry / Apple and Date).

The task was simple the Rhododendrons along the edge of the gardens needed to be cut back away from the fence between it and the grazed "parkland" - to ensure that live stock do not poison themselves later in the year, we managed most of it - and left at the end of a successful day, full of cake with only a small section to be finished by the staff on Monday.

Joe also talked some volunteers from both groups though the decontamination procedure required if we ever have to work on plants affected by Phytophthora ramorum

More rhodi at Shugborough 10 Feb

I missed this day - so here is a brief quote from someonw who was there.

We rhodybashed on the main drive - attacking the very tall overhanging rhody at the end of the drive just before it opens out into the parkland. Beautiful weather - sunshine but cool.