Fencing work at Styal on Sunday 17th February 2019

This week nine of us worked with ranger Alex Bond (substitute for Vicky) at Bank House Farm near Styal, taking out old fencing in the area near Altrincham Road. We had a slightly delayed start due to some confusion over the meeting point as some members who haven’t been to Styal recently weren’t aware of the ‘new’ reception building.

After we met up we had a 15 minute walk to reach the workplace but the weather was perfect, dry and cool, so the hike was an added bonus. We really needed a tea break by the time we got there but after the safety briefing we started clearing the vegetation growing round the fencing. The terrain sloped quite steeply down to the river so care was needed; two of us took a tumble but no damage done.

Some of the fence posts were rotten and almost fell over to the touch but others were solidly in the ground and needed digging out. There was a double strand of barbed wire as well as normal mesh, so after the staples had been taken out of the posts coiling the wire had to be done very carefully. We were joined by a group of about ten youth rangers for a couple of hours so they added extra muscle power.

Cake sustained us as usual at tea break. Today it was chocolate brownies and madeira cake. Vicky had kindly donated a lemon drizzle cake even though she couldn’t work with us and that was demolished by the youth rangers just before they left.

We had two first timers with us, Fiona and Daniel, and hope to see them again soon.

Thanks to Vicky for the cake and Alex for the intrepid leadership and to everyone for their hard work and for making my first foray into leadership such an enjoyable experience.

Jean

Lyme Park sorting drainage and creating a cycle path Sun 10th Feb 2019

A great turnout of 14 MNTVer's joined by 3 Rangers, 2 teenage cyclists and 2 older cyclists, making a grand total of 21!!
We already knew before we arrived that there were 2 tasks on offer
: one being the creation of a one-way cycle-only path starting from beyond the gate at Knott car park, along the length and to the right of  West Drive - this, when finished, would be signposted as a one-way cycle-only path to try and encourage cyclists who would normally head down West Drive, maybe at speed, to use the new path, thereby enabling walkers, families, dogs and horses to have a bit more space as they walked along West Drive

Clearing undergrowth along the cycle path

: the second task was to unblock some of the drainage pipes under West Drive and dig out the channels at the side of the drive where they'd become filled with leaves and grass, so the water could gather in these then drain away instead of washing away the drive.

The drainage group at the end of the day

Volunteers for the tasks were decided by who had wellies with them (they did the drains) and the rest (including all the cyclists) worked on starting to clear the undergrowth for the cycle path along a pre-selected route.

Making great progress along the path

It was a great day, overcast occasionally but the sun also shone and it was dry all day. Sue D and Sue B both brought cake to share for morning break - fruit cake and sponge cake.
The 'drainage' group petted lots of passing dogs and talked to their owners, which was a nice respite from smelly drains, while the cycle path clearance group made a significant impact on their task.
The Lyme Rangers, Chris, Claire and Jack, were all pleased with the work we'd done by the end of the day:-)

Lunchtime!

*CANCELLED* Workday at Erddig on Sunday 3rd Febuary 2019

Sadly, today's workday at Erddig was cancelled because of the forecast of more snow and very cold conditions.  Winds over 35-40 mph and snow, both of which are classed as high risk for staff, volunteers and visitors, mean that the property and estate get closed.  This happened on Wednesday 30th January.

We are next at Erddig on Sunday 19th May and hopefully the weather then will be much more pleasant!

Daniel

Fencing at Bosley Cloud on Sunday 27th January 2019

It was a cold and very blustery day for our second visit to Bosley Cloud this year.  Once again our planned worktask changed due to there being just three hardy volunteers - well that was two plus myself!  This worked out well for Tim (Ranger) as it enabled him to complete a job started last year but not finished ... something more important kept cropping up.

We met Tim a little later than usual (at 10 o'clock) to enable him to collect required materials then went in his pickup to Red Lane.  Here there are two footpaths to the Cloud and we were working on the lower path.  Our task was to take out old fencing, move one of the new posts to a better position and replace with new cleft fencing.  Whilst David and myself started on this, Andy dug a hole for a new National Trust sign at the stile entrance.  Tim had to cut the notches in the posts using drill and chisel plus shape the rails using his chainsaw.  

Team work prevailed and we just managed to get it all completed in time.  We met several walkers checking on the best route to use but didn't get anyone to volunteer to help. 

Christine

Litter picking at Styal on Sunday 20th January 2019

Colin had to change today's work task from his original plan of footpath edging to litter picking due to wet ground conditions.  Six of us met in the carpark above Quarry Bank Mill and split in to two groups of three.  Colin provided us with a map of the estate with our individual areas highlighted for us and we left the car park in opposite directions with plenty of bags and a litter picker each.

We met back up at the car park for a slightly later brew.  Is the first time MNTV have had their brew in a bus shelter?  Colin was there to meet us with the next phase lined up for us.

After our brew, four of us jumped in with Colin whilst Adrian and Issy followed in Adrian's car.  We went down the airport road, debunked and proceeded to clear the meadows and pathways leading up to the viewpoint overlooking the runway and then worked our way along the airport road.  It was at this point we found the most interesting item, an old bike that had been there so long a silver birch had grown through the spokes of the wheel.

All I can say is why are people so unthoughtful about our environment?  Apart from the bike there was clothing, an umbrella, glass bottles, tin cans, plastic items of all sorts, crisp/sweet packages plus the inevitable poo bags... oh, and not forgetting two tyres.

Rant over, thanks to my colleagues for a great day and thanks to Colin for sharing his ideas/plans for the estate which includes the planting of thousands of trees including some rare black poplar.

Christine

Task change at Lyme Park on Sunday 13th January 2019

Today we were due to have a Rhodi bash and fire to burn the rhododendron in Lantern Wood, but the weather forecast was predicting rain, wind and gusts of up to 46mph so, erring on the side of caution, we were asked to neaten up the edges along the drive from the Stables to the East Lodge holiday cottage instead, so that the vehicles that used that road didn't damage the edges any further.
The weather didn't put off our enthusiastic volunteers as 16 turned up today:-)
We worked mainly away from the tree's, which was good, and close enough to the Stables to be able to use the Rangers room for our break and lunchtime, plus we had the luxury of being able to use a flushing toilet!!

We spent most of the day cutting back the edges and putting the surplus into barrows before they were tipped into the tractor for disposal. Jenny also got the opportunity to use the leaf blower to blow the leaves and mud off the drive.

We'd finished by lunchtime and so, after lunch, we did the same around the front of the Stables, before the rain came down quite heavily around 3pm.
We were pleased that we'd managed to make it all look a lot tidier:-)

 Photo's courtesy of Adrian.

Construction & destruction at Bosley Cloud on Sunday 6th January 2019

Ten MNTV members plus Josh who is doing his Duke of Edinburgh award came out for our first workday of 2019 to blow away the cobwebs and work off the mince pies.  They still managed to eat lots of cake!

As there were so many of us we split into two groups.  The first group stayed with Tim (Ranger) and his truck and erected a sturdy gate and fencing.

The other group grabbed some tools and walked up the hill to the open heathland for a spot of destruction.  We pulled up saplings so visitors and wildlife can continue to enjoy the open aspects of this part of the hill.  Pulling up the birch saplings was hard work (even the smallest saplings held on by long roots) but we persevered.  We carried the saplings to the forest on the other side of the track to rot down and provide a wildlife habitat.

Bosley Cloud was true to its name.  At the top of the hill we were mostly in cloud but the ground was nice and dry.

Jenny

(Photos: Jenny and Karin)