Fence removal and a litter pick at Styal on Sunday 6th March 2022

Ten of us met at Styal today for what we knew would be a day of two halves.  In the morning we removed the fence fronting the Natural Play area situated midway between the Apprentice House and the Mill and from elevenses until the end of the day we did a litter pick along the airport access road.

Before we began work I presented long service certificates and pin badges to Adrian (30 years) and Neil (10 years).  Congratulations to both of you and thank you for all the time and energy you have given to MNTV and the National Trust over those years.

The Natural Play area hasn't worked as well as hoped and will be repurposed, possibly by planting flowers.  We removed the front fence to give access.  The fence panels were all in very good condition and will be reused elsewhere on the estate.

We had our 11 o'clock coffee break in the new wooden shelter at the top of the steps leading from the carpark down to the Mill.  The Sultana Cake baked by Daniel was enjoyed by one and all.

We then car shared to the Mill end of the airport access road and spent the rest of the day picking litter.  Depressingly there was quite a lot, particularly near the mounds where the plane spotters congregate.  Bottles, coffee cups, chocolate bar wrappers, face masks and lots of single use plastic predominated.  It was interesting talking to plane spotters while we litter picked.  One was there all day just to see one particular plane (the only jet in Aruba's fleet) that was on its way from Barcelona and another told us the Glazers (owners of Man Utd) had just landed in their private jet for the Manchester derby.  They will have flown home empty handed because City won 4-1.

Thanks to everyone for an enjoyable day and congratulations to Anna on reaching 50 hours for the year.

Daniel

Various jobs at Formby on Sunday 27th February 2022

Seven of us met ranger Bree at the Countryside Office at Formby just before 10 o’clock on a beautiful calm and sunny day.  The worksite was only a few feet away so by 10 o’clock we were hard at work at various
tasks. 

The rangers have done a lot of coppicing work, nothing to do with the stormy weather, just routine maintenance of the habitat.  Multiple piles of brash were lined up for burning.

Originally we were going to use the air burner but Bree decided the conditions were good enough to have a traditional fire instead.

Some of the branches were straight enough to be used as stakes for hedge laying.  One end was cut into a point using a bill hook.

Old tree guards have to be disposed of, fortunately the plastic can be recycled but needs some preparation. They have to be unrolled, the none recyclable plastic ties taken off then rolled up again as tightly as possible for storage in canvas sacks.  The NT is being charged per sack for transport to the recycler so squeezing as many in as possible saves money.

The finished pile of stakes is enough to keep the hedge laying team happy for a while.

One pallet load of plastic ready for recycling.

We lined up for this photo in the space that had been piled high with brash.

The weather helped make a very good day even if we didn’t see the sea.  The compensation was playing ball with one of the ranger’s dogs during lunch break.

Formby is one of our work sites more distant than most so it was good to have our first car pool since the pandemic.  Seven of us used three cars, thanks to drivers Neil, Andy and Jenny and not forgetting Sue who did the organising.

Jean

Cancelled - workday at Alderley Edge on Sunday 20th February 2022

Today's workday was cancelled because of the bad weather forecast (wind and rain) following Storm Eunice.

Hopefully the weather is drier and calmer for next Sunday's workday at Formby.

MNTV Committee

Rhodybash near Hayfield on Sunday 13th February 2022

Six of us met Ranger Mark and new Area Ranger Chris at the Sett Valley car park.  Once all had assembled we travelled in convoy to Park Hall.  Our task for the day as detailed by Mark and Chris was to pull up the rhodies on the moor and put them into bin bags.

We all split up and were each given two bin bags to fill.  The rhodies were easy to see and find as the moor hadn't been done for over two years.  They varied in height - some were 6 inches but there were quite a few that needed to be dug up which we tended to leave for another day and maybe another group.

At about 11 o'clock we came down from the moor and had a drink and a piece of Sainsbury's best Lemon Curd cake, sheltering out of the weather in the garage at the hall.

We all were given another two bin bags to fill.  As the weather was so bad it was decided that we would fill our bags and then have lunch back in the garage.

By lunch time we had filled 30 bin bags which we put in the back of the pick up and as it was still raining we had our lunch in the garage.

After lunch Mark looked at the weather forecast and decided that we would be soaked if we carried on so we decided to finish then.

It rained all day but we had fun!

Neil

Fencing at Styal on Sunday 6th February 2022

Six veteran MNTVers met Ceara in the car park at Styal then walked to the work site near Farm Fold.  The task was to remove fencing and railings on both sides of a small road leading to some cottages.  A pretty normal job for MNTV but it turned out a lot more strenuous than we expected.

Half the group started the day removing stock fencing and clearing vegetation to make way for a new hedge to be laid.

The other three started work dismantling the railings ...

... using an angle grinder to cut the cross pieces then digging out the supporting posts.

After tea break everyone worked as one team on the railings as Ceara told us contractors had already been booked to install new railings in the coming week.  We got quite a production line going and made laborious but steady progress.

The weather turned out surprisingly good and it was satisfying to complete such a hard task.  The only down side was the number of snowdrops we had to dig up in order to get the posts out! 

This is another project funded by the Green Recovery Fund.

Jean

Birch thinning at Alderley Edge on Sunday 30th January 2022

Eleven of us met in the National Trust car park, at the side of what used to be the Wizard Inn, including 3 'newbies' who were with us for the first time.

I'd brought loppers, bowsaws and gloves, safety glasses, fire-lighting items, First Aid and ....cake! - the essentials needed for most workdays, but we needed to collect some extra tools from the Ranger compound. These included wheelbarrows, Tree Poppers and stakes & netting to secure the fire-site after we left.

I'd never seen or used Tree Poppers before and relied on my fellow-MNTVer's who'd done this task previously, to demonstrate how, and how not!, to use one.

Despite my initial trepidation, I discovered how great they are - you 'clamp' the Tree Popper around the base of a small birch tree and use the 'plate' as a lever to ease the tree roots out of the ground - easy-peasy! The down-side is that a Tree Popper is quite a heavy piece of kit, and manoeuvring it into position and carrying it from tree to tree was tiring work, but it was an extremely satisfying task which I loved!!

We got a fire going fairly quickly so we could burn the birch tree's and, with the aid of Jenny's leaf blower, and Jack's fire-lighting expertise, it was a huge success, burning just about everything we pulled up during the day.

An MNTV workday wouldn't be an MNTV workday without the 'traditional' break for morning coffee and cake to refresh our enthusiasm for the task in hand.

This was followed by a lunch break a couple of hours later. Some swapped tasks from Tree Popping to dragging the uprooted tree's to the fire and cutting off the roots before loading the tree's onto the fire. The roots were burnt towards the end of the afternoon as we'd found previously that the soil that remained on the roots, despite a good shaking, was prone to dampening-down the fire.

The weather was dry but the terrain was very uneven, lots of brambles doubling as 'trip-wires' and a drainage ditch traversing the area, so we took our time in moving around to avoid injury.

We all enjoyed the day, worked really hard and got loads done. Some of us were aching in places we'd not ached for some time! I hope that the enthusiasm and hard work of our 3 new attendees, Chris, Tom and Gareth, doesn't put them off future workdays when the muscle-aches kick in later this week!

Christine will be leading another day of birch thinning at Alderley Edge on 20th Feb, which we're already looking forward to:-)

Photo's by Adrian and Sue

Rhodybash at Lyme Park on Sunday 23rd January 2022

Today was another day of our favourite activity - rhodybashing: 11 of us were cutting and burning rhododendron in Coal Pit Clough so that the native species have a chance to return and increase the diversity of the woodland.  Issy, herself an ex-MNTVer but now a National Trust Ranger, taught us a new fire-lighting technique using cotton wool balls and vaseline as firelighters.

The weather was very kind to us (for January), but nevertheless the fire was appreciated.  We managed to clear a larger area on a difficult slope, though there is enough rhody left for another day!

Pip