Spiling at Styal 19 May 2013

Thanks to Mick for words and pictures (I had a weekend off)

Sunshine and apple blossom greeted us at Styal today. The task was spiling - protecting parts of the banks of the Bollin using willow withies. These are 'planted' into the banks and wound around willow stakes driven into the river bed a foot or so from the bank. Some of the withies will grow and help to stabilise the silt which accumulates behind the spiling, and all of it will prevent further erosion of the banks at those points. The three sections of spiling we have put in was mainly to protect the banks where the Bollin is threatening to erode the footpaths. The ten MNTV volunteers split into groups, some working in the water in waders, some harvesting the withies and some being the go-betweens.


 
Withies and stakes being harvested for the spiling
 
Weaving about to begin 
Most of the woven withies are underwater 
Some of the local wildlife came to see what we were up to

Mick

Dunham Massey on Sunday 12th May 2013

Five of our Group joined with 5 Merseyside Volunteers and, together with Colin, one of the Dunham Rangers, walked from the car park, past the pond and headed towards the courtyard, stopping to admire 5 ducklings lazing in the sun. We heard that they'd been the other side of the bridge yesterday in a section of the moat where some of them couldn't get out so Colin had to set up a ladder system to enable them to climb out when they wanted. He was pleased to see that they all had.

After walking through the courtyard and then down South Drive, we watched Colin feeding the deer - not as many turned up as usual as many are now finding their own food around the park, but it was great watching about 70 of them having their meal, a few of which reared up to 'fight' the others off when they thought they were getting too close!

 

Getting to the end of South Drive, we saw our task for the day!! Two large boggy area's either side of the path which were not draining because the drainage pipe from each area was completely blocked. The farmer on the other side of the brick wall had already dug a trench for the excess water to flow into once the blockages were sorted, which would then flow into the Bolin. The boggy area's were undermining the wall and causing tree's to become unstable so we split into 4 groups, in our wellies and waders, to tackle the task Two groups tried to clear the blockages and dig up some of the reeds and roots so the water would flow better, another group went over the wall to rod the blockages from the other side and the 4th group went up one of the slopes to make a trench deeper so water would drain more easily from that area once the rain came.

Here are photo's to show how boggy it was to start off and of one of our volunteers kitted out in waders having dug out a lot of the reeds and roots.

 

Although we got muddy and wet when the rain came!! we had a great time as we cleared both blocked drains and managed to make 'waterways' though the reeds so the water flowed down to the unblocked drains, under the wall to the fields the other side. There is still much to do and the drains may silt up again, but they'll be much easier to unblock next time and, eventually, when the excess water has cleared from the area's, the bricks we dug out will be used to make the drainage better for the future.
We had a great day, working with another volunteer group and also feeling like we'd really achieved something by the end of the afternoon:-)

27th AGM on Tuesday 30th April 2013

We held this year’s AGM at Norcliffe Chapel in Styal.  13 of our 27 members attended plus Rangers Simon Hiley (Styal) and Shane Bates (High Peak).

The meeting ran from 19:35 to 20:10 and covered:

- Apologies for absence

- Review and approval of the minutes of the 2012 AGM

- Chairman’s Report (Daniel Black)

- Treasurer’s Report (Denise Clark)

- Committee 2013/14

- AOB

The Chairman reviewed membership numbers and enquiries, work hours for 2012/13, workdays/worktasks, socials and thanked the many people (Committee, members, Rangers) for their in help in making the past year a successful one.  Members were told about the group's Twitter account (@Manchester_NTV), the new PO box address (no longer Sale but c/o NT at 61 Oxford Street, Manchester) and the mntv.worksiteleaders@gmail.com email address.

Nine people were elected to the Committee for 2013/14: Daniel Black, Sue Bonner, Denise Clark, Philippa Greaves, Ally Hardy, Gordon Irons, Tim O'Donnell, Adrian Potts and Matt Smethurst.

After an interval for tea, coffee, cake and biscuits we had a very interesting talk from Simon about the development plans for the Styal Estate and Quarry Bank Mill.  The project, titled "Revolution & Revelation", will cost £6m (£3m from a hopefully third-time-lucky Heritage Lottery Fund bid and £3m raised locally).  The whole idea is to change the flow of visitors through the property so that areas seldom visited (eg Styal Village, Northern Woods, Upper Garden) get a lot more visits and people don't just visit the mill.  The aim is to increase visitor numbers to 300,000 per year!  As the project develops there will be a lot of work that MNTV can get involved with such as fencing and landscaping.

Biddulph Grange Gardens - fence reinforcement 28 April 2013

Three volunteers turned out to Biddulph and were made to feel very welcome by the "garden team".  We worked with three of them clearing a space between the boundary and a fence - and then reinforcing the base of the fence with wire netting.  An attempt at controlling the entry of some wildlife into the main sections of the the garden
Once the initial pruning work had been done - we dug the trench while the garden team installed the mesh and back filled.

We all stopped for coffee and the cake we had taken with us in the morning, had lunch with some of the local volunteer stewards in the "Cheshire Cottage" and finished at about 3pm - at which point we had some rather nice tea in the "garden room" (also used and the ticket office) - with more cake - supplied by Bidduph this time.

Around the mill pond at Styal 21 Apirl 2013

Thanks to Mick for leading and for the text
A variety of tasks around the Mill Pond were presented to us at Styal. We had brambles to clear from an area on the banks of the pond, getting rid of some old chestnut paling and removing some elder to improve the views.

starting on the bramble patch

These areas finished up much clearer than before.

the bramble patch at the end of the day

The remaining task was some post and rail fencing, which appeared straightforward until the post holes were started.

The embankment round the pond had evidently been reinforced with gabions (wire cages filled with rocks) - not as easy to dig through as soil! However, the fence was extended by a few lengths by the end of the day.

We were working near the weir and the work site for the new hydro plant and fish weir that is being built. Work on these is expected to be finished by October, so the group will have the opportunity to watch the progress, having helped clear the site in January (see Styal 13 Jan 2013).

Pub Quiz at The Plough, Heaton Moor - 15th April 2013

Six of us went to The Plough in Heaton Moor last night for their weekly pub quiz.  Before the contest we gave our brains a boost by having supper: chilli con carne, pizza, burgers or salads. The hot chilli peppers on Andy’s pizza almost did for him!

The first round of the quiz (Faces) was hard.  Would any of you recognise Quentin Fortune, Alan Dale or Ivan the Terrible?  Rounds 2-5 (Pop Music, Sport, Last week, Geography) were much more to our liking.  Questions included:

Who had a 1990s hit with “You’re All That Matters To Me”?

Which two teams contested the 1978 World Cup Final?

Which banker has recently asked to return his knighthood?

There are 296 steps to the top of which Italian landmark?

After all the marks were in we were told we had tied for first place with 94 out of 120 (thanks it must be said to a generous marker)!  Megan soon found we had been undermarked (not getting full marks in the Faces round for Earl Spencer (Princess Diana’s brother)) so that meant we won the first prize of £25 of pub vouchers.  Congratulations MNTV!

Hare Hill gardens on Sunday 14th April 2013

What a fabulous day it turned out to be:-)

I must confess I was nervous at leading a workparty to clear some of the rotting leaves from the pond in the gardens, particularly when it was mentioned that the pond could be 12 feet deep in places, but I needn't have worried - 3 of our volunteers were very happy to don chest waders and go into the pond to drag out the rotting leaves using cromes (similar to rakes but the tines are longer and are bent at a 90 degree angle which makes them ideal for dragging debris from ponds).

Those of us on the bank then used rakes to grade the debris back along the edge of the pond so it looked neat and tidy.

We didn't see much wildlife while we were there, only a frog who was keen to get out of our way but we made sure that the frogspawn that was in the pond was safely moved along before we started.

There were a few visitors to the gardens and other volunteers who stopped to have a chat with us and, although it was a bit windy at times, it was a really enjoyable day!




I've since had a lovely text from Emma, the head
gardener at Hare Hill, to thank us all for the
splendid job that we'd done and the difference
it made - well done to all!!