Burning brash at Thurstaston Sunday 20th March 2016

I think this was the 10th day without rain - and we had another fantastic MNTV workday, this time on Thurstatston common.
Three of us travelled together from Quarry Bank Mill in Neil's Roomster (so much space!) and 4 others from MNTV met us in the car park at Royston Park. We were joined by Phil the Ranger and Heather from Merseyside volunteers. From there the 9 of us walked, with our equipment, to the area where we were to be working.

When we got there, we continued the wood clearance work that we'd previously started. On that occasion we were cutting down the smaller trees in this particular wooded area near the heathland, but had to finish early because increasingly high winds meant it was unsafe to work in amongst the trees in case they came down. Today we were cutting off the branches from the already felled trees and dragging them to the fire to be burned.

The fire in it's infancy

To protect the ground and manage the size of the fire, it was started on a couple of corrugated metal sheets, which were kept off the ground by a few tree trunks underneath.

Lunch break

As the ground and wood around was so dry, Neil had no trouble getting the fire going. The rest of us, using bowsaws and loppers, cut the branches off the tree's that were stacked in piles nearby, and dragged them towards the fire.

Neil taking a well-earned break and surveying the fire

It was a lovely bright clear day, although we got a bit of a breeze from the heathland. There were lots of families walking on the path nearby, some stopping for a chat. As a particular family were walking by, a very very excited little girl could be heard shouting out "Look, it's a REAL file, a REAL fire" :-)
Many dog owners also passed by, some dogs 'inspecting' our rucksacks to see if they could find any food, but we were wise to this and had zipped them firmly shut!!

Almost time to leave

By the end of the day, we had almost burnt all the brash that was lying around. I believe future workdays will involve us doing similar work on the other side of the path - bring it on!!!

Footpath work and gulley blocking on Burnt Hill (Hayfield) - 13 March 2016

Today was our second workday of the year at Hayfield.  Eight of us met rangers Shane, Myles and Mark at 9:30 in the Sett Valley Trail car park then drove three miles up the A624 where we parked off road and made our way one mile east across the moor to Burnt Hill on the west side of Mill Hill.  The footpath alternated between stretches of flagstones and stretches of peat bog.

The Trust has engaged contractors to pave this footpath all the way to the summit of Mill Hill.  They cannot work between 1 April and the end of July because of nesting birds and the work is very much 'in progress'.  They had used a caterpillar-tracked excavator to cut a 1 metre wide path through the moor and the cut heather sods had been piled to either side.  Helicopters had been used to lift flagstones up to the moor.  Laying the flags is down to brute force using metal bars.

Today's jobs were to 1) in-fill gaps between the flagstones and the moor with offcuts of the sods, and 2) cut up and carry/drag surplus sods to nearby gulleys and bed them in to block the gulley/stabilise the peat.  We used a 'sillage cutter' to cut the sods.

Excavated footpath & flagstones

In-filling
(between spades & flagstones)

The weather was the best of the year so far and the sun shone all day long.  Spring had arrived!  We enjoyed views south to Lantern Pike, Chinley Churn and Mount Famine and to the northeast a snow-dappled Bleaklow.

Panoramic photo of worksite from the east

We saw several walkers during the day, many making their way up Mill Hill then round to Harry Hut and back to where they started, and one group of mountain bikers who Shane in no uncertain terms turned back.  They should not have been riding on the path and had wilfully ignored the 'No Cycling' signs on the stile at the road.

Our thanks to Shane for organising a very enjoyable day.

Daniel

Brash clearance at Speke with Merseyside NTV, Sunday 6th March 2016: The Day of Five Fires

We were off to the wild wild west today to meet up with our friends at Merseyside NTV for a day of brash clearance at Speke Hall. Five of us met at Styal and piled into Neil's aptly named "Roomster" for the journey down the M62, while Christine and Andy met us at Speke.

Lots of brash to feed lots of fires!

After a bit of Scouse v Manc banter with the ranger, Ian, we wound our way through the lovely buildings and grounds of the hall to find some fields with lots of piles of brash. The pattern of the day would be people bundling the brash together, followed by Neil making ample use of his flame-thrower by torching pretty much everything in sight.

Neil brings The Crazy World of Arthur Brown to Speke: Fire Number One

Fire Number Two in its infancy

We got one fire going in the first field, then crossed a lane to find more brash, which required a second fire. Both fires burnt quickly, and we thought our day might be a short one. Lunch was taken with two fires already fed and turned in, so Lisa's cupcakes were heavily indulged in with thoughts of an easy afternoon.

After lunch, Christine and Andy blazed a trail through the long grass (without being devoured by velociraptors) to start work on more piles of brash across the field. Neil was quick to fulfil the need for a third fire, but more work on the other side of the hedge called for a fourth inferno. This is unprecedented on any MNTV workday I have attended, and the scene began to resemble the opening shot from Apocalypse Now.

Fire Number Three

Fire Number Four

With buzzards circling overhead and a soundtrack of woodpeckers (and a fair few Easyjet planes taking off from John Lennon Airport), our groups began to spread across a wide area as more and more brash was discovered behind yet more hedges. Soon, a delighted Neil was setting fire to his fifth blaze, and itching to start a sixth.

John & Jenny load up Fire Number Five

We limited the pyromaniac inclinations to just the five fires, which were all intensely hot. Some great teamwork between the groups kept these well fed, with Merseyside's John and Manchester newbie Jenny using old fencing to carry large brash bundles.

By 3pm we had to reign in our enthusiasm, accept that some brash would have to live for another workday, and let our final fire burn down. The sun had shone, the two groups had got on really well, and all Neil's Christmases had come at once. We got lots done, and hope to be back at Speke again before too long.

Build it and they will come!

Fire Number Five draws a crowd from both ends of the East Lancs Rd

I hear there's a lovely timbered hall round here that would burn well ... we might need to keep an eye on Neil if we come back!

Rhodybash at Lyme Park on 28 February 2016

Two fires were needed today to keep up with the sixteen volunteers who came out to tackle the rhododendron on West Park Drive at Lyme Park. An impressive amount was cut and burned, and 70 saplings were planted in previously cleared areas. These were beech, oak, rowan, holly and blackthorn.

There is now a stretch of bank alongside the drive down as far as the path up to Paddock Cottage which is clear except for about a dozen rhododendron trunks.

Mick

Hedgelaying at Alderley Edge on 21st February 2016

Just two of us out today: Neil and Tim met up in the Wizard car park with five members of the Sale Conservation Volunteers and two lads earning their Duke of Edinburgh awards. Tim Ryan the ranger then led the drive to Mount Farm, a property between Alderley Edge and Hare Hill.

The hedge we had been working on for the past few workdays since 13 December had been completed by another team of volunteers so after a very muddy hike across the farmland adjacent to Hare Hill we reached the new worksite.  We had begun the project of reinstating this hedgerow late last year but had only spent a day removing old barbed wire, metal fencing and generally clearing this ancient hedge line.  Since that first visit other volunteer groups had had a go at laying the sporadically spaced hawthorn bushes and planting new saplings in the gaps that make up this old boundary.  The Sale Volunteers continued to lay the gnarled hawthorn while Neil and Tim planted in the gaps.  Later in the afternoon most of us fell to planting at the far end of the hedge were none of the old hawthorn survived.  At the end of the day we had planted quite a few hundred new plants, staked them out and wound round the protective plastic rabbit guards.

Thanks to Tim Ryan for providing an interesting workday.

Tim

Pathwork at Styal on Sun 14th Feb 2016

We were originally scheduled to do 
fencework on this workday but Colin, the
Lead Ranger, said that the ground was too wet, so we were asked to clean up one of the paths at Worm's Hill near Twinnies bridge instead.

Eleven of us turned out on this beautiful but cold winters day. We used a wheelbarrow to transport some of the tools we needed and carried the rest. When we got to Worm's Hill and saw the path in question, we had a health & safety talk and risk assessment before starting work. The majority of us started using the spades to 'slice' the soil that had been washed up over the path edges and then grass had grown into it. We removed layer and layer of soil and grass until we reached the stone on the path. It was hard work, similar to cutting up sods of earth, but the end result was amazing and made the path look almost as if it had just been laid:-)


lunchbreak

There were a couple of  extra jobs that we did as well. There was a gap an the existing hedge which had enabled walkers to create a short-cut from the lower path to the upper path. Due to a lot of use, this had become muddy and unsightly, and was particularly slippy and dangerous to use when it was wet. A few of our Group cut down branches from nearby tree's and laid them across the gap, intertwining the branches where they could. Hopefully this 'psychological' barrier will persuade people to use the path instead and the grass will grow back over time.

new 'barrier' to persuade people to use the footpath

In addition, there was unslightly rubbish along the lengths of the path including poo-bags, either thrown down on the ground or even hung from trees?! - why?! Two of the Group, in high-viz vests and with grapplers and bin bags, did a stirling job of clearing the litter and poo-bags, so they could be disposed of properly.
Colin was very appreciative of what we'd done and has subsequently contacted us to report that many of the visitors to the woods have commented on how nice the path now looks:-)


starting to look good:-)

Pub quiz at the Hesketh Tavern, Cheadle on Monday 8 February 2016

Six of us met up last night for our first social of 2016, a pub quiz at the Hesketh Tavern in Cheadle. It is becoming a regular haunt for us on Monday nights because of the quality of the quiz, the good food and drink, the buzz of all the other competitors and the welcoming ambience of the place.

Sadly, this time team MNTV came nearer the bottom of the field than the top.  We did well on Rounds 1 and 2 (Faces, dingbats, catchphrase, This 'n' That) but struggled again on the music round (we missed you, Philippa!) and lost all our points in the Wipeout round because of a wrong answer.

This was the pick of the dingbats, solved by Linda:

Despite not being in the prizes we enjoyed the evening and each other's company, and Daniel got useful feedback on the draft 2015 Yearbook.

Daniel

(Answer: Hauled over the coals)