Tuesday 29 March 2016

Path work at Toft Gate: 29-03-2016

GREENHOW BUGLE


FURTHER PATH REVELATIONS AT TOFT GATE LIME KILN!

This week, amid much speculation about whether or not there actually was more path under the grass at Toft Gate, an AONB insider let it slip that there was indeed reason to continue edging, lifting and rolling the turf (a job started last week). 

An anonymous spokesperson from the AONB told our reporter - "We have it on good authority that, as long as we have willing NCVs who are not too badly affected by chocolate over-dosing during the Easter weekend, further excavations WILL bring to light the ancient gravel bed, laid down for wheelchair use so long ago."

As it turned out there were no fewer than 13 willing NCVs who had steadfastly refused the Easter bunny's tempting offer of chocolate eggs, knowing the task that lay ahead of them this Tuesday. One said "Chocolate eggs? Which chocolate eggs? All I had was a free range omlette. Wheel-barrowing turf is not for chocolate junkies."

Once gathered at the car park spirits drooped somewhat due to the onset of heavy snow. In spite of this, 10 of the team braved the arctic conditions (-1 degree in the shade) and numb fingers in order to work for an hour, during which short time they made good progress. 


Heroic NCVs shelter in the lea of the kiln in order 
to listen to Leader Osian's instructions. 

Conditions did not look promising - 
but it's hard to keep a good NCV down.

The team got busy searching for the line of the path.

Just snow covered grass?

Not if you investigate a bit.

Now that's a wheel chair path for sure.

Wheelbarrows were filled with turf....

...and wheeled down the hill....

....and then returned for re-filling.

As they left there was little sign that anyone had
 been there at all, thanks to the snow.

The remaining three NCVs absented themselves before the start of the task and were later reported to have gone, instead, to a Pateley bridge tea room. One of the NCV group leaders commented "This disappointing behaviour on the part of these three particular members has been noted and we will make sure that they do not get employment as NCVs in any other British AONB."

What two of this splinter group did not realise is that all the hard working stalwarts were given a very warm welcome Chez Tony with a good deal of cake (baked by master baker Julia) at 11:15am. This allowed them all to sing 'Happy Birthday' to Dave and restore feeling into their extremities.


Mouthwatering treats galore...

... all in honour of the birthday boy (21 today).
(His rather smug smile is due to the fact that he did not do 
any work at all and opted to stay in the warm car to 
"look after the cake and everyone else's cars".)

Further reports from Toft Gate will be available in this newspaper as soon as work resumes.

Reporter: Ros E.

Tuesday 22 March 2016

Another busy week of different things: 22-03-2016

This week was another one of those variety packed NCV days with reports and photos coming from different venues. 

  • Stripe Head Farm, Wath 

On a glorious sunny morning in Nidderdale 12 NCVs and a 5 strong Heritage Skills student team turned up to plant 100 trees at Stripe Head Farm, near Wath, to help promote a woodland conservation environment. We welcomed a new volunteer to the team called Richard.

Thankfully the farmer arranged for tubes, stakes, trees and most of our tools to be ferried up the steep hill to the planting location, a steep fenced in ghyll area.

 That's rather a steep, narrow ghyll to plant trees in.
It is indeedy. 
Undaunted, the sherpas commence their ascent.

The experienced tree planting team soon made short measure of planting the 100 trees wherever space and terrain allowed. 

We could fit one or two trees in here...

...and here...

...and even down there.

Surely not up there?
Yes? 
Oh, OK then.

Angela tries a novel approach to tree planting - 
or does she just want to inspect Ros K's pink wellies?

By 11am, all the trees were planted and we all enjoyed a break in a field overlooking Nidderdale and Gouthwaite reservoir.
Once done Josh practised his air archery.

The end result. Nice job folks.

This was not to be just a day of quick fire tree planting for the NCVs though. While some made a break for more tree planting at the Dacre nature reserve (see below), the majority headed back down to Pateley Bridge and up Greenhow Hill past the tired looking cyclists to go to.....
  • Toft Gate Lime KilnGreenhow  
Here, in decidedly cooler climes, nine NCVs and the Heritage skills team listened to our leader explain the precise instructions, detailed by Historic England, in order to perform wheelchair access path maintenance around this scheduled ancient monument.

A preliminary walk over survey filled most of the volunteers with scepticism about the existence of a wheelchair path at all. There was quite a lot of nice healthy grass though.

Believe it or not - there's a gravel path 
somewhere under here.

Amateur wheelchair path archaeologists get to work
 searching for not so ancient remains.

A few exploratory hacks later with spades and mattocks and indeed the remnants of a path were visible.

Having discovered the long lost path it was surely time for some lunch to contemplate the significant hard work ahead. Some volunteers sheltered behind natural features and the lime kiln flue whilst others enjoyed the more salubrious, and warmer, environs of the Toft Gate café.
Eureka! Here it is.

After lunch the team soon got into their stride, carefully, but energetically, uncovering the thinnish layer of turf that had built up over the path over the years. Those with spades explored the path edge giving a line for the mattock users to uproot the turf and in some instances generate very large rolls of turf for transportation by wheelbarrow offsite. The transportation team were very helpful in pointing out the weight restrictions of the one wheelbarrow and its associated operatives.

Vanessa tries the pogo stick method of path edging,
while Josh demonstrates how to mattock up a roll of turf.

By 2:15pm, a good portion of the upper path had been revealed and the NCVs headed home discussing the many soothing baths that would be needed that night. Tune in for the results of the second round next week.

Osian

Gradually the line of the path starts to emerge 
and by close of play  a good stretch of the path is laid bare.


  • Meanwhile two other NCVs stayed at the barn to sharpen tools all day (although they were spotted out walking a dog during the afternoon - docking of pay is required methinks!) and three more tree planting lovers re-visited the Dacre Banks Nature park during the afternoon to help with the final tree planting session there. They wanted to be in at the end of the marathon task - or perhaps they just wanted some more of Gwen's cake? (Thanks Gwen.)  

An historic moment as Ros K. inserts the last tree 
in the field next to Michael's nature park. 
Ta Daaa!!


  • Whilst all of this was going on a select little group of three NCVs stayed at the Council Chambers in Pateley to join in with an interesting training session on 'Heritage Interpretation'. This was led by Lisa Keyes of 'Minerva Heritage' and involved discussion on what is meant by interpretation; what to consider when developing this and different types of interpretive media. It is not just interpretation panels. Oh dear me no. It also involves trails of all kinds, guided walks, events, performance and leaflets to name but a few.



Lisa leads the presentation in the classroom.

We started with a couple of games to help us understand the 
dos and don'ts of interpreting the environment for visitors.
(I was given this photo to describe so the others could imagine what I was looking at. 
I used too much technical language but apparently did the right thing when 
I said that it was the colour of an uncooked chicken.)

After lunch we ventured down the road to Fishpond Wood where we carried out an appraisal of the new interpretation boards there.


 Off to Fishpond Wood to see an example of 
good practice by the entrance...


...and up by the icehouse.

 Both boards explain the heritage well.

As NCVs we normally spend time erecting, rather than designing, interpretation boards. But now we've had the training we may well be able to be involved in the whole process. Lots of help can be found about interpretation via the Association for Heritage Interpretation. Click on this link to access a checklist of all the questions you need to consider when planning Heritage interpretation.
Thanks go to Lisa for a good day's training.

Ros E.

Tuesday 15 March 2016

Crag Farm: 15-03-2016

The day dawned cloudy and cold after the promise of spring over the last few days but this did not stop 16 NCVs, a 4 strong Heritage Skills team and a group of 10 from Open Country turning up to plant 500 trees at Crag farm, above Lindley Wood reservoir near Otley.

Before any planting could start the necessary materials had to be transported to the site.

 Jan lifts up a pack of tree stakes and.....

 ...tosses them over the wall as if they were feather-light.
(They can be seen sailing through the air above the stack of tree tubes.)

Beyond, the mature oak woodland lay waiting - 
complete with bramble trip wires to upend the unwary (i.e. me).

 Once over the wall the posts and tubes were carried up the 
steep woodland slope by the Sherpas.

At the top, everyone gathered around for their instructions.

NCVs got to work and soon tree tubes started sprouting 
up in the glades amongst the mature trees.

They could be seen appearing right the way through the wood.

Of course some NCVs (I mention no names 
but follow my eyes) couldn't wait until coffee time for a rest.

Hannah showed a sapling what it was supposed 
to aspire to once planted.

Alistair was ordered by High Priest Graham to kneel before 
the all powerful ruler of the tree planters - King Spade.

 At lunch time it was difficult to fit everyone in the same photo. 

Audrey's flapjack managed to feed the 5000 with some 
judicious halving. Thanks Audrey!!

By 1:45 the trees were all planted and we started putting spare tubes around some of the naturally regenerating saplings to protect them from being nibbled by roe deer. 

 New trees up the hill...

...and new trees down the hill.

There was also a good deal of old, defunct tree planting materials to collect up into a rather large pile. 
The lovely Nick models the latest in Vivienne Westwood bridal wear. 
(Photograph courtesy of the "Upcycled collection 2016" catalogue.)
Note how the train of the dress cascades elegantly from the navy blue bodice. 
A snip at just £3000 (cap an additional £250). Available in all sizes, by mail order.

A good job all round!

Ros E.

Saturday 12 March 2016

Student perspectives

This week we have a special, additional blog entry. It contains three perspectives from our three Heritage Skills students who were asked to write a little something about their favourite NCV task venue.

NB Readers - please note that Osian has now managed to send in the Fishpond Wood photos from this Tuesday's task and they can be viewed in the blog entry below this one. They provide sound evidence that his claims of work done were not false!

Vanessa starts things off...


My favourite place that I have visited with the AONB was Ellington Banks. It is an area the public aren’t allowed in so we had to be let in through a locked gate. Ellington Banks is where the army do their training so we were escorted by John to the place we were working at and we weren’t allowed within 30m of the army lads.

When we arrived at Ellington Banks it was very sunny. Our work involved clearing scrub; this is going to make it beneficial to plant and animal life like crested newts and woodlarks. The land that we were working on was very flat; it was furrowed having been ploughed once upon a time. 


Jan was explaining to us how to cut down a tree properly; you need to saw the tree as close to the ground as you can. We then carried brash to the fire. When we were eating our lunch on a little hill an AC130, which is a military plane, flew over us.


The reason this was my favourite place is because the weather was very warm all day and the ground was not as muddy as usual.

Indeed Vanessa - an unmuddy day has been a rare commodity over the last few months and one to treasure!

Hannah chose a different venue....

My most favourite place that I have visited with the AONB is Fishpond Wood. I like Fishpond because after a few visits I have got used to the woods.  When I first went there it was difficult to find my way around, but now after I’ve been a few times I find it easy and I know where all the paths lead to. 

I have been involved in lots of different tasks at Fishpond woods but the main one that sticks in my mind is Rhododendron clearing.  I learnt to saw through the thick Rhododendron branches by using my saw correctly and then I used my loppers to tidy up the branches. I also learnt to cut the branches as close to the ground as possible.


 Another task I did was gathering all the branches that I had cut down and then putting them tidily in a big brash pile, so they can be either burnt on a bonfire or left for the wildlife to enjoy.


At first I thought I wasn`t going to really enjoy working with the AONB, but after a few weeks I realised that I was starting to enjoy it because I was looking forward to the different tasks that we were doing. Also I was looking forward to meeting and chatting to new people, I wanted to hear about their stories and look forward to these days. 
 

It is a pleasure to hear that Hannah has enjoyed working with the other NCVs - they are certainly enjoying her cheery company!

Josh agreed with Vanessa about the best place to be for a different reason...

The best place that I visited was Ellington Banks. Ellington is an army training ground. I enjoyed the visit because I am hoping to join the army. I particularly enjoyed looking at the army lads walking around with their guns and there was lots of smoke grenades, flare cases and bullet cases. 


The weather was perfect and I think it was one of the nicest days of the year. We could sit and have lunch and not worry about being cold or getting caught out in the rain. While we were having lunch we saw a AC130 plane curling around the army training ground.



We were tasked with clearing scrub and this involved using loppers and saws to clear the shrubs. Then we had to ferry it to the fire. 


Once we finished we took a steady walk back to the van to set off home.

We all wish you luck with your application to join the army Josh.