Limley Farm: 21-07-2026

 

Anyone for balsam pulling?

You too could enjoy spending time like this!

Or not. It's up to you. But, according to the latest research published in a highly regarded scientific journal, the weekly act of working hard in hot weather, scrambling along a river bed, pulling up and crushing balsam, "allows the body to purge itself of all toxins and leaves participants with a wonderful sense of wellbeing when the job is done." (Snedworth , 2026, p.42) 

A small band of NCVs decided to try out this activity to see if Samuel Snedworth's claims were true. I have to say - they had their doubts. Here are some pieces of evidence of what ensued during this experiment.

Not much sign of HB

yet. Not much water 

in the river either.

Is this some?

NO! Leave it alone.

It is a beautiful giant bell flower.

Uh oh. There is definitely some here.

There was a competition

for the largest plant found.

What about this one?

No. Ftoo diddly.

Well - what about this one?

No. Still too feeble.

What about mine?

Oh yes!! Now that is what you call

a good size for an HB plant.

Dawn wins the prize.

Lunch in the sun provided a

little respite for the legs,

but not from the heat.

The hunt continued until...

...the skull of a previous HB hunter

 was spotted - clearly an NCV who 

had been left behind last year.

 Nobody could face going any 

further after that!!!.

At the end of the day Liz asked the NCVs to complete a set of forms to provide Professor Snedworth with some useful feedback upon which he might take his research forward. When Liz gathered in the papers she decided that it might not be such a good idea to forward them to the Prof. It was highly likely that he would be offended by the, often less than polite, responses. The NCVs did not feel any benefits what-so-ever from this undertaking and had made this crystal clear in their feedback.

Ref. List

Snedworth, S. (2026) 'Balsam and the Body Beautiful' in All Things Environmental Issue.45 pp. 36-50

Last Thursday a select band of 3 of the rights of way team joined Liz on a bridge survey day in the Thornthwaite and Padside area. 6 bridges were checked in very hot conditions and all needed cleaning. 

Here they are in action....

We walked over bridge 

number one without realising -

a stone vehicular structure.

Did anyone bring the Pledge?

Bridge 2 involved a long walk

but was easy to spot.

A metal suspension bridge - 

with rotten rails underneath 

the floorboards. Oh dear!

Bridge 3 involved a very long walk

 across a field of waist high thistles.

Ouch!

Once we arrived we discovered

 that the three stone slab bridge 

had lost a slab into the beck.

Bridges 4, 5 and 6

were all similar wooden

structures in need of encroaching 

vegetation removal and 

moss scraping and brushing. 

And finally - from last Wednesday....

A Wallers' Update from Breaksfold Farm

by Graham

Another good turnout at Breaksfold Farm; seven in all. A dull start had been forecast but the mist and cold were not expected. Hence an "unhappy" Graham in fleece and wooly hat! The sun didn't appear until the end of lunchtime, at which point it came out with a vengeance.  

Grumpy Graham. Heat wave! 

What heatwave?

There was excellent progress on the new section with foundations completed by coffee break and then a further four courses completed.  

Duncan checks the foundations

 Nice looking wall, just the 

cover band and toppers to add.

Work on the longer section was slower going, requiring half a dozen or so thin, time consuming, courses. Hopefully next week will see the toppers added. As usual lovely views, inquisitive sheep and birds singing.

End of day looking towards 

the new Blubberhouses bypass.

And the wall from the other side!

Impressively straight! 

Low Riggs farm: 14-07-2026

 

Let's go bashing (again!)

Last week the NCVs were bashing bracken and balsam around young trees. 

And guess what? This week they were doing the same only this time the trees were in plastic tubes, not cages, and there were NO wild roses to scratch you to pieces. Mind you, they had a veeeery loooooong drive (or a shorter drive and a 40 minute walk) to get to where they needed to work, as they were up at the very top of the dale at Low Riggs farm.

As well as clearing around some of  the trees, the main job was to ensure that the footpath edges were visible to allow Liz to check if any of the boards were rotting and needed replacing.

OK. That sets the scene. Now let's see them all at work....

The bracken was depressingly 

thick, tall and robust.

Luckily the edges of the path had 

previously been strimmed by two students....

...but the wooden boarding

was well hidden for 

the most part.

So too were the sets of steps.

Friedy started slashing 

with a grass slasher...

...and Nick tried out Liz's 

plank and reins device in 

order to deal with the bracken.

Slowly but surely the NCVs

started to win the battle.

Boards were revealed 

and found to be sound, 

apart from this end of the

 topmost board.

Will and Andy used a spade to

ensure that the steps...

...ended up looking more usable...

...and Tim pushed his way into

the bracken to find tree tubes

that no longer contained saplings.

By lunchtime the job 

was all but complete.

Lunch at the bottom of the path 

provided shade but, unfortunately, 

this positive was somewhat 

outweighed by the 

presence of an army of flies.

After lunch the gang went 

homewards - those having  

that long walk back down to 

Stean treated themselves 

to an ice cream at 

How Stean Gorge.

Wallers' Update

by Graham 08-07-2026

We thought that two weeks ago was the hottest walling day ever, but today was just as hot. Close to 30 degrees by the time we left,  but with a slight breeze that made things bearable. That said, this is a lovely site for walling when the weather is half decent. 

Start of day

With eight of us walling, good progress was made despite the heat.  Initially one team topped out the seven yards of wall left over from last week.  

After topping out, Simon and Rob have a chat

An added hydration break was welcomed by all, after which the first team moved across to dismantle the next section.  That was seriously hard work in the heat and Andy was noted for his sterling efforts with the mattock.  

The next section prior to demolition

Work begins on taking down 

the next section of wall.

The miracle achieved by the demolition team

At the same time the rest of us set about adding to the thirteen yards of foundations. 

Six courses added on this 13 yard stretch

Prior to lunchtime, Liz came to join us with bottles of water, hats for those who were without, and a voucher for coffee and cake from the Washburn Heritage Centre as thanks for the work we did in their car park. Steady but sweaty progress  continued until an early finish of 2 o'clock was called. Hopefully it will be cooler next week!

The team tidy up after a hot and tiring day

Hackfall Woods: :07-07-2026

 

Right everyone. Enough of this time off for walks and picnics - it's time to get back to the serious business of doing something useful. And what better time to do that than the first Tuesday in July?

And do something useful the NCVs did. This time controlling the bracken and balsam at Hackfall - in the 8 tree cages at the Mickley end of the woods.

And here they are doing it. Very usefully.....

Upon entering the area it 

was a case of hunt the cages.

Luckily Liz (marked with 

yellow arrow) had brought 

the strimmer.

She strimmed pathways to

some of the cages.

Reaching a cage did not

do anything for the NCVs'

spirits. They were packed

 with bracken.

Fearless, Friedy (marked with

yellow arrow) entered and

started work.

As the bracken was bashed

the tree trunks became visible.

Coffeetime, with Amy's packet 

of custard creams, gave 

everyone some respite.

Apart from the very 

annoying flies. Luckily

some had brought their 

Ascot hats to help keep 

the flies at bay.

Friedy preferred the 

more mysterious look.

Liz felt the natural look 

would not do for Ascot

(nor did it do anything

to solve the fly problem)....

...so got out her more 

up-market fascinator.

After coffee everyone moved

onto their second cage.

Besides the 3Bs (balsam,

bracken and blackberry)...

...they also had to deal with

the horrendous overgrowth of 

wild rose - a species that

had inadvisably been liberally 

planted on purpose. How foolish!

Eventually the 8

cage fights were at an end.

Time to go home?

No! Time to continue to 

the Dropping Well to slash 

the HB. Groans were heard

echoing around the woods.

However - amazingly a

huge swathe of HB was 

slashed and trampled

out of existence.

NCVs 1 - HB 0 

Time to go home.

Hurray!

Actually - the July tasks began for the rights of way team last Thursday, when they visited the lay by at Burnt Yates to install two finger posts - not unlike this one:

Unfortunately the posts were

 not being installed at the layby. Instead the workers had

 to carry everything

 a very long way.

Two pairs of heavy Giant's tweezers were carted 

down, only to be found

to be almost useless.

More useful were the heavy 

metal spits that were used 

to break up the underlying  rocks.

Liz used her cake mixing

skills to make sure the 2 bags of 

postcrete were well mixed with 

the water.

Hopefully the 2 posts should remain upright for many years.

 

The walling group was even quicker off the July starting block when they went back to Thruscross on Wednesday 1st, as Barry reports.......

WALLERS' UPDATE

 Seven wallers gathered at Breaks Fold Farm on a calm, warm morning. The lines were set on the working stint while Dave, Rob & Simon began dismantling the next 10m section. Andy, Barry, Duncan & Rod continued the build which was raised by another 5 courses by the end of the day, much of the stone needing hammer work. The dismantlers having set out the stones very tidily, then put in very substantial foundations with a satisfying completion by the 3pm finish as can be seen below.

New build section by 3pm.

Dismantled  section with new 

foundations by 3pm.