Fishpond Wood and Glasshouses-Bewerley Bridleway:13-10-2015

11 NCVs , 4 Heritage Skills students and their two tutors met James at the barn to hear about the main task in Fishpond Wood for the day. 

The job sounded easy – pick up some rhododendron brash from pile A at the top of the hill and transfer it to pile B, situated at the bottom. Not so! As soon as we started to dismantle the first of the many pile As it was evident that the nature of rhodie brash piles made it very difficult to pull out the constituent parts. It was a good exercise to develop strong biceps.

The brash piles we made last year have to be got rid of 
to make room for more rhododendron waste soon to be produced.

This is another fine mess you've gotten me into Stanley!

Just watch Sally, Graham -  she'll show you how to do it.

If I pass it to you and you pass it on 

we'll soon have this lot shifted.

Walking down the hill was only slightly easier than toiling back up, as you either had to manhandle unwieldy armfuls of small bits of brash or drag along large branches.

The loneliness of the long distance brash carrier.

The trick was not to lose too much along the way.

 

Tony, Ros E. and Terry demonstrate the dragging technique.

Although those waiting at the bottom of the hill to deal with the constant arrival of brash (i.e. the ‘Pile B builders’) didn’t have the hill to contend with, they did have the job of sorting the brash into two different heaps:

•          Pile B (i) – stuff for burning
•          Pile B (ii) – bigger pieces suitable for making charcoal

     This whole process was happening at both ends of the wood. 

Hannah and Terry try to bring order to pile B 

at the Bewerley end of the wood....

.... whilst at the far end of the lake Josh and others were trying to do the same.

(Sorry Josh - the photographer had developed a bad case of shaky hand.) 

Ros K. was struggling to see over her pile B (i)...

...and John was throwing himself into the task with gusto.

There were LOTS of pile As at the start of the day but by 2:30pm they had all disappeared and a good number of pile Bs had been built.

Good job everyone!!

Special thanks go to James, for providing us with some delicious fruit cake at lunchtime – made by his own fair hands no less. This provided us with solid evidence that he was definitely the right man for the job - and that he had told the truth when questioned in an informal interview about the extent of his cake making abilities.

Lunchtime gave everyone a well earned rest.

Ros K. and Angela  deserve a special mention too, as they came and joined in with the brash shifting at lunchtime having already spent all morning finishing off a job started last week - clearing the other half of the Glasshouses - Bewerley bridleway of encroaching vegetation. They could have easily slipped off home instead but they didn’t!! True NCVs.

Ros E.

Lunchtime gave everyone a well earned rest.