Friends, Romans, Hedgelayers

 Friends, Romans, hedgelayers … 

One of the great things about working at High Wray it is that we are playing our part in helping to keep traditional skills alive. One such skill is hedgelaying, which is carried out all over the country with regional variations in styles and techniques. It’s a fascinating process with a long history – according to the National Hedgelaying Society in 55BC Julius Caesar mentioned a tribe in Flanders using techniques recognisable today.

Hedge with a view

A winter task often means chilly conditions!

Hedgelaying is a job that can only be done in winter when the sap is not rising. It involves cutting hedge plants most of the way through their stems and ‘laying’ them on their sides to form a stock proof barrier. The traditional tool for this is the Billhook, although often today hedgelaying is done with a chainsaw.

A billhook - lots of regional variations available ...

 As well as looking good, a laid hedge provides shelter for the stock, encourages new growth in the plants and makes good ground cover for wildlife. The regional variations come (amongst other things) with the differences in how steep an angle you lay the plants, how wide and high your hedge is and where you put wooden stakes to hold everything in place.

Finished stretch of hedge, quite late in the season (note leaves on plants)

Collateral benefits

So it’s a satisfying, traditional skill that many regular local volunteers look forward to each winter – although for some we’re sure that has a lot to do with the fact that when you’re hedgelaying you generally have a nice big fire to burn all the excess bits of wood!

Utilizing the fire in a vain attempt to dry out the thorn proof hedgelaying gauntlets

We also run National Trust hedgelaying working holidays which adds an extra level of interest for us as we will often have some quite experienced people from other parts of the country turning up to ‘see how we do it here’. Not only do they bring different knowledge and experience we can pick up on, they sometimes bring all sorts of interesting tools and equipment for us to admire too.

That's some very interesting equipment - A working holiday participant's wood burning kettle

By the time we finish this year’s hedges the season will be over for the year and we’ll be moving on to other tasks. We look forward to this time, not because we don’t like hedgelaying but because the end of it heralds the start of spring and all that glorious sunshine that’s no doubt heading our way …..

Find out more about National Trust working holidays here:

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/holidays/working-holidays/

By Rob Clarke, Basecamp Community Ranger

Moving on from winter .....

With winter now in full retreat (we hope), we’re coming back to full volunteering life at High Wray volunteer centre. The back end of winter was spent hedgelaying on a big hedge near Coniston, helped by all manner of groups including the Fix the Fells lengthsmen and a National Trust working holiday. It’s a classic countryside task and typical of the sort of work we do here, but not by any means the only sort of thing we do.

Hedge with a view - National Trust hedgelaying working holiday

We recently spent a very different day with TTP (Trust the Process), one of the large drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres we work with, at the National Trust’s campsite at Low Wray. Using large logs, loads of gravel and the enthusiasm and hard work of this group we were building platforms outside four of the camping pods there. It’s quite muddy in places near the pods, so these ‘patios’ will not only give campers extra room to sit out but will also reduce the amount of mud being trod into the pods on shoes.

TTP with one of the completed 'patios'

The combination of being out in the fresh air, working together as a team and doing some constructive work that’ll increase people’s enjoyment of this beautiful place was a big hit with the group even if most of the mud did end up all over them!

 

More mud than volunteer - the results of a hard day's work ...!

It’s this variety of task and volunteer group that is one of the best things about our job. The contrast between different volunteers’ knowledge and experience was highlighted when a member of TTP who’d never left the city before asked what the white stuff was on the mountains. We’d had a fresh snowfall (since the path team’s last entry) – he’d been told it was snow by the other group members, but thought they were winding him up. When we confirmed it was he was amazed – even when winter has gone everywhere else it can still hang on up on the hills ….

Winter Wall Gaps

The Upland Footpath Team are mostly working in the lower parts of the countryside of the South Lakes at this time of year. The weather and the shorter daylight hours mean that it is not possible (or safe) to spend all of our time working on upland footpaths in the fells.

Repairing gaps in dry stone walls usually forms a large part of our winter work. We have lots of woodlands with dry stone walls as boundaries and gaps appear for various reasons, such as trees or branches falling on them. It is important to maintain these walls to keep the sheep and cattle in adjacent fields out as they can be damaging to the woodland.

One of the wall gaps, re-building has commenced....

Nearly finished... Sarah & Luke finishing off the wall

It is not all wall gaps and there is plenty of variety to our winter work, the team go wherever their help is requested.  Examples include hedgelaying with a volunteer group, installing field gates, emptying cattle grids and drainage work on lower level paths.

Hedgelaying with volunteers near Coniston this week

The upland paths still get attention in the winter and we try to do some maintenance at least once a week.  This usually means walking a path route and emptying the drains, clearing the 'pitched' stone path surfaces and generally checking the condition of the path. This is known as a "drain run".
We timed a drain run up Dollywaggon Pike perfectly last week as we escaped misty weather in the lower valleys and enjoyed some of the nicest weather so far in 2013.

"Views" at Tarn Hows, near Coniston

Slightly better views near the summit of Dollywaggon Pike

The weather recently has been quite variable and at the start of this week it snowed.
The surrounding countryside was very picturesque but it does make our work more difficult.

Tarn Hows in the snow this week

Post by Nick, Upland Footpath Ranger

Underwater hedges and swedes on the fire

We don't need to tell anyone it's been a wet month, especially these last few weeks. Most people will have done their best to avoid the rain though, but we've not been so lucky. When there's a hedge to lay and a group of volunteers who've come here to lay it then we've got to be out whatever the weather!


Not ideal conditions - the hedge after laying.

So it was with some trepidation we headed out last Monday morning with the Chester National Trust volunteers for the first day of their week here. They have a regular slot here at this time of year and are always keen on a bit of hedgelaying. The rain and wind though was doing its best to blunt this keenness, but we find that it's normally a lot worse when you're indoors looking out at it than it is if you get out and get on with something.


Chester National Trust volunteers ready to beat a retreat after a wet day.

 And so it proved for the Monday and, amazingly, the Tuesday as well. With no let up in the foul conditions the group could have been forgiven for hiding in the toilets but they were ready and willing again for the second day! Their free day on Wednesday saw some better weather before normal service resumed for the last work day on Thursday. Despite these terrible conditions they managed to get a good stretch of hedge laid, but it all proved too much for the fire which was eventually battered into submission ......

Top tip - Fires and pools of water don't go together well ...

This week has seen some much better weather for our next group, a National Trust hedgelaying working holiday. There's been a few novel experiences; firstly, we've taken our waterproofs off and secondly the cooking of a swede on the fire.

Fire cooked swede - lovely!

A new one on us, the holiday leader threw three swedes, unpeeled, on the fire. After 45 minutes he fished them out and peeled them and they were lovely - cooked to perfection with a nice smokey flavour. There's always something new to learn!

Follow this link to find out more about National Trust working holidays:
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/holidays/working-holidays/

By Rob Clarke, Community Ranger.

Our NT Cumbria Volunteer Group

This group is made up of a hardy and dedicated bunch covering all of the National Trust properties in Cumbria; no job is too big or too small. A good proportion of the team are based in the lakes but some travel from as far away as Cheshire and the Midlands, which emphasises the commitment and dedication to Conservation and National Trust.

The team hard at work clearing the site ready for laying.

The weekend saw the team working near Coniston on a hedge laying day. Hedge laying is one of everyone’s favourite tasks, It was a great day had by all with fantastic sunny weather for a change?!

Taking a step back to admire your handywork!

 After a well earned lunch and Birgit’s cake (not for the faint hearted!), the team finished off laying the hedge.

The finished hedge

Feeling inspired?
Coming soon to a property near you! If you’re feeling inspired or interested in the work they do or you just want to meet the team, they’ll be working at Ash Landing near the car ferry on the Western side of Windermere on the 2nd of December...let's hope the weather is as good again!


post & photos | Ranger Stuart

Different people, same results

Ambleside uni getting to grips with the details.

The numbers game

How many volunteers does it take to lay a hedge?

The best laid plans .....

The working holiday - that's as far as they got on the first day!

Up here at High Wray Basecamp volunteer centre we're pretty busy all year round with, as you'd expect, volunteers. The exception to this tends to be through the worst of the winter when the weather's too bad to get out and do much work. We use this period to do all our planning and maintenance work for the year ahead, cleverly holding off on booking too many volunteer groups in until the worst of the weather has passed. Or at least, that's the theory. You can never be too sure of anything with the British (and especially Cumbrian) weather and so the first day of our first working holiday of the year - hedgelaying - coincided with the heaviest snowfall of the winter.