Shropshire and Staffordshire National Trust Volunteers

Walcot Wood, Friday 4th-Sunday 6th March

We had a 3-day working weekend at Walcot Wood in the wilds of south Shropshire.

Day One, Friday– the day started with bacon butties for some…then working off the big breakfast with some hard graft. The group worked to open up a path that had become overgrown. Part of the site is to be used by school children as an outdoor classroom and the current work is part of a project to get the site ready for use.

As the day progressed, the sun began to shine and a good day was had by all (much enhanced by lunch + 3 CAKE BREAKS!!!)

Day 2, Saturday – started with fewer bacon butties (i.e. none!), but with a larger number of equally enthusiastic volunteers. So with 16 pairs of busy hands and Dave the warden spectacularly bringing down some huge cherry trees, the whole site was becoming much safer and more open for the school children to enjoy the stunning surrounding. The day seemed to fly by with so much brash and scrub to work on and plenty of the usual WNTCV banter (look out for some of the quotes in the next newsletter!). The only down side was that we didn’t get to see the sun and with it the fantastic views up the valley, but this was more than made up for by the delicious meal that was had in the evening over at Bishops Castle.

Day 3, Sunday – Once again working in the beautiful March sunshine, we completed our work on the main site and also cleared brash from another path leading past one of the amazing veteran oak trees. After turning our fire in once more and finishing the last of the cake, it was time to go home. However, the great news is that Peter the NT countryside manager was so impressed with our progress that he has booked us up already for the same weekend in 2012!