Shropshire and Staffordshire National Trust Volunteers

Saturday/Sunday 28th/29th May

Continuing our succesful bank holiday outings, we find ourselves back at Dudmaston for some more rhoddie attack!

Day 1 – Saturday. Someone suggested having an early start today so we met at the earlier than usual time of 9am (John was so keen that he had been waiting at the car park with his bowsaw twitching at 8.15!). We were back to the same area of woodland as previously (see Easter Weekend), adjacent the ponds. It is pleasing to have to walk a little further each time, passing by the areas we have cleared on other workdays. Ron soon got the fire started and we worked throughout the morning, progressively clearing rhoddies from along the poolside. Given the early start, lunch seemed well deserved. With the exception of one rain shower, the weather was fine and allowed us to clear a larger than anticipated area.

Day 2 – Sunday. A larger group of 10 met NT Warden Mike Annis to continue where we left off yesterday. With a greater number of people, we were able to spread out along the site and tackle a wider area. If memory serves, we had 4 fires on the go at one point – is this a record for the group? You know how boys like toys…Mike brought a winch with him and Chris soon got to work using the extra mechanical power to pull up large rhoddie roots and stumps thus reducing the likelihood of rhoddie returning in those places. We were fortunate to have good weather again today and the weekends work far exceeded our initial expectations. Hopefully we can come back to site to complete this job later in the year.