Shropshire and Staffordshire National Trust Volunteers

Workday leader Matt, having dried out, reports:

For the second Sunday in a row, a fearless band of SSNTV volunteers braved the wind and rain to head out for our scheduled workday, this time we were back at a very wet and very, very muddy Wenlock Edge.

As previously, we were working to clear the scrub from both sides of the bridleway at Roman Bank to enable the surface to be cleared of mud and to allow it to be widened back out where some of the edges have eroded down over the years.

After a good mile of slipping, sliding and paddling (and Mandy very carefully avoiding any “Vicar of Dibley” puddle moments), we finally found some orange spotted scrub and a suitable, semi-dryish spot for our amazing pyro-pixies (Ron and Chris) to work their fire-starting magic.

Despite the damp, the fire was soon up to speed and dealing with a steady flow of Hazel and Ash scrub as we cleared back up to the section we completed previously, and headed further down the bridleway into the narrower section.

By cake o’clock we were progressing well, and having completed the next challenge of keeping the cake and biscuits out of the worst of the rain, we tasked Ron with starting fire number two, so we could carry on down into the really, really muddy section, Yay!!

Thanks to our resident survival expert, we managed to avoid a little of the rain over lunch with an improvised shelter, but carrying on working during the afternoon we all just got wetter and wetter and wetter and wetter and wetter!

“Thankfully” Ron (and Chris) were here to brighten up the end afternoon, with what I think has become the now “legendary” parrot joke (please don’t ask either of them to tell it again without a health warning first!!) and with what had become a small stream running down the middle of the path, it was time to head home and jump into the tumble dryer!

A really, really huge thanks to all of the volunteers who gamely came along and battled some of the worst weather that we have worked in for a number of years, and thanks also to Rangers Al and Kate for their support and who hopefully can organise some better weather for us when we come back next time (pretty, pretty please!!!)

PS Apologies for the shortage of pictures, but it was really much, much, much too wet for the camera/phone to come out to play!!