Workday leader Mags recounts our last pre Easter sunday at Benthall, the second workday of the weekend:
A satisfactory day with a nice bonfire. The turnout was good, despite two events the previous day. Much was said about the previous day’s first aid course, but thankfully none of the skills needed to be put into practice.
The task list prior to the workday included some gardening tasks, but Nick decided, based on the number of volunteers out for the day to stick to one task – down in the wood, tidying up and burning leftovers from the contractors’ clearance of trees affected by ash dieback. The fire started off (as all our fires do) quite small, but as they say where there’s smoke there’s fire.
The place is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) so the site of the fire had been carefully selected. The idea was for it to be ‘small’ (well it looked small from the viewpoint above) and overall it was well controlled.
For cake o’clock the workday leader brought out the mars bar crispie cake. All carefully divided up, in case the group were working across different sites.
With everyone around, Zorba needed little encouragement to help out with the destruction of the brash.
With a large area to clear, the trailer was put into action to bring brash from further afield. Some went directly onto the fire, with other loads being deposited to one side. How we’re expected to keep the fire small when it arrives in this quantities, I don’t know.
So, back to the SSSI. I quizzed Nick, and it’s a site of interest for both “flora and fauna” and its “geology”. Rare flowers (including the birds nest orchid) can be found in the woodland, though not this day. However, despite the heavy contractual work that has been undertaken, a number of interesting plants were found around our work site, including dog violets, wood anemones and toothwort, which grows near hazel.
We achieved a lot and made sure we left the fire is a safe state at the end of the day.
Shropshire and Staffordshire National Trust Volunteers 