Thursday 26th February 2026 - A dingy looking day awaited the band of volunteers as they headed to Roundshaw Downs for todays activities.
Assembling outside the South-East corner of the cattle paddocks, Bramble control took centre stage on the mission as the team used the combined power of the Brushcutter and Loppers to pushback the dense buildup that has swamped the fencing in that corner.
With the bulk removed the team could then turn attention to adjacent walkways, opening up narrowing pinch-points for visitors and a minor spot of felling to near horizontal Blackthorn growth exposed after last years Bramble clearance.
Tuesday 24th February 2026 - Spring appeared to be breaking on todays bright and tepidly warm activities taking place at the Western portion of Roundshaw Woods.
With the volunteers dividing up another batch of Tree whip planting to counter the losses of mature Trees was the order of the day for the roaming team whilst the more stationary contingent got to grips with the persistent problem of Snowberry dominance by popping and lopping.
Thursday 19th February 2026 - There was a decided chill hanging in the air but the rain held off for a smaller contingent of volunteers as they carried out an assortment of different works at Wellfields West and North.
Beginning the activities just outside of the usual Wellfield West compound, two activities quickly became three. After installing approx 40 tree whips and re-instating some chestnut fencing a spot of litter clearance took on more epic proportions as the team extricated around six panels-worth of fly-tipped and heavily saturated fencing down an 45 degreed embankment.
After recuperating with a spot of lunch the team then made the short trip to Wellfield North, where clearing of fenceline Bramble and Clematis was undertaken, a raking to the shallow chalk dips on the site was carried out to remove nutrient build-up and a handful of tree were felled to allow light to flow into areas of grassland deprived of Sun when the foliage is out.
Tuesday 17th February 2026 - It was a type of miracle! the volunteers managed to complete a whole taskday without a spot of rain falling on them.
Working at Queen Mary's Woodland the team split into two division to tackle the days duties.
With approximately 140 trees to plant up, one of the divisions set about working their way through the central and Northern divisions of the Woods selecting the most open areas to refill as the other group set about liberating the Hazel coppice area from tangling Bramble.
Sunday 15th February - Not wanting their mid week comrades monopolising all the bad weather, today's team of volunteers enjoyed a good drenching as they continued to cut back bramble and snowberry on the edge if Roundshaw Downs.
