FoPV Work Morning Roundup - Thursday 12th June 2025

Lyndon
Jun 16
3 min read

Hello Conservation Volunteers

The casual walker on the bridleway from Forge Dam up to Ringinglow must have wondered what was going as they saw us demolishing a dead head in the morning only to find it was back up again on their return journey!

Obviously, we don't do this to keep busy, so there was a very good reason why this particular dead hedge on the bridleway near Forge Dam just above the wildflower meadow needed to be taken down. The fact was we had planted almost 400 hawthorn whips along the bridleway in December 2022 and in April 2023 the dead hedge had been built to stop people cutting through the gap and trampling on the whips. Unfortunately, although a reasonable distance between the hedge and whips had been left it just wasn't enough with the hedge now leaning, and the whips were becoming tangled up and strangled in it, and as result were suffering.

The only solution was to very carefully take down the hedge so as not to damage the whips and rebuild it a few feet closer to the path. Being as the branches are woven and twisted together when building a dead hedge this meant it wasn't quite plain sailing to take it down whilst at the same time avoiding trampling on the small hawthorn whips (Tony!) and finding space to temporarily store it. As the wood was now very dry there was (annoyingly!) also the odd breakage when pulling branches out.

Once down it was time to plan out where the new hedge would be positioned and this time we decided to use two parallel rows of posts (as opposed to the one line of staggered posts previously) as the lengths of dry wood would break if woven around the posts, as well being stronger.

With all the dry weather of late we were expecting some difficulty erecting the posts but surprisingly they went in easily using the post rammer Ranger Matt had dropped off for us. When the posts were in, the long and thicker branches were placed in first and twisted around other branches (with the odd snapping!). Being as this was wider than the original hedge there was insufficient material to build it to the same height, but Rebecca and Alex went off scavenging and came back with some long and thick branches to finish it off. So, it took a while, but it was completed, and it was off for a well-deserved coffee...!

(If you haven't been up to this area for a while it is worth having a look at the wildflower meadow which was sown in February 2023 and is now starting to mature with the ragged robin looking fantastic this year.)

Another task on the list was to repaint the white railings at the top of the slide in the playground. Recently an additional length of green fence had been installed next to it and Andy P from Parks had very kindly donated a 5L tin of special green paint (the same as being used on the Endcliffe Park railings) for us to paint the white railings (thanks for that Andy!!!). Dave and Peter have started the preparation scraping off the old paint. Initially using hand scrapers Dave found the angle grinder was more suited to the square sections. Still a long way to go.....

Elsewhere, on the new sitting area above the cafe Ann did some weeding out of bindweed, goosefoot, willow herb and fumitory.

The next work morning is on Tuesday 24th June. An email will be sent out nearer the time with details.

Lyndon

A Selection of photos from the work morning

Original dead hedge partially down and hawthorn whips can be seen growing in it