The great Holywell Dene strimming sweep continued today, with nine volunteers operating four strimmers in mid-Dene, on a pleasant dry, bright, warm day.
The starting point was where we left off last week: a point on the bankside path on the north side between Hartley West Farm and the lower wooden footbridge.
Now, I may have misrepresented what we accomplished in last week’s report – we got well upstream on the higher level, but not so far upstream at the bankside level. Anyway, we strimmed from there to the lower footbridge. This included clearing the vegetation around the young trees we planted along the straight section of the river several years ago.
Photograph A. Clearing around the young trees
Photograph B. Strimming head-high vegetation
Photograph C. Satisfying result
Two people, a strimmer and a raker, were sent upstream to clear the jungle around the Wait A While seat. The others crossed over the lower footbridge and proceeded in an easterly direction, strimming all the way.
In the end, we had strimmed all the verges along that entire path on the south side from the lower footbridge back to the stone bridge – apart from the stretches in deep woodland shade, where the pathside vegetation is thin.
The birdsong is dying down at this time of year. The breeding season is more-or-less over and the moult will soon be starting – an important event in the bird calendar. We heard chiffchaffs and greenfinches but not much else. Butterflies were strangely few in number.
Strimming is getting to be hard work now. The larger plants are rearing up to at least shoulder height. It can be a sweaty job as well in this weather. And there is more to come. Watch this space .
A party of nine volunteers met at Ridge Way in Holywell at the usual time of 9am to continue strimming. The weather was warm and humid with the occasional drop or two of rain, but thankfully not as warm as the previous day.
Starting at the seat on Dale Top, we worked upstream on the north side of the burn. The vegetation was very thick and high in places, which proved to be exceptionally hot work to clear.
The group split up about mid-session, with three strimmers working up the side path towards the gas pumping station and two continuing on the river path to the Concorde House Steps.
Photograph A. Strimming
After a short break work continued over the bridge on the south side of the burn.
Unfortunately a small number of Himalayan balsam plants were discovered along the river bank. These were “bashed” to prevent them seeding and further invading the Dene.
Photograph B. Speckled yellow butterfly?
Job done, we all retired to the garden belonging to one of the volunteers for some very welcome refreshments..
A ten-volunteer squad turned out this morning to continue the summer strimming project. It was, unusually, a bit muddy under foot today because of yesterday’s rain, but otherwise conditions were OK – not too hot and no rain.
The session got off to a flying start when one of the volunteers turned up in a new car – a Jaguar – but then, with the team leader absent, there was a bit of confusion over whether the meet-up point was Crowhall Farm or the Crowhall Farm cattle grid. Once that was sorted out, we picked up all our usual strimming and raking gear from the van and headed off into various parts of the mid-Dene.
Photograph A. Why we strim – jungle!
I won’t give a blow-by-blow account of the morning’s strimming activities – it was a bit complicated (and I’ve half forgotten anyway) – but, suffice to say, we have now strimmed the path verges throughout the Dene up to the old-railway-line tunnel. You may be pleased to know that that includes the path from the lay-by to the top of the steps down to the lower footbridge – which was getting very overgrown.
Photograph B. Strimming and raking
This good progress is in spite the fact that one of the strimmers broke down today – the guard was turning but the head was not. Fortunately, this was easily rectified; the strimmer was taken back to the van and some quick adjustments were made with the tools kept therein. That strimmer was back in use before the end of the session.
As usual, we were raking strimmed grass off the paths, trimming back branches where they were overhanging the paths, strimming around young trees where they were being shaded and picking up any litter we came across – fortunately not too much (although the lay-by area is always a litter hotspot).
And, as always, we were taking care about safety by putting up warning signs on the paths and pausing the strimming when path-users came along.
The part of the Dene that we have not yet tackled yet is the part upstream of the tunnel, so it will be surprising if that is not what we doing next week … or it might be the two meadows.
A final word: take care on Tuesday mornings if you year the buzz of a strimmer when out for your walk, and put your doggie (if you have one) on its lead in the vicinity of the strimmers.
A volunteer taskforce of nine assembled at the Northumbrian Water pumping station gate this morning at 9 o’clock to continue the great summer strim. Some fence repair was also undertaken, to break the monotony of strimming.
This session was postponed by two days. The usual Tuesday session had been called off because of the heat. Reason: well, have you ever tried strimming path verges wearing safety helmet and harness under full sun and in temperatures in excess of 30 °C?
The weather today was very different: dull and rather chilly at first but getting warmer and warmer until, by midday, it was rather sweltry.
Anyway, the party split into three groups. The two volunteers making up the first group went, pushing a wheelbarrow of tools, to the site of the damaged fence. This was by the side of the disused railway line between the humpback bridge and the embankment over the tunnel. The fence had been demolished by a falling tree in November and had been patched up several times since then, but was proving an ineffective barrier against the mountain-bikers.
Several stout vertical fenceposts of new timber were dug into the ground using the digging tool. Then horizontal bars of recycled wood were screwed in place across them. We hope the barrier will be more durable than previous patch-up attempts.
Photograph A. Repairing fence
Meanwhile two strimming teams were at work. One, of four people, armed with the hedge trimmer as well as a couple of strimmers and rakes, started at the pumping station and strimmed their way eastward to the humpback bridge and along the bridleway. Needless to say, the bushes on either side of the path were trimmed back while the path verges were strimmed.
The other group of just two volunteers went right down the bridleway to the point where strimming had ceased on an earlier occasion and started strimming westward from there. Overhanging twigs were clipped back with secateurs. When this duo reached the stile on the bridleway, it was decided to strim along the woodland dene-top path that runs from there towards the humpback bridge.
Photograph B. Strimming
Meanwhile, one of the volunteers having gone home early, his strimmer was brought into play on the bridleway, and in this way the whole bridleway was strimmed today (apart from a short section that was considered not in need of attention).
So, at that point, with temperatures rising, we trekked back to the pumping station, loaded the tools back into the van and set off for home.
On the Himalayan balsam front, several plants were removed from the river bank near where the fallen trees cross the river downstream of the tunnel. They were flowering but not seeding. We seem to be winning against this invasive weed, but the price is eternal vigilance!
A larger-than-average taskforce assembled near the Millbourne Arms, Holywell, today to continue strimming the Dene. There had been overnight rain, so vegetation was a bit wet and the ground was a bit muddy, but nothing to write home about.
We started with a team photo of twelve volunteers with five strimmers, rakes and a hedge-trimmer. You might see that on the FoHD display board if you attend the St Mary’s Wildlife Festival on 13/14 August.
Photograph A. Team photo
Next we all tramped down to the old Holywell road bridge (now a footbridge) and divided into two squads, a downstream one, of 4 people, and an upstream one, of 8 people. Basically the downstream group spent the morning clearing the south-bank path from the tunnel up to the road bridge, while the upstream group cleared the path from the road bridge up to the field corner, where we found that the farmer had been strimming upwards from that point, making it unnecessary for us to proceed any further.
Photograph B. Strimming
As usual, we trimmed back the trees and bushes either side of the paths, and here the hedge trimmer came in handy. The loppers we use have extendible handles, and this was useful for removing overhanging twigs and lesser branches.
It got out to be a rather warm and sweaty day, so by the time the task was completed we were relieved to call it a day.
It looks as if we have more-or-less finished the first sweep of the path network of Dene, so enjoy the nice clear paths and, as ever, take care of yourselves and your dogs when you hear the buzz of the strimmers. And maybe it will be something excitingly different from strimming next week. Watch this space!
Oh, by the way, jokes of the day: (1) What kind of cheese is made backwards? Edam. Groan! (2) Vegetarians have stopped using shampoo because it has ham in it. Double-groan!
The eleven-volunteer working party met up at an unusual venue this morning, Seghill, to clear Himalayan balsam at the old nature reserve near the SUEZ ex-landfill site. This was a sunny day, and very hot: 27°C!
So what were we doing at Seghill? Well, the thinking is this. We get Himalayan balsam plants growing on the banks of the Seaton Burn, and we always pull them out when we see them because they are a highly invasive alien species, which can completely take over in a place like Holywell Dene.
Balsam, as we call it, spreads itself primarily by casting seed into the watercourse that it grows alongside, which then floats downstream and germinates on the bank further down. Well we think a lot of the seed comes from a colony on a disused nature reserve alongside the old landfill site at Seghill. This has a lake, and the water from the lake flows via a little burn into the Seaton Burn, carrying the seed from any Himalayan balsam plants down into Holywell Dene.
We had inspected that ex-nature reserve earlier in the year but found little balsam, partly because the site is overgrown and difficult of access. But it looks as if the cold and dry spring suppressed the growth of balsam until the heavy rain of 25th July, which seems to have caused a growth spurt. Anyway, the site was teeming with balsam plants today – hundreds at least – many of them above head-height and seeding.
We had to do something about that. Our strimmers had to be part of the plan, because (1) they were need to gain access to the places where the balsam was – around the lake edges, and (2) the density of balsam plants, in places, was such that strimming was the only way to control it.
So, having arrived on site with our strimmers, rakes, secateurs, plastic bags (for seeds) etc, we split into two teams. The first team, of three people, went around the landfill side of the lake looking for balsam. They started to pull up the plants individually (after removing seed-heads into plastic bags), but the balsam was found to be so prevalent that the only way was to strim. They therefore changed to a policy of removing the seed-heads then strimming. This necessarily meant collateral damage to the other vegetation, but it will soon recover.
Photograph A. Taming the lakeside jungle
The second team, of eight people, strimmed their way through the tall herbage to the lake edge on the field side to see if there was any balsam. There was: lots! There was a particular concentration around the old viewing screen at the outlet end of the lake, but there were also colonies right along that side of the lake. These were tackled by removing seed-heads, then pulling the plants and crumpling them.
By noon, we had more-or-less cleared all the Himalayan balsam we could see. There will probably be small plants hiding among the undergrowth, and maybe some on the islands in the lake. Anyway, off we went home, feeling hot and tired but satisfied that the problem has been well-and-truly brought under control.
If you want more information about Himalayan balsam, try the home page of our website. There you will find a link to our Himalayan Balsam Guide (under Latest News).
Regarding wildlife, the old nature reserve is often a good place for spotting birds of prey, and today we saw a sparrowhawk and, later, a pair of buzzards circling overhead.
P.S. Yesterday (Monday), three of us had a special balsam removal session in the Dene. This followed on from a sighting of several balsam plants on the riverbank last Tuesday. With waders on, we ventured down the Seaton Burn from the upstream meadow (near the upper footbridge) all the way to the old ford below the stone bridge on the Hartley West Farm road.
Photograph B. Fettling a Himalayan balsam
Photograph C. Searching for more
This sweep resulted in 40 to 50 balsam plants being spotted and pulled out. Hopefully, none of them will have seeded.
Another successful strimming session was completed by a volunteer force of nine this morning. The assembly point was the Hartley Lane carpark, and the appointed hour was, as usual, 9 o’clock. We had been warned by the weather forecasters to expect thundery showers, but nothing happened apart from a bit of drizzle.
As usual, we unloaded our kit from the van and strolled off carrying strimmers, rakes, loppers and other tools. One team went down the path towards the estuary, at first, and strimmed back the tall nettles that were in danger of flopping onto the path. Having completed that, they strimmed along the top path of the dipping-pond area, where they found a small tree had fallen across the path, which had to be cut up and removed.
They then joined the other party who had meanwhile been strimming the verges of the riverside path near the dipping pond. That having been done, we started clearing the grassy area between the dipping pond and the river. This area needs to be strimmed to control bracken, which is otherwise in danger of taking over, and to encourage the smaller flowering plants.
Photograph A. Strimming
Photograph B. Raking
One strimming team now cleared around the bird feeding station in that area, whilst the rest went upstream to the “picnic area” on the north bank down from the stepping stones – near the site of the “new watermill” (now long gone apart from some stonework).
The picnic area was soon cleared, so we all then moved downstream again to the area we call “the meadow” – our name for the open space on the north bank of the river upstream of the stone bridge near Hartley West Farm. This area used to be mowed for us by the farmer, but he got rid of his mower, so we now have to mow it with our strimmers. We do this every year at about this time, to discourage the tall vegetation that grows on this fertile soil, and to clear the way for the daffodils that come up each spring. We made a start on this task, but ran out of time, so most of it remains to be done.
One of the strimmers was a bit out of sorts – hard to start and tending to stall. It will need some maintenance. One of us is going to take a look at it before the next session.
The wildlife scene was eerily quiet today – no butterflies, few birds and few flowers.
By the end of the session, most of us were feeling that the weather was oppressively humid and sweaty, and so, feeling a bit drained, we were pleased to call it a day at the point – marvelling that the anticipated rain had not come down (although there was a shower around the time we got back to our abodes).
It took nine volunteers to mow the meadow today. The working party met up at the metal gate on the farm road up to Hartley West Farm, which was conveniently close to the meadow. Conditions were good but the vegetation was a bit damp and the weather was dull and close.
Just in case you don’t know where the meadow is, it is the open ground on the north bank of the river just upstream of the stone bridge on the farm road. You access it by climbing the stile by the bridge and walking along the footpath that runs through it.
Five of us set to work with strimmers and the other four wielded rakes and pitchforks. First, a strip was cleared along the river’s edge. Next the main part of the meadow was strimmed, working in lines at right-angles to the river after the narrow section near the bridge had been mowed. The vegetation had to be cut twice: once to fell the very tall grasses and plants, and a second time to crop it close to the ground.
Photograph A. Getting started
The cut material was placed along the river edge of the meadow. The idea here is to avoid that material composing down into the soil and fertilising it. Yes, we don’t want fertility – it only encourages the rank weeds rather than the smaller flowering plants.
Our reasons for mowing the meadow are: (1) to improve the appearance, (2) to reduce fertility as above, and (3) to clear the vegetation away ready for the daffodils that will come up next spring.
Photograph B. Nearly done
As usual, the mowing process showed how well populated the meadow is with wildlife of the small, non-feathered variety; there were sightings of several toads and several field mice, also evidence of moles in the form of mole-hills. Otherwise, the wildlife scene was eerily quiet, with no cawing rooks and almost no small birds around.
It was hot and sweaty work today, and I think we were all running out of energy by the end. There is still some tidying up to be done, so we will likely be returning to the meadow next week.
Today’s working party of nine volunteers turned out on a fine late-summer morning to finish mowing the meadow and clear a fallen branch off a path.
Six of the volunteers assembled at the metal gate on the Hartley West Farm road. Their mission was to finish strimming the meadow (see last week’s report). Four of us started strimming, with the other two raking. The work was mostly on the embankment side of the meadow but we also had to go over part of last week’s work where the grass was wet and didn’t cut properly.
Another job for two of these volunteers was to cut the lock off the five-bar gate. This was to enable access for a delivery of aggregate in a couple of days’ time, ready for future path repair work. A new lock was put on in its place.
The other three volunteers met up at the Crowhall Farm gate to sort out the big fallen ash branch that was across the path near the Rest-a-While bench by the riverside up from the waterfall. This had already been partially cleared by one of the volunteers on Sunday. On arriving at the scene, they set up the trusty winch, attaching it to a tree at one end and the branch at the other. The branch was soon pulled clear. Meanwhile the lesser branches were being cut off the main branch and dumped on the ground nearby.
Photograph A. Clearing branch
Photograph B. All done
After that they repaired a damaged tread on the upstream footbridge, using a piece of recycled timber from somebody’s old patio. And after that they effected a repair to the guard fence that runs up the south-bank path by the waterfall – a single screw was all that was needed to fix it.
The wildlife was a bit subdued again, but we noticed a speckled wood butterfly near the upstream bridge, and a jay, a robin and a blue tit were heard.
It might, just might, be the last strimming session of the season next week. Woo-hoo!
The activities of the Tuesday working party centred around the dipping pond near the Hartley Lane carpark today – strimming, removing the old pond-dipping platform and reed control.
The weather conditions seemed good at first, but soon it became apparent that the humidity level was too high, so that we were all sweating in the hot sun. (A thunderstorm broke the summer drought in the afternoon.)
The nine volunteers spit into two groups (as usual): three dismantling the pond-dipping platform; the other six strimming the bracken on the mound alongside the pond.
The old platform was rotten. It had been patched up several times, to correct for vandalism and disposable barbeque damage. But it was now in a state where if several people stood on it, they might get a surprise dunking! It only took 18 minutes to dismantle it, which suggests it was on its last legs. A new platform is going to be installed when we have been supplied with materials by Northumberland County Council.
Photograph A. Old platform
Photograph B. Dismantling platform
The mound alongside the pond is simply the earth removed when the pond was created. It has been added to when the pond was dredged several years ago. It is covered in bracken (tall ferns) nowadays. We try to knock the bracken back every year using strimmers, but it keeps on coming back.
Anyway, there is a possibility that NCC will dredge the pond sometime soon, so we thought it would be a good idea to clear the vegetation (brambles and nettles as well as bracken) in preparation. So that was accomplished by the three strim-and-rake teams today – not an easy job bearing in mind how high the bracken had grown and how hot and humid a day it was.
Photograph C. Strimming bracken
Meanwhile, back at the pond … well, it had dried out – for the first time anyone can remember – creating an opportunity to pull up some of the reeds (reedmace or typha) that are encroaching on it. This proved difficult as the mud was drying out in places, making it difficult to pull the plants out by the root. (In other places, it was so soft that it was all too easy to get stuck in it!)
So, we got another strimmer fired up and tackled it with that, hoping that this will knock it back and open up the pond a bit. After this, the fourth strimmer was employed strimming out a gully then helping with clear the bracken on the mound.
Wildlife. A grey heron was spotted in flight early in the session, and a strange hairy, aggressive-looking caterpillar was spotted on a gate post at the end – thought by my iNaturalist Seek app to be the larva of a moth of the Lymantria genus.
We were tired and sweaty by the end of the task, so it was a slow drudge back to the tools van, then on to our cars. Our clothing had to be wrung out when we got home!
Nine volunteers formed a working party today for the task of installing a flight of steps near Holywell, on a gloriously sunny, warm late-summer day.
We met up in the carpark of the Milbourne Arms at the usual time of 9 a.m. around our little red tools van and, after loading up four wheelbarrows with tools and materials, we set off for the site.
If you want to know where that is, start at the Holywell road bridge and walk downstream on the south-bank path until you come to a point (before you get to the side burn) where a steep slope goes up the dene-side. There you will see a half-completed flight of new steps.
How do you install steps? Well, first of all you need some timber, and this was provided by Northumbrian Water out of their environmental improvement budget – so many thanks to them! Next, you need to make up U-shaped pieces of wood to serve as steps. Next you need to hack out a U-shaped depression in the ground to take a new step. The step needs then to be put in place, with the two legs of the ‘U’ pointing uphill, and adjustments need to be made to get it level and rightly aligned. Next, two wooden pegs have to be hammered into the ground and the step screwed to them. Finally, some aggregate needs to be put behind the step to make a firm footing.
Photograph A. Installing steps
Photograph B. Back-filling with aggregate
Where does the aggregate come from? Well, there’s a tale! Three dump-bags of aggregate had been delivered to a point in a nearby field some time ago, and all that was needed was that they be conveyed to the dene top nearby the site. The only slight problem was that when the local farmer – who volunteered to do this for us – tried to lift them with his tractor, they broke open. Plan B therefore had to be rolled out: wheelbarrowing the material from the dumping site to the work site (see photo) – a long way! In fact more than half the volunteer effort went into this activity today. Never mind, it was good exercise!
Photograph C. Wheelbarrowing gravel
By the way, the aggregate was also provided courtesy of Northumbrian Water – so again, thanks to them!
Well, partly because of the expenditure of effort on wheelbarrowing, it was only possible to put eleven steps in today (see photo). Nevertheless we got a few “thank-yous” from passers-by, although not so many from mountain-bikers who seem to enjoy going up and down these steep slopes – but they can still pass either side of the steps.
Photograph D. Steps completed so far
On the wildlife front, we noticed the following.
red admiral and specked wood butterflies
a big bumblebee; probably a queen
four buzzards over the fields nearby
a robin and other small birds singing in the wood
many haws (red berries) and blackberries along the field boundary
We will no doubt be back to finish the job. Let’s hope the weather is as nice as today.
The working party consisted of only six volunteers today, but they got through quite a lot of work.
The task was installing steps at the same site as last week: on a steep part of the south-bank path downstream of Holywell road bridge. The work today was made difficult by three factors: (1) the hard and stoney nature of the path where the steps were to be fitted, (2) the fact that the aggregate to fill the steps had to be wheelbarrowed from a considerable distance away, and (3) the fact that we had about half the usual turnout of volunteers.
Nevertheless, we got off to a flying start by having already made up six timber steps ready just to be dug in, and by having a specially sharpened digging bar for making holes for the stakes. (The materials, incidentally, were provided by Northumbrian Water as part of their environmental improvement plan.)
The process was much as explained last week. The steps had to be dug into the slope. Next, holes had to be made for securing-stakes – very difficult today! Then, stakes had to be driven into those holes. Then the steps had to be screwed to the stakes and be backfilled with aggregate. We used metal stakes (recycled material, I think) in some places where the slope was particularly hard.
Photograph A. Installing steps
While two of the squad were doing that, the other four were barrowing gravel from where it had been deposited to the site of the steps. Good exercise – I think we each did around 12,000 steps today.
Photograph B. Barrowing gravel
As the supply of gravel went down, we realised there was likely going to be a shortfall, so an old ash tip nearby that we have used in the past was investigated. The material seemed suitable for use as a layer underneath the aggregate, so some wheelbarrowing of that was done.
Photograph C. End result
Our chairperson came along at tea/coffee time with her faithful hound, handed out some biscuits – always appreciated – and showed us some photos of fungi.
The weather conditions were good for task work: cool at first but warming up later; not very sunny but still. However there was a shower of drizzle mid-morning. The conditions before that were good enough to encourage a few birds and butterflies to show themselves, and we saw and/or heard:
a speckled wood and a white (species unknown) butterfly
a couple of robins singing
a nuthatch, a jackdaw, a black-headed gull, a partridge (species unknown) and a magpie
a small flock of wild geese – species unknown but possibly pink-footed
It was noticed that there were about 20 beehives in the field alongside the gravel dump, and the bees seemed to be very busy.
The job is not finished yet, so we’ll be back …
The volunteer workforce numbered only eight this sunny morning. The task of the day was finishing off the steps that we have been installing in the last couple of sessions.
The location of the work, for reference, was the steep slope in the south-bank path downstream of Holywell road bridge and upstream of the side burn that comes in from farmland to the south. The work involved essentially the same tasks as the previous weeks – making up U-shaped timber steps, digging slots for them in the slope, positioning the steps and securing them by screws to stakes hammered into the ground, then filling with aggregate.
Photograph A. Installing steps
Because we were running out of aggregate, a couple of us went a short distance down the Dene with a wheelbarrow and shovel to glean some ashy refuse that we thought made a good substitute for aggregate.
That was what five of the eight volunteers were doing. The other three spent the morning installing a new seat. This is at the Dene top near the stump of the big fallen beech and looks down on the place where the side-burn runs into the Seaton Burn. We hope that will be a useful asset!
Photograph A. Installing seat
Actually, they completed their work before going-home time, so they devoted some effort to maintenance work on the old steps going down to the side burn.
So, that completes the improvements made using materials funded by Northumbrian Water. The new flights of steps will make it much easier for people to get up and down the steep slopes in the path between Holywell road bridge and the old railway line.
It was a bit noisy today, with lots of work being done on the opposite bank of the river where an arena for horse events is under construction. It looks as if this has caused the roe deer to disappear from the horse field on that side. Let’s hope they return when things quieten down.
News Archive 2022 Jul-Sep
| Flowers |
| Trees |
| Fauna |