News Archive 2024 Jul-Sep
An eight-person working party resumed the summer strimming project this morning. This time the theatre of operations was the part of the Dene upstream of the Holywell road bridge.
We parked the van by the Melbourne Arms and (after arranging the tools and having a bit natter) proceeded to Dale Top (four people) and the old road bridge (the other four). The north-bank squad strimmed the path verges from Dale Top along to the Concorde House footbridge and then crossed over and started strimming eastward along the south-side path.
Photograph A. Strimming
While near the river they noticed some Himalayan balsam plants. These are invasive weeds which invade and monopolise river banks if left alone, so we pulled them up. Here’s what they look like. (Do tell us via the website or Facebook page if you see any.)
Photograph B. Himalayan balsam
Meanwhile the other squad worked their way from the road bridge westward along the south-side path and eventually met up with the other team. At that point, we declared “mission accomplished” and went home.
By the way, the weather was overcast and cool, but dry – where we were. I gather there were heavy showers elsewhere on Tyneside, so we were lucky!
A much reduced working party of six volunteers met up at the Northumbria Water pumping station this morning for yet another session of strimming on an overcast but warm day. Our task today was to strim the high level ‘Northern Bridleway’ from the pumping station, heading East to the point where the path crosses from the Burn below.
After getting kitted up with strimmers, rakes, loppers, warning triangles, petrol cans etc, we split up into three pairs of strimmer/rakers and spread out along the pathway.
As this was our first cut of this section of the path this year, the vegetation was now very tall and took some effort to cut it short again. The task was made that much more difficult as we also had to be careful not to harm the Oak saplings that we had planted in this area a few years ago that are now growing well.
Photograph A. Strimming
As the working party co-ordinator was unable to attend the session this morning we had to do our own co-ordinating! This involved ensuring that all coffee breaks were religiously taken, and that biscuits were shared out amongst the volunteers.
We normally trim the hedging by the pumping station during this session, but unfortunately our hedge trimmer is currently feeling sorry for itself! – so this work will have to be done at a later date.
Photograph B. Strimming and raking
Towards the end of the session one of our strimmers broke down due to the failure of a part. Luckily a replacement spare was found in our storage container when the tools were returned there at the end of the work.
Wildlife interest:
Normally at this time of year we see a profusion of butterflies in this area, but not one was spotted today. This is probably due to our unusually poor Summer weather this year.
Eight volunteers made up today’s working party, and our task was to strim the verges of the footpaths on the north side of the middle part of the Dene. The party consisted of four teams of one strimmer and one raker each.
We started at our little carpark at the entrance to the Northumbrian Water pumping station along the lane from Holywell Dene Road, and we marched with all out kit and clobber to the bridge over the disused railway and along the bridleway to where we finished off last week. Then it was strimming all the way – along the bridleway to the top of the ramp path up from the waterfall (and a bit onwards from there) – then down the ramp path and right the way along the riverside path westward to the stile at the disused railway. Then four of us strimmed the dene-top path to the stile on the bridleway while the other four strimmed (a) the entrance to the mountain-biking area, and (b) the paths around the old humpback bridge.
This was a really nice sunny day (despite some cloud in the sky) with a pleasant breeze and no rain. Nevertheless we felt quite tired and sweaty at the end of the session, just because strimming and raking are energetic activities.
The wildlife was not very evident today because of the noise of the strimmers, but one of us spotted a female mallard with ten ducklings on the river. Oh, and a large dragonfly was spotted darting about over the river.
Quite a few folk were walking, riding horses and cycling this lovely morning, and mostly appreciated our work. Cyclists should take particular care in the Dene on Tuesday mornings because, although we take precautions such as putting signs out and having the rakers warn the strimmers of approaching people, fast-moving cyclists can take us unawares. So, if you are on a bike, please slow down when you hear the buzz of the strimmers.
We noticed several large tree branches across the path somewhat upstream of the waterfall. There’s not much we can do about these at present, because Northumberland County Council have placed strong restrictive regulations on chainsaw use (after an incident that was nothing to do with us) which makes fallen-branch problems much more difficult to deal with than in the past.
A working party of eight volunteers assembled at an unusual location – near Seghill – this morning for an unusual activity: Himalayan balsam control.
Himalayan balsam, as you might know, is an invasive foreign weed that can form dense colonies on river banks and other water-margin places. It grows to over head-height and reproduces by spraying seed around. If it is growing on a river bank the seed can get into the river and germinate downstream, causing new infestations.
Photograph A. Himalayan balsam
The site we were working at today was the abandoned nature reserve alongside the old landfill site at Seghill. The reason for focussing on this site is that the balsam seed gets from there via a small burn into the Seaton Burn and thus right down Holywell Dene. In short, it’s the mother lode.
So, we parked up in the informal layby opposite the entrance and trekked onto site bearing a couple of strimmers, some waders and other miscellaneous kit. When we got there, we found that the Himalayan balsam was less pervasive than last year. In fact, we have managed to dramatically reduce the infestation year-by-year since 2018.
We now set to work, following this simple procedure:
use the strimmer to gain access to the more overgrown places
pull out all balsam plants by the root, crumple them and put them somewhere where they won’t regrow
remove seed heads from plants with mature seed pods and bag them, to be disposed of later
Photograph B. Balsam-bashing
Photograph C. Challenging office environment!
We reckon we removed about 300 balsam plants, which is all of them apart from those on the island in the lake, which we can’t easily access.
The wildlife scene? Well, the disused nature reserve is a riot of colourful flowers at this time of the year, but there were fewer butterflies and birds than one would expect. A bird of prey was heard, however – probably a buzzard – on the south side of the lake. The site would actually be an oasis of nature if it wasn’t for Himalayan balsam, Japanese knotweed, feral fuschias and other escapees.
This was a swelteringly hot day, so we were glad to get to the end of the work before the usual end of the session, at which point we went home to cool down, have lunch and watch the Olympics. We will probably be back to strimming next week. Watch this space!
Another strimming session awaited the working party of eight volunteers this hot, sunny morning.
We all parked near the Melton Constable and assembled outside Dene Cottage, which looks across the estuary to Seaton Sluice. The main task of the day was to strim the verges and trim the overhead branches along the west-side estuary path. We managed to get the whole length of the estuary done from Dene Cottage to the footbridge, including the high path as well as the waterside path.
With it being a sunny day, there were plenty of walkers coming past us as we were working. As usual, we had warning signs out and took good care to guide children and dogs past the strimmers.
Photograph A. Strimming
Our hedge trimmer, which always comes in useful when strimming, is out of action at present with an engine that starts but putters out when in use. A skilled mechanic or a magic wand is required! And we are still restricted on chainsaw usage because of the Council crackdown, but that doesn’t matter so much at this time of year.
Note that we did a bit of Himalayan balsam control also this morning. Two of us put waders on and got into the river upstream of the wooden footbridge at the head of the estuary to remove some of this invasive riverbank weed. You will have heard about it from earlier postings here, but if not, check out our Himalayan Balsam Guide under Latest News on the home page of our website. This activity took less than an hour, and having been completed the two volunteers rejoined the strimming team.
As usual, the estuary was looking gorgeous, and we spotted:
a female mallard with three ducklings
a number of redshanks (wading birds) making their piping calls while foraging in the brackish part of the burn
Photograph B. Estuary
The project to keep the paths of Holywell Dene open continued today – eight volunteers turned up at 9 a.m. at our meeting place on the Hartley West Farm access road to continue the strimming effort.
As usual, the volunteers congregated around the tools van and had a bit of a natter before commencing work. Once the last couple of volunteers (including your correspondent) had turned up, at exactly 9 o’clock, the party set off with strimmers, rakes and other kit.
Today, we started work at the foot of the high-level north-side path (the “M1”) where it descends to the riverside level. We divided into four pairs – each of one strimmer and one raker – and we worked our way up to the top level and, with Hartley West Farm on our right, along the path to the seat at Silverhill, where the M1 path intersects the path up from the lower wooden footbridge that continues (through a farm gate) across the fields.
Photograph A. Strimming
Four of us strimmed our way beyond there to a point somewhat to the west, and meanwhile the other four strimmed down the ramp path and along the low-level path, which was less in need of strimming, being in the shade. We all finally met up at the starting-point at the bottom of the M1 path and – relieved to have come to the end of the planned work in the hot and sweaty conditions – returned to the van.
Photograph B. Dense vegetation
As usual there were plenty of appreciative walkers and cyclists in the Dene; even a couple of horses with riders, who wisely decided to go across the fields rather than go past the strimmers.
We always keep a look out for Himalayan balsam when out and about, and today we spotted half-a-dozen of these invasive weeds near the gabions in the middle of the Dene. They were pulled out and disposed of, not having yet produced any seed.
By the way, we were given notice of a fallen tree branch on the path between the Hartley Lane carpark and the estuary recently, so yesterday (Monday 12th) three of us turned out to clear it away. It only took quarter of an hour to do so because people had already pushed the fallen branch aside, so all we had to do was break it up with bowsaws and clear the pieces away.
Another routine day at the office for the eight-volunteer working party this morning: strimming at Old Hartley.
The meet-up point was the Hartley Lane carpark and this was where the tools van was parked, so we gathered round the van to have a bit of a natter while waiting until the full complement had turned up. We then picked up four strimmers, four rakes, fuel cans, warning signs, etc and off we went.
Four went down the path towards the estuary and started strimming path verges there, working their way back towards the carpark. The other four proceeded to the dipping pond and onwards to the stone bridge. They commenced strimming the paths in the dipping pond area.
Photograph A. Strimming
We had two tea/coffee breaks – very much needed on a hot, sunny day (which had started out rainy). After the first break, the team that had been strimming the estuary path joined the team who were working round the dipping pond area. When that work had been completed, we collectively strimmed the triangular area of land between the path and the river which is infested with bracken.
Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) is a native species of fern, but it tends to get out of hand in some places. It was certainly growing lustily and encroaching on the paths where we were working today – before we got the strimmers on it. We try to keep bracken under control in that part of the Dene by strimming it every year, but it keeps coming back. We’ll probably have to do the same thing again next year.
Photograph B. Bracken en masse
By the way, we spotted some Himalayan balsam plants by the side of the burn near the dipping pond. They were pulled out to discourage them from forming large colonies by the river to the exclusion of other plants.
So, in summary, we got the Dene strimmed between the stone bridge and a point down the estuary path from the Hartley Lane carpark.
A working party of eight gathered at Millfield street, Seaton Sluice, this morning for a strimming and path-repair session.
The path problem (see photo) had been reported to us on the Friends of Holywell Dene page on Facebook. It looks as if either the last high tide has undermined the path or the river bank is slumping into the river, or both. It was just up the path from the estuary to the Hartley Lane carpark, by the way – between the seat on one side and the woven-willow feature on the other.
Photograph A. Path problem
We fixed this problem by filling in the holes with aggregate and levelling off to the general path level. This took about ten wheelbarrow loads of aggregate, which had to be brought from the pile near the Hartley Lane carpark. This was the hard-labour part of the job! A piece of timber was inserted at the edge to reduce the risk of path material slipping into the river. Then the new material was tamped down. Job done!
Photograph B. Tamping gravel
Photograph C. Finished job
Next, the path-repair team of four tackled the wet patch at the estuary end of the estuary-to-carpark path. The problem here was that a runnel of water, which comes down the slope and is runs along a pathside channel before crossing the path at the low point, was choked with vegetation. Result: the water was flooding across the path, making it muddy.
All we needed to do here was remove the weeds from the channel with mattocks and spades and – lo and behold – the water started flowing along its rightful course.
The other half of this morning’s task was to strim the path verges on the eastern side of the estuary. The other four volunteers started at the sign below St. Paul’s Church and strimmed the path verges right the way along to the foot of the path down from Millfield street. As usual, we raked up the cut material. We also had the usual warning signs out and guided people and dogs around the strimming activity.
The weather was dull but warm today, and the warmth seemed to bring out a hatch of midgies. We had to apply insect repellent, but even that wasn’t working – the little pests were biting us through our clothing. We waved them goodbye with relief at the end of the task.
A party of seven volunteers met at the end of Wallridge Drive near the gas pumping station on a lovely late summer’s day for a morning of strimming and working on the steps we installed recently at Concorde House.
Four people, two with the strimmers and two with rakes, headed down to the seat at Dale top and tidied up the area there. They then trimmed around the trees behind the pumping station before returning to help with the steps.
Of the three volunteers working on the steps, two picked up tools and started removing the grass and weeds that had grown on the steps, while the other volunteer started to fill up the wheelbarrows with aggregate that had been dropped at the end of Southward Way by Northumberland County Council for us to use. The gravel was provided by NCC’s PROW team, by the way.
Photograph A. Weeding steps
Photograph B. Topping up gravel
It didn’t take the strimming party long to return and they soon got to work clearing the verges either side of the steps of weeds and grass. They also cut back some of the brambles along the top of the path between both inclines that leads to the dene.
With all hands working on the steps it didn’t take long to get on top of the job, so we also had time to strim the path on the other side of the footbridge that leads into the fields, which was in a bad way, making it hazardous for walking the path there.
We didn’t notice much wildlife today, but one of us spotted some picturesque fungi – see below.
Photograph C. Toadstools
With all the jobs completed sooner than expected we packed up, took the tools back to the van, cleaned them down and then headed home for a well deserved shower and a bite of lunch.
The working party numbered only six this morning, but quite a lot of work got done. We met up at the cattle grid at the entrance to Crowhall Farm. After unloading the tools van and after a bit of chat, we strode off across the cattle field to the stile on the other side. Off we then went down the path to the upstream meadow, near the upstream wooden footbridge. At this point we broke up into two groups.
Three of us went over the bridge to the other side of the burn to tackle two jobs. The first of these was removal of a large fallen branch from the path just downstream of the Rest-a-While seat. This was accomplished with bowsaws, loppers and a bit of muscle power. The second job was to clear the blockage from the gully under the path close to the upstream footbridge. This involved digging out a lot of the silt that had accumulated in the mouth of the gully pipe.
Photograph A. Clearing fallen branch
Photograph B. Gully after clearance
After these two jobs had been completed, the three volunteers joined the others on the meadow side. They had been strimming the path along the meadow edge eastwards from the upstream footbridge. The meadow, by the way, is nowadays more of an oak plantation. We planted oaks there some years ago to partly compensate for the oak deficit downstream of the tunnel. They are now flourishing and the meadow is slowly turning into a mini oak forest.
While strimming the path verges, we also trimmed any shrubs and trees that were encroaching onto the path. That included, as always, trimming back the long, prickly shoots of brambles. We kept on going east down the south side of the dene until we got to the side path that leads into the dene from the Hartley Lane layby. This also was strimmed.
At that point we paused to have some tea/coffee and cakes – our co-ordinator has just had a significant birthday – and we were joined by our lady chairperson who told us, among other things, about the project to replace the information boards in the dene.
We kept an eye out for wildlife, but the noisy strimmers are always a bit off-putting. Anyway, we spotted (or heard):
a chiffchaff and some robins and jackdaws
a flight of about thirty wild geese (pink-footed?) overhead
hogweed in the meadow whose seed heads were higher than ever seen – perhaps eight feet!
dying ash trees, seen everywhere – ash dieback disease is having its effect
Ash dieback is caused by a fungus called Hymenoscyphus fraxineus and was first spotted in Poland in 1992. It is set to kill off most of the ash trees in the UK in due course. However, some trees are partly resistant. An “ash archive” is being established in Hampshire – a plantation of ash saplings derived from trees that have shown particular resistance to dieback. Wish them luck!
Photograph C. Ash dieback
It was a nice sunny day, albeit a bit chilly down in the dene. However by the time we went home, it was rather hot, so we were happy enough to go home a bit early, having completed all the work we planned.
Oh, and by the way, we were rained off last week – hence the absence of a report.
Only four volunteers turned up today at the metal gate on the Hartley West Farm road due to a mixture of holidays and grandchildren babysitting duties on an autumnal morning for bridge and fence repairs. After a quick chat on the tasks to be tackled and any safety issues, off we went with two wheelbarrows full of tools and planks of wood on shoulders of the other two volunteers.
The first stop was replacing broken handrails and treads on the downstream wooden bridge. Two people started on removing rotten wood treads and replacing them with new ones while the rest of the party concentrated on the handrails. The treads had been pre-cut to length by the leader of the work party so this saved a lot of time and effort. It took less than an hour to complete this and we were off to our next project about 100 metres upstream.
The next job was to replace broken handrails beside the stile. A new post was needed to take the handrail so a hole was dug as far down as we could go. Luckily it was close to one of our dumps of hardcore, so a half a wheelbarrow of hardcore was poured around the new post to give it some strength. Once the new rail had been cut to length and screwed to the posts we headed back towards the meadow area for the next job.
On the way down a couple of potholes were filled in beside the wooden bridge which had been pointed out to us.
The last job of the day was – you’ve guessed it – replacing a portion of cut-down fence so people could access the meadow on their bikes. Old rails were removed and a new post was positioned to make it stronger and a couple of new rails erected. We decided not to take the bottom rail all the way across so that we can push our wheelbarrows through without having to unload them when working in the meadow; also it’s easier for walkers with dogs so they don’t have to take the dogs over the stile. Tasks completed, we loaded up the van and then off home for a shower and some lunch.
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| Flowers |
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