News Archive 2025 Apr-Jun
There was a strong turnout of ten volunteers this morning to enhance the culvert that carries the Holywell side burn under the footpath.
Our venue today was the dip in the south-side path downstream of the Holywell road bridge where a side burn has to be crossed. The old corrugated plastic culvert pipe that carries the side burn under the path has been overwhelmed on several occasions in the past when there has been heavy rain. It has also been blocked up, probably deliberately. The result has been Dene users getting their feet wet when crossing at that point.
We have been contemplating installing a footbridge there for some time, and indeed that may yet come about, but today we decided we would just put a second pipe in alongside the existing one. We happened to have a suitable pipe amongst our reserve of materials, so acquisition wasn’t a problem (although transporting it to the site was a bit of an effort).
So, the morning’s work consisted of:
Digging a trench alongside the existing pipe. This included using the hand winch to remove a large slab of stone.
Laying the new pipe in the trench.
Filling the trench with earth to make a convenient footpath crossing.
Winching the slab of stone into place at the upstream end of the culvert to protect against flooding.
Adding gravel from the bed of the burn to give a good footpath surface.
Dressing the surface with forest litter, sourced on the spot, for a natural look.
Photograph A. Digging out trench
Photograph B. New pipe in place
Photograph C. Completed job
Meanwhile, two volunteers (see photo A) were replacing one of the steps in the flight running down to the side burn. The old one was rotting. We had to hack it out with a mattock, dig the securing stakes out, hammer new stakes in, screw a new cross-timber to the stakes and infill with stones, earth and gravel.
As usual, we picked up the litter we came across. Fortunately a stout plastic bag had been left by some litterer, which we used to put the other litter in for removal and disposal.
The weather was very pleasant for task work today: bright and warmish, with less of a breeze down in the Dene than above. We managed to finish the planned work in good time, so we departed for home only a couple of hours after the start of the session.
A working party of eight volunteers met up at our parking space down the lane from Holywell this morning to repair a vandalised fence, plus other activities. This was a nice sunny, warmish day with dry ground under foot.
We have a bit of a problem with motorbike people in the Dene, and in trying to gain access they have damaged the fence by the stile near the humpback bridge (over the old railway line east of Holywell). This is not the first time this has happened.
Anyway, one group of volunteers started work repairing the damaged fence using timber from our store. Having done that they stapled wire mesh to it, to hopefully make it more resistant to damage. This took the whole session. The photos below give an idea of the work.
Photograph A. Repairing fence
Photograph B. Attaching wire mesh
Photograph C. Completed job
Meanwhile other the second group of volunteers checked out a den that had been constructed nearby. The idea was to dismantle it, but it turned out that it had been torched, so there was nothing very much to dismantle. However, there was a lot of litter lying around, and clearing that up gave rise to two black sacks full of litter.
That done, the second group commenced removing ivy from trees in the area around the tunnel. We do this from time to time to keep ivy under control. We would not want it to cover all the trees, but on the other hand it is a native species and provides food for pollinators and birds, so it is just as well that we never have enough time to get rid of it completely.
Our usual leader was away in the Lake District today, so his lady deputy was in charge. Oh, and we enjoyed the cheese scones provided another one of our lady volunteers.
We’ll be back next week for another adventure in the life of Holywell Dene
Eight volunteers turned up on Tuesday on a cool and potentially damp morning, however the rain held off. The task today was to complete the work started two weeks ago when we installed a second large pipe under the path on the Holywell bridge path in the side burn which drains water from the fields to the south (see report from April 1).
The work involved digging out both sides of the pipe, driving in stakes and then installing prepared boards at both ends to support the infilling soil, gravel and rocks.
Photograph A. Work in progress
The intention is to hopefully prevent the constant erosion of the path when there is heavy rainfall and debris blocks the pipe causing water levels in the side burn to rise and overflow over the path.
Photograph B. Completed crossing (view from downstream)
Photograph C. Completed crossing (view from upstream)
The weather was a bit warmer and brighter this morning for the working party of nine volunteers, and the work was a mixture of river clearance, ivy control and sycamore removal.
The assembly point was Wallridge Drive, near the Holywell gas pumping station. Once we had trundled our wheebarrows full of kit down to the river we split into two groups, as we often do; one group stopping at a logjam on the river below Ridge Way, and the other continuing a bit further downstream. Both teams were working on the north bank of the burn.
The downstream squad were tasked with seeking out and removing ivy and sycamores, and it didn’t take them long to find both. There was an awful lot of ivy, and it would take weeks to deal with it all but we cut out quite a lot on the day. Anyone who is a fan of ivy need have no fear that we will drive it to extinction in the Dene any year soon, but if we keep controlling in this way we can keep it from taking over.
Photograph A. Clearing ivy
The sycamores we dealt with were all saplings; some last year’s growth but many two or three years old. There were also some much larger ones that had been missed on previous culls. We remove young sycamores because they are non-native and can tend to take over in the long term in British woodland.
Meanwhile, further upstream, two of us put waders on and got into the rather cold burn to dismantle a river blockage. The hand winch had to be used to get the larger branches out. The problem was caused by a willow that had collapsed into the water, and its branches were tangled with other branches that had drifted downstream, along with the usual mixture of twigs, litter and scum.
Photograph B. Clearing logjam
This took a long time to clear, with two in the water and two (later three) on the bank moving wet branches and twigs from the river bank to ground well away from the Burn. However, we had some spare time at the end, so two of us went downstream to a minor blockage and cleared that.
All in a morning’s work. You’d hardly know we had been there if you went for a walk in the Dene the following day, but our Hollywell Dene would gradually become a mess if nobody was doing this work. Anyway we like getting our exercise out of doors rather than in the gym!
A fine turnout of twelve volunteers were greeted by warm and sunny weather (the hottest day so far this year) for a morning of ivy and sycamore control on the south side of the river upstream of the Holywell road bridge. Three new volunteers joined us this morning – and we hope they will keep coming: the working party has been going for 25 years and hopefully will keep going for 25 more into the future – so, welcome!
The terrain this morning was unfamiliar and difficult (steep slopes!) – a part of the Dene that few people venture into, although there is a well-defined footpath. We started down from the carpark of the Milbourne Arms, where the tools van was parked, to the old Holywell road bridge (now a footbridge) and turned right to go along the riverside path. Just past the Close (small field in loop of river) there is a side path, and this leads towards the burn then along the south bank to the footbridge below Concord House. It was along this path that we were working.
Basically, all we were doing was (as last week) removing ivy from trees by cutting the ivy stems a few feet above ground, and controlling sycamore by removing saplings and lopping off lower branches of larger trees. We found that there were lots of ivy-infested trees at the eastern end of the area where we were working, but hardly any at the western end – presumably because ivy removal work has been done at that end in past years. As for sycamores, perhaps half of all the trees in that area are of that type so we are hardly in danger of making them extinct.
Photograph A. The problem: ivy-clad tree trunk
Photograph B. Removing ivy and sycamore branches
At risk of repetition, here’s the reason we do this work. Ivy, which free-rides on trees by climbing up them, is a native species which produces flower in autumn and berries in spring, both of which are beneficial to wildlife. On the other side of the equation, ivy does over-burden trees and increase the risk of them falling across paths and into the river. Also, many people consider it to be unsightly. Certainly, it looks bad if all the trees are ivy-infested, which was pretty-well the case in the eastern part of today’s work area. Hence the fact that we try to keep ivy under control, if not eradicate it.
As for sycamores, yes they are attractive trees, but they are non-native and tend to take over in British woodland – which is very much happening where we were working. So, we do our best to prevent new sycamores coming up even though it is beyond our capabilities to fell the fully-grown trees.
Photograph C. Removing sycamore branches
The secluded part of the Dene we were in this morning was ringing with birdsong and the woodland was looking fresh and green. Here are some of the wildlife highlights.
small songbirds: chiffchaff, blackcap, wren, whitethroat, blackbird
larger birds: mallard, jackdaw, pheasant
flowers: celandines, white dead nettles, dandelions and many other flowering plants
flies – lots of them, unfortunately
one butterfly (too flighty to be identified)
A female mallard was seen on the water with four fluffy ducklings – something we always look out for at this time of the year.
The volunteer working party returned to last week’s haunt for another session of sycamore and ivy removal this sunny morning. The turnout was eight and the rendezvous was the carpark of the Milbourne Arms, Holywell.
In a bit more detail, we were working on the south bank of the burn opposite the street known as Dale Top. Here, pretty-well every tree has ivy, so something had to be done to get it under control. Don’t worry, we don’t climb up the trees to remove the ivy; the simple solution is to cut a short length out of the ivy stem about a metre above the ground. In practice, there can be many ivy stems snaking up the tree, and all have to be severed. Anyway, this kills off the ivy no matter how high it is growing in the tree, and the dead ivy leaves and twigs eventually fall out of the tree.
On the sycamore front, there are lots of them in that area, but most of them too big to cut down, so we trim the lower branches and pull out any saplings we find.
Photograph A. Clearing sycamores and ivy
We stumbled upon an old den or camp last week, which was badly infested with litter. Well, we completed the clearance of that eyesore this morning. Among the objects found was a huge, half-buried, tractor tyre inner tube!
Photograph B. Old den (after litter-picking)
Nearby a large pile of dumped material was found – an example of large-scale fly tipping in the past. In amongst building rubble, this pile was teeming with rotting plastic sheeting and tangles of nylon cord. We only had time to clear the stuff that was apparent at the surface – and that was several bin-liners full.
Photograph C. Some of the litter!
Add to that the miscellaneous litter scattered round about and we had a field-day on the litter-picking front! We must have been quite a sight as we trudged back to the van at mid-day carrying lots of litter bags and with two barrows full of tools and larger items of litter.
On a warm, sunny day the birds were singing well. We heard goldfinches, a blackcap, a whitethroat, a robin, a wren and no doubt other creatures. The trees are fully in leaf now of course and there is a good show of flowers, many of them going to seed already. The season progresses …
A party of nine volunteers met this morning at the car park at the Milbourne Arms to finish sycamore control and ivy removal from the trees on the stretch of river back on the south side behind the Fat Ox. Tools in wheelbarrows, off we went to where we were working – mindful of the glorious weather we have had lately, with plenty of protection from the sun.
Photograph A. Removing ivy
A couple of volunteers left the main party and headed downstream to clear a camp which had sprung up recently. After removing a couple of bin bags of rubbish they soon returned to the main party.
Taking great care, as some of the trees are right on the river bank and nobody wanted an early-morning dip on the burn, we steady moved towards the old Holywell bridge.
Photograph B. Removing sycamore branch
During our morning break we had some visitors from the local farm to see what these strange people were doing on the other side of their fence.
Photograph C. Inquisitive bovine visitors
We soon cleared all the way down to the bridges so it was decided to do part of the path on the other side of the main road heading towards the oxbow lake. After a good morning’s work we packed up and headed back to the Friends of Holywell Dene van with numerous bags of rubbish to be disposed of properly. Then it was off home for a shower and a bit of lunch.
On Tuesday morning a working party of 12 volunteers set forth from the assembly point outside Dene Cottage to strim the path verges and reduce the population of sycamores and ivy on the western side of the estuary.
This was our first strim of the summer. We will be spending a lot of time doing this through the summer months, to keep the paths open. Soon the pathside vegetation will be growing manically until it gets above head-height and tending to block off the paths, so we need to “get our retribution in first” by starting to crop the vegetation while it is still relatively low. We have about five miles of path to look after – so, about ten miles of verges!
Two strimmers were in use. They are, strictly speaking, brush-cutters, with metal cutting heads for dealing with rank vegetation. They are petrol-fuelled and rather noisy, but the buzz they make is a useful warning to path users to take care when passing us, especially if accompanied by children or dogs.
Photograph A. Strimming
We strimmed our way from the harbour end of the estuary down both the lower and the upper path on the western side to a point past the side burn. All strimmings were removed from the path with rakes. The strimming work is done by pairs of people: one strimmer and one raker. It is the raker’s responsibility to guide walkers past the strimmer safely.
Our powered hedge trimmer was also in use cutting back the shrubs and branches encroaching on the path, which is a never-ending chore.
The other volunteers, meanwhile, were clambering up the steep sides of the Dene to find and remove ivy from trees. This is needed to reduce the risk of trees being blown down in winter across the paths. It isn’t always possible to get at all ivy-infested trees because of the steep slopes.
Photograph B. Ivy-bashing
As well as tackling ivy, these volunteers were also on the look-out for sycamore saplings. These were removed to keep the population of sycamores, a foreign species, down to reasonable proportions. Also, the lower branches and twigs of the larger sycamore trees were removed, where accessible.
Oh, and you will be glad to know that we cleaned the steps up to the upper west-side path. They always get clogged with weeds and soil during the winter.
Photograph C. Cleaning steps
Once the sun got out it was a delightful day, and the estuary is always a picturesque spot. We saw or heard:
Birds: heron, blackcap, wren, blackbird, black-headed gull, chiffchaff, jackdaw, etc.
Flowers: red campion, pignut, bluebell, herb robert, herb bennett, lesser stitchwort, etc.
The weather was dull and cold at first but got out sunny later. There was no rain, and indeed the long-running drought continues.
An eleven-strong working party met up at the Hartley Lane carpark this morning for the first full day of strimming of the summer season. Here’s the kit:
Photograph A. Strimmers etc
To cut a long story short, we strimmed the path verges from midway along the path from the estuary to the carpark and from the carpark to the upstream end of the meadow near the stone bridge.
Photograph B. Strimming verges
We also did some area strimming to suppress bracken near the dipping pond.
Photograph C. Area strimming
We also trimmed the pathside shrubs with a hedge trimmer. And we also found time to unbung the culvert pipe that drains the dipping pond into the river and to clear the gully near the estuary-head bridge.
We’ll be about with our strimmers every Tuesday morning from now on through the summer, so look out for signs like this:
Photograph D. Warning sign
… and exercise caution when passing the strimmers. You can get along the path where we are working, but just wait until the accompanying raker has tapped the strimmer operator on the shoulder so that the strimmer can be quieted down while you are passing.
The wildlife scene was buzzing this morning and we heard chiffchaff, whitethroat, blackcap, blackbird, song thrush, goldfinches, etc. Also there was a female mallard with eleven hyperactive but cute little ducklings on the burn.
Photograph E. Ducklings
It was strimming again for the 11-member working party this morning, after a cancelled session last week because of rain.
Not much to report really, apart from the fact that, with a large team and five brush-cutters (heavy strimmers) and a hedge-trimmer in use, we got a lot of work done.
We parked at the top of the path that descends from the Millfield street in Seaton Sluice and worked our way down it to the estuary level. Some of us then went right and strimmed the east side of the estuary, while others went left and strimmed up to the footbridge.
Photograph A. Strimming the estuary
Another split occurred here, with one group going over the bridge to finish off the work commenced on 20th May and the other group pushing upstream towards the Hartley Lane carpark. In the end, all of us were working on that path, and we strimmed up to where we finished on 27th May.
So after several weeks’ work the whole estuary area path network is done, as are the paths from there upstream to the stone bridge and beyond into the meadow area.
As usual, we removed overhanging twigs and branches, and trimmed back the pathside bushes with a hedge trimmer.
It was a cool day to start with but became hot, sunny and a bit humid by midday. It was nevertheless a pleasure to be working in the estuary area, which is in many ways the most picturesque part of the Dene.
We can’t hear the birds when we are strimming, so here are a couple of pictures of flowers taken on the day.
Photograph B. Woody nightshade (not the deadly variety)
Photograph C. Foxgloves
We got a good turnout of ten volunteers this morning, which allowed us to get five strimmers going and get a lot of strimming done at the upstream end of the Dene.
We parked in Wallridge Drive near the gas pumping station and got the strimmers and other tools ready for action, then we broke up into two teams, as we often do.
The first group, of four volunteers, walked along to Dale Top and commenced strimming around the seat then from there down to the burn and then right along the low-level path to the footbridge below Concord House.
Photograph A. Strimming
As usual each strimmer operator was accompanied by a raker, and as usual we deployed a mobile warning sign.
Meanwhile the second team strimmed the path down from Wallridge Drive past the pumping station. They then strimmed around the oak saplings that have been planted in the open area down from there, in order to let the light get at them. These saplings are flourishing now, so maybe this is the last time we will need to do this.
Photograph B. Oak sapling
After a tea/coffee break, some of us finished off at the open area and the others migrated to the footbridge and beyond to strim a length of path parallel with an old railway that gives access to the fields.
By the time we had finished, we had strimmed all the Dene paths upstream of the road bridge (apart from the length on the south side opposite the Fat Ox, which we did earlier).
We were on the lookout for Himalayan balsam, an invasive alien riverside weed, this morning, and we found a few dozen on the river banks, which we pulled up. It’s coming up to the balsam flowering season, so we will be doing more of that work in due course.
We don’t hear the birds much while strimming, but we do notice invertebrate life in the Dene. Here’s an example. I think it is keen on taking up strimming.
Photograph C. Snail
The weather today was sunny and windy, although there was not much wind down in the Dene. However it was a bit on the warm side for strimming work, which is warm work anyway. We were therefore pleased to have finished the planned work well within the time allotted, so we took our tools back to the van and departed homeward.
It was strimming and balsam-bashing this morning for the working party of twelve volunteers that turned out this morning at our meeting point on the Hartley West Farm access road.
After tooling up, we split into two parties. The first, of eight volunteers, set off to strim their way from the meeting point all the way along the dene-top path to the Silverhill seat and beyond. Low-level paths were strimmed also. With four strimmers in use, excellent progress was made.
Photograph A. Strimming
Of course the objective is to keep the vegetation on the verges under control – and it is growing like mad at present. Overhanging branches were also trimmed. Strimmed vegetation was raked off the placed aside, as usual.
Photograph B. Raking
The other party, of four volunteers (three in waders) started checking for Himalayan balsam along the banks of the burn downstream from the stone bridge. They managed to get as far down as the estuary, and quite a large number of these invasive plants were found, pulled up and disposed of.
They then resumed at the stone bridge and waded upstream (with one volunteer “supervising” from the riverbank) to a point up from the lower footbridge. Approximately 300 balsam plants were removed in total. We are just about keeping this alien weed in check!
Photograph C. Himalayan balsam
It was a good day for birdsong. We heard skylark, songthrush, chiffchaff and many others.
We’ll be back for more of the same next Tuesday. Watch this space!
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