November >
S/Birch thinning + dead hedging
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Location:Warnham Nature Reserve
A large group met to tackle the spindly Silver Birch and a few Ash trees that were growing far too close together for their health. We solved their health problems!
Also, we now have a saw doctor. He was was last seen adjusting the teeth of all twenty saws we had on site today. A big thank you to him as the improvement in ease and speed of cutting is really noticeable.
Vegetation control
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Location:Motte & Bailey
Cutting brambles
There is plenty of work to do here on the blackthorn and the brambles. We couldn't do it all in one morning, even with all the keen workers that helped today, so will return early next year to continue to push back the encroaching vegetation.
There is the possibility of English Heritage coming to undertake a survey of the site and our work will help to make this possible.
Thanks to a member who is interested in local history and is also a volunteer at the museum in the Causeway, we can tell you that: "Originally built after 1066, the Motte and Bailey is Horsham's only listed Ancient Monument.
The motte was a raised mound with an outer, secondary enclosure or bailey, both surrounded again with an oval-shaped ditch.
There is evidence that there was an early change from a dry ditch to a water filled moat, by diverting the stream. The whole site was abandoned sometime after about 1150."
Scrub clearance and dead hedging
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
Location:Southwater Country Park
A new site for us - Great Lime Kilns, a road, with two small 'natural' areas nearby.
We coppiced the neglected hazel stools and blocked some holes in the surrounding hedge and fence with the cut material. Several old plastic tree guards were removed, overhanging branches and weeds cut and litter collected.
Nearby residents had been pre-warned about the work and we were pleased to talk to three of them that came to see how we were getting on.
Coppicing
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Starts:09:30
Finishes:15:30
Feb '08 - Bundling hedging stakes
Thanks to John Lindfield, who works this coppice, we can experience coppicing and producing stakes and binders for hedging as well as bean and pea sticks.
We meet at 9.30 in the 'Sussex Oak' PH car park opposite Warnham church. Then we drive off in convoy to the coppice which is the other side of Warnham. Lifts can be arranged beforehand. If you already know where the coppice is, please go directly there.
This is planned to be a longer day than usual in order to get a sufficient amount of work completed. Please bring a packed lunch.
Of course you can leave earlier than the planned 3.30 finishing time - just let us know what you want to do.
For more information on coppicing, you could look at http://handbooks.btcv.org.uk/handbooks/content/section/3753 [click on the orange arrows at the top of the screen to move to the next page] and http://www.coppicing.com/index.html .
Copy and paste in both cases as the links are not clickable.
NOTE: to see the programme for the following month, go to the top of the page and click on the '>' after the month name. The screen will then change to the following month.