A change of plan...on the Styal Estate - Sunday 18th January

10 of us met up with Stuart to remove ivy from hedges on Apprentice Lane. Change of plan,  a hedge in fields just of the car park, was a more pressing task.

We worked down here 2 years ago removing fencing from one side of the path now the rangers are in the process of laying the hedge on the other side but it is full of ivy which needs removing first. Time is of the essence as no sooner than you know it March will be here and hedge laying has to stop because of nesting birds.

It was forecast to be wet all day and we did start in the rain but by late morning it stopped and didn't start again until we got back to our cars at home time.

We always have people saying hello and in same cases thanking us for what we are doing, but today more people than ever thanked us as they walked past. It really makes you feel that coming out on a grey, miserable, wet day is all worth while. 

Thanks to Stuart for a great workday and to my colleagues for their hard work and good company. 

Building a Dead Hedge at Alderley Edge - Sunday 11th January 2026

8 volunteers braved the weather at Alderley Edge on Sunday 11th January.  The task set was coppicing and dead hedging in Clockhouse Wood, this is an area that the rangers are turning into a hazel coppice.  Dead hedging not only creates habitat but also keeps visitors to the path and the rangers are hoping to introduce dormice eventually!

It was a very cold and windy day with lots of sideways rain, we were all well prepared in layers of clothing, waterproofs and numerous pairs of gloves (they kept getting wet).

We met the rangers at the compound and split up into two groups, some people travelled to site in the land rover and some walked.

Once at the site we were given a talk about the task and then split up into small groups so that we could work on each section of the hedge and eventually join up.

The photo below is the site as we found it, the path is on the left and on the right is all the coppiced material we would be using for the hedge.

Before photo

A couple of people chose to make the stakes for the hedge (see photo below).

Making stakes

Some people hammered in the stakes.

Hammering in stakes

Everyone else started to sort the brash and layer the hedge.

Laying the hedge

We had a tea break late morning and managed to find a relatively sheletered place under some holly bushes/trees.

By lunchtime we had completed most of the hedge and it was getting very cold, we made a group decision to work for around another hour and finish slightly earlier once we had completed the section of hedge that the rangers had planned out.

End of workday group photo

Completed Hedge

Despite the weather it was a good task to do and we were very pleased with the finished result as were the rangers.

Denise
Worksite Leader 

Social - Winter Walk at Dunham Massey - Sunday 4th January 2026

 Happy New Year!

On Sunday 4th January 2026 instead of our usual Sunday workday we had a social event, a winter walk at Dunham Massey followed by cakes in the tea room (yummy).

Seven volunteers attended the walk and we spent a lovely hour strolling through the parkland, we saw lots of frozen ponds, a few deer and plenty of cakes!

Dunham Massey House

Cake stop - so many lovely cakes

Group photo

Social - National Trust Castlefield Viaduct and Xmas Markets - Sunday 21st December 2025

On Sunday 21st December we had a social event to Castlefield Viaduct and Manchester Christmas Markets, this was to replace the usual workday that we would normally have on a Sunday.

Denise and her partner, Paul were joined by Jean and Tim.  

The 330 metre long Grade II listed viaduct sits in Castlefield, the oldest part of the city of Manchester.  The viaduct was built in 1892 by Heenan and Froude (the same engineers that worked on Blackpool Tower).  The viaduct used to carry heavy rail traffic in and out of Manchester Central Station and Great Northern Warehouse until 1969.

Since 1969 the viaduct has stood unused, the National Trust have since transformed the viaduct into a 'sky garden'.

 

Phase 1

Phase 1

Phase 1

At the end of the walkway there is a visitors centre which which was very welcome after a cold walk through the viaduct.

Moss

The National Trust have secured funding to support Phase 2 of the viaduct re-development.

Phase 2 - photo taken from the visitors centre

After the visit we made our way into Manchester and stopped at the Christmas Markets for a drink and a bite to eat.

It was a lovely day, the viaduct was so peaceful and an interesting place, good views of Manchester too.

Chairman's Christmas Chat - What's in store for 2026

 My advent calendar tells me I'm edging closer to Christmas and a New Year. My bags are packed as are the presents as with 10 days off work, my family and I are heading down to Manchester for Christmas. Christmas Day will be spent at my Sisters house with my 3 year old niece Nancy. Nancy is very excited and I've been told she will open my presents for Me, how useful. Although being off for Christmas I will be back in work in time for New Year's Eve. No doubt Edinburgh Castle will be busy with lots of tourists looking for things to do to keep themselves entertained. With Christmas and New Year just around the corner I think it's time I told what's going in 2026 for MNTV, it's time to get your diaries out. 

Firstly we have 2 weekends planned for 2026; at the end of November 8 volunteers headed to Calke Abbey and had a fabulous weekend even if the weather was a bit dubious at times. The weekend was enjoyed so much that when I got home I emailed the Ranger Team there and asked to book in on 3rd to 6th July, however with restructuring going on at Calke, Vicky wasn't sure what would be going on there. She is becoming Lead Ranger for the Calke Estate which includes her current remit of Staunton Harold Reservoir so she would like to get herself settled in that role before saying yes, and asked me to get back in touch in March so watch this space.

Whilst we were at Calke we met up with Shropshire and Staffordshire NTVs (SSNTV) and they let us know that The Trust is rethinking its variety of its accomodation essentially getting rid of some of them which may mean that cheap weekends are a thing of the past. Having said that I did email Dylan and Lewis in Snowdonia and asked to book in for next winter, Friday 27th to Sunday 29th November, and although we don't know if we will be able to stay at Hendre Isaf basecamp they definitely want to have our help so whatever happens there will be a weekend. And don't forget you can join us on a weekend and not stay with us all, as Andy and Sarah did this year.

With weekends out of the way now let me tell you about the programme for 2026; the programme is I think complete, I'm still waiting for replies from a couple of Rangers but from January to Easter it is definitely confirmed, we spend a lot of time closer to home on these days. Your first workday is on 11th January at Alderley Edge. We are currently there 7 more times over the year. Our first longer distance day comes on 22nd March at Chirk Castle, Jean will be leading this day and it will be a joint workday with the Merseyside group (MENTV). This year we will have lots of chances to catch up with other groups like ours, as earlier this year the committee took a look at the volunteering figures for the last two years and we found that the trend was that further away properties were getting a lot less people than our local properties. The decision was taken to have more joint workdays this means that the Rangers can use their resources better and if they normally have a weekend off it's not wasted.

April and May bring us our first visits to Merseyside with joint workdays with MENTV and also a joint workday on 19th April to Erddig and on 31st May we travel to Biddulph Grange to meet up with Shropshire and Staffordshire NTV. We also have a visit to Alderley and Styal.

June brings us two more joint workdays the first being Hardcastle Crags with West Yorkshire NTV and another trip to Formby with MENTV. I also hope the group gets to visit Dunham in June, Dunham, are I think short of staff and are a little hesitant about booking in workdays as they are not sure of staffing numbers. Hopefully we will be back there more regularly soon.

Along with our potential weekend July also brings us joint workdays at Speke and Dunham with MENTV and a workday at Lyme.

August brings another joint workday with WYNTV at Hardcastle and hopefully a joint workday with MENTV at Erddig we also return to Hayfield after the nesting season. 

In September after 14 years away we return to Shugborough Hall for a joint workday with SSNTV we hope to get a great turn out just like they did for our workday at Calke Abbey we also have joint workdays with MENTV at Speke and Formby.

With Autumn now upon us October to December brings us closer to home with a mixture of workdays at Lyme, Alderley, Styal, Hayfield, hopefully Dunham Massey and our traditional trip to Biddulph to no doubt take out the Dahlias.

Your worksite leaders signed up for the first 3 months just this week and are eager to get back to it. If you fancy having a go at leading then talk to one of them about what it is they do and the benefits or perhaps the challenges and if after that you still fancy drop us an email and we will pair you up with an expert.

The programme may change a little so keep your whits about you and wait for the weekly email coming out before the workday. Some of these emails may just ask who is interested with no details of the task as different groups work differently and Rangers wanting to know how many people to expect before planning the task. The dates will be on the website in the New Year.

Right that's the workdays sorted...in April 2026 MNTV are turning 40, in August we sent you a save the date if you didn't get it then do let us know, we are celebrating on Saturday 13th June, at Lyme Park, Claire and Chris came up trumps with the location for us, we are very much looking forward to it. More details will be out in January. Along with having a party we wanted to celebrate by giving something back, with the help of the team at Alderley we will be planting a hedge, it'll be the MNTV hedge that we will look after in years to come. Tim and Issy at Alderley are very excited about this opportunity for them and us.

Earlier this year, as one of my first jobs as Chair, I bestowed Honourary Membership on Charlie Spiller and Hazel Pryor, they were very surprised and delighted to accept. As part of the Honourary Membership we gifted Charlie £30 gift vouchers for Chesters by the River which is a very lovely gifty shop and cafe close to where she lives at Elterwater Hostel, for Hazel we gifted £30 gift vouchers for National Trust. We hope they enjoy their gifts. I am planning on bestowing more Honourary Memberships next year, so watch this space. Below is Charlie enjoying a cuppa and a cake with some of her vouchers.

The committee has worked extremely hard this year adding 125.50 hours to the hours for the group which currently stands at 1536 hours for the year beginning January to December. The committee is a small select group but we are looking for new members to join us. We have a vacancy available for Social Media Officer please email the committee for more details. We also have opportunities for other roles if you think you can add anything to the group then please speak to one of the committee on a workday or send us an email. Your current committee is Jenny, Denise, Daniel, Adrian and Myself. Time spent on social media is up to you but we do ask that you join us for committee meetings which take place about every 7 weeks on Zoom for about 90mins.

As a member of the group if you partake in 50 hours or more of volunteering with the group then you are entitled to a supporter group card which gets you into NT properties in England and Wales for free and the majority of Scottish ones too. Your volunteer card also lets you gives you free entry to National Trust places and 20% discount on items you buy from our shops or cafés that cost more than £1 (except gift cards and stamps) and discount on National Trust holidays (including Historic House Hotels).There are also discounts at some high street shops, my particular favourite is Cotswold Outdoors. If you would like more details then email the committee to find out more.

Formby have been in touch to ask how many hours we have volunteered with them this year and with those figures they sent their volunteer impact report for 2025 and Manchester and Merseyside combined donated a total of 453 hours good work everyone. They also sent the Autumn and Winter Newsletter which has this gem in it. Blast from the Past - We recently discovered an un-opened packet of crispsfrom the 1980’s in the dunes! A fascinating find and striking reminder of how long litter lingers. Thank you for helping toprotect this special place by taking home everything you bring.

To finish off, we all no doubt tuck into our turkey or whatever we have for our Christmas dinner which we know we will be eating for days to come. Here's a poem to plan what to do with the leftovers.

The 12 Days of Turkey - Anon

On the first day of Christmas, my true love said to me

I'm glad we've bought a turkey and a proper Christmas tree.

On the second day of Christmas, much laughter could be heard

As we tucked into our turkey a most delicious bird.

On the third day of Christmas, we'd friends in from next door

The turkey tasted just as good as on the day before.

On the fourth day of Christmas, Gran came, she's rather old.

We finished up the Christmas pud and ate the turkey cold.

On the fifth day of Christmas, outside the snowflakes flurried

But we were nice and warm inside we ate the turkey curried.

On the sixth day of Christmas, the turkey spirit died.

The children fought and bickered and we ate the turkey fried.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave a wince

When he sat down to dinner and was given turkey mince.

On the eighth day of Christmas, the dog ran off for shelter

I served up turkey pancakes and a glass of Alka Seltzer.

On the ninth day of Christmas, poor Dad began to cry

He said he couldn't stand the strain of eating turkey pie.

On the tenth day of Christmas, the air was rather blue

And everybody grumbled at eating turkey stew.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, the Christmas tree was moulting

Mince pies as hard as rock and the turkey quite  revolting.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, at last Dad smacked his lips

The guests had gone, the turkey too - we dined on fish and chips! 

All that is left for me to say on behalf of the committee is have a very Merry Christmas and a fabulous New Year.

Ally

A cold and damp morning at Lyme Park - Sunday 14th December

Six of us met up with Chris, the Head Ranger at Lyme, for the last work day of 2025 on a cold and damp morning. He gave us a briefing on the job for the day, rhododendron destruction, but burning more than cutting. We would be working in Lantern Wood with Ranger Jason and three Youth Rangers.

Jason spent the first hour showing his trainees how to start a fire from scratch - a real challenge in the damp weather!
So we used the time to make already cut piles of brash more manageable for burning.

Jason managed to get a second fire going after a couple of hours, but it was a long drawn out effort due to the damp conditions and unpredictable winds.

Jack used his javelin throwing skills to load piles of brash without getting a face full of smoke.

The Youth Rangers left at 2 o’clock and we stayed with Jason feeding the two fires until 2:30. At three o’clock we put mesh fencing around the burning embers as warning to any walkers in the area.

The weather conditions made it a frustrating day. But it was still progress in the long job to clear the whole area of rhododendron, which Chris estimates is still a six years  long effort.

Woodland work at Alderley Edge on Sunday 7th December 2025

Organising this Sunday was a breeze because the Ranger at Alderley was so organised she sent us photos of the work she wanted doing two weeks before the workday! She did think the workday was a week earlier, but still it’s the first time I’ve had photo instructions. Video next time?

Here is a sample of the photos:

So we started by collecting the tools from the shed. Luckily Jenny, our MNTV leader for the start of the day, had been at Alderley Edge during the week and had had training on how to use the winch. A big tree had come down across a path near the Wizard Tea Rooms so we used the winch to stabilise the tree whilst it was cut and to drag it off the path.

We drove round to the quarry off Mottram Road and had a look at the different tasks that needed to be done. In the (almost) dry weather we decided to start by cutting back the brambles to make a good path to the upper quarry field. We then moved the piles of brash that had been left (by us) last year to further under the trees, leaving the meadow more open.  It was good to see that not many new birch seedlings had appeared since last year.

We paused briefly for a drink and cake. The cake was loosely based on a bread pudding and incorporated some of the leftovers from last weekend at Calke Abbey (using up cheerios, fruit and fibre, bread rolls, milk, cream, apples and a bit of butter from the weekend all mixed with a jar of Christmas mince meat). It was delicious and has been christened “MNTV cake”.

The other nibble made from bacon covered in dark chocolate was deemed “edible but strange” and christened “Dead rats”. You can see why below - so not one to repeat.

We then moved swiftly on in the drizzle to the lower meadow and had to cut our way through brambles just to reach the worksite. The alternative path was too steep and slippery for us to carry the heavy equipment down. Once through to the meadow we headed for the patch of trees we had been asked to clear.

There was a sturdy tree nearby to anchor the winch to. A couple of people went round trimming the tops off the trees, leaving a waist high stump, ready to be winched.

The winch was time consuming to get set up but once it was all in place it made light work of pulling the trees up with hopefully enough root to stop regrowth.

Our intrepid leader and dubious culinary delights provider left early claiming she had to go and  sing at the Macclesfield Hospice "Light up a Life" service. Nothing to do with the rain I’m sure! Everyone else worked through lunch break as it was so wet - sustained by the chocolate bacon perhaps? We  packed up a little earlier than normal to go home, have some food and get warm and dry, returning the tools to the shed on the way.

Jenny