As working parties draw to a close on a Saturday afternoon, sometimes we’ve not managed to complete what we might have hoped; bits get left behind as we move on to other parts of the estate. Last month’s volunteer work tackled three such areas at the very heart of the parkland close to The Circle.
We’ve had several working parties along the north edge of the ancient lime Avenue, mainly around 2016-17. These focussed on natural spacing and the chore of removing over-mature laurels. The areas left included some dense and challenging laurels, not reason for us to have neglected them the first time, but enough to keep us occupied for a full working party this time around.
One area was just to the north of the ancient Lime Avenue, and work here gave us the added opportunity to reinforce the line of the path through trimming snowberry bushes. The second area included a concrete base to a WWII Nissen hut, one that was joined formerly by many others hidden in the trees. The final area bordered the Quarry garden on its eastern end and a forest of mock orange bushes, part of historic planting, to the east. An added challenge in the last area was tidying a fallen tree that had blocked one of the well used paths in this area.
Split into three adjacent groups, a good turnout of volunteers saw work progress quickly from east to west. We usually lose people in the afternoons as they get tired or need to get onto other things but still managed to extend the area tackled westwards and begin trimming of laurel regrowth that has begun to regain a foothold above the quarry. By about 2pm we had achieved everything on our agenda and more!
It was interesting to uncover the base of the WWII Nissen Hut and its features, more of that later. The historic area of Mock Orange is now more visible, framed by the less invasive Portuguese laurels we’ve left in place. For the intrepid, there’s the opportunity to try and trace the line of the lost Victorian path that once ran through the back of this area, now freed from the choking embrace of cherry laurels.
