'Barn storming' and Extreme 'Coping'

Workstation 1 inside Greystones barn

Mine & Andy's  first box, latest design

Today was spent at Greystones with over 20 WT staff & volunteers led by Richard & John for the day's task. So what do you get with lots of drills, screws, saws,  25 'flat packs',  battens {to be cut to specific lengths}, instructions, pencils and several workstation tables? The answer is 25 of the latest designed Barn Owl boxes. The Barn owl box design main features were a removable top to allow 'use' monitoring and waste clearance, an entrance positioned to suit the hoped for 'owlets' {they have to be strong enough to reach the opening}, an outside platform allowing ease of re-entry for owlets. Given the number of people and materials it was fortunate we had a barn we could 'storm' and get the production lines set up. The aim for the day was for everyone to be involved in the production of at least one Barn owl box and ideally to reach a total of 25 boxes. The overall aim of this WT project was to produce 60 Barn owl boxes to cover at least the Windrush{Dickler?}  habitat area. After this construction phase a choice/survey of suitable installation locations with willing landowners will be taking place. Happy days in the future for our Barn owls, at least from a housing perspective.

View over North park looking down on Sherborne house

Pat showing off Coping stones reset in an earlier build phase 

Team surveying next section of Coping to be reset

Arrived at Sherborne this wednesday to find Pat and James busily mixing up some lime mortar, in readiness for resetting the extremely large Coping stones on the 17th century wall which runs along the North Park boundary next to Clarkes Close. The Coping stones to be used were the originals from the ~1600s and were pretty heavy. This meant that Mike had to use the 'blue' tractor to lift the heavy weight stones to the top of the rebuilt wall sections.  With Pat and James located on the 'public' side of the wall and Mike with me on the other 'lower' side, it enabled us to move the Copng stones into place. The lime mortar was the 'fixing' agent and applied on top of the wall by James & Pat.

Escaped sheep in rape field, coming to see the wall rebuilding

Sheep being herded alongside Clarkes Close

Before we could start the 'Coping' I noticed that we had an unexpected audience. A small flock of sheep were heading in our direction and it was clear they had escaped from one of the nearby pastures in/close to North Park. Mike immediately organised the 'shepherding' of the nervous flock back towards the potential escape point. It soon became clear that the sheep would have to pass by Clarks Close so James was sent ahead to prevent them entering the wood. Eventually, and with expert handling!, we managed to get the sheep back to their pasture via the damaged fence section alongside the public footpath. Once all the sheep were back in their pasture some temporary fence repairs were carried out and the work on the Coping stones resumed. By the end of the morning we had completed the bottom Coping layer which left the Coping 'top' stones to be positioned in the afternoon. You have to appreciate the drystone wallers in the 1600s who carried out the original wall construction without the aid of a tractor, they must have been exceptionally strong!

Can't tell Stork from Heron!

Tricky access through wood on left, for delivering walling stone

Stork at Sherborne Broadwater

Stork not a Heron!

Back of Monks Farm, rebuilding of  drystone wall

Hot and varied morning at Sherborne on Wednesday, starting with a fire alarm drill at the estate offices before we 'escaped' with both tractors and the 4x4. Mike took the 'new' red tractor with large trailer to Lodge Park to collect a supply of stone. This was for the rebuilding of the dry stone wall at '33' in Sherborne village. The access to the wall was tricky and needed the smaller blue tractor with trailer to deliver the stone supply through a narrow wood trail. Some testing driving of both tractors was needed to even get to the start of the wood trail just up from the Broadwater weir. While Mike and I moved the stone from the large to the small trailer James set about 'strimming' the overgrown trail before we could move it to the work site. As we were discussing with the waller where the first load of stone was to be placed Mike interrupted with news of a rare visitor to the Broadwater.

One of the villagers had spotted a Stork landing/flying in the pasture by the Broadwater. Without too much persuasion and armed with binos, camera {no long lens!} all of us {including 'waller' } headed back to the Broadwater pasture to get a look. It was indeed a Stork and I was volunteered to try and capture it on camera by careful approaching it { couldn't stalk it given I tweaked my back earlier in the week}. An amusing sight I'm sure but I did my best. Although the Stork was the star of the morning we did also see an actual heron, an egret and I saw the mute swans with at least 2 cygnets. All in all a good mornings experience at Sherborne. 

Meanwhile on the 'bigger picture' we now know who replaces Truss heading up DEFRA, Andrea Leadsom  'being a mother' and therefore having a real stake in the future could mean her children might have a countryside environment  left to enjoy?. Sadly Truss gets promotion for doing absolutely nothing {well nearly if we ignore her dismissal of the ban on lead ammunition}. Question is will her replacement Leadsom take any notice of this Martin Harper blog.

Little and large Collapses!

Partial collapse of drystone wall at rear of Lodge Park

A somewhat larger collapse on a Perfect day in Nottingham

Its been a while since my last dry walling experience on Leckhampton Hill but Wednesday provided a much needed refresher in this very traditional countryside craft. Mike drove the tractor with its bucket loaded with good quality Cotswold stone while I followed in the 4x4. Having reached the worksite in a nice spot at the rear of Lodge Park the walling challenge soon became evident. No complaints about the quality of the stone available to repair the damaged wall but I was soon reminded of the challenges that drystone walling entails. After a false start, where it became necessary to undo the initial courses layed, we adopted a slightly different strategy to rebuilding the wall and this proved to be a good decision. Unfortunately time was not on our side to repair this particular gap and more visits will be needed to rebuild a number of gaps on this wall section. No bad thing, for such a rewarding and satisfying task!

After Wednesday's experience on tackling one sort of collapse Thursday provided a slightly different experience. Some days in life are good and some bad but occasionally you can get a 'perfect day'. Thursday proved to be that perfect day starting with Ollies first birthday with his mates Billy and Isla at Sheepscombe/Ebworth. After a really enjoyable walk around the woods and meadows on the Ebworth estate we ended with a much deserved lunch at the Butchers Arms Sheepscombe. Returning home to Cheltenham I was astonished to discover the amazing events that had taken place at Trent Bridge in the Ashes test. The day was completed when I took Ollie out for his evening walk and we were greeted by 3 green woodpeckers who flew over us to finally settle in the large, dead Oak tree in the nearby pasture. Here's hoping for more such days in the future!