Stone spreading in Carding Mill Valley

This week we took a delivery of 35 tonnes of stone to use to help improve parking for cars along valley. The Wednesday Action Group (WAGs) helped to shovel and spread this stone along the valley, whilst spreading grass seed underneath; we have seen in other areas the grass is beginning to grow through the stone and should eventually provide a more natural looking effect. This action has arrived after visitors cars have been getting stuck in the mud whilst parking. It took a morning of several volunteers and rangers to shift the stone along the valley.

Before

After

Learning Volunteers Training Day

Last Friday Learning Volunteers had their first winter training day.  Carrying out a review of the year’s services to schools and working outdoors to exchange with each other the helpful practices each of us uses.  You can see Pete muscled in on the chocolate cake opening of one of our new indoor lunch shelters.  Our thanks to Patrick and the LTVs for their stirling work in so quickly creating it!  In the afternoon Malcolm explained how we can provide services for the new Secondary School  Geography curriculum, although I think the photo was when he justified what he calls very close misses in Liverpool’s last game! 

Cutting and splitting wood for the log boiler

The TTF (Tuesday Task Force) have recently been helping to cut and split wood from the log pile in the top car park. This supplies the log boiler which heats the tearoom, shop and office.

Carding Mill DIY

The yard gates for our workspace on offices began to fall into disrepair so rangers and volunteers set about making and installing new panels.

We finally have it all finished, special thanks to our volunteer Reg who did all the complicated building/joinery bits.

Duck Race

This weekend there was a Duck Race in Carding Mill Valley in aid of Stretton Climate Care. It was a great day for it and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

TTF take on Dr Motts

This Tuesday our Tuesday Task Force (TTF) went down Dr Motts road cleaning out drainage channels. It's important to keep these channels clear to keep water off the path which in turn prevents iceing over and erosion.

Easter at Carding Mill Valley

Learning officers Malcolm (left) and Chris running the Easter Egg Trail.

The sun was out on Easter weekend and with it came many visitors to Carding Mill Valley. Throughout the weekend National trust properties across the country were providing Easter egg trails with the prize at the end being an Easter egg and Carding mill was no different. On Bank holiday Monday the Valley filled with people most of whom tried out our new and improved ice cream kiosk, which seemed to go down really well.

Visitors queuing for Ice Cream

Running out of Parking!

Volunteer training day - Geology walk

Today Chris Stratton (Learning Officer at Carding Mill Valley) led a geology walk for National Trust, Shropshire Wildlife Trust and Community Wildlife Group volunteers. We started off at Carding Mill Valley, walking down the valley to look at Stretton shail and then walked up the valley looking at the other layers of rock including; Buxton rock and synalds.

We walked up to the reservoir to look at very early fossilised organisms, once believed to be fossilised raindrops but recently organic matter was discovered within them. Then we headed to Wenlock Edge where we looked at the strata and fault lines in Knowle quarry.

Before heading to look at the old lime kilns and learning about burning limestone and charcoal making and walking to Lea quarry to look at fossils.

 

Hebridean Sheep

Carding Mill Valley has its own collection of sheep used for conservation grazing, recently Rangers had the fun job of trimming their feet (without getting a horn in their side). These sheep can live for about 12 years and need some careful pampering every now and then.

A new arrival!

Visitors who came to Carding Mill Valley at the end of February had an unexpected bonus to their visit when at 3:50pm on Saturday the 21st a foal was born in the valley. 

 During the labour, the other pony (presumably the mare's mother or sister) stood next to her throughout obviously guarding her and keeping a close watch - a tender sight. A large crowd gathered on the car park side of the stream watching the event. It must have been quite an education for most, especially for the children watching!

Thank you to Barrie Raynor who took these beautiful images and gave us the details of the event. 

Improving our visitor experience

On the 4^th of March the Learning Team at Carding Mill Valley had a useful day looking at the “visitor journey” made by students. Much discussion was had about best practice, Health & Safety and the sixteen staff and volunteers were able to give each other many helpful hints on how to make a student visit a memorable one and how to upgrade the quality of our services. 

The team is dedicated to providing much more than ticks for covering some of the National Curriculum.  We want children to get engaged with nature, to question, understand and thirst to learn, to possibly feel awe, to want to explore more and to become conservators of it.  We hope that for many their visit will be a lasting memory.

Volunteer Training

On Thursday National Trust volunteers and staff came together for a training session on water insects and valley history. The session was led by Learning Officer Chris Stratton. We started in the Carding Mill Valley tearoom and heard about the history and geology of the valley. We went outside and did some kick sampling in the stream before heading off to our labs to examine what we had caught.

After that we walked up the valley towards the reservoir discovering more of Carding Mill Valley's rich past on the way. Everyone enjoyed  themselves and the cake helped us forget about the chilly weather!

TTF get splitting

 Last week Carding Mill Valley was provided with 21 tonnes of logs and 9 crates to stack wood in, so naturally we asked our lovely Tuesday Task Force to come and help us fill them up and they did not let us down. Including some of our old empty crates and the new ones the TTF managed to fill 11 crates in a mornings work, some were chainsawing, some were splitting and others stacking the logs in crates ready for the tractor to take them away. These logs come from our friends at Wenlock Edge and go into Carding Mill Valley's wood boiler, the tearoom fire and shop fire.

Robopower!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Carding Mill Valley happily welcomed McConnel to demonstrate the powers of their Remote Controlled, Unmanned Tractor. They very helpfully cut down some gorse, saving the National Trust two days of group manual labour....... thanks a lot. Due to the design and structure of the machine it is able to go on steep slopes that a manned tractor would not be able to drive on. Not only this but a manned tractor would never really go accross a slope but up and down, that all changes with Robopower.

McConnel spent a day at the valley using the time to show what Robopower could do for a reporter and take pictures. The weather wasn't ideal what with the fog and rain showers but we made it work and had a successful day.


Pictures courtesy of McConnel

Raft Building

Raft Building!

Every Friday through August Raft Building sessions have been running throughout the day. They have been very popular rain or shine and we are all looking forwards to our last session this coming friday!

Other sessions this summer have included weekly Pond Dipping and A Land Rover Safari with our head ranger David Cowell.

Bracken Cutting

The tractor has its double wheels on and is ready to start cutting bracken! Every year we cut over 40ha in our efforts to reduce bracken, and on High Park you can really see a difference! The bracken there is much shorter compared to the bracken on the rest of the hill. You also get a great view of North Shropshire!

Fallen Oak Branch

On Monday the large oak close to the bird hide dropped one of it's larger branches. No one was injured and after cordoning off the site a tree surgeon examined the tree. A plan is being implemented to ensure the tree is healthy and safe for many years to come.

To ensure visitor safety the bird hide will be closed, however, the roof-top terrace is the perfect place to see, and listen to, Chiffchaff, Siskin and many others!

Cuckoo Spit

Have you seen this around? Known as Cuckoo Spit, this hides a spittlebug which lives off the sap in the plant. Cuckoo spit is known by lots of different names what do you know it as?



Carding Mill Kitchens

Carding Mill Kitchens have produced some elderflower cordial! The flowers were gathered on the hill, and it tastes great! Pop into the Tea Room to get your bottle.

Dragonfly Course

The dragonfly course was also very successful, run by Sue McLamb. The mill ponds are a fantastic habitat for dragonflies, so why not have a look yourself?