Shooting box

National trust, English Heritage, Natural England and Shropshire Council have finished work to protect The Shooting Box Disc Barrow and a nearby Bowl Barrow .The plan was to close the origional route and reinstate the bridleway (Definitive Line) that runs parallel, 50 metres to the East, outside the Scheduled Area. 

The new route runs 450 metres from Shooting Box car park in a North/Easterly direction to join the Portway.  The route is surfaced with crushed stone topped with dust, to about 2 metres in width.  A short stretch of drainage will be undertaken at a low point along the route to prevent water damage in the future.  The current surface material was scraped off and used to restore the existing route through the Barrows.

The original path.

First layer of stone on new path.

The finished project.

Logs...Again!

Another delivery of logs has arrived! This 25 tonne load should last us until summer.

They were carefully lifted off the truck and put in the top car park.

Next week will begin the task of cutting and splitting, then stacking in the barn. The top car park may be closed so please look out for the car park closed sign.

Did You Know?

Did You Know? Carding Mill Valley's buildings are heated by a wood boiler, fuelled by logs from Wenlock Edge. It also heats our hot water. This means we are completely off using oil, a fantastic achievement!

Operation Log Stack!

Apologies for our absence last week, we were busy with Operation Log Stack! 25 tonnes of logs were delivered to the valley on Monday morning, and we spent all week splitting, chopping, sawing and stacking to get it done by Friday. Most the logs are now in the barn, where they can dry before being used in our wood boiler.

The logs, which are from Wenlock Edge, arrived at 9 o'clock on Monday morning.

They were lifted off the lorry and stacked by the edge of the car park. Then began the hard work!

The smaller logs went straight through the processor which cut them to the right size then split them into quarters. They then got deposited into the trailer. The bigger logs were cut to size first using a chainsaw, then either passed through the processor or were split with an axe. Once the trailer was full it was off down the valley!

The logs were stacked into crates at first, then between them, until the whole barn was full!

This work couldn't have been done without the help of our wonderful volunteers, so a huge thank you to them! The boiler is now stocked until well into the new year, it was a great job by all!

Ridan Composter Update

Our new composter is now installed in the garden, have a look if you're on the Roof Top Terrace!

It will be used to compost food waste from the kitchen, and the compost will be used in the kitchen garden.

Carding Mill's New Ridan Composter

Carding Mill Valley has just acquired a new composter! It will use food waste from the kitchen and produce compost to be used in the garden, as much as 200 litres in a week!



Our new composter arrives



It used to belong to National Trust's Attingham Park, but when they no longer needed they kindly donated it to us. Before moving it from the trailer, FTVs Richard and Isabel had to remove all the old compost so it is light enough to lift. 



Richard dives in



It will soon be installed in the garden, look out for it from the Roof Top Terrace!

Scrappies at CMV

Learning Officer, Chris Stratton is helping support Scrappies recycling store in Church Stretton by using their materials in an Art service to schools.  

Learning providers Rob, Suzanne, Laura, Jerry, Anne and Chris supervised microscope work on stream water invertebrates with two visiting groups this week. They also compared what differences there were with insects in placid water at the ponds. 

Scrappies Artist Liz Still also worked alongside these 100  students to encourage children to carefully study Dragonflies and Damselflies and take home some brilliant creations (which you can see here) all made from scrap materials. If you are an artist or involved with a local school there are some great materials to be had very cheaply at Scrappies in Church Stretton.

Collapsed logs

Full time volunteer Tom was very down earlier this week, his carefully stacked log pile decided to collapse all over the yard floor. It ended up taking him another half an hour to clear up the mess. Here's a picture of him looking sorry for himself!

Celebrate National Beanpole Week by buying British!

Sunday 14th April 11am-4pm
Greenwood centre, Station Road, Coalbrookdale, Telford, TF8 7DR

FREE ENTRY

There will be;
               Beanpoles and Pea sticks
               Green Wood Crafts
               Craft stalls
               Children's activities
               Giant Beanpole competition
               Beanpole javelin
               Win a bulk bag of logs and other prizes
               Venison Bar-B-Q

Celebrating the humble hazel beanpole!

By using Hazel beanpoles sourced from british woods you are helping to support valuable woodland wildlife.

Find out more at: www.beanpoles.org.uk

Award for 'Go Local'

Carding Mill Valley has been awarded best place to 'Go Local' by the Shropshire Hills AONB. Pete Carty (Countryside Manager) attended the award ceremony event and received the certificate on behalf of the National Trust. We are very proud to have received this award and thanks is due to all the staff at Carding Mill Valley who contributed to getting this award.

Julie and Grant with our cake and certificate.



Keeping Warm!

As the snow came in, it has been more important than ever to keep the tea room, shop and boiler stocked up with logs from Wenlock Edge. We have been cutting logs at Wenlock, and bringing them to Carding Mill for storage and to allow them to dry. These are then used in the wood burning fires in the shop and tea room and in the boiler to heat the water and the offices.

Logs!

The processing of logs continues as the cold weather arrives. These logs are used to fuel the boiler, and both the shop and tea room fires to keep our customers cosy!