Cambridge National
Trust Volunteers (CNTV)
Website last updated on
17th July 2008
Planting at Wimpole Hall ..............................................................
Fencing on the Gower Peninsular
(Photo: Roger Jayes)................................................................................................
(Photo: Tom Howes)
unique visitors ......
WELCOME to our web
pages
CNTV members share an interest
in historic properties and conservation areas found within the
UK.
As an independant volunteer group we actively support the National
Trust by
giving up some of our time to help preserve and maintain the properties.
Our work is typically on Sundays, but we also carry out longer
weekend tasks during the year.
(CNTV contact details can be found here)
For some environmentally
friendly ideas, read about reducing
limescale deposits
without chemicals. Late News and Updates
Stewards wanted at Wimpole -
see programme
page for detail
Anglesey Abbey are looking for assistance midweek in August.
Contact Rob R. if you are interested.
Article on restoring
a seed drill found
in Wimpole Gardens.
Progress remains stalled whilst I continue to try and get the
correct paint.
Do you receive a
lot of spam "email"?
Ever wondered how your email gets into the hands of "spammers"?
This report gives an interesting insight into
how it happens.
Anglesey Abbey
Wildlife Weekend - 15/16th June
An extremely busy
task helping the staff at Anglesey
Abbey with the Wildlife
Weekend.
Experts were on hand to answer questions about wild flowers, bugs,
butterflies, moths, bees, insects, bats...
There were activities for youngsters - bird
box building, pond
dipping, bug netting,
insect identification, bark
rubbing and
wildlife related games. Overnight camping included dinner and
breakfast (great food thanks to the chefs and staff!)
So here is a short diary of the event from the view of a volunteer
- to read the full text you'll
have to wait and read Val's article in the summer newsletter!
(Coming soon....).
Saturday 10:00am - arrived and started work putting up
gazebos and setting up activity tables. (Photo: Roger) Left: ...gazebos assembled .... (Photo: Roger) Right: Alison, Aubrey, Joan, Jane and
Betty setting up games table (or maybe just playing..)
Throughout the day - informing and helped visitors to get the
most out of their visit
including handing out maps and identification sheets for the wildlife
walk. (Photo: Roger) Left: visitors inspect some of the
insects captured at Anglesey .... (Photo: Roger) Mid: The
Wildlife Trust stand
- full of information and some lime Hawk Moth caterpillars .... (Photo: Roger) Right: the colourful lime hawk moth caterpillar eating lime leaves.
Saturday 4:00pm - the property closes, our work continues.
It was off to
set up the camp site and put our own tents up. (Photo: Val) Left: Harry instructs Sally (Mum) on
how to put up a tent .... (Photo: Harry!!) Right: Sian taking a quick nap.
Saturday 7:30pm - reported to the restaurant to help
serve the evening meal to the 42 people
who had signed up for the camping and overnight activities.
After eating ourselves it was out to the kitchen to get on with
the washing up
[hmmmm I can't remember that bit I think I reluctantly had to
help set up moth traps....Roger] (Photo: Roger) Left: ... Sian and Jane serving the
dinner to guests .... (Photo:
Roger) Right: hey Harry
what's this..wine tasting already??
Saturday evening - visiting moth traps and looking for
bats....meet Bertie below (Photo: Roger) Left: ... Bertie the bat...my best
effort yet to photograph a bat in the dark
(helped with a bat monitor and using flash - what type of bat?
most likely a Noctule as it is quite red) (Photo: Roger) Right: ... Iwan shows the young visitors
the moths and insects caught in the moth trap.
Sunday morning about 12:30am! - hot
chocolate and marshmallows then off to get some sleep.
Sunday morning 3:45am! (yes really!!) - wake up and off
to the Noctule bat tree to see them returning -
sadly they had decided to get an early night. So it was off for
a walk round the property with Dave
listening to and identifying birds (goldcrests, jays, black caps,
green and spotted woodpeckers) during the dawn chorus. (Photo: Roger) Left: ... Noctule bat tree ...... (Photo: Roger) Right: ... Dawn chorus walk in the Abbey grounds.
Sunday 6:30am - full English breakfast and for us
more serving and washing up.
Sunday 8:00am - back to the camp site to pack up tents. Sunday 10:00am - a repeat of Saturday informing and
helping visitors to Anglesey Abbey get the most out of their visit. Sunday 4:00pm - tea and cakes for the volunteers and then
off to home for a rest.....zzzzzzzzz.
Wimpole Farm tidying
the Folly - 9th June [thanks to Val for
these words - read the full text in our summer newsletter]
For a number of years the folly has been fenced off (but of course
that doesn’t stop people getting in and they let
themselves in even whilst we were working). Inside the fencing
there has been some planting and also scrub
has built up; the plan longer term is to have two fences about
10 feet apart, with a wild flower
habitat between the fences and then sheep or goats grazing around
the folly itself.
Our job was to take down the scrub and improve the views of the
folly from the house - we
had fantastic views in the opposite direction whilst we were working. (Photo: Roger) Left: ...Mark in action with bow saw
.... (Photo: Roger) Right: Val, Maxine and Betty clearing
bushes.
(Photo: Nigel) Left: ...work party resting for lunch
.... (Photo: Roger) Right: View from Folly to lake and
grounds.
(Photo: Roger) Left: ...work party in front of Folly
.... (Photo: Roger) Right: Nigel trys out some grass scything
with instructions from Simon If you would like
to try scything out for yourself, then come along to the
1st East Anglian Scything Competition Sunday 22 June at Wimpole
- more information here
Just before lunch
Simon (the Estate Manager) and Cory (his ever faithful hound)
came to see how we were
getting on. He took us for a walk uphill round the fence through
the existing wild flower belt. It was a real treat;
we saw bee orchids, common spotted orchids, various grasses (including
a blue sedge), yellow trefoils, pink clovers.
(Photo: Roger) Left: Common spotted orchid - find
out more about Britains Orchids here. A later survey found around 30
pyramidal orchids, 100+ bee orchids and 3 common spotted orchids.
(Photo: Roger) Mid: Cuckoo spit - nothing to do with
cuckoos just froghoppers (nothing to do with frogs either!!). (Photo: Roger) Right: Birdsfoot
trefoil bud with resident
bug (aphid?).
Wimpole Estate fence clearing - 11th May 2008
Yet more fencing,
this time on the Wimpole estate with Simon. Task was to remove
fencing from both sides of a ditch running across the South Avenue.
(Photo: Nigel) Left: ...Betty gets to work with the
bolt croppers .... (Photo: Roger)
Right: the ditch with
one side clear of fence (Photo: Nigel) Left: lunch break, smile for the camera!!...
(Photo: Simon with my camera!)
Right: it's a dogs
life...Roger caught napping
(Photo: Roger) Left: Nigel clearing posts and wire
.... (Photo: Simon) Right: Cory takes it easy
Erddig Weekend fencing - 2nd to 5th May 2008
Our weekend away
took us to the National Trust property at Erddig, near Wrexham.
Accomodation was provided at the basecamp, and the task involved
construction of fences.
The North Wales police have decided to setup
a mounted division,
and have chosen a property
and stables on the Erddig estate as their HQ. Our task was to
construct the fence around the menege.
On our first day, Saturday, after a hearty breakfast we set to
work digging the post holes. The soil was very
heavy clay and the rain on previous days was a mixed blessing,
it made the clay heavy and sticky, but was
easier to dig than dried clay! The first job was to dig the fence
post holes to a depth of around 2ft 6in.
Next the post holes were put in place and securely tamped into
position, making sure they were vertical and
properly lined up. Finally the rails and kick boards were nailed
in place.
By the end of the day we had almost completed one of the longer
sides of the menage. (Photo: Roger) Left: ...off to work .... (Photo: Roger) Right: Peter and Tom putting in fence posts
(Photo: Roger) Left: Clyde digging post hole ....
(Photo: Roger) Mid: Barbara and Beata discover the
spades used for measuring the hole depths are not the same length!!!
(In the background are the to be headquarters for the North
Wales Police Mounted Division and the horse stables. (Photo: Roger) Right: Sian using the post hole spade
.... a shorter version needed me thinks!!!
(Photo: Roger) Above left and right: ...lunch time,
Barbara and Rob being hastled for food by two local residents....
They eventually got fed up, left their calling card on our mat
and flew off.
(Photo: Roger) Left: work in progress .... (Photo: Roger) Right: A few members took time out
to paint fences being prepared for the June
National Horse Driving qualifier trials...more information can
be found here.
Heavy rain on the Sunday
night made continued work on the menege impossible, so we moved
to another
part of the estate to construct another fence re-using old cast
iron railings with wooden posts.
(Photo: Roger) Left: time for a rest .... (Photo: Roger) Mid: Cutting the final set of rails
to correct length using metal saws and plenty of elbow grease...
(Photo: Roger) Right: Job done and ready for painting
(black).
On Monday morning we
had a chance to visit the Erddig property. Amongst the items on
show are a working hydraulic
originally used to pump water to the farms for cooling milk. The
property itself was very much self contained and has many
interesting and varied aspect on display - you can find out more
on the National
Trust website.
(Photo: Roger) Right: drawing and description of
Jonh Blakes's patent hydraulic ram still
in operation at the Erddig property.
Note the French name for the water pump of "coup de belier"
Montgolfier, the inventor called it this because the noise it
made sounded like the skulls of two male sheep banging
together in a fight, hence the term ram pump.
(And there I thought ram was used due to the way the water
was "rammed" along a pipe!!)
Of interest, the firm
of Green
and Carter still make
such rams
and they have an extensive archive of estate plans and
ram installations which are accessable for serious researchers
(Photo: Roger) Below: the feed to the hydraulic ram
(Photo: Roger) Left: ...apple tree espalier
of which there are many
fine examples in the grounds..... (Photo:
Roger) Right: Erddig
Hall
(Photo: Roger) Below: these three stained glass windows
in the chapel at Erddig originated from Wimpole Hall
a property well known to CNTV. They were sold to Erddig in 1901.
Unfortunately I could only photograph from the outside.
Wimpole Gardens spring
planting - 20th April 20
Helping Phil with the
spring planting in the Victorian Gardens.
(Photo: Roger) Left: Alison, Barbara and Phil weeding,
Peter re-planting lettuce .... (Photo:
Nigel) Right: Alison
and Roger planting and covering lettuce.
(Photo: Roger) Left: Nigel and Alison re-potting seedlings....
(Photo: Roger) Right: tea and cakes at the end of
the day.
Castle Acre walk - 12th April 2008
No task this week,
but Rob organised a walk near Castle
Acre in Norfolk, home
to one of the
oldest preserved monastic sites in England.
(Photo: Val) Left: the castle at Castle Acre ........
(Photo: Val) Right: A bridge for hobbits under the
A47. Acting Hobbit Tom demonstrates access whilst Clyde appears
to have a headache...
(Photo: Val) Left: Footpath along the River Nar........ (Photo: Val) Right: The mill at Narborough.
more diary pages
..... the diary of tasks and events has been split into smaller
web pages
to reduce the page loading wait for viewers with dial up connections
.... next diary page. diary page 5: 23rd November 2007 to 16th March
2008 diary page 4: 29th July 2007 to 18th November 2007 diary page 3: 4th March 2007 to 15th July 2007 diary page 2: 26th November 2006 to 14th January
2007 diary page 1: 7th July 2006 to 19th November 2006
Site maintained by
Roger Jayes.
CNTV contact details can
be found here.
Thanks to Mythic Beasts, Cambridge for supporting CNTV and hosting
this site. This website and contents
is copyright CNTV 1999 - 2008 except
the title "National Trust" and the "Oak" logo
which registered trade marks of the National Trust.
Stewards wanted at Wimpole -
see programme
page for detail
(Photo: Roger) Right: drawing and description of
