Huck Hill signs and waymarkers

A lovely morning, a lovely morning to carry very heavy bags of cement, signs and fenceposts up a big steep hill. Good workout that.

We were at Huck Hill installing signs and waymarkers for a permissive path joining two public footpaths. Iain the landowner joined myself, Philip and Neil.




Dave, AKA Private Frazer, was there too early on, warning us of the Tree Society's impending financial doom. But, just like in Dad's army, we think he is overstating the matter a bit.

Cake was a very nice coconut and chocolate cream thing.

While on site we also took a look at the scrapes and the liner that will form ponds to encourage biodiversity. Scrapes have been done, though the landowner would like to enlarge them. The liner is on site (as pictured) but has yet to be installed.

Now that the scrapes are done, liner on site, and waymarkers and signs installed, the Kirklees Environment Grant Scheme parts of this project are now complete - barring final approval. There is a small amount of money left in the budget, which we hope Kirklee's will agree can be spent on replacing some failed trees on this site.

Nursery developments

The palisade fencing has now been completed, it runs continuously from the main gate round the top and far edges of the site until the boundary meets gardens. There is no longer gate access from the top far corner. The shipping container has been levelled. The old sheds have been moved, and damaged, so we might need a bonfire at some point, with all the wood and rubbish in there from the work, then we could have a pretty good November 5th bonfire. Plus we have room for fireworks? Just a thought. Anyway, the new gate is still a work in progress, and further landscaping might be in the pipeline. All looks a bit bare at the moment, and could benefit from further tidying.

Fieldhouse site visit

A Thursday evening site visit to Fieldhouse, to meet up with Luke from Beneficial Tree Care. Beneficial have recently cut down a lot of the dead trees at the back of the site for us, part of the process of making the site safe for public access. There were a lot of dead trees, and so, as you can see, there is a lot of timber. We discussed Luke removing timber from the site, and the possible use of the site in the future for a community woodfuel project. Access to the site seemed to be the main sticking point. There is no access for any medium to large vehicle. A quad bike and trailer would perhaps be the answer. Funding for the project did include some money for improved access, but only enough to pay for a new gate and stile.

Nursery carnage

Got call from Dave about 4pm this afternoon. He had seen tree work being done at the nursery. So I whizzed down there and found Luke and his Beneficial crew razing the top half of the nursery to the ground. According to Luke the allotment grant money that Julian had said we would be getting, was got, and needed spending pronto. So the area designated for the storage containers had to be cleared. All the top area of the nursery has been deforested, including the copse by the entrance. The sheds are now somewhat exposed. The horse tail bed at the far end of the top has also been destroyed, along with the small trees that were planted there. I phoned Philip and he and Ali zoomed up to have a look, Luke and crew had gone by then though.

On the whole, though a bit of a shock, it looks like a positive development, as we should now get the secure storage and fencing that we asked for.