Partnership working on the Hughenden Stream 18 March 2022
Our latest work party took place on March 18th, with our best turnout yet – fifteen volunteers on the sunniest morning that we can remember. At Hughenden Manor we were met by National Trust Area Ranger, Nick Charon and a trainee Ranger. Nick brought most of the tools and transported them and ours in his pickup truck through two fields to our starting point, which was a great help to us.
The ‘in river’ volunteers then started to dismantle several ‘bridges’ built by (probably) Dads and kids which were restricting the river flow, and doing some heavy lifting to get them to the banks where they can be very quickly removed by the Rangers before they end up in the same place. They also unblocked the fence in the stream at Hughenden Park – this was why we started the dialogue with the National Trust. The stream is now flowing freely again into the Park where we did clearance work at the end of 2021.
Nick trained one group of volunteers how to cut tree branches to British Standard 3988 and they set about removing any overhanging branches which could have hit unobservant people. The rest of the group cut and raked last year’s dead vegetation from the banks, cleared the stream where the flow was restricted, and cut down elder saplings.
We made massive progress, finished the task and definitely impressed Nick with our enthusiasm. He would now like us to continue the relationship that we have built, and has asked us for a date when we will return to carry on from where we finished.
Everyone enjoyed their varied tasks. The only problem we had was that we didn’t do a risk assessment on the chocolate biscuits and they all melted in the sun. We ate them anyway.
Future events
Tuesday April 26th a morning work-party at The Rye High Wycombe – details will be posted nearer the time.
Saturday May 14th a morning work-party at Desborough Park High Wycombe – details will be posted nearer the time.
