Northern team

April 2011 by Joe Cornforth

Variety is the spice of life

Our last productive day on Esk Hause was with the fix the fells volunteers in November and we were joined by David Browne who was filming us for part of the fix the fells promotional video.  As winter started to take hold we got a large dump of snow and had to come off the fells with only two weeks to finishing the project.

Through the winter we have been doing a lot of hedging, walling and fencing with the Borrowdale estate team.  The most recent fix the fell work parties have been at Friar’s crag, the first time round (on a grim rainy day) they layed the hedge (which involved fully removing the old lay) and burned a large amount of brash resulting in some singed eyebrows and James having to shave off his winter beard.  

(pictured above: Almost the beginning)

Round two we got two hundred tree’s for the “airy” parts of the hedge (200 tree’s covers a 50m stretch), layed the bottom 3rd of the hedge and had another fire which started much easier than the previous month due to the glorious weather.

(pictured above: Close to the end)

We have also been working with ten outdoor education students from Newton Rigg (with us for six Thursdays from the start of March), there main project was to lay a hedge in Rosthwaite

(pictured above: A completed section of hedge in the Cumberland/Midland style)

We have also been working with ten outdoor education students from Newton Rigg (with us for six Thursdays from the start of March), there main project was to lay a hedge in Rosthwaite.

With the hedge finished we planned to take them on a drain run up Esk Hause, but due to high winds decided to do a lower level run on Catbells.

(pictured above: Leaning into the wind)

With the clocks change we are eager to return to the higher fells, we are wrapping up a repair job we’ve been doing for the area ranger on Stanger Gill and then it’s back up to Esk Hause for the finishing touches.  And finally we would like to say a massive thank you to the fix the fellers, their monthly work party’s help to lift our teams spirits and their input is invaluable.

To find out more about the Northern team return to the diary archive