Coniston Team Archive
Find out what the Coniston team have been doing and where....
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April 2010 – The return to the fells and a tale of two walls
Finally the long winter has drawn to an end and there can be few people as glad of this as we path workers! For months now we’ve been gazing up at the snow bound fells, wondering if it would all clear in time for our return to higher altitudes.... more
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February 2010 – Winching conundrums and snowy helicopters
Working on the fells we get used to projects that take a number of months to complete, the sort of things that don’t usually turn up during the low level winter months.
This winter has been different however, mainly due to the floods last November. more
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December 2009 - All hands on deck
All of a sudden we’re off the Fells again as winter starts to get a hold. We don’t work up on the hills for around four months every year, normally from the end of November to the beginning of March. The weather’s too bad and the days are too short for us to make the best use of our time up there so we get reacquainted with the rest of the National Trust staff in the area and work on low level jobs with them, such as hedge laying or dry stone walling. more
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September 2009 - Breaking new ground
In the spirit of co-operation we’ve spent a large part of the ‘summer’ months on Bowfell, working with the Western team. The work has all been at an altitude of around 2400 to 2800 feet, a record for our team and some of the highest work that’s been undertaken. Unfortunately for both of our teams this high level work has coincided with some truly dreadful wet and windy weather, making it a real test of endurance for all concerned. more
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August 2009 - Working with volunteer groups
After a couple of months of lovely summer weather we’re back to normal for the time of year now – a mix of sun and showers, with a bit of a slant towards the showers. From a footpath worker’s perspective a bit of rain is ideal, it stops the soil getting too dusty and helps any landscaping to settle in quicker. It also lets us see where the water is running on our paths, helping us get our drainage in the right places. It’d be nice if it would wait until we’d gone home before it rained though! more
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May 2009 - Wansfell, Wrynose Pass and Crinkle Crags
Working as a four man team on the high fells of the Lake District would, you’d think, be a fairly lonely and insular task. However, not long in to the new season and we’ve barely had a day to ourselves. more
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January 2009 - Stake Pass and Monk Coniston walled garden
For around four months of the winter the days are too short, the weather is too bad and too much work on the fells at this time of year would damage the sensitive upland environment. So we descend from the hills and reacquaint ourselves with the wider workings of the National Trust in the Lake District. more
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July 2008 - Stake Pass
May proved to be quite a varied month for us with lots of tasks to us away from our main job on Stake Pass. However, we've recently had a good stretch of time to concentrate on it and have made some really good progress. The work has been more broken than on previous jobs, consisting mostly of smaller seperate sections of work rather than one long stretch. It's been quite nice leap-frogging each other up the hill (figuratively speaking) as we've each completed our own sections and moved on above the rest of the team to a new one. more
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April 2008 - Stake Pass
"Two weeks into the new season and things are starting to progress nicely on our main job on Stake Pass at the end of Langdale valley." more
