Southern Team Archive
Find out what the Southern team have been doing and where....
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July 2011 – South Lakes Footpath Team Update
Mickledore & Crinkle Crags
In early June we changed from our benched path project on Bracken Hause on the north side of Helm Crag, covered in our last update. We have completed around half of this zigzagging benched path and will return to finish this later in the year. more
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June 2011 Southern team update
Constructing a switchback
The arrival of spring marked the end of estate work for the South Lakes footpath team and the beginning of a program of footpath work on the fells. As mentioned in our last update – we began the construction of a benched zigzagging path below Helm Crag that will hopefully guide walkers along a more sustainable line than the old route that went strait up the slope and had turned into an unsightly erosion scar. Although the path is only half way through completion we have already received a large amount of positive feedback from hikers who say they prefer the new path’s gentler grade to the knee jarring and ankle twisting decent of the old route. more
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March 2011 Southern team update
Spring is in the air!
Over the last month we’ve completed the large project mentioned in last months report at Hallgarth in Little Langdale and have helped the South Lakes countryside rangers to try and tick off some of the jobs on what seems like the an ever increasing list of things of to do in and around the property. more
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February 2011 Southern team update
Many hands make light work!
February has been a month where we have been able to get on with stone work once again! The weather and numerous repair jobs around the property have meant that we have not been able to start on some of the larger projects that were planned for the winter months. The cold weather and rain have meant that many walls have tumbled and we have set forth to repair the numerous gaps, as Nick and Ian can be seen working on. more
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November 2010-
What a variety of work!
As we are no longer working up on the fells on our major path projects, November has been a month of variety.. more
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October 2010-
Wrapping things up on the fell and spreading the word.
The last month has been all about bringing the job on Hell Gill to a close, as well as spreading the word about what we do on the fells, the techniques that we use and the reasons for this. more
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September 2010 - A month of variety
September has been a month of variety for us, where we have unusually had a change of scene and a variety of people to work alongside. Primarily September has been divided between working on our own project on Hell Gill in Langdale and working alongside the Western Valleys path team on Mickeldore in Wasdale. more
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July 2010 - A change of site
Since our last update the team has been busy trying to complete the work on the North side of Stake Pass, reinstating and repairing the ancient route from Great Langdale to Langstrath, so that we can move on to a new project at Hell Gill. more
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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