Wonderful work parties at Wimble Holme Hill

Over the winter we have been working with lots of volunteers to improve the condition of the bridleway at Wimble Holme Hill. The work has now been completed making the route more enjoyable for walkers, horse riders and cyclists.

After one work party day the group worked out the distance they had pushed their full wheelbarrows for, it worked out at an astonishing seven kilometres!

All the volunteers have done a fantastic job. The Eastern Moors Partnership would like to thank Sheffield Wildlife Trust and their volunteers, The Mudlarks (National Trust) volunteer group, Ride Sheffield, Eastern Moors Partnership volunteers and Derby University experiential learning group for all their hard work and commitment to the project.  

                                                                                                                                               



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Wimble Holme Make-over Continues

Posted on February 4, 2013

by John Horscroft

 

http://www.ridesheffield.org.uk/2013/02/wimble-holme-make-over-continues/

Lots of new faces at the latest dig day but, unfortunately, the same old weather.  A brisk North Westerly breeze ensured there was only one way to keep warm and that was to push the barrow as fast as possible.  Thankfully, there was plenty of barrowing to be done and Ride Sheffield’s volunteers threw themselves into the fray with gusto.  Further wood buttressing was added to prevent the trail disappearing down the hill and the ribbon of resurfacing has now reached the point where only a couple of days hard barrowing and raking is required to see the project complete.  The Eastern Moors Partnership team from the RSPB/National Trust, Rachel, Danny and Kim, gave up another sunday to provide technical input and tea and were enormously grateful for the hard work Team RS put in.  Thanks to all those who turned up and, you never know, one day we might get to do some digging with the sun on our backs!

Kick Start volunteering

Volunteering on the Eastern Moors was kick started on Sunday with a highly successful Volunteer Taster Day.  Aiming to recruit willing and enthusiastic volunteers to help with the mammoth task of looking after the magnificent Eastern Moors, the taster day led the team well on their way to achieving their goal.

35 members of the public turned out on the cold but sunny day, and brought along with them their energy and desire to help!  Many spent either a half or full day, having a go at small tree felling in Curbar Woods with Senior Warden, Kim Strawbridge, and surveying habitats on Big Moor with Projects Manager, Rachel Bennett.

The Eastern Moors team are delighted by the response and now have a long list of people wanting to find out more about volunteering.  From practical conservation tasks to improving visitor infrastructure, delivering family events and adult learning to developing websites and social media, surveying visitor perception to designing ‘invisible’ interpretation, carrying out species surveying to monitoring vegetation structure; the volunteering opportunities are endless.

If you think you might like to volunteer with the Eastern Moors team, contact us to find out more.  Email enquiries@easternmoors.org.uk

http://www.easternmoors.org.uk/get-involved/index.html

Dig it!

This weekend saw us join forces with Sheffield Wildlife Trust and their group of regular volunteers for a day out at Wimble Holme Hill to start work on the bridleway improvements. 

The Wimble Holme Hill bridleway links Totley Moor with Blacka Moor and the improvement in the route will help to create a better connection between these moors.

Clearing mud off the track

The volunteers got really stuck in, digging the ground to fill in ruts, installing revetment boards on the steepest section of the track and doing the ground work in preparation for the surfacing stone that will be added over the next few weeks.

Over the coming weeks we will be working with a variety of groups on the Wimble Holme Hill improvements. Ride Sheffield mountain biking group are with us on a dig day this coming Sunday, the National Trust Longshaw volunteer group the ‘Mudlarks’ will be helping out for a day and a final day with the group from Sheffield Wildlife Trust will take place later on in the month.

A detailed plan of the improvement works can be seen on our website in the ‘what we do’ section.

Peak Climbing Club

Crag Clearance

 

On Sunday Rachel and myself spent a great day on the crags with the Peak Climbing Club, climbing you would assume. No, the club, supported through the British Mountaineering Council are helping with the woodland plan for the Eastern Moors.

 

Following on from a day last year, the club have been working their way along the crag clearing birch saplings from the rock face itself. Sections of the crag, particularly around the north end of Curbar, are now very wooded. This has led to more mossy damp covering of the rocks. Letting the light back in will help the rare lichens on the rock, help prevent birch seed blowing up onto the moors, replace the edge as a landscape feature and improve the quality and conditions for climbing.

 

The Eastern Moors team and the National Trust estate team are currently working in the woodlands below, clearing trees to create more light to promote the growth of oak and rowan. So the Idea is to help the woodland regenerate new growth not to reduce the amount of woodland on the Eastern Moors.

 

Dead bay grove area has gone from dank and dark to dappled shade. More work is due in these areas with the Eastern Moors Partnership team following on behind. We achieved more than I had hoped, finishing under the pinnacle at Froggatt.

 A big thanks to David and the club for all their help and the biggest slices of cake I have ever seen.

 Danny.