8.5 volunteers at Hindolveston and Wood Norton

What a beautiful morning to have an excuse to be out in nature! When events on the world stage seem increasingly perilous, focusing in on our home environment where we can make a difference in a small way, but a difference nonetheless, seems a good thing to do.

Eight (or 8.5, according to Peter) keen volunteers met at our site in Hindolveston, an old surveyor’s allotment. In the time since Felbeck Trust took over the management of this lovely site, things have really moved on apace.

To start with, the site was very overgrown with no discernible pathways through, trees seemingly growing out of the many ponds and very little sunlight peeking through. Many volunteer hours and tree surgeon work have gone into making this site begin to realise its full potential, with pathways being established, bridges put in and sluices built and now sunlight is percolating through where it was absent before.

Our work today partly focused on increasing the access – putting in steps leading to a bridge and using additional logs either side of the bridge to make it more stable. Metal staples were hammered in over the wooden bridge to make it anti-slip. One team worked on digging out a small channel to drain water from one damp area to another. This will become another point of access with a pathway leading through to one of the ponds. We also worked further on into the site to create a new route by removing brambles and using smaller logs to create a ‘corduroy path’.

These logs define the path and also cover a damp area to make walking in wet weather less perilous. One of our tasks was to clear the brambles sticking out of the established pathways, a continuation of last month’s work, removing the roots if possible.

And so onto nearby Wood Norton for a well-earned mid-morning break. After a bit of a chat as we sat in the sun, most returned to Hindolveston to continue work while three of us worked to flesh out the dry hedge that marks the field boundary on the far side.

We had lots of dug-up brambles and dog-roses from Hindolveston to replant, and 20 whips to put in. Digging in and amongst the dry hedge wasn’t always easy – we had enjoyed an easy ride at Hindolveston where the ground was soft. However, in no time at all our planting was completed. We paused on the way back to the tool store to look out at the expanse of water, with plenty of trees growing out of and at the side of the pond but now with plenty of sunlight filtering through. All due to the excellent tree surgery that has been done on site to drag out a number of trees and allow light to get through to the woodland floor, encouraging a greater variety of species to flourish.

A satisfying morning’s work all in all. Both sites are really lovely now, due to hard work and above all good planning.

Our next work party is in Sustead on Thursday March 20th.

Elizabeth Shadbolt

March 6th 2025