19 Volunteers went to mow a meadow

In this period of wildly fluctuating weather, Sunday 27^th October was definitely at the top of the lovely end of the spectrum. Dawning gloriously sunny, the overnight jiggery-pokery with the clocks left everyone (or at least your easily confused correspondent) in a spin. Was it dawn? Was it getting on for dusk? Yesterday it never seemed to get light; everything was seen through a sheen of drizzle. Today was the exact opposite, and for another Commons working party we all sprang to with a will, and a cheery whistle on our lips.

The work required was again somewhat out of the normal: this time we were turning our attention to School Meadow, which we have previously had little time to devote to it. This is an open area to the side of School Common, and I suspect one that is often overlooked by visitors. A side-track from the main path through School Common leads into the meadow, and that in itself was in need of attention. David Attenborough once did a series called “The Life of Plants”, featuring a lot of time-lapse photography of flowers opening and the like. I remember being particularly impressed by a sequence showing brambles growing, which as we all know is something they do a lot. That sequence showed the spikey things shooting about all over the place, at such speed that anything in their way was going to get smothered. Having seen the path leading into School meadow, I now think the sequence was filmed in real time. Only a few days before, I had walked down there relatively untroubled by the fearsome stuff, but now it was clogging the place up with almost Amazonian zeal. Something had to be done.

Armed only with loppers and bow saws, a crack squad of volunteers set about hacking the stuff back (that’s Commons speak for “trimming”).

Meanwhile, the meadow itself submitted to the irresistible force of Grizzly.

The resulting mass of cut grass was then rolled up by rakers, and plonked onto a dragsheet by pitchforkers in time-honoured fashion. Those rakes are really useful, and as one lady raker said, she does like a big rake. This was not the time or the place for the winch, so also in time-honoured fashion the drag sheet was, yes, you guessed it, dragged to the edge of the meadow and emptied of its grassy contents.

Loppers to the fore, the crack lopping team set about advising the encroaching bushes to mind their manners and stand respectfully at the edge of the meadow, thus allowing the sun’s rays to have full effect on the sward below.

There was an excellent turnout of 19 of us, so, especially as we were working in a small area, it was possible to split our forces, and our two top brush cutter operatives were sent to, well, cut some brush. At least they were far enough away so that the noise of their machines did not drown out the noise of Grizzly or the grunts and groans of the labouring loppers and rakers. The real explanation was given that the wretched machines again declined to start without considerable effort and, it must be recorded, fortitude on the part of those two top brush cutter operatives. Even so, we delicate souls were spared having to hear the coarse imprecations that doubtless accompanied their efforts: not what one wants on a Sunday morning.

They were summoned back for tea break, which they did with alacrity: see the conquering hero comes.

Here are the obligatory shots recording the break; the biscuit options are definitely improving all the time.

This was an expert demo of our new sport of hurling the brambles:

It might come as a surprise to the uninformed reader, but dragsheet management is a crucial element of the work, and is not to be taken lightly or scornfully. Making sure they are facing in the right direction is necessary; starting them off when winching is best done with a whistle (providing a whistle blower has turned up); and packing them up neatly at the close of play is self-evidently The Right Thing To Do. Your correspondent includes this image with all due modesty; the caption is the photographer’s:

Showing us how to roll the sheets - an expert at work:

Being nature lovers, we are privileged to work amongst some wonderful flora and fauna (as well as brambles). Here is some very attractive lichen (thanks Cornel for pointing it out).

After a very successful two hours, the meadow and its furniture were left looking good.

As the poet W.H. Davies asked, “What is this world if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?” We can’t tell from this angle, but it’s possible these tired, but essentially satisfied souls had straws in mouths as they contemplated the sunny scene.

Here is Team Leader Margaret’s message of thanks:

Thank you all for a tremendous turnout on such a lovely morning. Shame Wales didn't win but at least you will all be free to watch the final next Saturday.

You all did a brilliant job as hacking through brambles and blackthorn is never a nice task. We will be writing to the School to tell them that the area has been tidied up in the hope they might be inclined to use it a little more.

So that you can forward plan a little, in two weeks time 10th Nov we will be trimming back the willows that grow along the boardwalk near the container with the aim of cutting it back by up to 6ft to reduce the summer growth. Then the last weekend in November we will cut the Bradfield Road spur where the snowdrops are and hopefully the rest of the fen.

As usual we will not work in December returning on the 5th Jan to cut the reed bed opposite the container down towards the beck. We anticipate this taking 4 sessions Jan 5th, 19th, Feb 2th and 16th. We hope to see you all there.

Once again very many thanks for all your hard work

Margaret