Category Archives: Thursday Conservation Group

More dead hedges!

Posted on October 2, 2016 by ashridgevolunteersblog

Dead hedges have become very fashionable at Ashridge. The weather last Thursday was inclement, but the volunteers produced their longest dead hedge to date. It required six machine loads of logs and brash to produce some seventy yards of hedging. … Continue reading →

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Why Do I Volunteer?

Posted on September 27, 2016 by ashridgevolunteersblog

Thanks to Roger Evans and Rikki Harrington for their take on “why I volunteer”. It’s an exciting time for volunteering in the Trust , according to Helen Timbrell, the Volunteering and Community Involvement Director. Since 2012 the whole organisation has … Continue reading →

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No comment!

Posted on September 23, 2016 by ashridgevolunteersblog

The Thursday group showed their strength again this week with thirty plus volunteers turning out, along with five staff members. This enabled the Trust to form three working parties. One to repair the dead hedge at the V C which … Continue reading →

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A special place

Posted on September 18, 2016 by ashridgevolunteersblog

A record crowd of over thirty volunteers turned up last Thursday and were assigned to the Beacon. This extensive chalk down-land is a “special place” – the current national T V advertising campaign by the Trust alludes to this. With … Continue reading →

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Hotel accommodation for invertebrates.

Posted on August 11, 2016 by ashridgevolunteersblog

The Trust are now taking winter bookings at the Visitor Centre from “invertebrates”, for the new Inn on the Green. A new five star attraction offering the latest facilities for wasps, bees, flies, hover-flies, spiders and the like. Originally constructed … Continue reading →

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Painting in the Park

Posted on July 23, 2016 by ashridgevolunteersblog

Ten members of the Thursday group took up their paint rollers to maintain the metal Park fence at Little Gaddesden, last painted many years ago. In the 1800’s much of the Park was enclosed with this type of fencing, and … Continue reading →

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Princess Anne’s Plantation – part III

Posted on July 16, 2016 by ashridgevolunteersblog

Some lovely shots of Clipper Down and Pitstone Hill on a summer’s day. On Thursday the team were removing more of the wire netting from the redundant fence line, but the gate posts proved to be immovable. Clipper Down is … Continue reading →

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Making charcoal

Posted on July 16, 2016 by ashridgevolunteersblog

How to make charcoal – easy peasy! The charcoal burner’s trade secrets were handed down from one generation to the next, and charcoal fired the early Industrial Revolution until it was replaced by coke. As a woodland industry it started … Continue reading →

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Helping the flora

Posted on July 13, 2016 by ashridgevolunteersblog

Ashridge supports a number of rare flowers, mainly on the chalk downland like the fleawort and early gentian. However there is one rarity which hides away in the deep shade of the beech woods – the violet helleborine. Harding’s Rookery is … Continue reading →

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Princess Anne’s Plantation – part II

Posted on July 12, 2016 by ashridgevolunteersblog

Having stripped out the old barbed wire fence running down from Duncombe Terrace, the Thursday team moved onto Clipper Down to take out an obsolete fence line. These old fences are a hazard for the resident deer herd. With the … Continue reading →

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