Saturday 11th August 2018
Report written by Paul Becker (he/him)
The weekend of the balloon fiesta saw many folks up early to watch the unfolding spectacle so it was good to see plenty arrive for our group run today. We even had a visitor from Cardiff - nice to have you along today Martin!
With the recent dry conditions, fire starting is definitely not a good option up on Narroways nature reserve but we found a rhyming equivalent up on 'Cutthroat lane' today as we helped repair a fence. We were joining one of the regular workdays run by volunteers up at the reserve and were shown how to staple the new fencing onto the existing wooden posts before reinforcing the midsections by using twisted wire to connect the new fence to the old. With a bit of practice, the quality of these twists improved noticeably over the course of the session - as can be seen in the photograph above!
But fence repair was not our sole occupation today. While one group did a fantastic job of collecting 3 or 4 bags of litter from the bottom of the hill and neighbouring community garden a third group got cracking on some brambles and unwanted ash seedlings further round the hill. Liam in particular seemed to enjoy wielding a rather savage looking billhook - and was certainly give a healthy amount of space to do said wielding by his companions!
A last minute surge of wire twisting and a few helpings of blackberry crumble meant that we began our return a little later than planned so it was a rather hurried dash back to base but there was still time for a quick coffee for anyone heading on to the GG Bristol summer BBQ later.
Narroways Hill is a little grassy & wooded ridge in the neighbourhood of St Werburghs. When British Rail threatened to sell it to developers in 1997 it caused such a reaction that 800 local people demonstrated to save it, thousands signed petitions & wrote letters and money was raised so it was purchased by Bristol City Council. Nowadays, the site is looked after by [Narroways Millennium Green Trust](https://narroways.wordpress.com/about/), the charity set up to administer and manage the site now that it has Millennium Green status. All the work needed to maintain the site and keep it available to be enjoyed by the local community (and wildlife!) is carried out by a small group of volunteers and enthusiasts
See moreSat 11th Aug 2018 at 10:19pm
Thank you for the hospitality and letting me run with you guys. It was a lovely way to spend the morning.
Sat 11th Aug 2018 at 11:47pm
Great to have you join us today Martin - thanks for coming over to visit!
Fri 17th Aug 2018 at 12:06am
Thanks for coming along and helping so much! The Narroways volunteers group usually only gets half a dozen volunteers or so. Having you guys along made a huge difference to the amount we could get done. You’re all welcome back at any time! See http://narroways.wordpress.com for details
Bristol
A chance to banish some brambles and other weeds