Fountains Abbey |
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| Location Map |
Working Holiday Details
Fountains Abbey |
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| Location Map |
Date: 22nd - 24th February 2002 |
| Location: Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal, North Yorkshire |
| Basecamp: Whitefields Cottage - Studley Royal Estate |
| The volunteers present: | National Trust | |
Karen (Leader) Anne Bronwyn Joanne Nicola Susie |
Adrian Craig Dale David John Kevin |
Kath (Volunteer Co-ordinator) John |
This was my first National Trust Working Holiday and I was not at all sure what it was going to be like. However, I was looking forward to the weekend in the open air, with some useful conservation work to complete.
On the Friday as I drove towards Fountains Abbey the weather was atrocious with lorries being blown over on the motorway. Part of the roof at York railway station had blown down and many people were delayed arriving at the basecamp.
| Tasks undertaken. | |
| The high winds had blown down a lot of tree branches around the estate.
A major part of Saturday's work was to clear this wood from pathways, then cut it up and move it to where we had lit a huge bonfire to burn all of the unwanted wood. During the morning it did snow a couple of times, which made lighting the fire a bit of a challenge, but as it was in such a beautiful part of the estate, nobody seemed to mind. |
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In the afternoon we split into a number of smaller groups and continued
to clear trees from around the estate. A fallen tree at the top of a slope had to be sawn up and moved to the base of the slope so that the full time staff could later take away the wood. The larger parts of the trunk were left to become a haven for insects and small animals. |
| Laurel trees become very invasive amongst the woodlands and hedgerows
around Fountains Abbey. On the Sunday morning we cleared large areas of Laurel trees to allow the remaining trees in the woodland to develop more naturally. Large piles of cut trees were left for the gardeners to clear after we had finished. |
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On the Sunday afternoon John (a long term volunteer) gave us a guided
tour of Fountains Abbey. His knowledge and enthusiasm for the Abbey made this a very informative and entertaining tour. This was an excellent way to conclude our weekend at Fountains Abbey. |
I thoroughly enjoyed my first Working Holiday. The other volunteers were all very friendly from a variety of backgrounds, all with the intention of having a very enjoyable weekend, whilst undertaking a large amount of useful work for the National Trust.
Karen was an excellent leader and a special mention must be made for the delicious scones that she had baked herself and brought along for us to devour.
On my return from this weekend I went straight on the telephone to book another weekend. The whole weekend far exceeded all of my expectations.
