Hughenden Manor

This tasks for this working weekend were split between two National Trust properties. On Saturday we were at West Wycombe and on Sunday we were at Hughenden Manor.

*Tasks undertaken.*
On Friday evening the 12 volunteers arrived at the Chilterns Basecamp on a lovely sunny Summer's evening. After everybody had unpacked and "settled in" we had a pleasant meal, followed by a chat from the weekend's leader regarding the tasks for the following two days. After all of the washing-up was complete we all adjourned to The Greyhound Inn in the nearby village of Aldbury for a drink and the opportunity to get to know each other.
	On the Saturday morning we met the National Trust warden and went to Church Hill at West Wycombe. This hill overlooks the A40 and is where Sir Francis Dashwood built a mausoleum for the members of the Hell Fire Club. Over the years the trees and scrub have overgrown on this hill and there is now a campaign to return the hill to it's traditional down grassland. Our task was to cut down and clear an area of scrub.
In the hot sunny weather the scrub clearance was quite demanding and amongst the thick undergrowth there was little escape from the thorns of the bramble and hawthorn. Even with a collection of scythes, loppers and bush saws, most of the team ended up with a fine collection of scratches on their arms and legs and there was also some quite painful sunburn as well!
	By the end of the day we had cleared a significant area of the scrub and piled it up ready for burning. In the afternoon the wind on the hillside was quite strong so it was felt unwise to burn the cut-down scrub at that time. With the scrub cleared the warden was able to use his chain saw to fell a few of the trees.
On the Sunday morning the warden asked us to help him with a quick task. The previous evening there had been a public event at Hughenden Manor and we were asked to collect up all of the cones, signs, ropes etc that had been used to mark out the car park area. With this completed we moved onto the main task of the day.
	On one of the tenant farms an old stock fence had fallen into disrepair and needed to be removed. The fence was about 250m long and was a metal stock fence, with two strands of barbed wire and wooden posts about every 5m. The fence had to detached from the posts and the barbed wire separated from the stock fencing.
In places the fence had fallen down and become covered in grass and soil. In these places the fence had to be dug out, plus quite a number of the fence posts also had to be dug out. Once all the fencing had been freed the barbed wire and stock fence could be rolled up for disposal.
	The wooden posts were in no condition to be reused so we collected them all together and burnt them on a large bonfire. The fence had been in place for about 40 years, but in the condition it was in it had become a danger to the sheep in the field and was now not serving any useful purpose. With the fence removed the field looked much neater.
After leaving the worksite at the end of the day we stopped at Hughenden Manor to have a quick look around the outside of the hall and to take some photos. Some of the members of the team had brought their cars to the manor and they left for home from there. The rest of us returned to the basecamp to complete the final tidying-up before leaving for home.

The weather throughout the weekend was hot and sunny and this helped to make this a very enjoyable couple of days.

The tasks for the weekend all seemed to involve removing things, removing scrub, removing cones and removing a fence. The tasks were quite physically demanding, but did give a good sense of satisfaction at the end of day.

The volunteers present:		National Trust
Ann Georgina Imogen Kay Kirsty Laura Sharna	Philip (Leader) Daniel David Hubbert Mark	Neil (Warden)

West Wycombe & Hughenden Manor Buckinghamshire
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