2-Sep-25

A party of 9 volunteers met on the stone bridge just off Hartley Lane for three jobs. The main one was the strimming of the meadow and the other two were replacing some fencing and replacing a panel in the boardwalk on the south-side path opposite the meadow.

Two volunteers set off to tackle the repairs while the rest tackled the strimming. It didn’t take long to repair the broken panel and fix the fencing, so it was all-hands-on-deck getting the grass cut.

Photograph A. Stile after fence repair

It’s the first time in a couple of years we have tackled the meadow. We deliberately left it to see what impact this would have on the growing of wildflowers and on wildlife. It was decided there was no major impact on either so it was decided to start strimming again.

There were four groups of two (one with strimmer and one with rake) and one person working independently clearing the grass along the river bank so that the other four groups had an area to roll their cuttings into.

Photograph B. Meadow before mowing

We marked off areas of about five metres with bamboo sticks for safety and, starting at the path, headed towards the river bank with one person strimming and the other following behind with a rake rolling the vegetation like a cigar towards the river bank.

Photograph C. Meadow after mowing (with ghost rainbow!)

The weather was cloudy at first but the sun soon showed up and we were glad to stop for refreshments and a biscuit from one of the volunteers returning from holiday. We got a fair bit done but we ran out of time so, realising that we will have to return next week to finish the task, we gathered up the tools, cleaned them down, loaded up the van and headed home for shower and a spot of lunch.

Not much wildlife to report – a rabbit in the next field, a shield beetle and a frog got rehoused.

16-Sep-25

The Working Party was preparing the ground for our Silver Anniversary event this morning. This will take place on Tuesday 23rd September and will give local children the opportunity to plant 25 silver birches – signifying the 25 years that Friends of Holwell Dene has been operating – on the slopes running down to the estuary near St Paul’s Church, Seaton Sluice.

Eleven of us volunteers assembled near the church. As usual, we clustered round the van while the tools and equipment were got ready. We then trekked the short distance to the planting ground, which is the slope below Byewell Terrace.

Two of us pushed stakes into the ground to mark the proposed positions of the trees. Meanwhile the others formed themselves into strimming pairs – one strimmer and one raker. The slopes were covered in grasses, thistles and brambles so it was necessary to strim around each planting site. Also, to make things go smoothly on the day, we dug holes at each planting spot and then filled them in again – to ensure that holes can be dug easily on the 23rd.

Photograph A. Strimming the planting areas

Photograph B. The warning sign we always put out when strimming

It was noted that the soil was dry, dusty and full of bits of brick and pottery, reflecting the fact that it is an old dumping ground dating from the industrial Seaton Sluice of the 18th and 19th centuries. We will therefore have to water the saplings in well when the time comes, and possibly dig in some compost.

The silver birch is a very elegant small tree with silvery bark. The trees need to be kept well spaced apart so that they don’t compete with each other and grow spindly. They are famous for growing almost anywhere, so should not be put off by the low quality of the soil; in fact they may derive mineral nutrients from it.

After clearing spaces for the tree-planting event, we did some strimming of the path along the eastern side of the estuary, but it turned out that not much was needed. That being the case, we realised that we had run out of things to do, so we had an early finish this morning.

The weather was fine and the views around the estuary we very photogenic.

Photograph C. The estuary scene

9-Sep-25

A party of nine volunteers met at the metal gate on the Hartley West Farm road for a morning of strimming and balsam bashing. After a quick safety briefing, so that everyone knew where they were working, we split into two groups. Seven headed towards the meadow to finish last week’s work and the other two prepared to head upstream to tackle the Himalayan balsam that had been reported to us.

A member of the FoHD had reported to us that there were some balsam plants beside the upstream wooden bridge near the Rest a While seat, so it was decided to search the dene from the meadow to the mouth of the tunnel.

Wearing waders, one of the two entered the water at the meadow and started searching both sides of the river bank, pulling out these invasive weeds as they were encountered. The other person walked along the river back, trying to spot any plants higher up the bank and keeping an eye on the person in the water for safety reasons. Over two hundred plants – many of which were about to seed – were pulled, bagging the flowering heads.

The other seven volunteers set about finishing off strimming the meadow. We were, as usual, taking care every time someone came past to stop and let them pass safely. By mid-morning, with the sun popping through the clouds, it was hot work and were glad for our refreshments. By the end of the morning the meadow was finished and off we went home for a shower and a spot of lunch.

Photograph A. Mowing meadow

Photograph B. Meadow after mowing

Next week we will probably be working down Seaton Sluice area preparing the area picked out to plant 25 Silver Birch trees to mark the silver anniversary of FoHD. We will be planting the saplings the following week and we have arranged for pupils from the local school to do the honours for us.

Photograph C. Haws – hawthorn berries

30-Sep-25

A party of 9 volunteers met on a mild autumn day at the Northumbrian Water pumping station at Holywell to repair a broken gate and to do a general clean-up of the area. After a safety briefing we split into a team of 3 to repair the gate and gatepost, and a team of 6 to do the clean-up. Wheelbarrows loaded up, we headed to the waggonway area to commence work.

The first task for 3 volunteers was to remove the remains of the old gatepost. This took a lot longer than first anticipated as the concrete went into the ground a long way down. It was very hot work but perseverance prevailed and the stump was removed.

Photograph A. Gate before work

The bottom of the hole had a little bit more soil to be removed before the new post could be fitted. Postcrete was then added with a bit of water to anchor it down – this sets very quickly. Great care has to be taken to make sure the post is vertical so the gate hangs correctly. The repaired gate was added, tested and everything was working properly.

Photograph B. Gate being fixed

The other 6 volunteers split into 3 teams of 2 and cleared the area of any Himalayan balsam. There were quite a few ready to flower; these were all pulled up and removed to a refuse bin. The surrounding trees were checked for any ivy growing up their trunks, which was removed if found by cutting an 8-inch gap to cut off its growth. Also, litter was collected up and removed.

Photograph C. Removing Himalayan balsam

Both jobs finished just before lunch time so wheelbarrows with tools were returned to the van and off we headed home.

23-Sep-25

This was a special day for Friends of Holywell Dene. Eight volunteers met up in the car park beside the Harbour View fish bar, but we were going to take the back seat for a change and let others do the majority of the work.

Two wheelbarrows having been loaded up with tools, we went down the slope behind the chippy to the area we had prepared last week. There were numerous containers of water that had been dropped off at the end of Queen’s Road. After those had been collected, it was a waiting game until our helpers arrived.

Photograph A. The silver birches and the Working Party

It had been arranged that 25 pupils from Year 5, aged 9 to 10, from Seaton Sluice Middle School would plant 25 silver birch trees to mark the silver anniversary of the FoHD group. When they arrived they were given instructions on how to plant the trees and how to fit the tree guards correctly.

The children picked up the pots containing the tree saplings and, after being told by the teacher present to work in pairs, off they went to the prepared holes that had been pre-dug for them. They turned each pot over to release the sapling and then planted it in the ground. A plastic guard was carefully placed over the plant to protect it, a stake was driven into the ground and a zip lock connected.

Photograph B. Silver birch sapling with post and guard

The children then went to the next tree location and repeated the process until all saplings were in the allocated spaces. As a reward for their efforts, refreshments and biscuits were soon polished off. A roll-call was made to check that all the children were accounted for, then they were off to school to begin normal school activities.

Photograph C. Planted saplings

Photograph D. Planted saplings

There was little left for us to do, so tools were loaded onto the wheelbarrows, taken back to the van, loaded up – and we went home for a shower and a bit of lunch.

7-Oct-25

The Working Party of eight volunteers was working on a variety of jobs near the tunnel this morning, on a dull but dry day.

We assembled near the Northumbrian Water pumping station near Holywell, where we can conveniently park our tools van. We then marched, with all our tools, to the gate at the southern end of the embankment of the old railway. It this point we split into three groups.

One group, of two volunteers, went to clear mud and leaves from the drainage ditch beside the Rest a While seat. This job only took a couple of minutes then they returned to the main party.

Photograph A. Drainage ditch after clearing-out

The second group, of two people, started work on cutting ivy from trees and removing sycamore saplings. This included using the bowsaw to cut down three sycamores that were a bigger than mere saplings.

The third group, of four, started work meanwhile finishing off last week’s work on the gate. A rotten post was removed from the ground – with considerably greater ease than the one that had to be removed last week. Four lengths of timber were cut and attached to the side-panel, replacing the old decaying material. Finally, the gap that people had been pushing through was filled in with a metal grille.

Photograph. B. Repairing gate

Photograph C. Finished gate

As we were finishing for the day, five volunteers went to clear the path of a tree brought down during Storm Amy over the weekend. With loppers and bow saws they soon cleared a path so walkers can get past. Unfortunately the truck of the tree was too big for us to cut, so we will have to send an email to Northumberland County Council to get them to remove it.

Photograph D. Tree blocking path

Photograph E. Partial clearance

Not much to report on the wildlife front, but we were accompanied by a robin while we were having our break, as we often are. I think we are all relieved that Storm Amy did not cause more damage than it did, because the trees were still in full leaf and therefore vulnerable to damage by storm-force winds.

14-Oct-25

A working party of nine turned out on Tuesday morning to do various jobs in the vicinity of the meadow near the stone bridge. We were doing two things that morning: (1) sowing yellow rattle in the meadow, and (2) clearing out drainage channels.

Yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor) is a native plant which is often used to improve wildflower meadows. It parasitises tall grasses and other large plants by inserting its roots into those of the plants it preys on. It reduces their vigour and thereby reduces the competition they pose to smaller, more attractive wildflowers. The end result is a meadow with a wide variety of flowers that are attractive to butterflies, bees etc.

So, we strimmed and raked some areas of the meadow, then sowed the yellow rattle seed on the prepared ground and pressed them in. I guess we’ll see how well it has worked next summer.

Photograph A. Meadow sowed with yellow rattle

This work was done by a group of three volunteers. The other six meanwhile set to work clearing out the gully or small ditch running down one side of the Hartley West Farm access road where it comes down a steep bank. Mattocks and spades were the main tools used.

Photograph B. Clearing channel

Photograph C. Result

We do this every year to prevent water flowing down the slope and flooding the meadow as happened a couple of years ago. (We also installed a field drain in the meadow for the same reason.)

The next job was to dig a channel along one side of the stone bridge. The objective, again, was to keep water flowing along the side of the roadway not across it.

While this was going on, the four volunteers who had been sowing yellow rattle started work clearing the channel that runs from the road to the river across the land close to the dipping pond. This also needs an annual clean-out.

It was a dull, misty and damp day without much wildlife interest, but we noticed there was large flock of rooks at the tall beeches alongside Hartley Lane which were calling loudly and flying around apparently aimlessly. A little wren sang loudly as we were having our refreshment break – which was made more pleasant by our lady chair bringing a tin of choccy treats, I think to celebrate our financially successful coffee morning on Saturday.

28-Oct-25

A project to improve the drainage of the path along the west side of the estuary was commenced this morning by nine volunteers, on a sunny but chilly day.

Memories of the dry months of the 2025 summer are a fading memory now, and the theme of today was mud – wet, sticky mud. Indeed the whole idea of the project is to combat mud and improve the walkability of the estuary path. The problem is that there is a steep slope above the west-side path, which means that when it rains, water pours down onto the path making it muddy and puddley.

The long-standing solution has been to have a ditch along the up-slope side of the path and a series of gullies across the path to get the water away and into the burn. Today we were improving the gullies by digging them out, putting a plastic culvert tube in and covering over with flat stones.

The flat stones were obtained from the river bed. There used to be a stepping-stone crossing, but the stones had got displaced by the force of the burn and were scattered about, along with other stones.

We started off using our hand winch to haul stones out of the river. It soon became apparent, however, that this was too slow so we hauled the stones out by hand to the river bank, then used the winch to get them up and onto the bank.

Photograph A. Removing stones from river

Having got them out, we used our sack-trolley (which has hardly been used before now) to get them to where they were needed.

While four volunteers were doing this, the other five were digging out one of the cross-path gullies. A length of plastic pipe was laid in the trench which was then filled in and paved over with stones from the river.

Photograph B. Digging out gully

By the time this was complete, we were past the halfway mark of the session so rather than dig out another gully, we decided to repair a section of path that had become eroded. This involved digging out the mud from the eroded section and placing flat river stones in that place.

Photograph C. Repaired path.

We will undoubtedly be back next week to continue this project.

The estuary is always good for wildlife, and today we saw a little egret, a heron and lots of mallard, and heard the haunting call of the redshank – the “sentinel of the marsh”. The trees are turning to their autumn shades and the beeches, in particular, are a beautiful mixture of green, yellow and copper.

21-Oct-25

Eleven volunteers met up at Dene Cottage, on an overcast day with a forecast of showers, for a day of gully clearance in the estuary area and some tree-planting in the same area.

After a quick safety talk and with everyone knowing what job they were doing, off we went with two wheelbarrows of tools and left-over silver birch saplings from our silver jubilee tree planting. Two volunteers took charge of the tree planting, deciding the best position for the saplings. After the planting they rejoined the main party.

The main party went up the estuary to the wooden bridge and started to clear the gullies of mud and leaves. It wasn’t long before the expected rain started to fall, but luckily the trees that line the path provided us with some cover.

Photograph A. Clearing out side-gullies

Photograph B. Clearing out cross-gully

We made good progress, moving slowly back along the path towards the van, clearing path-side and drainage gullies. We also dug a couple of new gullies to drain some areas which are now getting flooded.

I don’t know whether it was fortunately or unfortunately – with the rain falling – but the time beat us, so we cleaned up the tools and headed back to the van and home for a shower and a spot of lunch.

One of us kept an eye open for wildlife and landscape photo opportunities (see Facebook). So here’s a composite image of some of the wildlife she recorded.

Photograph C. Wildlife