Wallingford Green Gym: May 2019

Green Gym working in water again: the chalk stream at Ewelme. Clearing water channels. Again. Weeding where watercress should be growing. Again.

For all that we have done this so many times before, inevitably the session began with discussion of what, exactly, is a weed at this site. A complication is that one unwanted species is a type of watercress, but apparently, “It’s the wrong sort of watercress.”

As usual, it was then a question of volunteers deciding whether to remove unwanted plants with aid of fork or by hand, and how best to get risings in wheelbarrow.

At that point, the session departed from the usual pattern for this job. The Green-Gym team began work with ten water-based volunteers and one longshoreman. This week, however, a different system was tried out for wheelbarrowing stuff to compost-heap, and returning empty barrows to where they were needed, in the stream.

Whether the new system made for greater efficiency is one for management to decide.

It made the position of dedicated longshoreman redundant. Which doubtless the longshoremen’s union is not happy about ;) All the same, it is probable that, come tea-break, Green-Gymmers’ appetites were of habitually tigerish proportions. It was thirsty work, for all that feet were in water, and more of the wet stuff was – occasionally – falling out of the sky.

There was nothing we could do about the several big areas of very short cress. Watercress appears to have stopped growing where large quantities of mud have accumulated. Which may be due to low levels of water in the stream. [You would almost think someone was trying to drink all the water in the stream – Ed.] Another time we, or other volunteers, might be invited to have another go at digging out the silt? But not today.

What a glorious day to be out on the hills!

At dawn it was quite magical. No fog lies kissing the hillside in the Chilterns this morning, was the thought which went through the photographer’s mind here:

For sure there was a little morning mist elsewhere, on the floor of the Thames Valley: enough for a scene to look romantic. It is a sign of the turn of the season – definitely summer now – that the hoarfrosts of even a week ago are now a distant memory. Around my village, the first haycut has been done. Not in meadows conserved for wildflowers (site wardens there will want to wait until much later, when seeds have dropped), but in fields where there is more of a monoculture. Farmers prefer an early cut for higher nutritional value in the crop for livestock – and the option of another crop later on in the summer:

By 10 o’clock, when Green Gym convenes, it was T-shirt warm, even up in the hills. Though most of us kept our long-sleeve tops on, for protection against thorns and insects. “Where’s the ice cream? ;)” asked one volunteer after we had climbed up to where we would be working. The reward for being quick to complete the move from temporary car-parking-venue to work-site was time out to enjoy a marvellously clear view:

Then came the moment to turn round and face the hillside, and see the tasks ahead. Fencing today, removal of. For which we split roughly into three groups, though there was quite a bit of interchange between them.

Two groups were set to carry on with a mission begun by another set of volunteers, to remove old wooden fencing and redundant gates, and replace with our old friend, Clipex.

Before: fencing old and new

Advantages of Clipex: it does not require stapling (except at the ends); and it should last 30 years, whereas wooden posts are lucky to make 10, plus they need checking annually. Likewise, the advantage of reducing the number of gates on site (having checked to see which ones visiting members of the public actually use) is saving on man/woman power; because gates need more maintenance than lengths of fencing. We debated whether we preferred the traditional wood, but then the Clipex is pretty invisible from a distance, so the jury remained out.

Here the first piece of fencing has been taken out, and one of our number is acting as temporary fence, just in case the sheep in the field below should stop eating for a moment and apply themselves to escaping. (In fact they were far too busy to notice.)

At the other corner, removing the old structures was a more substantial task. First, wire and railings were removed, then there were three gate-posts to be dug out:

In the next field along, the third group tackled a redundant exclosure. This task was, in theory, simpler: just remove the old fencing. The area had been part of a long-term experiment, to determine what conditions are the best for juniper to grow and thrive. It may be the longest-running vegetation study in Britain. It certainly has to be long-running because juniper is not only fussy about where it will thrive, but is also notoriously slow-growing. (It really does itself no favours. Hence being called “the panda of the plant world.”) And yes, ‘exclosure’ is the right word, because the fencing was to keep unwanted animals (and humans) out, rather than to keep juniper in.

This particular patch is no longer needed for the longitudinal study; and the juniper is now reasonably grown up. So, tooled up with the usual fencing pliers and hammers, Green-Gymmers set to work, dismantling the growing-pen:

Several surprises awaited us. This job was not going to be so simple after all! A first glance told us there was a cat’s cradle of wire and staples, especially at the corners:

Undaunted, we got closer and had a go with our usual fencing tools. Nothing doing!

The little blue flowers, BTW, are Germander Speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys), aka Bird's-eye Speedwell. It being a warm sunny day there were several butterflies about, including a Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas), but do you think any of them would pose for a portrait?

Time to turn to a different fencing tool, then. And, where necessary, simply cut the wire:

The corner-pieces were, for a time, left as “sculptures” in the landscape:

The next problem was the depth to which the rabbit-proof fencing had been buried. “It’s a mini-challenge,” declared the Green-Gymmers on task. Even they found it difficult:

As soon as the first length had been extracted, there were exclamations all round: “No wonder it was hard to pull up!” Those putting in the wire in the first place had done an extremely thorough job: the wire was secured – under the present level of earth – with metal stakes.

The third surprise was that taking out the first side of fencing revealed a quantity of brash, which must have been stowed over the fence-line by a previous working party (not Green Gym!) engaged on a scrub bash:

All those risings, plus those generated by our own colleagues while taking out the fencing, had to be transported, by hand, up the hill, to a spot (possibly only a temporary location) where they will not be inhibiting the growth of lovely chalk grassland with its butterfly-friendly flowers.

All in all, quite a job:

Meanwhile, Group 2 were still digging:

How deep does it go?

At last, the first post yielded to superior force:

“There’s an ’ole!”

The other two posts had surrendered by tea-break. Time for workers to down tools for a few minutes, and socialise. Or admire the view. Or both.

Fortified by caffeine and cake, Groups 1 and 2 were now mainly occupied with putting in new stock-fencing, with a couple of lines of barbed wire on top:

It was volunteers working on the juniper exclosure, who made “today’s archaeological find.” Those who discovered it, think it was basically another hole, but a fancy one with hatchway, built for use by human beings. Possibly dating from when British forces used the site during World War 2.

Any other theories?

All the old fencing-materials recovered, plus the unexpired portion of new fencing-matériel, made for an interesting time loading the trailer at the end: