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The Biomass boiler has been in operation at Croft Castle for over 7 years and a regular supply of wood is required to keep the system running. Timber is brought from the estate and stacked in the wood yard where it awaits the mammoth wood chipper which is employed to…
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The Woodland at Croft is in the Countryside Stewardship Scheme and an element of that is to clear the Silver Fir from the eastern side of the Fishpool Valley and bringing sunlight back into that part of Highwood Bank. Much of this work began back in 2012 and has been…
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It was the first day back after the Christmas & New Year break and a gentle start to the year with some pruning of the young apple trees in the New Orchard. However the older apple trees looked more like mistletoe trees and it was time to cut away the…
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Back in 2013, I think it was back then, we planted some fruit trees in what is called the New Orchard which lies just to the north of the Castle. The Orchard isn’t new, it appears on some old maps under that name, however there were a few very old…
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Croft Parkland is noted for its trees, perhaps the most notable are the rows of Spanish Sweet Chestnut Trees, with their twisted trunks and the barks with their deep fissures. However if you are a lover of tress you don’t need to search for long to find other trees of…
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Whilst clearing away some of the regeneration of Silver Fir on the high bank overlooking the Fishpool Valley I wandered into an area of the Parkland I hadn’t been to before. I saw a tree that look quite unusual and on inspection found myself looking at a tree that had…
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This summer you may have seen Crunchie with two of his cobs working in the wood pasture or perhaps on the lower rampart of the Iron Age Hill Fort as depicted in the video clip above. The Cobs were pulling a roller which is used as a low impact method of…
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Summer brings an increase in visitors to the parkland and for us as rangers a change of pace in regard to what we are able to do; we are on what industry would term ‘reduced hours’. Until almost the end of August all of our activity is low key maintenance…
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The Postmen & Postwomen of the Parkland. Over the past few years as a group of volunteers, we have been renewing and replacing way-marker posts and signs in order to make the walks in the parkland easier to follow. In fact we have been doing this so frequently we have…
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Much of the work we do as ranger volunteers is related to helping to maintain the woodland. Throughout the parkland there are numerous ancient and veteran trees, interestingly all have been tagged and their positions recorded in recent times; when looking at old maps of the estate there is evidence…
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