A great talk at Probus this week. A volunteer speaker from the Woodland Trust, David Mason, talked to us about Hackfall, a wonderfully restored woodland garden next to the river Ure, near Grewelthorpe.

Created in the 1750s by Studley Royal owners the famous  Aislaby family, Hackfall, with its network of footpaths, fascinating follies and fantastic vistas between the mature trees, became first a playground for the rich and famous and later a (or THE) place to visit for the public. After falling into disrepair over the centuries it was sold in the 1930s to a lumber company who proceeded to chop down or coppice most of the trees!

A sympathetic restoration of the regrown trees (now more than 80 years old!) makes this a fabulous place to visit – indeed our Probus Walking group visited there a couple of years ago for an interesting walk – and I think we may visit again after hearing this talk!

Closer to home (Harrogate), I’ve been involved with my fly fishing club in doing our own maintenance (no restoration is required – it’s generally in very good shape) of the club’s stretch of the river Nidd. This is mostly to improve access to the river so we can catch a few more trout or grayling – so a bit of self interest at work!

Work it is, though, as you can see from the photo. A few quite large branches overhanging or actually in the river have been cut up and removed.

Every little helps!