Ancient Monument Clearance Thread

[Matthew Arnold]

As several people have added threads i thought i may as well add one too. This is basically showing any ancient monument clearance that we have carried out over the past year or two. Feel free to add your pictures.

[Matthew Arnold]

Sorry for the massive set of pics

[Will Hinchliffe]

Castle hill ?

[Matthew Arnold]

How did you guess lol. Its the only site in shaftesbury we manage at the moment. As well as the monument to manage we also are controlling the nightmare plant Himalayan Balsam. The only trouble is we have a few new plants growing in 4 ft high brambles.

[Matthew Arnold]

Lots more images will be apearing on here this winter as we have 4 ancient monuments to clear. one of which hasnt been touched on its outer flanks for nearly 15 years. And the site is an SNCI due to its wildflower contents.

[garth mc garth]

nice work, did you have to clear / burn all the arisings or could you leave as mulch?

[Matthew Arnold]

we could leave the green as mulch but any of the wood arising from the winter clearance we burnt on site. On all of the ancient monuments we manage we have authority to burn in a specific area which is pretty hand. We have already got them booked in for this winters work plan. We will be borrowing some colleagues chipper for about 8 weeks. during the winter. Its mainly to catch up on what we missed last year as one of my colleagues broke his leg felling a tree.

[garth mc garth]

so is there a maintenance schedule ie regular mowing after the clearance is done?? curious as i got a 10 acre monument to clear this winter.

[Matthew Arnold]

ye. ideally after you clear the monument you wait until late spring - early summer to go around and cut and treat thr stumps. We normally use neat round up to treat them. It has a 98% success rate but then give it a few years it would be worth using a forestry mulcher to get rid of the stumps n various bits. But obviousily being careful of the terrain. We cant do that on any of our monuments as they are all on steep slopes.

[garth mc garth]

ah, the spec is all arisings to be removed off site so a mowing schedule can start within a year. i wanted to mulch the lot initially but now they require it all to be left as bare ground as not to interfere with the regrowth of grass.