Last week nine students from the University of the West of England volunteered to work in Filnore Woods as part of their WOW week. They are all 1st Year Occupational Therapy students and at this time of year they have a week called Widening Occupations Week - WOW, during which they do volunteering work in the wider community as part of their course.
We have been coppicing in the Paddock area over the past few months and found that there is a steep drop down to the stream which flows past. When this area was worked on some time ago a fence was built on the bank alongside the stream. Over time it has deteriorated and needed replacing so that was the task the students worked on.
On Monday six of the students arrived and our first job was to clear the brambles and other bits of vegetation away from the stream bank. You can see some of the poles from the old fence on the left.
Clearing this area was hard work but with everyone pitching in it wasn't long before the stream bank was accessible and we could soon start to construct the fence.
We began by making a line of stakes 2 to 3 feet apart then weaved thinner lengths of hazel poles between them at ground level. This helps to hold the stakes in place when more layers are weaved higher up the fence.
We carried on weaving using the thinner poles produced when we coppiced the paddock last autumn. When the fence was nearly up to the top of the stakes the odd 'sticky out' bits were tidied up and this section of fence was complete.
The other three students arrived the next day and began to extend the fence beyond the hazel tree you can see at the far end. We needed more stakes and some thinner poles so Hannah and Eilish coppiced them from a small hazel near the one that was to become the starting point of their fence.
Once they had enough stakes and thin poles they were joined by Supresha and began to build....
...and before long the fence extension was complete.
We were very pleased with all the hard work put in by both sets of students and hope to see them again some time in the future. They are a shining example of young people helping others in local communities.
