Welcome to High Wray Basecamp’s 2012 yearbook Nestled in its own private wooded grounds, High Wray is the National Trust’s full time volunteer centre in the Lake District. We’re proud to be part of the South Lakes property, a gloriously diverse area that covers everything from lakeshore to high fell. Our area includes famous beauty spots like Tarn Hows and Windermere lake, Beatrix Potter’s house Hill Top and even a castle. With 15 working farms and a wonderful network of paths linking all this together that’s a lot of land to look after! Luckily, our small ranger team doesn’t have to do all this by themselves, we’re here to help with an ever willing army of volunteers from all walks of life. We aim to help people feel they’ve contributed something towards a beautiful place, learnt some new skills and had some fun doing it! We believe that there’s no such thing as a ‘typical volunteer’ and this yearbook aims to show

the variety of people it’s been our privilege to work with over the last year, as well as to say a very big thank you to each and every one of them. We’d have a much harder job looking after our fantastic area without your help - we look forward to seeing many of you again in 2013!

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There’s not enough room to fit everything into this yearbook so why not keep up with what’s happening at High Wray by checking our Facebook page? We post regular stories and pictures about the different groups we work with, places we’ve been and wildlife we’ve seen as well as

those odd little events that just can’t be categorised!

High Wray is supported by Fix the Fells, a long term partnership between the National Trust and other organisations with an interest in combating erosion problems in the uplands, including the National Park Authority, Natural England and Friends of the Lake District. To find out more about Fix the Fells go to www.fixthefells.co.uk

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With such a diverse and interesting area there’s always something happening in the South Lakes. Why not try visiting: http://beatrixpotterspatch.blogspot.co.uk/; for the latest from Hill Top. http://www.countryside-catchup.blogspot.co.uk/ for weekly reports on what our ranger team have been up to. Wray castle also has its own Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/NTWrayCastle

Top left - Tarn Hows Left - Wray Castle Below - Hill Top

Some of the groups who come to High Wray gain recognition of their experiences and their contribution towards the conservation of wild places through the John Muir award. The award can help those who participate to gain a better understanding and appreciation of how their time with us is more than just working and how their contribution fits into the bigger pic-ture. A famous quote from John Muir sums it up: ‘When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe’. This year TTP, Littledale Hall, Kirklees College and CDOT all gained the award through their weeks with us - that’s 104 people! www.johnmuiraward.org

At High Wray we aim to build long term partnerships with the organisations that we work with. By doing this we gain a better understanding of what they want to get out of working with us and they make the most of their visits here. We think that the fact many of our groups come back year on year is a testament to the success of this approach and we’re always trying to build and improve on these relationships.

Partnerships - some examples

Cumbria Mind A national mental health charity; we’ve been working with Mind since the ‘Out There’ project in 2009. As part of this and with the support of Fix the Fells, the Barrow branch started monthly visits to Basecamp to take part in conservation work. When ‘Out There’ ended we got together with them and National Trust rangers at Sandscale Haws to continue the work days. Now Mind visit both us and Sandscale monthly and also come here for an overnight stay in the summer. www.mind.org.uk

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TTP (Trust the Process) Formerly known as Inward House and founded in 1978 in Lancaster to provide residential rehabilitation for people recovering from drug problems, Inward House has developed to become one of the major voluntary sector drug service providers in the North West. Similarly to LHTC they give us some of our most rewarding weeks work all year. Sian, a support worker said, “There’s no computers, no distractions and they’ve really come together as a community. The benefit of coming here is massive and I think it’s a big part of their treatment programme. You’re seeing a side to them that you wouldn’t normally see in a town and I’m hoping they can take a little bit of Basecamp back with them”. http://www.trusttheprocess.org/

Littledale Hall Therapeutic Community (LHTC) Littledale Hall is a therapeutic community providing services to people over 18 whose lives have been adversely affected by their substance misuse. Littledale Hall offers a safe, supportive environment within which people can address emotional, psychological, and social issues linked to their substance misuse. Andy Nardonne, a support worker at Littledale said “We’re about helping people with drug and alcohol problems move back into communities drug and alcohol free. It’s about putting back because we all take so much in one way or another. It’s really important.” We’ve been working with Littledale Hall for many years now and always look forward to their visits as they get so much out of their time working with us. As well as residentials, they also visit us for individual days once a month. See page 11 for news on a film made about one of this year’s visits from Littledale! www.littledalehalltc.co.uk

Fairbridge, Tyne & Wear Working out of 15 inner city centres in the UK, Fairbridge is a national charity supporting young people aged 13-25 to develop the confidence, motivation and skills they need to turn their lives around. They’re now part of the Prince’s Trust. Colin Jeffrey, Fairbridge staff member said, “We’re working with the National Trust as part of a work based skills programme to help our young people understand what it is to have a job, the benefits, what’s tough about having a job and to get them thinking about where they want to move on to and what they want to do with their lives”. In 2012 the Tyne and Wear branch visited us twice. They also brought along a representative from the Middlesborough branch who hopes to work with us next year as well. www.fairbridge.org.uk

Kendal College Students from the college on the Level 3 Diploma in Sport (Outdoor Adventure) course have been coming once a month to learn about practical conservation work. This year saw the first time we split the students, with the first years visiting us once a month while the second years worked in more detail with our property’s upland footpath team. This helped them gain a deeper under-standing and sense of ownership of the work. Course tutor Steve Randles said, “It’s helped them understand the importance of the environment and how outdoor adventure can impact on the local environment within the Lake District. While out on practical sessions students are now more aware of the impact they have and often comment on the environmental damage and how they can minimise this thanks to the work they have been doing with the National Trust.”

The ‘Rochdale Dukes’ After their first visit in 2011, this group of young people from the Rochdale area came for their second week this year work-ing towards their Duke of Edinburgh gold award. Expanding on last year’s visit the group continued the great work they did with us and also planned a lot of the week’s activities beyond working with us themselves. Group leader Fida Hussein said, “The focus of the project was to introduce inner city youths from Rochdale, with different cultural backgrounds to work together and to learn about the importance of the work carried out by the National Trust. It’s an opportunity for young people to develop their self esteem, confidence, team work and communication skills.”

Working Holidays

A week in the Lakes, meeting new people, learning new skills and doing something positive to help look after our lovely countryside? If that sounds like fun then you’ll understand why National Trust working holidays are always popular. This year the usual diverse mix of people stayed at High Wray and helped us repair walls and lay hedges across South Lakes. Others helped tackle path erosion as part of the Fix the Fells partnership (page 5) and even joined in to build a new wood storage shed (page 6)!

A hedgelaying fire is always popular, not least for the baked spuds and … swede (new one on us, but delicious!)

Almost there …..

Hedge with a view!

The finished article! 4

If you’d like to join in too go to www.nationaltrust.org.uk and click on the ‘holidays’ tab to find out how to get involved!

Walling always starts with the biggest stones ...

Fixing the Fells This year, our working holidays braved the elements of the ‘wettest summer in 100 years’ to camp for three nights on the fells and build a path on top of sheeps wool during the day. West Runton Scripture Union returned to St Raven’s Edge above the Kirkstone pass to work on the last and highest section of the path they’ve been back to for the last five years. Kirklees college and Kendal college worked with us and our splendid upland path team - Kirklees on the lower slopes of the old Man of Coniston and Kendal on Helm Crag, above Grasmere. This is all part of the ongoing work to help look after our delicate upland environments.

West Runton, always happy to be back on St Raven’s Edge. Somewhere new next year though!

All hands on deck! Kendal College second year students putting the finishing touches.

Muddy but happy on the camping holidays!

No shower, but still a 5 star site!

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Laying the sheep wool path base.

Kirklees get to grips with ‘landscaping’.

Woodshed works ... Our old wood store was getting very rickety and leaky, making it hard to keep a good dry wood supply for our ever popular wood burning stove. So, working with the South Lakes woodland ranger we ran a working holiday to start building a new one using green woodworking techniques. A great start was made on the new store, with the job being continued by various other volunteers through the rest of the year. At the end of the year we’re almost there, with a sturdy new woodshed that should last for years to come. The best bit is that it has been built by those who’ll benefit from it most - our volunteers!

The working holiday started with a day at source - working in the wood-lands with a tree they felled.

Pinning the frame to the ground.

The ‘barn raising’ moment on the last day!

More of the summer’s rain then meant the worksite moved indoors. Luckily Basecamp has a big main room!

A hedgelaying holiday member couldn’t resist helping out on his free day!

Ambleside uni students hanging on in there ….. Finished! (except the

doors) ... 6

The story of a path …. The National Trust is one of the key partners in ‘Windermere Reflections’, a programme running from 2011-14 which is part of the Windermere Catchment Restoration program. Large parts of the programme are related to improving access on the lake’s western shore which offers fantastic opportunities for an easily accessible experience of a wilder landscape than that surrounding popular Bowness. We started work last year on a new path through muddy fields linking the fabulous Wray Castle to the lakeshore bridleway and this year we continued work on it with almost everyone!

We’d like to say thanks to all these other groups who also worked on the path: Littledale Hall Mind Kendal College Flora of the Fells volunteers Fix the Fells lengthsmen Lakes School Ambleside University

At the end of the year we have a fantastic new path, built to a very high quality. Standing as testament to the brilliant work of our volunteers it should give thousands of people pleasure for many years to come. Why not visit the castle and have a look at the path yourself?

Northumbria National Trust volunteers opened play this year in April ….

Followed by CDOT, who moved some massive rocks …...

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The Rochdale Dukes got stuck into our enormous gravel piles in July ….

Glenburn Sports college really developed an eye for detail in June …..

West Runton got to the bottom of the hill in August …..

Merseyside National Trust volunteers put some finishing touches to the hill in September …...

The South Lakes Conserva-tion Group took advantage of some rare sunny weather in May …..

While TTP found some more massive rocks, this time at the top of the hill …...

Finally, Fairbridge topped up the last bit in October!

TTP outside Wray Castle, ready for path building!

Going Local! It’s important to the National Trust that as much as possible, local people should feel engaged with our work and have a good understanding of why we’re doing it. Even better, how about getting involved with it? Here are some of the local groups we’ve worked with over the year.

The first year students from Kendal College returned for a third year.

Friends of the Lake District’s ‘Flora of the Fells’ volunteering day saw hundreds of local volunteers at work including two groups with us at Wray Castle.

The South Lakes Conservation Volunteers continued their weekly volunteering, both with us and our other rangers.

The Fix the Fells lengthsmen worked on another walling project - quite a muddy one too!

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Lakes School in Windermere returned to learn about the work that goes into looking after their local environment.

Ambleside University outdoors students returned for more hedgelaying and tree planting!

The Barrow branch of mental health charity Mind continued their monthly visits. This wet day for a fire meant it got a bit smoky!

Crikey!

Doesn’t look too bad ...

Our Heroes!

Mark Talbot, Community Drugs Outreach Trust. Mark first came to Basecamp a few years ago with Inward House and ever since then had wanted to return. A new job working for CDOT inspired him to bring a group for a week from Brentwood House in Middleton, a support centre for those living in the community and coping with addiction problems. This was one of our most inspiring weeks and a lot of the credit for this goes to Mark’s enthusiasm and organisation.

Ruth Knighton, Fairbridge. Unflagging energy and sense of fun ensure that we always know we’re in for a good week when Ruth comes with Fairbridge. Her ability to muck in and inspire the young people to get involved too is something very special, as is being able to organise visits at short notice!

Tony, George, Mike and Mike from Mind in Barrow. There’s always a fluctuating group visiting us from Mind, but these four are the core of the group. They’ve come out in all weathers, surviving everything from sunburn to downpours via bee stings but haven’t been put off. We know it’s something more than just the brew kit that keeps them coming back ….

While we work on a partnership basis with many different organi-sations, we’re very aware that we’d never get half as much done if it wasn’t for some very dedicated individuals. Here are some of those that we’d like to say a particularly big thank you to for all the effort they put in to helping us make sure that 2012 was another brilliant year. We’re looking forward to working with all of these inspirational people in 2013!

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Dave McCann and Sian Fiske, Trust the Process. Both Dave and Sian are stalwarts of the very busy twice yearly visits by TTP. Without their hard work and leadership the weeks would not be half as suc-cessful as they are - long may they continue!

Isaac Murphy and Trevor Clark. Being a full time volunteer centre it seems only right that some of the best help we’ve had all year has come from these two long term volun-teers. Although technically Isaac is a student and Trevor a fire fighter, to us they’re also both brilliant extra team members.

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We’re very proud of the work that we do with volunteers. But there’s a lot more to time spent here than just working. We’re in a lovely private spot, surrounded by woodland and with great views of the fells. Because it’s so quiet we get all sorts of wildlife here and our bird feeders are always busy too. As many of our groups have rarely been to the countryside then a visit to High Wray can often be the first time they’ve seen sights like these - we think they’ll stay with them for a long time.

Inspiring stuff! Two views from the Basecamp track.

West Runton marvel at the biggest caterpillar they’ve ever seen!

Students from Preston college and Littledale Hall residents stop to take it all in.

An adder and a slow worm, both photographed in the Basecamp grounds.

The family of swallows above the door to the ladies toilets!

A remote camera caught our resident red squirrel on our wall!

A beautiful old nest found in the undergrowth.

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Outdoors and close to nature ...

Extras! With so much going on at High Wray we’re always left with more stories to tell ….

Lights, camera, action! For Littledale Hall’s April visit we worked with local filmmaker Dayve Ward to make a short film of their week on the Wray Bay path. It gives a great feeling of the sense of fun and achieve-ment that the volunteers get from the week. You can see it by visiting our ‘South Lakes TV’ youtube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/NTSouthLakesTV

‘I felt part of a team, that I was doing something for the environment. I felt useful, helpful and part of something worthwhile as I haven’t felt like that for a long time in my life. This experience will last with me forever and I am taking lots of happy memories away with me. It has inspired me for what kind of volunteering work I would like to do in the future.’ Littledale Hall volunteer.

This passing family of Chinese tourists were very keen to cut a few turfs themselves!

The worst weather of the year was a tie. TTP (left) were battered by the heaviest hail storm we’ve ever seen, Ches-ter National Trust volunteers (above) put up with a week of constant heavy rain and our first hedgelaying holiday (right) had so much snow and ice they couldn’t get their minibus out!

For the third year the Fix the Fells lengthsmen had their now legendary Christmas bash at Basecamp. It was the usual jolly affair and project manager Tanya received a special pink shovel!

Some very generous donor support meant we could afford to replace our old squeaky metal beds with some nice new wooden ones. There was a lot of construction to do but we were helped out by the South Lake’s ranger team. Pictured are rangers Nick and Luke ‘just checking’ …..

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High Wray Basecamp Community Ranger and Assistant Ranger roles are supported by Fix the Fells www.fixthefells.co.uk

Basecamp staff team 2012

National Trust High Wray Basecamp High Wray Ambleside Cumbria LA22 0JE

Tel 015394 34633

Longland Block

Acland Block

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www.nationaltrust.org.uk

Registered Charity No 205846

Search under ‘High Wray Basecamp and Bunkhouse NT’

and ‘like’ our site!

Jamie Preston Rob Clarke

Ranger, Volunteers Community Ranger

Paul Kear

Volunteer Development Manager

Clair Payne

Assistant Ranger

26%

18%

13%

12%

10%

5%

8%

4%4%

347 days Wray Bay path

254 days hedgelaying

186 days Rhododendron

removal

164 days upland path work

142 days drystone walling

75 days woodshed

106 days removing

invasive/foreign species

57 days Wray Castle

51 days Miscellaneous

We’d like to say a very special thank you to Mrs Lumley for your continued support and to Mr Garratt for all your generous help over the year. It means a lot to us.

In 2013 volunteers contributed 1382 days of work with us in the South Lakes. Here’s a breakdown of what they did …….