It’s been a bit quiet over the past year on the web site, mainly because of Malcolm’s health problems. But he’s now on the mend and other volunteers of FOM have been out over the year doing their best to keep the Mayfields Public Open Space safe and beautiful. Recent highlight of the year was the award of a Duke of Edinburgh gold medal to one of our key volunteers, Florence Partridge. Thanks especially are due to Alan and Wendy Marsden, Lesley and Paul Abbott, Mike Ridealgh, Paul Whurr and Paul Yoward for all their efforts.

FRIENDS OF MAYFIELDS activities July 2025

The prolonged high temperatures and lack of rain over recent weeks have limited volunteer activities a bit.  With the hose ban too we decided to repot small donated trees we’re growing on to give them more compost and a protective gravel surface layer to reduce drying out.

Our former MCT volunteers are now working as a new group known as FRIENDS OF MAYFIELDS.

Nice to see Red Campion emerging as ground cover in the composting area on June 8th.

Mike and Malcolm made a start on tidying the composting area on June 8th

Lesley carefully did some selective mowing around clumps of wild flowers alongside Nelsons Lane at the start of June and Wren helped Malcolm starting to trim shrubs growing over or through ggarden fences of Goodwood Grove houses.

The MCT/Friends of Mayfields AGM will be held at Dringhouses Library at 7 p.m. on Thursday April 24th, with a talk by Malcolm on Tree Problems on Mayfields. You’d be very welcome.

Many thanks to Pam Brown for taking photos of some of the native wildflowers on Mayfields for us on March 18th. Spring is finally arriving!

Native Daffodils

Lesser Celandine

Wild Primrose

Mike and Malcolm had a 2-hour session on 13th February clearing some of the dead tree material and branches to open the view of the snowdrop area on Mayfields. Looking beautiful for Valentines Day!!

Great too see the many snowdrops coming into flower under the woodland. MCT planted about 3000 here over recent years.

Quite a lot of effort went into clearing up fallen tree tops in January after the storms.

Because of all the recent tree work there’s still plenty for our volunteers to do to keep verges trimmed and paths clear and safe. In 3rd Malcolm managed to trim the area of overgrown Ribbed Melilot which was smothering some shrubs we plan to keep.

The recent hard frosts had left the stems very brittle so easier to cut with the strimmer.

We’re really grateful to Tony Castle and his team from Castle Trees for the fantastically helpful job they did on felling some problem large crack willow trees for us, partly funded by MCT but with major help from a grant from the Dringhouses and Woodthorpe Ward of CYC. Tony and colleagues volunteered to do additional skilled work at no extra cost to MCT to really help the future site management.

Great time of year on 21st November for trimming overgrown shrubs and pruning trees.

November is the best time for transplanting bare root trees to replace any damaged ones or fill gaps. Mike and Malcolm shifted 2 Hazels on November 7th.

Lesley stopped to look at the 2 Hazels Mike and Malcolm had transplanted.

Ready for transplanting.

On Wednesday morning on 23rd October there will be work on high branches of some willows beside the path on Mayfields North. Stay well clear of the work area and take great care. Keep dogs under control. You can access Little Hob Moor safely from Hob Moor Terrace or use Hobmoor terrace to pass safely from Little Hob Moor to Nelsons Lane

We had 2 successful volunteer sessions on Sundays trimming excessive new seedling trees at the north end of the bund to provide better conditions for selected trees we want to grow on.

Taking down the problem willow by the main gate.

Flo and Polly helping Paul working on younger trees on the North end of the bund.

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Two days later we had a group of 10 volunteers on site, making a concentrated effort to clear the trimmed material from earlier activities. We were particularly pleased to welcome Paul and Wren Adams to their first session working on Mayfields north. Great to have Polly back again too.

The Sunday volunteer sessions where we intended to mow the meadow in sections had to be cancelled because of prolonged rain. To catch up before October Paul Yoward volunteered to hire a power scythe for us and did an excellent job with Vanita and Paul & Lesley Abbott on 27th September. Raking sessions should be less influenced by rain than mowing sessions were’

It’s Autumn already so time to cut the meadow and trim trees especially, and of course getting rid of leaf-fall onto the paths. Any new volunteers would be most welcome.