Volunteer vacation in England

We participated in a week-long “working vacation” in northern England, March 27-April 3, ’04, with the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, or BTCV (Conservation Centre, 163 Balby Rd., Doncaster, South Yorkshire, DN4 0RH; phone 01302 572-244, fax 01302 310 167, e-mail information@btcv.org.uk).

The cost for the week was £95 (about $170) per person. This included all expenses except a dinner on our day off.

We were picked up at the Hexham train station late Saturday afternoon and returned on the following Saturday morning. We stayed at the Ninebanks Youth Hostel, near Hexham.

There were 11 in our group plus three staff members who taught, transported us, purchased food and guided us in our work. Most of the group were in their early twenties. My husband and I (grandparents) were the only married couple.

There was an extra room at the youth hostel and it was given to us. We fixed our own breakfast and lunch each day and took turns preparing dinners for the entire group.

The youth hostel was very nice, with bedding supplied, and there was a washing machine, drying room, well-equipped kitchen, several bathrooms and showers. BTCV supplied Wellies, our essential boots needed at work.

Our work — we learned the ancient craft of willow spiling (weaving) to stabilize eroded riverbanks. This involved shoveling, digging, moving rocks, rolling back sod, sharpening posts, pounding posts and weaving live willows into a fence. The bottoms of the willow branches were anchored into the bank and will root, making a live, growing fence.

We completed two of these in four days.

On the fifth day we went to a different project to learn the art of dry stone wall making. We really enjoyed this work as well as making new friends in this lovely English countryside.

On our day off, we voted to take a tour of a nearby lead mine (no longer active), followed by a 3-mile hike on the Hadrian’s Wall path.

The source of the information for this service project was the book “Volunteer Vacations” by Bill McMillon et al. (2002, Chicago Review Press. ISBN 1556524617 — 400 pp., $17.95).

NANCY A. LOGAN
Jamestown, RI