News

We had one false start on Monday 11th February, when the men with the high pressure steam powered cleaning kit were on site, but the required size generator to be supplied by a (national) Hire Company, failed to show up. After much hanging about the exercise was abandoned for the day.

Tuesday morning 12th February presented a second false start and was about to be abandoned for a second time when, after much online searching, the correct sized 6.5kw Generator was found to be available at very short notice and supplied by a local Welwyn Garden City Hire Company.

The third re-start was managed successfully at mid-day.

And what success – beyond our wildest expectations, and with no apparent long term damage to the Pulhamite stone work.

Harry was the lucky volunteer to have remained on site as the action started mid-day, and was completed within 2 hours. He has produced this stunning video clip, which shows how efficiently the graffiti was removed.

The Site warnings have been removed and the Fernery is once again open.

Chris James, Landscape & Ecology Officer from Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council, has published the 2019 Newsletter which introduces Friends from all the volunteer Groups, to the work programmes underway at each of the sites across the Borough, including the work of the Friends of Danesbury Local Nature Reserve/Fernery.

All individual Friends should have received their personal copy, but failing that, go to The Newsletter for a good read.

The Council has arranged for contractors to be on site on Monday 11th February 2019 to commence the task of removing the painted graffiti on the Pulhamite man-made rockwork in the grotto and surrounding areas.

The technique to be used involves DOFF, a Super-heated water steam cleaning technique which is designed to remove paint from sensitive and historic masonry and building facades, without damaging the integrity of the surface and substrate structure.

The contractor will have access from within the Fernery Field. They will bring their own generated power, and will use the mains water supply to the Fernery. We have to hope that the weather conditions will allow safe access for their equipment across the field.

It is not therefore expected that there will be any major disruption to local traffic, although quite sensibly walkers will be asked to keep clear, and the Fernery will remain closed off until the work is completed.

With fingers crossed, we remain confident that we will be able to run the next volunteer work party on Thursday 21st February on schedule. But please keep your eyes on our Calendar.

Sadly we received a serious graffiti attack on the Pulhamite rock work, we believe on Friday 1st February or sometime on Saturday morning 2nd February 2019.

After it was reported on Saturday afternoon by a responsible Nature Reserve walker, the busy local Police Neighbourhood Team responded and were on site at 11.30 pm (in the middle of a Saturday night!) photographing the damage and starting to make their plans. The following morning they attended the site again with the volunteer leaders, and collected evidence. The volunteers secured the site with tape.

Because of the nature of the offensive writing the local Police were intent on removing the graffiti immediately, but fortunately they learned in time about the delicate nature of the Pulhamite rock work, and on Sunday 3rd February they arranged instead to have the worst parts (in and around the grotto) covered by tarpaulins as a temporary measure.

The local community on Social Media (Welwyn Village News) were rightly offended about the damage, and sympathetic to all the work put in on this site since 2015 by the Friends of Danesbury, and other supporting volunteer groups. Very kindly, and with admirable public spirit, they were ready to organise a party to help urgently scrub the stone work clean. But this was not possible and they are instead being encouraged to help in the broader sense by joining our work parties.

The Executive of the Welwyn Hatfield Council have this morning decreed that the graffiti should be cleaned off as a matter of urgency. Ann MacDonald (Manager of the Landscape & Ecology Department) has already taken expert advice on the specialist task of removing the black spray-paint graffiti from the sensitive Pulhamite stonework, and is awaiting an early response from recommended contractors. No doubt we will have a clearer picture quite soon of the degree of restoration difficulty, and likely costs.

We have to remain positive that something good might come out of all this.

The Council are now firmly aware of the need to take longer term measures to either prevent this from happening again or, at least, to monitor the site better. And we might expect to learn more about those measures soon.

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