Category Archives: Cardiff Castle

Bute Park, Cardiff Castle, Event Review

Event 119: Cardiff Castle Grounds, Bute Park

Ho, Ho, Ho! The last CRG event of the year!

Rounding off a very successful year, an intrepid team of 15 volunteers from Cardiff Rivers Group braved the lashing rain yesterday (Saturday 19 December) to improve the environment of Bute Park around Cardiff Castle.

The award-winning volunteers gave their final gift of 2015 to the residents and wildlife of Cardiff as they litter-picked Bute Park.

Following a request from Cardiff Council Park’s department, they also tackled the overgrown vegetation in the canal surrounding the castle.  The vegetation removed will be used to make a dead hedge early in 2016, which will provide a habitat for wildlife.

Commenting on the morning’s work, CRG treasurer Dave King said,

“We returned to carry on with the habitat management along the banks of the feeder. We removed the self-sown buddleia , thus opening up the banks to daylight. We also removed the willow that had encroached into the feeder itself and some of the brambles along the fence, leaving plenty of habitat for birds come the spring.

“If areas like this are not maintained they simply deteriorate, so it’s essential we keep on top of the invasive species.  Our volunteers also collected 10 bags of litter from the banks and surrounding area – a great effort!”

2015-12-19 CRG 1

And there are more photos from the event on Flickr.

CRG wishes everyone A Very Merry Christmas and looks forward to seeing you on a river in 2016!

Cardiff Castle, Event Review

Weeding the Mill Leat at Cardiff Castle

Volunteers from CRG spent a beautiful summer’s evening removing a large amount of blanket weed from the mill leat at Cardiff Castle on yesterday evening  (Thursday 30 July).

The mill leat was re-flooded in 2013 for the first time in more than 30 years, as part a £5.6 million Bute Park restoration project, but had become covered in blanket weed.

before

The weed causes serious de-oxygenation of the water and prevents growth of submerged oxygenating plants. It also make circulating the water (which would improve oxygenation) impossible, as it clogs the pumps.

Two hours later…

after

As well as clearing the watercourse, four large bags of rubbish were collected from the surrounding area of the park — including a half-finished can of beer someone abandoned whilst we were there picking up the rest of the litter!

Watch CRG Volunteer Anthony Akhurst being interviewed about clearin up the leat on the Made in Cardiff programme “What’s Occurrin’ Cardiff?”.

Blackweir, Bute Park, Cardiff, Cardiff Castle, Keep Wales Tidy

Cardiff Rivers Group during the Keep Wales Tidy Week 2010

This weekend marks the beginning of Keep Wales Tidy Week 2010, and as is tradition by now, Cardiff Rivers Group will aim to have the first event in Wales by meeting Saturday morning.

We will be returning to the feeder canal at Bute Park, continuing with our work of clearing it from it’s source at Blackweir, to where it goes underground in town. Our last event here finished around the North Road Ambulance Depot, so this will be the meeting point.

Tasks will include;

  • A litter pick on both banks of the feeder and general Taff Trail area,
  • Move & stack wood away from the edge of the feeder,
  • Saw and move fallen branches from the water,
  • Wading through the Feeder, removing as much debris as possible, improving the appearance of the Feeder as well as the flow of the water.

Volunteers are to meet at 09:45 for safety briefing & kit. This will be done from Dave’s truck, which will be parked within the park, around the Ambulance Depot. Close car parking options are; Sophia Gardens Car Park [ nr the Mochyn Du Pub CF11 9HW ] or along North Road / A470. Cathays railway station is a quarter of a mile away. Closest park access points would be the footbridge by Sophia Gardens / Summerhouse Cafe, footbridge near the ‘Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama’ or the new bridge at the end of Corbett Road. See map of the area below;



Please wear suitable footwear and pack sensibly, waterproofs if the forecast is poor, water if it’s warm ! We will provide the rest of the equipment. Let us know if you are coming so we can ensure we have enough equipment for all of you. Don’t forget to join our facebook group / facebook events. Oh, and it would be great if you could add your own photographs to our album, so bring a camera too!

Blackweir, Bute Park, Cardiff, Cardiff Castle, Event Review, Keep Wales Tidy

Cardiff Rivers Group Bute Park Canal Feeder

Another successful event at the canal feeder last weekend! Between both weekends, we managed to clear from its source at the river Taff up to the North Road Ambulance Depot – great work. We aim to return to this area next month, during Keep Wales Tidy Week (see their website for further details on that).
Read all about last weekend on the Guardian Blog, and check out the photographs on our galleries.
The CRG Calendar has been updated with our future dates – view it at the bottom of this page. You’ll notice that our next event is the Great Taff Tidy – click on the poster for more information.

Thanks,
Dafydd
Blackweir, Bute Park, Cardiff, Cardiff Castle, Keep Wales Tidy, Llandaff

Bute Park Event : August 21st

Cardiff Rivers Group made a good start on the Feeder Canal in Bute Park last weekend, with around 20 volunteers working for a couple of hours, we managed to collect 30 sacks of rubbish, 2 trolleys, a roll of carpet, several traffic cones as well as move a lot of fallen branches from the waterway, helping it’s flow and appearance. Photos from this event are available on our flickr galleries.

We aim to continue this work next weekend [Saturday the 21st], slowly moving towards the castle.

Tasks will include;

  • A litter pick on both banks of the feeder and general Taff Trail area,
  • Move & stack wood away from the edge of the feeder,
  • Saw and move fallen branches from the water,
  • Wading through the Feeder, removing as much debris as possible, improving the appearance of the Feeder as well as the flow of the water.

Volunteers are to meet at 09:45 for safety briefing & kit. This will be done from Dave’s truck, which will be parked within the park, around the Ambulance Depot. Close car parking options are; Pontcanna Fields changing room [ CF11 9HX ], within the Tal y Bont student halls [ CF14 3AS ] or near the North Road Ambulance Depot off North Road. See map below for general area.

Please wear suitable footwear and pack sensibly, waterproofs if the forecast is poor, water if it’s warm ! We will provide the rest of the equipment. Let us know if you are coming so we can ensure we have enough equipment for all of you. Don’t forget to join our facebook group / facebook events. Oh, and it would be great if you could add your own photographs to our album.

 

Blackweir, Bute Park, Cardiff, Cardiff Castle, Keep Wales Tidy, Llandaff

Cardiff Rivers Group Bute Park Event : August 15th

Hello
Hope everyone is having a good summer ! We said that Cardiff Rivers Group would have a summer break and not have any events during August, we lied. We’re having a short, city centre event this weekend. Hope you can make it !
After receiving a few requests from our members to tackle the state of the feeder canal that runs through Bute Park, we’ve decided to dedicate next Sunday morning to work on improving this waterway.
This is a fairly large project and we will be looking to come back later in the month and in September when we will hopefully be joined by some other groups to tackle around the ambulance station and castle. More on future events soon.
Tasks on Sunday will include;
  • A litter pick on both banks of the feeder and general Taff Trail area,
  • Move & stack wood away from the edge of the feeder,
  • Saw and move fallen branches from the water,
  • Wading through the Feeder, removing as much debris as possible, improving the appearance of the Feeder as well as the flow of the water.
Volunteers are to meet at the source of the Feeder, at the bridge at Blackweir at 09:45 for safety briefing & kit. This location is on the Taff Trail – an easy walk / cycle from town centre along the River Taff. Closest car parking would be at Pontcanna Fields changing room [ CF11 9HX ], within the Tal y Bont student halls [ CF14 3AS ] or near the North Road Ambulance Depot. See map below for general area.

Please wear suitable footwear and bring waterproofs. We will provide the rest of the equipment. Let us know if you are coming so we can ensure we have enough equipment for all of you.
louise.tambini[at]keepwalestidy.org or Facebook
thanks,
Dafydd