Posted on: February 15, 2010 by normanmaitland posted in News
The improvement in the weather and the slowly lengthening days have meant that we have been able to resume our work on controlling the spread of rush grass in the Brecon Beacons. The background to this painstaking work is described here.
The good news is that we can already see the difference we’ve made with an abundance of flora which would have been choked by the invasive rush grass (Juncus acutiflorus) now evident.
Our skills and experience in working in highly sensitive environments are increasingly in demand. Last year’s projects included the refurbishment of the Alton Barnes White Horse in Wiltshire — a logistical as well as an environmental challenge which is fully explained here.
Posted on: February 1, 2010 by normanmaitland posted in News
The Winter Wonderland event at Cardiff City Hall has become a central feature of the City’s year. Restoring the lawns in front of the City Hall has become a traditional part of ours and, thanks to a new contract, is set to be so for the next three years at least.
During the event an ice skating rink extra lights and a huge ferris wheel are erected in an area which is one of the main focal points of the City, but it means that each year the grounds themselves are left in a very poor state – but nothing that our team couldn’t remedy.
The work involved power harrowing to alleviate compaction, the installation of sand bands to improve drainage, raking and laser levelling the surface and laying 5500 square metres of turf using the super wide format to speed up the process. Job done - all in the space of a week!
Posted on: January 20, 2010 by normanmaitland posted in News
Gareth, James and Tony are all at BTME this week - seeing hundreds of old friends and making many new ones at our new base on the BALI stand. All three report that there’s plenty of interest from visitors in the range of our activites. If you’re going to Harrogate this week come and see us on stand B38A
Posted on: November 20, 2009 by normanmaitland posted in News
It wasn’t long ago that we posted a spoof video showing how we re-turfed the Wales Millennium Stadium in 1min and 29 seconds. Little did we know that, following problems with the turf that were outside anyone’s control, we would be back relaying the pitch again: this time working night and day against a real clock – watched each night by the urban fox pictured here!
There had been some damage to the pitch during the Wales v New Zealand match and we undertook repairs to around 200 metres squared. However, as the final whistle was blown at the Wales v Samoa match the WRU took the wise decision to returf it completely in view of forthcoming fixtures. Inscapes had been placed on standby in case this happened and we had taken the precaution of provisionally contracting-in Premier pitches to help with korrowing off and preparing the ground: the more men and machinery on hand to do this bit the better. Work started at 11pm – one and half hours after the final whistle. We worked through the night and by 7am Saturday had the korrowing done so that work could begin on removing the resulting 700 tonnes of materials from the stadium.
After preparing the ground we started laying the new pitch in three shifts. The first started at 3pm on Sunday and finished at 2am Monday. The second started at 4:30 that morning and worked until 5pm that afternoon. The final shift started then and worked though until the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Hats off to County Turf who had an epic task in harvesting and delivering the new turf by the wagon load at 45 minute intervals. By the time we tidied up on Tuesday and Wednesday the pitch was (if we say so ourselves) looking fantastic. The Wales squad practiced on the new turf on Thursday 19th and Friday 20th November in preparation for the match against Argentina on the 22nd. Job done: but our installation crews are ready for short break before Monday!
Posted on: October 26, 2009 by normanmaitland posted in News
The Alton Barnes white horse is a little under a mile north of the village of the same name in Wiltshire.Our job, on behalf of Natural England, was to restore the shape of the horse, and resurface it to make good the ravages of time.
A simple enough task on the face of it but one complicated by the fact that, because the horse is in an area of special scientific interest we had to airlift materials from a storage base to Milk Hill which stands just short of 300 metres high.
As reported earlier the project was delayed by thick fog but as we can see from this sequence of pictures the weather changed and we were able to successfully complete the project. We like to think we can rise to anything - and on this occasion we think we did!
Posted on: October 23, 2009 by normanmaitland posted in BlogNews
Watch the video above (or follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL21kFYxPE8) to see how we built the world’s first rugby pitch using Fibrelastic at Parc y Scarlets in Wales. This was a ground breaking project in a top class venue - completed ahead of time and on budget. Of course, what we did at Parc y Scarlets we can do for you!
Posted on: October 2, 2009 by normanmaitland posted in News
Here’s a bit of fun: speeded up footage of the recent pitch installation we undertook at the Millennium Stadium in Wales. Hands up: the action actually took place over a rather longer period than 1minute and 29 seconds but everyone’s so busy these days we thought we’d better speed things up for you! Click on the image to enjoy the show!
Posted on: September 14, 2009 by normanmaitland posted in News
We have just completed a project on the second pitch at Pontyclun where rugby has been played since the early 1880’s. The work involved burying existing grass, importing soil, power-harrowing and adjusting the levels since the old pitch was very uneven. The work was rounded off with harley raking and seeding. Pontyclun pioneered Mini Rugby in Wales so at least a club with such a long history in the sport now has a level playing field for future generations.
Posted on: September 4, 2009 by normanmaitland posted in BlogNews
We’re proud to announce that we have had our Environmental Management System accredited to ISO 14001 across the entire range of our activities. “We have a very different range of services to most businesses in our sector” says Gareth Rees, our Chief Executive. “Our conventional landscaping work is supplemented by work on creating state-of-the art sports surfaces such as the one at Parc y Scarlets, and environmental mitigation work on things like the pipeline through the Brecon Beacons: the largest such project ever undertaken. Next week, for example, we start work on a Natural England-funded project restoring an historic white horse on the Wiltshire Downs.” Gaining the accreditation for our environmental management systems puts a seal of approval on the way our entire team try to work with the environment in all of our work – much of which is involved anyway in creating, maintaining or protecting habitats for a huge variety of flora and fauna.
