Remember those willows we pollarded down by the river near the Deer Park a few weeks ago? Look at them now!

 

The rain caused a lot of flooding across the estate and was really starting to worry us as Frost Fair approached - last year we had just under 12,000 visitors and had to park thousands of cars on the grass of the side and back fields near the stable block. This year we needed to prepare for the same but with all the wet ground we needed to try something new - so we hired out some flexible matting to make roadways and tried out a new system of parking on the field in front of the mansion. It worked! The final number of visitors hasn't been revealed yet but imagine it to be nearly the same as last year. Parking so many vehicles is a massive job and we had teams of staff and volunteers for the last three days running the car parks like a military operation. A huge thank you to all of the volunteers - your hard work is greatly appreciated and we simply could not have done it without you.

 

Here are some pics showing the warden's view of Frost Fair 2012!

 

The morning briefing and donning of the high vis and radio checks...



The endless sea of cars!

Assessing the ground after a day of parking and moving the lines...

Dawn, and we're out there already!

 

Craig guides the visitors along...

4.30pm on day 3 - tired and ready to go home!!