STAFF and volunteers at Croome Court have been getting wet to help rid a lake on the estate of reeds.

The parkland, near Worcester, was purchased by the National Trust in 1996 and work began over the following years to restore Croome to its former glory.

One of the earlier projects was dredging the river when over 50,000 cubic metres of silt and sludge, and thousands of reeds, were removed by diggers 2003 and 2005.

But this summer, the reeds grew very quickly and once again clogged the river.

Staff and volunteers decided to take the plunge and remove the excess weeds by hand and throughout the summer they cleared a central channel, leaving some reeds at its edges to provide a good habitat for a wide variety of insects and many different bird species.

“During the heat of the summer, the job of removing the reeds gave us not only the opportunity to restore the 18th century look, but also to cool off.” said Katherine Alker, garden and outdoors manager.