Trail Building

Build days are now orgainised and run by Forestry England, usually on a monthly basis. Registration is essential – please read the following FAQ for information if you want to come along to a build day!

Don’t worry – if you’ve been before in the ‘old days’ when Chase Trails used to run these, they’re still very similar – and you may see some familiar faces too! We’re still volunteers and we still help build and maintain the red and black graded mountain bike trails on Cannock Chase. Anyone is welcome to come along and lend a hand – the more help we have, the more we can get done.

Trail Building FAQ:

🆕 Volunteer Registration:

Please email Forestry England at [email protected] to get registered as a volunteer and book onto the next build day.

All volunteers are required to pre-register with Forestry England. This is so they have contact details for you, as well as an emergency contact.

🆕 Booking:

You will need to book onto each session that you want to attend. Once you’re registered as a volunteer, Forestry England will send you a link to the booking site, then just book on to each session.

(Currently, we have a limit of 15 people per session, but we hope to increase this in the future. Please don’t be afraid to book on, as some of our sessions so far have been quiet, and some have been busy.)

Where:

• We meet at our storage container at Birches Valley (WS15 2UQ).
• We meet in the large staff area (known as ‘the yard’) behind the bike shop at Birches Valley. Go through the huge wooden gate to the right of the bike shop building, and follow the yard to the left and you’ll find us.
• You can use the following what3words reference to pinpoint exactly where we will be: ///taken.club.motivator

🆕 When:

Build days occur on a monthly basis. See above for the date of the next build day. We usually meet at 10:00.

Parking:

Volunteers get free parking for the day. Details of how this works will be dealt with by Forestry England, as Birches Valley has an ANPR system in place. If you come and help frequently, you’ll get free parking for the year!

What to bring:

• Clothing for working outdoors – for example, a rain jacket if the forecast looks wet.
• Work boots (ideally with a steel toe cap) are a good idea if you have them – though not essential.
• We have other PPE (like gloves) and can supply this – but if you can, please ‘BYO’!
• Food/drink – bring along a packed lunch if you can.
  (Forestry England may provide drinks and snacks but this is not guaranteed.)

Bike Storage:

You’re more than welcome to bring your bike along – we can leave bikes locked in our storage container at Birches Valley for the day (this is entirely at your own risk).

Under 18s:

We’re more than happy to allow under 18s to come and help out, though we do require that anyone under 18 be accompanied by a responsible adult. Trailbuilding is a great volunteering activity for your Duke of Edinburgh award too. 😉