Ryburn - Woodhead down to Hey Lane, continued.

Today was a completion of the work started a couple of weeks back, where we identified a section of path which had started to fall into Banquet House Clough, replacing a stile tread-board alnd some drainage work. Jak, Jerry, Graham and Angus headed out to complete these tasks which have been funded by Ripponden Parish council, a big thankyou to them.

The blue circles identify the location of the revetment and the stile.

The section of path starting to erode into the clough.

Section of revetment secured and backfilled.

The finished job, looking up the clough.

The stile below the revetment also received attention, as the tread-board, whilst in good order, had become extremely slippery so Jak set-to with hammer and staples to give some grip to the surface. At the bottom of the path was a second stile which we had previously replaced but needed the tread-board replacing with a wider section.

We had used a length of decking from the original construction, but this had become slippery, and was a bit too narrow to safely cross the drainage channel we had to excavate on the field side of the stile. 

 Wider tread-board being fitted.

Back in 1970, the lower section of this path would have formed the boundary to the ill-fated, Krumlin festival, which occupied several fields along the side of the valley, see image below. For those interested in this event, there is an excellent book written by Ben Graham, entitled, "Pink Floyd are fogbound in Paris: The story of the 1970 Krumlin Festival".

 

Krumlin Festival in 1970, Banquet House Clough, highlighted in blue on the map at the beginning of the blog, forms the boundary to the left of the festival fields.

Having completed this work we headed to a couple of other locations in the area to survey issues identified by Calderdale Highways and members of the public, look-out for updates on these.

COLDEN - three sites

 Ian V, Andy and Rich had three issues to deal with:

A set of steps off the track up to Colden had six treads rotted off and the stone steps were covered in mulch. A finger post at the bottom of Colden Wood was damaged. This work was funded by a donation to CROWS.

A permissive path in Slater Bank Wood (part of one of the Ted Hughes walks) was not waymarked and was overgrown with holly. This work was funded by Heptonstall Parish Council. 

 The steps off Colden Road were reported as being pretty scary - they were!

 Covered stone steps and rotted off wooden steps. 

Bottom of steps cleared, six steps replaced (we will need to come back to add some side revetment), path waymarked and path above the steps scraped. 

Then on up the valley to deal with a broken finger post. 

Then up to a path that is part of the Ted Hughes Colden Walk (to see the walk go to the Heart of the Pennines website and look at the 100 walks page). 

 Two fallen trees in this area were dealt with by Ian Clarkson a few weeks ago. 

This one was across the track above. 

T

This one was across the Ted Hughes path (apologies for losing Ian's head!)

While we were there, we spotted lots of overgrown holly on the path. 

Holly all cut back

 

The beautifully worn stone steps were cleared off. 

 And finally the path waymarked at the bottom. 

 All in all, a very productive day. 

TODMORDEN -Various

 There were two team out from Todmorden today:

Team 1: Duncan and RJ continued the work on the steps from the Recreation ground in Walsden to Inchfield Road, (Right-of-way Tod 212). They installed a length of revetment , tried to make the route over the tree roots safer, and cut back the section from Carriage Drive to the Recreation ground. We will return to add geotextile and some gravel/MOT over today's "fix" to ensure the existing infill does not wash away. That should be our final visit to this site . . .  but you never know!

Team 2: Andrew and Mick headed to the frozen north to replace the pink-topped marker posts across Todmorden Golf Course on Tod 026. This footpath is on the definitive map but it has been marked with pink-topped posts rather than the more usual yellow-topped. CROWS had been informed that the majority of the posts were down and needed re-erecting. After a gruelling day of waymarking and bashing in pink posts the hardworking pair retired to the car to drink copious amounts of tea and watch the weather get progressively worse.

Many thanks to the resident of Inchfield Manor who allowed us to park in their driveway, close to the worksite.

Today's work has been funded by individual donations to CROWS, Many thanks for your support.

The route across Todmorden Golf Course.

From Walsden Recreation ground to Inchfield Road.

Team 1:

Start of the day with trip hazard roots.

RJ positioning the revetment,

Revetment in place.

End of the session.

Team 2: 

Lots of work done but no photos available from this mammoth session....!!

HEBDEN BRIDGE - riverside path

Today was an urgent call out for Stella, Rich and Jerry to deal with a collapse on the riverside edge of this popular path. The task was to contain the breach of the path to prevent further erosion. Thanks to an individual donation for the work today. 

 

The collapse of this path was reported to CROWS (many thanks) and after inspection we decided prompt action was needed. Although small at the moment, further collapse could easily result in the closure of the path. 

 Although the collapse was small, the bank was being undercut, so we decided to install some revetment to stabilise the edge. 

Establishing the edge

 

First section in. More now to cut to size

Fixing everything together

Back filled

Emergency repair finished

 We hope today's emergency repair will deal with this problem for a while. However, we discovered that there are several similar problems (created by erosion and neglect) along this popular path. 

We will return to do some vegetation control and carry out a detailed survey but maintaining this path and dealing with all its problems is way beyond the resources of CROWS. An alternative long term solution will be needed. 

Brearley: Slippery times at Brearley bends.

 Brearley: Old stone steps and new wooden risers.

On a day when the threat of heavy rain never materialised, Ian S and Frank H worked in muddy, slippery conditions on the right of way (Hebden Royd 037 at Brearley bends) that goes from the Burnley Road to Lower Ewood (see map).

1. Map: the blue index marks the worksite

The plan was to clear debris from the existing stone steps and then, just beyond a one-step stile, start the installation of a flight of wooden steps up a muddy bank - one of those 'steeper than it looks' banks! 

The details.

It was spades, azads, shears and loppers to the fore as bramble, tussocky grass and miscellaneous overgrowth was cut back from both sides of the stone steps.

2. Stone steps before: Mmm! Generally messy!

Some time later: 

3. Stone steps after: Clean as a whistle
(more or less!)

We also cleared overgrowth from the sides of the steep, slippery, glutinous path just beyond the stile so installation of wooden steps could begin.

4. By lunchtime: four neat (but muddy) steps in place.

The last step was not without its problems. Significant roots appeared just where risers and stobs had to be placed such that judicious sawing (hopefully with minimum disruption to the tree-root network and the mycorrhizosphere) was needed. 

Post-lunch it was more of the same with the energy sapping tasks of digging, driving pilot holes and hammering stobs. However, despite the cramped and often awkward-angle working conditions further steps were installed to start a graceful sweeping curve up the bank.

5. End of session.

Up to four more steps may be needed and the tread areas would benefit from MOT or crusher-run infill. So far, so good - it's a work in progress.