RYBURN - Coneygarth

A beautiful spring day saw Eleanor, Jerry and Jak cutting back the top of a path which leads from Rishworth Road past Coneygarth to either Bank Hey Bottom Lane or Fiddle Lane depending on whether you turn left or right.

Location of work in pink

Start of path, before

Eleanor cutting back

Jerry about to strim

Start of path, after

After this job the team moved over to New Longley Lane to do some cutting back and improve on a stream crossing. This is part of a path that links from East Longley to Ripponden Old Bank.

Location of work highlighted in blue

The stream

This work was funded by Ripponden Parish Council, for which we are very grateful.

TODMORDEN - Ewood Wood and Windy Harbour

 There were two teams out from Todmorden today.

Team 1: Duncan and Neil Mc were putting in revetments and cutting back on right-of-way Tod 080 which forms part of the Calderdale Way in Ewood Wood. We worked on this path last week to widen the footpath and to shore up the stream side. The revetments and widening of this path will make the upper reaches of this steep path up from Siggett Lane slightly easier. Many thanks to the individuals who have cut back the Rhododendrons further down the path . . one less job for us!

Team 2: Catherine and Kasher were rebuilding a stile near Windy Harbour on Tod 021. This stile had been reported to us a short while ago. Thankfully this was not a full stile rebuild but we have replaced the shorter upright and the cross-rails, and have fitted additional braces to the cross rails. 

Many thanks to John for allowing us to park at his property on Todmorden Edge which reduced the distance the team had to carry the timber and tools. Thanks too to the residents of Windy Harbour for allowing us to park in their yard and for stabling their horse, which usually patrols this field!

Today's sightings included Curlews, Lapwings, Kestrel, Buzzard, Swallows and one amazing view of a hare lolloping across the field.

Many thanks to Todmorden Harriers for funding today's work. We are extremely grateful. 

Details:

Team 1:

Location of today's work for Team 1 on Tod 080 in Ewood Wood.

Laying out the timbers for the revetments. Note the 
steep drop to the RHS.

Duncan widening the path with the first revetment
in place. 

Duncan putting in the stobs for the revetment.

Part of the widened path with revetments in place.

Team 2:

The stile at the start of the day.

The shorter upright was completely rotten.

Catherine starting the excavation of the 
hole for the new side-upright.

The upright being held in place by the cross rail 
while we backfill the post-hole. The excavation of 
this hole for the upright took all morning!

A sun hat was extremely useful today...

The stylish stile nearly completed. Note the two 
additional verticals to brace the cross-rails.

Catherine admiring today's rebuild.

A smoot hole in an adjacent wall.

Ryburn - Stile next to Ash Hall Lane

On what felt like the beginning of Summer, Graham, Jerry and Angus set about refurbishing a stile next to Ash Hall Lane, not far from the Calderdale Way. This stile gives access to the grazing pasture below New Farm and a further stile, then joins the path at Water Green Lane. 

This work has been made possible by several kind donations to CROWS. Many thanks to all who have contributed.

The blue circle shows the location of the stile being worked on.

The stile as it was when we arrived. 

On first inspection, the stile looked to be in reasonable condition, but as we removed vegetation and loose cross-rails it became apparent that there was a significant drop on the field side, and very little treadboard on which to gain a safe footing. The other issue was the waymark post which, although providing good hand support, had the flag aligned somewhat hazardously at head level!

We set about removing the old cross-rails then checked the stile supports and waymark post for any signs of rot (especially at ground level). Good news, the stile supports were firm and in good order. Bad news, the waymark post had started to rot, and the flag was mostly illegible - we are still trying to work out what it says!

Graham starts to remove the waymark post. There may be trouble ahead!

The waymark post was well embedded but the rot and its position suggested that it should be replaced and relocated. Excavation was going well until we discovered it was concreted in place with three large nails as 'deadmen'! After much heaving and grunting, we eventually extracted it . . . time for coffee!

Post removed. Time for a coffee and a discussion as to best option.

We decided to fit an extra, lower step on the field side and make use of the old post hole for the step-leg. We reused a redundant fence post to support the existing strainer-post and were then able re-fix the cross rails. In doing so, we could re-cycle sound material from the old stile and reduce the quantity of new timbers . . . and the overall cost.

View from above showing the existing treadboard and the new field-side step.

The finished job . .  . well almost . .  . we will make a new waymark post and relocate it. 

There is another stile requiring attention at the bottom of the field which we will attend to next week. We didn't have sufficient materials to complete this today, and didn't want to compromise the security of the field for the grazing stock. We'll organise a new waymark post and position it more sensibly!

TWO SITES - Pennine Way at Gorple and Haworth Old Road

PENNINE WAY AT GORPLE

Ginny and Rich went to tackle five problems identified by the Pennine Way Survey last year (barbed wire, waymarking, drainage and a broken boardwalk). The work was funded by a partnership between Calderdale Highways and Natural England.  

 

 

Narrow and muddy

Pulling off the grass edges

 

Causey stones cleared making the path much wider.

 

There is more uncovering and widening to do on this path - a later day. 

We then went down to the bridge over Graining Water to clean the treads and sort a waymark. 

Then up towards Blackshaw where we repaired a board walk, sorted some drainage and dug out a turnby (cross drain).  

Shame the Packhorse pub wasn't open. So on to Hebden and Pecket Well. 

HAWORTH OLD ROAD

The flags on two finger posts were reinstated and some waymarking completed. Many thanks for the donation from The Haworth Hobble event.

 

TODMORDEN - Todmorden Edge / Ewood Wood

 On a glorious day, Neil Mc and Gareth spent the morning improving the footpath where the Calderdale Way leaves Ewood onto Todmorden Edge.  The path had partly collapsed into the adjacent stream and had become dangerously narrow (particularly awkward for a forthcoming fell race!).

The original intention was to install a revetment (planked banking) to shore up the side of the path as well as to widen it by cutting into the bank on its other side.  Unfortunately, the stream bed proved to be solid rock, impenetrable even to the big bar and heavy hammer, so it was impossible to install the supporting posts for the revetment.  It’s not always possible to proceed exactly as planned!  

We were, however, able to widen the path by a couple of feet, as well as shoring the stream side with rocks in order to delay further deterioration.

Our thanks to the individual donors to CROWS who have financed today’s work, as well as to John who not only gave us easier access to the path and helped carry the timbers/tools but also reappeared later with some snacks!

Today’s work location

The before photo

Gareth discovers there’s no way in for revetment posts

The path after widening

A new local resident