Colden - Rough Hey and Hoar Side

Ian, Ginny, Mo and Heidi were out today on this blustery, sunny and rainy day. 

 Ian and Mo set about removing an old gatepost,      

 replace it with a new one and reattach the old gate.

The problem was, they couldn't unscrew the old hinges.

So, the gate and old post was taken back to the Shed for 

further fettling and possibly make a new gate. They managed

 though to fit the new post into the ground after much hard

 work creating the hole for it to fit into. (the ground was very stony). 

. 

Ginny and Heidi, meanwhile reset, waymarked and painted          

guideposts on the path towards Hoar Side.  Heidi is very handy with a paintbrush. Unfortunately the wind blew the paint on to her nice waterproof. 

Heidi then painted the top of the new gatepost 

while Ian created a makeshift gate until the new

one is made and installed. 

With some time left they all  tackled an urgent job on the Pennine Way above Hebble hole where water was pouring on to the path

The field drain nearby was blocked and needed clearing. It was a very muddy job!!

 

                        

Funded by Blackshaw Head Parish Council

Todmorden Higher Eastwood

 Rich J and Fred repositioned a bridge, cutback paths, scrapped and brushed stone steps and did some drainage on numerous paths above Eastwood station. Funded by Todmorden Council.

TODMORDEN - MELLINGS, INCHFIELD, BRIDE STONES

Peter and Frank S were at Mellings Brook on the Bacup road out of Todmorden. One of the streams leading down to the brook passed through a wire fence where debris had blocked the channel and diverted the stream onto the footpath instead. This picture shows the fence from below with more than a foot of debris obstructing the stream.

Here's the work nearly finished with a clear channel through the fence and the overflow to the footpath blocked off.

We then returned to the layby on the main road where the path runs steeply up through an old quarry. Lots of water had been seeping out of the rock face to create a deep layer of soft mud. 

We dug channels across the mud to get the water away quicker, and moved the path higher up away from the mud.

All being well it will eventually dry out and make the walking a bit easier.

Meanwhile, Ken and Catherine were working on footpath Todmorden 116 finishing the waymarking across Inchfield Pasture with new marker posts.

And RJ and Mick were completing the laying of road planings (recycled tarmac) on the layby at the entrance to the Bride Stones, as well as surveying for future jobs at Foley Dam.

These jobs were funded by Todmorden Town Council.

TODMORDEN: DAISY BANK CLOUGH

 Daisy Bank Clough: 'stepopolis' continued!

Yet another sunny day in this sheltered spot for Ian V and Frank H to complete steps that will make the ascent up the side of the clough less hazardous.

As a reminder, this is what we started with:

The route up to the stile is steep, wet and made unstable by the rotted debris of historic attempts at building steps.

The plan was to construct steps that went straight on from the end of the footbridge, then traversed left before rising up to the stile.

Last week saw us part way through this process.

At the end of today, this was the result:

The job was not without technical difficulties. Saturation by recent heavy rain revealed the 'weakness' of the ground and how easily step treads could puddle. 

These problems were overcome by using very long stobs, making the revetments as interlocking as possible and layering the step tread area with textile, coarse stone then finer stone.

This involved a lot of barrowing but fortunately two members of the Todmorden mafia (aka CROWS Mick C and RJ) appeared to shovel and haul. Thanks, guys - lots of hard work without any of the glory (apart from this 'mention in dispatches').

There is just a small amount of landscaping to do, and three other steps to build so access to the footbridge is possible from a path that comes in from the right (see top picture) - a straightforward task easily done by a couple of volunteers in half a day . . . Mmm! we've said that before . . . !

TODMORDEN: INCHFIELD PASTURE

Inchfield Pasture. 

Catherine and Ken at Inchfield Pasture re-marking the path so it skirted marshy ground, and removing any confusing marker posts that would have led the unsuspecting walker deep into the marsh!

   Confusing posts near boardwalk                                                   Posts removed

Marker post leading into unsafe marshy ground                                   Marker post removed 

New marker posts picking out a safer path

Catherine, away in the distance, painting tops of posts.