Pennine Way from The Pack Horse down to Graining Water

What a peaceful day to be working, surrounded by the sound of water and the sight of autumn leaves and orange moor grasses!

If you take the footpath down the field north of the Pack Horse you meet the causey stones of the Pennine Way running south down to the bridge over Graining water, which is a very beautiful spot. This path was very overgrown and a lot of it had become grassed over.  A few weeks ago  CROWS worked to clear quite a bit of it.  Today Ginny, Sean and Stella went up to complete the work, and to widen the path in a couple of places where thick bracken had been gradually making people walk too close to the edge of the steep bank running down to the stream.

Todays work was funded by Calderdale Highways Department.  We thank them for their support.

Here is the path.

Always very....

...satisfying to....

...open up a causey path.

This stretch needed widening...

...and bringing back from the edge.

RYBURN - Highlee Clough and Kebroyd Woods

Carla, Jak and Jerry took the chainsaw out for a full autumn day picking off a couple of priority jobs. First up, removal of a low hanging tree at Highlee Clough and clearance of the 'slippery bridge' underneath. It is hoped that now the sunlight can get through to the beautiful stone bridge it will no longer be so slippery. Whilst at Highlee Clough, two wobbly stiles were firmed up, and a subsiding revetment on a path on a steep hillside was reinforced.

Moving to Kebroyd Woods for the afternoon, the priority was to remove the significant chunk of an old Beech tree that had fallen and blocked the path. Whilst returning to the truck, a stone path was cleared to enhance access to the Woods from the main Rochdale Road (A58).

This work was funded by donations to CROWS.

The Highlee Clough work location

Slippery bridge with the overhanging tree

The (hopefully) less slippery bridge, with headroom to walk

Previously wobbly stile posts and stones firmed up

Revetment subsidence

Reinforced revetment

Cutting back to keep the path passable

Location of the fallen tree to the west, and the path to the east

The large section of tree across the path through Kebroyd Woods

Tree removal work

Path successfully reopened

Path from A58 past Kebroyd Mill site

TODMORDEN - Tod Edge and Greystone Lane

 There were two teams out from Todmorden today:

Team 1: Andrew and Catherine were replacing a stile on Todmorden 080, between Todmorden Edge North and Dyke Green Barn.

Team 2: Gareth, Kasher, Kris, Richard A and RJ worked on the upper reaches of Greystone Lane cutting back and improving the drainage.

Today's work has been funded by Todmorden Town Council and by individual donations to CROWS. Many thanks for your support which enables us to keep the footpaths and bridleways of this area clear and useable.

Team 1: the problems with the stile on Tod 080 were reported to CROWS a few weeks ago. Timbers to complete this task had already been taken to the site but this job had slipped down the "to do" list . .  . until today! 

We have fettled up this one-step stile and installed a yellow-topped marker pole both to act as a grab post and to indicate the correct route across the fields.

The blue "pin" marks the location of the repaired stile on Tod 080.

Greystone Lane, below Great Rock/Devil's Rock is indicated by the blue "pin".

Team 1:

The stile before . . . with rotten step legs, a
loose treadboard, lots of baler twine and redundant
sheep netting!

First create a space for a stile
then remove the old legs . . .

. . .  and replace them with new ones . . . 

. . .  then find enough packing stone . . .

. . . then fix the new cross-rails . . .

. . .  then install and staple the treadboard . .  

Finally! A new stile in place!

Team 2: 

Greystone Lane is a useful route down from Great Rock. However, in the summer it tends to be overgrown with brambles and Himalayan Balsam and in the winter the surface is extremely wet. We try to cut back along this path at least once per year and usually work on the drainage issues every other year.

Please watch your footing as you use this route. There are a number of turn-bys which need to be navigated. The main ditch switches from side to side. There are lots of loose stones (from the nearby stone walls) which we have tried to incorporate into a hard stone path. Hopefully the path will dry out but it is still extremely wet in places.

There is a drainage ditch under this somewhere...

and under this too....

Gareth and Kris clearing the ditches and sorting
out the turn-bys.

Wellies? Maybe waders would have been better!
Clearing out the drainage ditches.

Richard A attacking and deepening the ditch.
Note one of the stone-edged turn-bys to Richard's left.

RJ sorting out the ditches and creating
a solid pathway.

Gareth, Richard and RJ at work.....

The water in the drains is now flowing well. Hopefully
the wetter parts of the track will dry.

Baitings Dam, Ripponden

On  a day of mellow mist and orange autumnal views Jerry, Stella and Rich D arrived with shears, loppers and a strimmer to cut back the overgrowth encroaching on a path just above Baitings Dam.  This short path runs from opposite the dam car park up to the cottages on Blue Ball Lane and has fine views across the valley.  There are two stiles towards the top which need new treadboards, which we will come back to do.

This work was funded by donations to CROWS for which we are most grateful.

This is the path, marked in blue.

Rich getting started with the strimmer

Making progress uphill

The lower section now very easily walkable

SOWERBY BRIDGE - riverside path

 A big group today - Angus, Lynda, Jak, two Richards, Linda and Jerry - went equipped to tackle a badly overgrown path running along side the river in Sowerby Bridge. This job was funded by Calderdale Highways. 

 

BEFORE WE STARTED

 AFTER THE SESSION

 

 The path (now wide enough for a double buggy!) is much lighter and open for people to use. 

On-site supervisor!