Ryburn - Stiles off Ash Hall Lane - Day 2.

On a typical grey and damp May Bank Holiday, Jak, Lynda, Graham, Jerry and Angus headed back to Ash Hall Lane to replace the second stile at the lower side of the grass field, where it borders the Christmas tree plantation. As with the previous work, today's efforts were made possible by donations to CROWS. A big 'thank you' to all our supporters.

The job started with a bit of a carry from the road to the worksite, under the watchful gaze of a herd of cattle in the adjacent field. They seemed hopeful that we were bringing feed. Mmm! - wishful thinking on their part!

Once at the stile, Lynda and Angus set off through the Christmas tree plantation to where the path crossed the Water Greave Lane, turning right towards Great Greave Farm. The plan was to inspect this path to where it entered the farm, then head down towards Far Slack and fit grab poles at a stone stile in Blackshaw Clough.

The blue circles show the two worksites. The shaded turquoise area shows a large, boggy section at the bottom of a grass field.

Where Water Greave Lane becomes a footpath and follows the drystone wall between two fields, it turns into a boggy morass (turquoise on map) that forced us up to the top of the field in order to reach the other side. Unfortunately, making this section passable is beyond the scope of CROWS. It has been in this condition for several years and will require significant work to successfully drain the waterlogging.

Once at the stone stile, we fitted two grab posts, firmed-up some of the stonework and cut back some of the brambles, to make the passage over the stone stile much easier. We will revisit this section next month and cut-back the vegetation from the farm to the clough.

The stone stile near Blackshaw Clough.

Grab posts fitted and Lynda keen to head back to help the stile team!

Back at the stile, the going was tough - a sheep netting fence atop an old drystone wall made digging difficult! Jak, Jerry and Graham had cut back the fencing and removed the old stile, but everywhere they dug they hit stones . . .  big stones!

Looking towards Water Greave Lane - the stile to be replaced..

Jerry battling to remove the old treadboard 

With the old step removed we were able to enlarge the original holes to take the new treadboard support legs, although this took much longer that expected due to several large stones and a layer of heavy, sticky clay. Fortunately, the stones and the clay provided ideal packing material for the new step-legs.,

Jak packing the treadboard legs into place.

With the treadboard in place, we excavated two holes for the side-uprights which would support the cross-rails and the sheep netting. Again, stones from the old wall caused problems, but we battled on, embedded the uprights and installed long cross-rails to link fence posts and stile side-posts (see pictures that follow).

New side-uprights in place. Lynda fixing the cross-rails.

The finished job. Lynda testing access and egress!

This job took longer than expected but the end result was worth all the hard work. We will return to fit a slightly longer treadboard as the buried stones made it impossible to get the support legs exactly where we wanted them. 

As we carried the tools back up to the road, the cattle were still there, still waiting, still hungry . . . and still disappointed!

What! Still no food !!!!!

HEBDEN BRIDGE - below Dodd Naze

Ginny and Rich carried out several small jobs on this path which is a well used route connecting the estate with the rail and bus services. The jobs included:

• Cleaning off the bridge to identify slats that need replacing
• Securing the path edge at the Junction 
• Cutting back encroaching brambles and tree saplings
• Clearing the stone steps 

All the jobs were completed, but we need to return to replace three slats on the bridge, brush cut more brambles, add three steps down to the bridge and improve the stone steps. 

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 - 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

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. Many thanks.

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!