Frank H and Stuart worked on the middle section of the
Widdop Gate path.
'You can see just beneath the surface of the mud,
There's more mud here.
Surprise!'
( Anything At All: Crosby, Stills and Nash, 1977)
Despite the Hardcastle Crags streamside being muddy, damp, chilly and veiled in mist, Stuart and Frank pitched into mud-scraping, turnbye excavation, boulder alignment and path widening; the sort of tasks that kept you very warm . . . until you stopped!
Unfortunately pictures turned out to be of the bland, mud-grey, featureless, monochrome variety! However, here we go:-
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This path area looks quite dry. That's not surprising because the picture was taken on a survey in Jun 2017!
The area is usually very boggy indeed . . . and those stones are a curious feature.
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April 2018. Here's the boggy bit (see what we meant by monochrome!)
and some excavation of the stones has started. Is it a turnbye?
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Yes it is a turnbye! And (believe it or not) the path is now not only
mud and slurry free, but also firm underfoot. |
Further upstream a second turnbye is cleared. It was well built, being stone-edged and stone-lined, but packed with dry sediment and therefore didn't seem to be doing much in the way of drainage!
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| A good quality stone turnbye being revealed . . . but it might be in the wrong place! |
Onwards up the valley to do some widening and boulder moving to make the direction of the path more obvious.
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| Awkward narrow path. Just out of shot (by the spade) it is almost blocked by a massive boulder. |
After lots of 'grunt work' the path is wider and the boulder no longer a problem . . . although the hernias might be!
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| Widening the path:- work in progress. |
Overall a decent day's work but not really done justice by the pictures!
Stella and Fred did the next stage on the path at
Oakville Road, Charlestown.
Graham, Bernard, Steve and Rich worked on
Cross Dykes Road at Lighthazles (above Ripponden).
Bridleway was very overgrown with brambles and overhanging branches.
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| Old signpost. |
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| Cleaned up. |
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| Overgrown path. |
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| Starting to look better. |
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| Bernard with his trusty Trident. |
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| Bottom third of the path much improved. |
Higher up the path there are serious drainage problems.
Discovered a couple of turnby drains buried under grass and silt.
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| Doesn't look pretty but should begin to take some of the water off the path. |
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We managed to cut back about a third of the lane so will have to go back. We also have a bit of a plan to deal with the drainage issues.
