OLD TOWN and HEPTONSTALL (Hawden Hole Woods)

Old Town pathwork

Work continued on several paths from last week.
Dick and RJ strimmed 3 badly overgrown paths.

Grateful residents supplied us with cups of tea which were much appreciated.

Ian and Gerald built a new stile, erected a new waymark post and put up several new waymarks. Cups of tea gratefully received from Jane and Carol! 

Remnants of the old rotten stile

New stile: making it much safer for Jane's walk back from the pub!

New waymark post and cleared path

New waymarks

And Stella tackled cutting back and clearing on a narrow path and a tight corner by a stream, where the strimmers could not go.

Hawden Hole Woods

Meanwhile on the precipitous path leading down from the 'Heptonstall by-pass' into Hawden Woods, Fred and Frank H investigated the state of the existing wooden steps. They were originally put in by Mick C some time after the war . . . although exactly which war is subject to debate. It's a tribute to his efforts that whole stretches of these unavoidably steep steps are still sound and secure. However, those on the steepest, slipperiest section were ruined and rotten.

Path area before:-  Yes, Fred. There should be a set of steps down here!

The slope is much steeper than the above picture suggests and finding ground that would yield sufficiently to allow pilot holes to be made for the stobs was very tricky. However, following an extensive session with the heavy bar and working on the general principle of 'if in doubt, hit it harder', we managed to get five wooden steps and one stone step in place.

Towards the end of the session:- steps in place.

If the steps look two-tone, it is because we re-used some of the, old-but-still-sound, risers from the original construction.There are more steps to add, some tread areas to consolidate and a minor amount of landscaping to complete but that can wait until next week . . . or as we call it . . . upper body workout part two!