Rishworth: stile
Ray and Lynda were refurbishing a stile on a field path leading down from Rishworth New Road. The approaches to the stile were badly overgrown but Lynda and Eleanor had already done extensive cutting back.
Here is the original stile:
*Both side uprights are rotten at ground level.
*The upper tread-board is missing.
*Both legs for the lower tread-board are rotten.
*The lower cross-rail (an old half-round fence post) is loose.
*Barbed wire from the adjoining fence is fixed in an haphazard fashion.
The work begins!
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| More open than usual! |
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| Restringing the wire |
*A two-step stile with dog-gap.
*Mainly new timbers but some sound items have been re-cycled.
*Cross-rails and tread-boards are now all horizontal.
*Fence wires re-tensioned and approaches fully cut-back..
*Right-of-way waymarked.
*An all-round stable structure . . . with what appears to be a small model of a power-line pylon perched on the top rail!
CROWS have repaired many a wobbly stile but, sturdy as a stile might be, it can still present problems for the less agile or for the elderly walker . . . time for a parody:
All Stiles Now
{Any resemblance to 'Both Sides Now' (Joni Mitchell 1966) is purely coincidental!}
Treads with legs that look so good
And side-pieces made of wood
And some cross-rails o'er the mud;
I've looked at stiles that way . . .
But now they seem to block the path;
Wobbly steps mean walker's wrath.
So many times I've tried to pass
But stiles get in my way!
I've looked at stiles from both sides now
From back and front - but, somehow,
It's stiles illusions I recall . . .
I really can't climb stiles at all!
Today's work was funded by Ripponden Parish Council. The parody (fortunately) was free!
