Frank S, Paul and Ray were back in Cragg Hall Wood where two weeks ago we did emergency repairs on a broken revetment. This week our plan was to complete the repair of the old revetment, extend the revetment by another 12 feet, and build several steps. Here's where the new revetment and steps are needed. You can see the remains of an old step that fell out of use a long time ago.
Here's a view of Ray hard at work with the new length of revetment just showing on the left and the first of the new steps in place.
After several more hours we had completed five steps and added an extra revetment on the right hand side.
And here's the view showing the old revetment as well, now reinforced with new stobs and extra stone infilling. It's a far easier walk than before, and the path is much less likely to get washed away down the very steep slope on the left. We still need two more steps at the top, and so we'll be back to finish off in a week or two.
While all that was going on we also had time to clear two of the other flights of steps further up the wood. This shows one of them with the treads half buried by mulch and soil.
After the treads had been cleaned and levelled it all looked much better and easier to walk on, too.
The other flight of steps is shorter but in much worse condition with some of the risers broken or completely missing. The wood sedge plants have encroached so far in from the right that walkers have been forced on to a mud slide at the left.
After the steps had been cleaned they looked like this.
There wasn't time to do the repairs today, but we'll be back to do that later in the Autumn.
This work was funded by the Luddenden Foot Ward Forum.
