WADSWORTH - SEED HILL

SEED HILL, ROWLAND LANE

Ray and Andrew set about repairing a stile on the corner of Seed Hill where the ROW from Snow Booth meets up with the bottom end of Rowland Lane.  As Ray and Andrew discovered, this repair was a challenge! - an old tread-board stapled to a stock fence sitting on two stone slabs. All a bit wonky!

Existing stile with loose tread-board

The plan was to replace with a new one-step stile. However, on investigation, they found the slabs were sitting on a stone culvert and the remains of a dry stone wall. Back to the drawing board!

Not much room here for stile legs!

Meanwhile Paul cut back overhanging branches and shrubbery from the lane leading up to the stile and bordering Seed Hill:

A tidy job!

Stile options were considered by Ray, Andrew and Paul over a cup of tea and several chocolate chip cookies provided by Eleanor, the owner of Seed Hill. 

After much crunching of the cud, and given the impracticality of building any suitable alternative, it was decided to return the stone slabs to their original position and to secure a new tread-board in place.

Rebuilding the stile base

Treadboard secured in place 

The stone slabs were rebuilt and the new treadboard wedged into place and secured by nailing to a wooden cross-piece.

The stone steps leading up to the stile were reset and cleaned by Andrew while Paul cut back intrusive foliage on a couple of nearby paths.

Steps tidied up.

A challenging job . . . but I guess the moral of the story is: 'don't flap (your wings?), while three birds in hand are worth two in the bush (especially when you have a supply of chocolate chip cookies)!?'

Thank you to Eleanor.

Today's work was funded by Wadsworth Walking Market.

Job done!