Clearing Causey Stones, near Ripponden

Heidi, Lynda, Stella and Neil D. set off along Ripponden Village Walk No.3 - 'The Railway Walk' - fully laden with tools to tackle the various jobs (earlier identified by Ginny and Rich) that needed doing along this 3-mile circular walk. 

In the event, it took the four of us just to do one of them: cutting back and clearing the overgrowth from a fine stretch of causey stones, c.25 m long, that lead up from the village near the start of the walk!

See the arrow on the OS map above.

The details.

 

Lynda, Stella and Heidi hacking back the tangled overgrowth in the middle section of the old path.

Stella working on the bottom half of the section ...

... while Neil worked downhill from the top, creating a nice holly 

hedge once the route of the old stones was revealed.

Once the tangle of brambles, grasses and other plants had been cut back, the stones themselves began to see the light of day - for the first time in many a year, judging by the thickness of the layer of turf that had grown over them.

Lunch was gratefully taken once we'd cleared the surface of the whole stretch of stones.

We continued the cutting back of the edges and even made a makeshift broom to sweep the last of the leaves etc off the path. Job well done!

One of the pleasures of working as a CROWS volunteer on paths like this is the praise and thanks we often get from all sorts of path users . . including local residents out for a walk. One such was reminded by our work today of something the old lady she'd bought her house from many years before had told her.  She'd recalled the sounds the clogs would make as the mill workers walked up ánd down along these causey stones on this path to and from work.

'Tis good to be reminded of such history that has left us with the rights-of-way we enjoy today.

We are all just passing through!

To be continued...

This work was sponsored by Ripponden Parish Council.