Daisy Bank Clough: Packhorse Bridge below Lane Side
On a day when early mist cleared to give bright, sunny conditions and extensive views over the South Pennines, a team comprising Ken, Kasher, Steve and Frank H carried out a mixture of tasks:
1. Cutting a template for a 'former' that will be used in the repair of a small (very small) Packhorse Bridge that is in danger of collapsing.
2. Re-instating marker posts that had been used too vigorously as back-scratchers by the horses that graze the rough moorland near the bridge.
3. Moving on to survey a footbridge that needs replacing. The bridge, although not on a right-of-way, has long provided a useful crossing of Colden Water between Rough Hey and Lower Heath.
4. Moving again to surveying two stiles in the Land Farm/Rodmer Clough area.
This blog gives detail of the first task where Long Row and Lower Lane tracks converge to cross Daisy Bank Clough (see map).
Todays work was kindly funded by Blackshaw Head Parish Council
The detail.
What was once a significant packhorse route is discussed in the definitive book 'Seen on the Packhorse Tracks' (Titus Thornber) and the small packhorse bridge that crosses a potentially awkward gully in Daisy Bank Clough gets special mention.
The bridge has an unusual design being built in two parallel sections that are in contact but not keyed into one another. Mmm! That created a problem.
The perspective here is awkward but the half of the bridge seen in the foreground has performed a rotational collapse and what appears to be the side of the bridge is in fact the original top surface! The next picture, taken under the bridge, makes this clearer (perhaps!)
The collapsed section will be removed and a wooden 'former' put in place to provide a construction framework on which to re-build that half of the bridge.
Today's task was to cut a template that matched the sound arch of the bridge and then (at a later date back at the workshop) use this template to construct the 'former'. Here's how the template task went:
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| Wooden plyboard held against the bridge arch prior to marking up as a template. |
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| Mmm! Lots of guesstimates here! |
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| Arch shape being cut out with a jig-saw. |
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| Does it fit the arch of the bridge? Never in doubt. |
This is not a task that CROWS have done before so a lot of thought and some trial and error was needed. Construction of the 'former' will be done in the next week or so then it's over to the drystone wallers for expert stone arch building. More in a future blog!
