A lovely sunny day saw Jerry and Angus repairing three stiles; two at the bottom of Stoney Butts Lane from Barkisland and the third adjacent to the Saddleworth road where the footpath crosses and heads up towards Greetland road. Along Stoney Butts Lane there is some impressive walling and made-to-measure field gates, a testament to the skills of those who originally established these paths.
Blue dots show the location of the stiles to be repaired.
Impressive walling from our forefathers.
An impressive made-to-measure gate, one of several seen.
The first stile looked to be a relatively simple task of replacing the two step legs on one side of the stile which had rotted through. Digging down to extract these, we found them to be secured by two bracing cross-pieces, one on each side of the posts - a bit of a challenge but we got there. The old posts were removed and the new ones installed, and packed into place (in remarkably dry soil); this time with one cross-piece fitted above ground level.
Image showing the rot at the base of the posts but not the hidden cross-pieces.
Extracted post showing the extent of the rot.
The second stile was missing a treadboard and a supporting leg. The surviving leg, a fence post which had been knocked down between some large stones, was also rotten so had to be replaced.
A challenging repair job.
Built in the line of an old wall, it was difficult to find stone-free soil into which we could drop two new step legs. It was a struggle to extract the old fence post as it had become wedged. However, we eventually managed to get the step legs into position and affix a new treadboard. Two down, one to go!
The finished job with Jerry tamping the soil around the step legs.
The last stile was adjacent to Saddleworth road and we were joined by a herd of Charolais cattle belonging to the landowner, Mr Ogden! Again this appeared to be a simple extraction and replacement job but again we had to deal with a buried cross-piece. After much sweating and swearing we managed to extract the rotten step leg and insert a new one . . . the cattle seemed to approve!
The damage to the stile next to Saddleworth road.
A good day's work completed.
