Luddenden: Riding Head Lane.
On a delightful sunny and calm day Ian S and Frank H puzzled over the best approach to re-configure an awkward, dilapidated stile at the end of Riding Head Lane where right-of-way Halifax 519 splits to become Halifax 516 and Halifax 518 (Whatever happened to Halifax 517? . . . . we've no idea!).
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| The blue 'pin' mark the spot where Hx 519 splits to go East as Hx 516 and South-East as Hx 518. |
This work has been funded by donations to CROWS. Many thanks.
The Detail.
The path goes between a drystone wall and the stone closure post for an ironwork field gate.
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| 1. The 'stile': view from Riding Head Lane side. |
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| 2. The 'stile': view from the field side. Tired might be the word! |
In general, the structure was difficult to negotiate and unstable due to poorly embedded vertical supports. Creating a suitable replacement structure while retaining some original features was not easy and we swiftly moved through plans A, B and C before settling on . . .
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| 3. . . . Inserting and levelling a platform stone to accept one end of one of a treadboard. This meant the original firmly embedded causey stone did not have to be disturbed. |
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| 4. . . . Digging post-holes to create a two-step, step-through stile. |
Two steps were created with one end of the higher step being 'thunder bolted' to the stone in picture 3 and the other to the deeply embedded step leg. The lower step on the field side had two standard legs with one being cross-braced to a short corner-post that helped fix the cross-rails and side-pieces. Complicated? Awkward? . . . Yes!
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| 5. Stile nearly finished. Two-steps, then step-over cross-rails. |
This is a firm, robust structure. The cross-rails and their side-pieces are at the same height as the original equivalent rail (picture 2) but could be 'capped' if they need to be slightly higher. The metal field gate has clearance if it ever needs to open into the field (this was not possible before - see picture 2).
Later, because there were many exposed, freshly-sawn ends, we 'creosealed' the whole structure.
This was quite a long working day. We seemed to take a lot of spare materials and numerous 'just in case' tools. Perhaps as well - we needed the lot! Fortunately, Ian's vehicle although almost as creaky as Frank and Ian, managed the overall load with ease!
Some days later:
At the request of the farmer who rents the grazing, the stile was tweaked to make it a more formidable obstruction for sheep. The ground level on the approach was lowered by about 65 mm and the top rail capped with a 150 mm depth rail. More 'creoseal' was applied to give . . .
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| 6. End result drying off in the sun with the new 'Calderdale Council, Public Footpath' disk attached. |
More next week when (conditions permitting) we go North-West in the Colden direction to tackle another tricky stile . . . a more remote location but only a short carry of materials and tools. Phew!
