Colden: Hot 'Lane' and the style of stiles
On a clear, calm day enlivened by the occasional chilly sharp shower, Jan, Steve and Frank H replaced a dilapidated stile at the end of the narrow, sunken, partly-blocked, muddy path named as Hot Lane (see map)
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| 1. The blue' pin' marks the location of the stile |
This location has a stile and gate combination (see picture 2):
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| 2. Private access to the grazing land is through the gate (aka old palette) on the left. The public right-of-way (footpath Heptonstall 016) takes the sunken route to the right. |
The above picture was taken last year. Since then the structure has deteriorated even more so access to the right-of-way now has many deficiencies:
i) The stile (missing its treadboard) was originally a one-step stile with an extremely high top rail.
ii) The stile rails are no longer horizontal and the side-posts are no longer vertical.
iii) The 'gate' is now a loose construction no longer hinged to its post!
iv) The rot became more obvious as work started.
Reconstruction work proceeded as follows:
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| 3. Old stile removed. Work starts on installing a completely new and slightly wider two-step stile. |
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| 4. Side-posts temporarily cross-braced and step legs nearly in position. |
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| 5. View from Edge Lane side: complete two-step stile with lift-type dog gate |
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| 6. View towards Edge Lane: The tall side-post is vertical . . . . . . well, as vertical as the post and pole in the background! |
It was a day of heavy labour! A lot of energy was expended in getting some of the old timbers out of the ground and even more 'grunt' was required to get the new timbers embedded deeply enough. However, despite one or two alignment glitches we were pleased with the end result which is secure, safe and easily negotiated.
The gate gap was temporarily blocked with the remnants of the old gate because next week (weather permitting) we will fit a new gate (yet to be constructed) and its closure post . . . more heavy digging!
