Cornholme - Old gate out, new gate in!
The team of Frank H and Ken was joined by Gareth so that Ken (very bad back!) could act as director of operations. The gate (and its side-posts) that needed replacing was on the footpath Todmorden 065 that goes due north from Parkside Road to eventually reach Brown Birks. Fortunately we were working near to the vehicles (loaded with tools and timber) some 50 m up a narrow, slippery, steep, cobbled ginnel. (See map)
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| 1. Map:- the 'blue pin' marks the spot. |
This task was funded by a donation from Cornholme Wreath Making workshop. Many thanks.
The detail.
The original gate was in a dilapidated state - poorly hung, missing some palings, lacking a closure spring, reliant on bale-twine and having one side-post in a state of advanced decay. Here are a couple of pictures:
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| 2. Up-slope view: Mmm! Much patched. |
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| 3. Down ginnel view: Dodgy gate and a hotch-potch of closure posts! |
Plan A was to embed a new hinge-post (rather than use the private property's fence post) and hang a brand new spring-controlled gate which would close against a new closure post. Despite a few glitches (mainly to do with ground conditions) we stuck more or less to this plan
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| 4. Hinge-side hole. Mmm! only just enough space for the 100 mm x 100 mm section post. |
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| 5. Quality control: It's Elsie keeping her human on a tight lead. She often visits our Cornholme jobs and is over-joyed to see Frank . . .until she realises he has no food with him! |
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| 6. Work in progress: Gareth on the drill. |
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| 7. Work in progress: new hinge-post, side-rails, closure spring and Frank fitting the closure loop. |
Just as we had nearly finished, Catherine and Mick appeared to pitch-in with some sawing (Catherine), some painting (Catherine) and some 'helpful' comments (Mick).
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| 8. Extra timber preservative being expertly applied.. |
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| 9. Nearly done: down-slope view. |
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| 10. Nearly done: up-slope view |
The final tasks were to clear and landscape the work area. The top 150 mm of the hinge-post will be painted yellow to indicate the right-of-way and to match the description in 'Mills, Mines and Missionaries' - the informative route developed by Vale Walkers . . .
. . . and here it is:
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| 11. "Neatest gate in town?" |