What a fantastic day to be working in the Upper Calder Valley! Today's team of Catherine and Kasher aimed to fettle up two stiles on Eastwood Road.
The stiles are both on footpath Blackshaw 053 which goes from Eastwood Road towards the old quarry at Chisley Stones.
The task at the first stile was to reinstate a fingerpost and to replace a treadboard. This single-flag fingerpost was originally at the junction of two sections of Blackshaw 053 but is now positioned just inside the fence line . . . it is also much shorter!
The second stile proved to be more of a challenge! How long should it take to remove one short stile-leg? Mmm! A lot of digging, bar-ing, rocking and grunting later we realised that the original installers of the stile had nailed horizontal wooden bracers to the stile leg - attachments which ensure stability but are extremely difficult to excavate. (Note to self: a hacksaw would have been useful!)
Some considerable time later the replacement leg was finally installed and the stile with its 'take-off' stone could be finished. It was a case of . . . 'so little to show for so much effort'!
We then cut-back overgrowth from around fingerposts and markerposts along Eastwood Lane before moving down to Matthew Lane to investigate a waymarking issue. We will be back to install a markerpost and some waymarks at the junction of Matthew Lane and Baulk Lane in the next couple of weeks.
Today's work was funded by very generous individual donations to CROWS. Many thanks.
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| Location of stile 1. |
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| Location of stile 2. |
Stile 1:
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| Catherine removing the old treadboard. |
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| Kasher trying to find stone-free ground in which to install the cut-down fingerpost. |
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| Fingerpost re-embedded, new treadboard in place, waymarks and 'Ground Nesting Birds' sign attached. |
Stile 2:
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| Short stile-leg and treadboard being removed. |
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| Catherine digging out the remnants of the short stile-leg. |
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| The stile fully fettled with new leg and treadboard. |
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| Catherine on light gardening duties near Great Rock. |
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| A familiar distant feature in the panoramic view from the worksite. |
