This was our second session on jobs in the Blake Dean area, Paul, Nick, Kris (first session), Stella and Rich. The three tasks to do on the Hardcastle Crags Railway route were:
i) Start clearing and replacing steps that have obviously given up the ghost!
ii) Divert the path away from a sloping edge towards a steep drop.
iii) Widen and cut-back the path beyond the steps (red dotted line on map).
It was a great sunny day . . . and a brilliant spot for lunch.
This work was funded by friends and family of Robert Heaton - this area was a special place for him.
The carry-down
The site involved carrying everything down a steep run of very uneven stone steps.
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| 'Base camp one' - tools, timber and aggregate |
The steps
The survey showed that al least ten steps had badly rotted and needed replacing. The steps were very overgrown and unsurprisingly, when they were cleared several other rotten steps were identified.
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| Clearing in progress |
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| Some of the replaced rotten steps with extra infill |
By the end of the session we decided we might as well replace all the steps! that's another session!
The re-routed path
Below the steps, the path went over bedrock sloping towards a steep edge. People have started creating a safer route to avoid the slope, so we carried out improvement work to make this option even safer.
The path heads back towards Blake Dean - this section was cut-back, steps cleared and some widening and levelling carried out.
The final job was to add waymarks at the path junction.
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| After a good lunch |
