Thankfully it was a bright and dry day! There were two teams out from Todmorden:
Team 1. Duncan and Ken: returned to the gate on Todmorden 034 (below Stoodley Glen), to try to rehang a gate and to fit both a closure spring and a new latch bar.
Team 2, Kasher and RJ: continued the task of cutting back overgrown footpaths. This time we worked on Tod 007 (below Great Rock/Devil's Rock) in a beautiful, sunken walled-lane with fantastic views to the Pike (and a reliable source of very good blackberries). Today, we even met a few walkers on this path - a rare occurrence!
Today's work has been funded by Todmorden Town Council. Many thanks to them for their continuing support.
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| The location of the problematic gate on Tod 034. |
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| The blue "pin" marks the location of today's cutting back. |
Team 1:
The fettling of this gate seems to be causing a few problems. The strong spring which had been fitted meant that the gate was very hard to open; one of the hinges of the gate had broken; the latch bar appears either not to have been fitted or has been broken off and one of the side uprights for this gate was not vertical . . . an interesting mix of problems.
Our challenge was to sort out the gate so that it could easily open; could self-close by means of a correctly fitted spring, and could be latched.
We have made some progress but we will need to return to complete the task! At least there is a gate in place and a hanging loop for people to use to secure the gate. We will be back (soon)!!
Team 2:
We continued cutting back overgrown paths, this time on Tod 007. We will need to return to cut back the badly overgrown section of path which descends into Common Bank Wood.
Thankfully the blackberries on the upper section of the path had all finished . . . so we have not deprived people or birds of their annual bramble fix!
Team 1:
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| The original gate closure spring. |
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| The gate in need of TLC. |
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| The broken bottom hinge now removed. |
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| The gate upright which is not vertical. |
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| The gate in position and with a closure loop. We will be back to complete this task. |
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| The top of the path, before... |
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| and after. |
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| We have tried to cut back to the walls in places where the brambles were taking over. |
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| But tried to leave the small oaks which were present. |
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| The route will be easier to walk once the vegetation has dried. There were lots of trip hazard brambles. |
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| Good views across to the Pike and Sunderland Pasture, where another CROWS team were working today. |
