We hung up our wildlife warrior capes and donned our hard hats whilst putting our collective minds together to solve our continual flooding issue.

Reece, Ian, Matt, Martin, Dave, and Paul turned out with our mattocks and shovels and boy-o-boy did we do some digging!!

The underground culvert is blocked and the rain water is taking the easiest route, which is down the path for about 700 metres.

This wouldn’t be a problem and makes quite a nice feature, however, because we are in deep cutting the ground around it stays soaking wet, as we can see.

So we set about increasing the flow rate under our bridge to the drain and re-routed the overflow to fill the lower balancing pond.

We widened the bridge to make it safer for users. One of our key aims is to make the path usable for as many different people as possible, so the bridge needs to be suitable for mobility scooters and pushchairs.

It all looks like a soggy mess at the moment but in a few week’s time, everything will dry out and start to settle.

We’re going to leave this area for a fortnight so the water can find its natural level and then come back and build up the bank on the left and move the island in the middle. We need there to be enough space for the water to rise and fall without breaking the bank. We have a waterfall at one end, a pool, and the water flowing out of the other end as it makes its way along the brook to the river Avon. I imagine that this will be really good for wildlife.

When the area settles down we should see aquatic plants popping up.

There used to be a lot of Brooklime (Veronica beccabunga) in this area so I look forward to seeing it again. I think a little bench would work here so people can sit and watch the waterfall and just enjoy the sound of flowing water.

Fingers crossed that this fixes this ongoing issue.

At half-time, we had a French twist with biscuits and lashings of hot coffee.

I had one of my oh là là moments in the supermarket and simply couldn’t resist. They are pretty tasty so I’m glad I did.

Here is our YouTube of the area which shows how soggy it is.

Now that the water is under control it will get better.

We also litter-picked up and down the path to keep it a pleasant place to be.

And some kind person pushed a Wickes gift card through my letterbox.

Thank you very much!!

Dunchurch Bridleway

We cut back the last 600 metres of this last Friday and it was really pleasing to see so many people using the path from Cawston to Dunchurch.

It was bitingly cold so I brought soup. I kid you not, it was very very welcome. We also litter-picked this part of the path.

It’s a nice path to walk or cycle and we are slowly getting the width that we like.

Lastly, I have created a 5-mile circular trail that the easterly end of the bridleway connects to. It takes people around the edge of the village but allows them to drop in and see the village centre if they so wish.

Link here: https://www.alltrails.com/en-gb/explore/map/dunchurch-circular-452bf20

It’s worth it, as you will see from the photos.

This is where I live!! A quintessentially English village. I love it!!

Until next week!

Paul