Cawston Greenway

Time for a quick catch-up… There is so much going on, on the greenway, so I thought it might be useful to roll back a bit and remind everyone of what we are doing.

But first, our workday.

Today’s workday was building benches. We have six benches to build on the Cawston bit and try and create a different surround for each bench. This will hopefully encourage different wildlife at each location. We will do the same beyond Potford Dam as soon as our extended licence comes through.

The bench at the underpass has already been tagged. Youth: I don’t care if you tag it. You are brightening up the underpass with your spray painting. All I ask is that you don’t break or move the bench. It is there for all of us to use. Great paintings in the underpass. I love it.

Marcus, Paul, Mick and myself made it today, a good turn-out seeing as there was a lot of things going on in Cawston and Rugby.

So what are we trying to do…

We started off with two miles of abandoned railway line eight years ago. We cleared it and widened the path over time. The wider the path got, the drier it got. The drier it got, the more people started using the path. Last year we pushed down to make our patch three and a half miles, to connect with National Cycle Network 41. This means people can get to Leamington Spa, or divert off and either go around Draycote Water or go half way round and pick up the path that routes out of Draycote and after going along the Ashlawn Road cycle-path, drop down onto the Ashlawn Cutting, another disused railway line, and route back to Rugby Railway Station, where all the paths lead to.

We are at the point where we can call ourselves a Nature Reserve. We have created a fantastic habitat for all sorts of wildflowers, bees, butterflies, birds and mammals. The picnic benches will be there to help people to sit down, have a picnic with their kids, and just enjoy the nature around them. Please use this blog to help recognise wildflowers and butterflies and kinda just get into what this is all about.

To open up the path from Cawston to Draycote has been a long-term goal of mine for all of the eight years of doing this. It is a path that goes somewhere and hopefully, we can get a zig-zag ramp at Potford Dam to take the cycle path along the Western Relief Road up to the railway line so that it also goes somewhere.

So that is about where we are at.

Next Sunday we are back next to the golf club with mattocks. We plan to drain the path so we will be gouging channels to the west and let the water run off.

Great day today.

Paul

Went down there with a heavy heart, came away with my spirits lifted… Let me try and put into words and pictures, what I mean by this. Last time we were down by the A45 and beyond, our task was to try and shift the standing water. It was going nowhere, or so it seemed, and our work felt a bit fruitless. Today I went thinking it was going to be another worthless slog, and I had totally run out of ideas.

When I got down there I could see that the standing water had all but drained away!!

All of these areas where completely submerged last time we were working here. Now we have little streams that we can step over and the water drains into the watercourse on the westerly side of the path. Considering the rain over the last week, I am really happy with the state of the path. As we cut away more shade and widen the path, it will get drier and drier.

It was a slightly smaller group today, Paul, Tim, Howard and myself, but we worked hard shovelling ballast onto the path to raise it up, and gouging out the drainage channels with our mattocks, to let the last remaining water drain off.

So from what seemed like a workday with little hope, it turned into one of elation. Also great to see loads of cyclists and walkers using the path. We became a bit disjointed towards the end but I made it my mission to get to the end, where we join National Cycle Network 41 at Draycote, and cut back any bramble that is making a break for it across the path.

A few wildflowers and mini-beasts to go into the relevant sub-sections, and actually got a couple of pictures of bees. They are so hard to photo because they are so busy flitting about.

Thanks to all who made it today. Was a huge step forwards. As I have mentioned, I am now out of action until the 28th June, when we start making our picnic benches.

Paul

I have set up a fundraising page for picnic benches along the greenway.

This will encourage people to come along the greenway for walks and to sit and watch the nature and wildlife on our doorstep. It will encourage people who maybe a little lonely to meet others with a similar interest and help them to make friends, or just simply get a new hobby or be encouraged to get out of the house and go for a walk or picnic with our families.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/cawstongreenway

Thanks for looking,

Paul