Cawston Greenway

Woodland Ride!!

Posted on December 11, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Today we managed to do what I have been trying to achieve for the last seven years. We created a section that really felt like a woodland ride.

Great turn out with Mick, Wayne, Anna, Carrina, Howard, Arron and myself getting stuck in.

We cut all the overhanging branches back and made a real difference to the light hitting the ground. We have a lovely bank of scrub on the south-easterly facing side and lots of brash that will rot down and create habitat for wildlife, behind the line of trees.

I know that we have a potential conflict situation here. I personally would like the whole path to resemble a woodland ride, but I know other volunteers and users like the tunnel effect where the branches meet from each side. The compromise is that we all get a bit of what we like, and we end up with a diverse and varied habitat. My idea is that we work off glades and maybe have an open ride from one glade to the next, and then have the closed tunnel path to the next, and then back to open, etc, etc..

But anyway, conversations for 2017. Smashing turnout today for our last workday for 2016. Lovely beer called Winter Warmer in The Bear after. The dormouse is in fact called an arboreal species, because it prefers to use branches to cross the path rather than use the ground. A little bit different from my earlier suggestion that they were called marsupials.. lol.

I am sure we will have our license for Potford’s Dam to Draycote ready for the New Year. It will be all hands to the pump to get the section from the A45 to the golf club passable. After that we will have to adopt a pretty strict rotational cutting program. We simply will not have the time to get bogged down in sections.

Thank-you to everyone who has put in time, thought, effort and anything else this year. We are creating a valuable and safe path to Draycote Water Reserve, a lovely nature reserve, a great place to cycle, walk and run, a place to chill out and connect with nature, have a picnic and learn about butterflies and wildflowers.

Wishing you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged community, conservation, cycling, national cycle network 41, nature, outdoors, railway, railway paths, running, walking, wildlife | Leave a comment

Message From Sustrans

Posted on December 6, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Dear Friends of Cawston Greenway,

We have Organising a Task Day training running this Wednesday, 7^th December. The training day is part theory and part going outside and putting it into practice. This training has been organised to prepare the group to work under the new license on the land between Coventry Road and Draycote Reservoir. This is a participative workshop – there is a little bit of presentation from us, and lots of opportunity for you to share your ideas, and join in and practice. Feedback from volunteers and staff that have attended the course so far has been extremely positive.

When and where:

Wednesday 7^th December, 0930 – 1430

Cawston Community Centre, Scholars Drive, Cawston, Rugby, CV22 7GU

Please ensure you have warm clothes and suitable footwear for a task day as we will be outdoors for part of the day.Please also bring a selection of the tools that you usually use on workdays.

Tea, coffee, cake and biscuits will be provided. Please bring a packed lunch with you.

Aim

This session will develop your confidence and skills in organising and running a task day. Help you to understand the activities required for managing a task day, before, during and after. Offer an opportunity for networking and sharing of ideas and best practice. Expand your knowledge of the resources available and when to use them.

Please confirm you attendance.

If you have any further questions or would like to book a place on the course, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Kind Regards

Daniel Robertson

Volunteer Coordinator, Midlands

Sustrans | 2 King Street | Nottingham | NG1 2AS

M: 07785 273 740

E: dan.robertson@sustrans.org.uk

W: www.sustrans.org.uk/volunteer

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Sustrans Training Day – Wed 7th December.

Posted on December 3, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We have an exciting diary date: Wednesday 7th December the guys from Sustrans are coming down to work with us. The day will begin with a bit of a classroom session at Cawston Community Hall, teaching us new skills and honing existing ones, then a bit of lunch and then we hit the greenway to practice the skills that we have learnt. This is invaluable because we are going to be taught by professionals – what is not to love about this. The workday will end at 2:30pm.

Please click the “going” option on our facebook event or let me know by commenting on this post, so that we have an idea of the numbers.

Facebook page event is here CAWSTON GREENWAY.

Thanks in advance and look forward to seeing as many as possible on Wednesday.

Paul

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It was so cold today….

Posted on November 30, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

……that my drink froze in its water-bottle!!

But that did not deter Reece, Marcus, John and me.

We started a fire and boy-o-boy did it labour for the first half hour, but eventually the brash started to dry out and burn.

I am not entirely comfortable with burning off what would be fantastic habitat piles so I might have a rethink, moving forwards. At least the fire kept us warm though.

There was so much smoke that it felt like a steam train had just shunted past.

Next week we meet at either The Bear or the Community Hall at 9:30 for our classroom session with Sustrans, and then after a spot of lunch, we get out onto the greenway to practice the new skills that we have learnt, finishing at 2:30.

Well done everyone today. We have cleared the glade and have a lot of open ground that will benefit in the spring and summer when sunlight will start to make new things grow.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bees, community, conservation, cycling, nature, outdoors, railway, walking, wildflowers, wildlife | Leave a comment

New Bluebell Glade

Posted on November 23, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Great day today with five of us turning out, which is pretty good for a weekday. Well done Mick, Carrina, Reece, Marcus and myself.

We have been gifted a couple of bags of English bluebell bulbs, so Marcus, Carrina and me set to work planting them.

We will just need to keep an eye on this area in the spring to make sure the bulbs have a good chance of coming up. Exciting to think how this area might look like in a few years time.

Mick and Reece carried on ripping the scrub out. We are creating a huge glade that will be perfect for butterflies and bees in the summer.

All this scrub needs to go. We are making the path as wide as we can.

As I mentioned today, we have an exciting diary date: Wednesday 7th December the guys from Sustrans are coming down to work with us. The day will begin with a bit of a classroom session teaching us new skills and honing existing ones, then a bit of lunch and then we hit the greenway to practice the skills that we have learnt. This is invaluable because we are going to be taught by professionals – what is not to love about this. The workday will end at 2:30pm.

Thanks to all who made it today, very pleasant company and a good job done.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bees, cawston greenway, community, conservation, cycling, embankment, Grizzled Skipper Butterfly, national cycle network 41, nature, outdoors, plants, railway, running, small blue butterfly, walking, wildlife | Leave a comment

Bird-box Clearing

Posted on November 16, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Good old workday today with Carrina, Reece, Marcus and myself ripping the scrub out.

We have a load of brash to burn off next week. There is simply no room to make habitat piles.

Ideally I would like to remove the scrub around the trees to create a parkland feel.

We have a nice open glade that will attract butterflies and bees in the summer.

Thanks to all who made it today.

All future work south of Potford’s Dam has been suspended for now. Plans are in place to get this section sorted. Just bear with me. The workday scheduled for the second Sunday in December will be in this clearing instead.

Paul

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What a stinker!!

Posted on November 13, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Eight of us made it today and we started to try and dig channels from the path to the edge, where it drops away, in an attempt to drain all the standing, stagnant, stinky water. It was going nowhere, so we decided to switch to plan B.

There is a narrow ridge of ballast that I assume is from when they took up the railway tracks. This is hard compacted and very dry. It is a sliver of a path through the bog. We worked on this and cleared off a load of ash trees and scrub.

This picture shows how boggy and wet it is.

For now we just need to keep clearing the ridge. It breaks out onto dry ground very quickly, so just another 50 meters or so to go towards the NCN 41 marker.

It is getting harder and harder as we narrow down to the last bit. The A45 to the golf club is so wet but looking at how resourceful we were today, I am sure we will find a way through.

If we can just follow the ad-hoc path on the higher ground and work around the wet bits for now. When we have a clear path through, we can widen it and work out how to drain it at a later date, if we decide that this is what we want to do, or maybe just keep it as wetland habitat and walk or cycle around it.

Thanks to all who made it today. Next three workdays are Wednesdays on the Cawston section, then back to weekend/weekday alternating workdays.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bees, butterflies, community, conservation, cycling, Draycote, nature, NCN41, outdoors, path, railway, running, together, walk, walking, water, wildlife | Leave a comment

Fungi Fun

Posted on November 12, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Here we will attempt to list the fabulous fungi that we are finding.

Velvet Shank

Velvet Shank

Scurfy Twiglet

Jelly Ear

Stags Horn

Jelly Ear

Roundspored Oysterling or Variable Oysterling

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Scrub Clearance

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Good day today with Aaron, Reece and myself chopping a load of this scrub out.

We thought it would be a nice feature in the summer, last season, and tried to create a path around the back of it. However, it didn’t really work out. So it has to go. We want the clearings in the cuttings to be a haven for butterflies and bees. The bits of the path that are are on embankment are full of trees and will be good for birds and mammals.

Thanks to all who made it today. Cold and wet but so worth it.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged cawston, cawston greenway, community, conservation, cycling, nature, NCN41, outdoors, railway, railway paths, running, walking, wildlife | 1 Comment

Pushing It Back

Posted on November 5, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Good turn-out with Linda, Anna, Wayne, Mick and myself. We had two brush-cutters on the go and really pushed back the summer growth and scrub.

We burnt off all the brash as Mick and Wayne cut it back. We just need to keep clearing all the way up to the bridge that goes over the greenway.

Last year we left scrub, but this year, we have decided to rip it all out.

This is the nice open glade that we will want in sections that are in cutting.

We will keep the trees and the scrub around them, and can see what comes up in the cleared bits in the spring.

We have started to mow a strip each side of the dirt path. This will make it easier for walkers and cyclists to access the path.

I walked down past Potford’s Dam and towards Dunchurch Station by the A45. This area is pretty clear and very dry. I will do the management plan for this section in the week and we can crack on with it.

Thanks to all who made it today.

Paul