Back in the Bird-Box Clearing

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Marcus, Mick and me made it today. Reece somehow missed us, and Wayne got there after we had all gone, so did a bit of widening just south of Potford’s Dam

We started back in the Bird-Box clearing and found it easy to pull up the growth from the summer. We are going to work off this point for now and just clear the whole cutting out up and down the path.

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We just need to rip all the bramble, nettles and dead growth out. If we can get the roots of the brambles out, then their growth will be much slowed next summer.

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Good start today and after a good old look around, we just need to clear out as much bramble as possible.

Dates for November:

Saturday 5th 1:30pm

Wednesday 9th 9:30am

Sunday 13th 1:30pm (Potford’s Dam to Draycote end)

Wednesday 16th 9:30am

Wednesday 23rd 9:30am

Wednesday 30th 9:30am

If you need me to jig the dates in future months so that it fits in with anyone’s work schedule, just let me know. Wednesday workdays are 9:30 to 11:30. Weekenders are 1:30 to 4:00.

Thanks all who made it today, and to those that we missed, sorry, poor communication.

Paul

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Berrybanks is done for now.

Posted on October 22, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

A great turn-out today with seven of us. Mick, Aaron, Tim, Sophia, Peter, Janet and me. Basically we just had a mad tidy-up of all the brash from previous workdays, when it was too wet, or time was short, for a really good bonfire.

We also cut a lot of stumps to ground-level.

Personally, I am pretty much done with this section for the time being. It just feels like it is sucking up so much of our time. We still need to remove a couple of stumps and sow our meadow-mix seeds, but for now I just want to move on for a bit.

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Loads of brash to untangle and burn off. Not the best of jobs, but we got through it eventually.

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Starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Please remind me never to let the brash build up so much.

We built a big south-facing log pile.

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This will be a great habitat for sun-loving insects in the summer, and will be really damp on the other side and as it rots it will be valuable habitat for stag beetles, centipedes, woodlice and hedgehogs, and plants including species of moss, fungi and liverwort are just a small number of the animals and plants dependent in some way upon dead wood.

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We are starting to get a fair bit of fungi growing in all the rotting wood. It is going to be difficult to work around these areas, but well worth keeping.

Good clear-up day today. Next workday is Wednesday down the line at the bird-box clearing. We just need to push down on the last bit of this clearing that is in cutting.

Workday dates for the month are on the blog’s main page. Our Potford’s Dam to Draycote workday is the second Sunday of November and we are allowed to work on this area, but we are not allowed to use power-tools yet. David, the Ecologist from Sustrans has given us the go-ahead.

Thanks to all who made it today. We really made a difference.

Paul

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FIRST AID TRAINING

Posted on October 19, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

As we get bigger and bigger, as a group, we need a couple of regulars that are First Aid trained.

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I nominate myself as one of the people to be trained. I am there on every workday, so it makes sense.

Ideally, we could do with some other people or person who would be willing to be trained.

If you would like to be First Aid trained then let me know. We can then work out some dates that can fit in with the trainer.

Just let me know via this blog or our fb page at https://www.facebook.com/cawstongreenway

Thanks in advance.

Paul

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THE PLAN SO FAR…

Posted on October 14, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

This is the plan for this winter:

We cut three new glades in the section from the start, next to HHJS, to The Bear. I want to just gently push these back and let more light in. Over time I want to expand these glades so that they are big enough to attract butterflies and bees.

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Get our wild-flower meadow mix sown at Berrybanks. We have enough to sow 30 square meters. If it takes and looks good we can buy a bulk load and sow a load more to create a wild-flower meadow on the base of the cutting.

Create a Kidney Vetch strip three meters by one meter and weed out anything else. This will give the Kidney Vetch chance to really get established and attract the Small Blue butterfly.

Extend the picnic and bird-box clearing so that the whole of the cutting is open.

Widen the path where it is on embankment, so that it feels more like a woodland ride.

Hook-up with Men in Sheds and see if they can make us some gates and picnic benches.

Potford’s Dam to Draycote:

I will walk the path and put together a plan. Hopefully Sustrans will approve this and we can get on with connecting up with NCN 41. It just needs a few measures that will stop unauthorised motorised vehicles. Men in Sheds and gates??

It is all looking pretty good.

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Professional Help Today

Posted on October 12, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We have finally started to burn off the brash at Berrybanks. We seem to have had quite a few wet days on previous workdays, so we left the brash until it was dry. Today was that day and we got a fair bit burnt off. We also made a wood pile with the larger branches.

Great to see four of us make it today. Marcus, Mick, David and myself. David is an ecologist and works for Sustrans, so it was great to hear his input and pointers.

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Basically the recommendations are:

Ger a proper First Aid kit and two people need to be First Aid trained.

Health and Safety and Risk Assessment on each workday.

A bucket of sand or water in case a fire gets out of control.

How to cut branches and trees down safely and not compromise the health of the tree.

How dangerous tree stumps, that are not at ground-level, can be to cyclists and walkers.

How brash should be dealt with and not just left in huge tangled piles or just dumped onto the remaining scrub, but instead dead-hedged, stacked out of the way, or burnt off.

How we can make access for motorised vehicles difficult by smart hedging.

There are probably more things that David suggested and I am sure that I will remember by the next workday. It was great to get the pointers and to be fair to Mick, he has been saying the same things for the last few years!!

I think we maybe need to slow down a bit and, be a bit more thoughtful in what we do.

Next workday is our family weekender. This is going to be on Saturday 22nd October and hopefully will be our last one at Berrybanks for a while. We need to cut down any stumps to ground-level, sow our Kidney Vetch strip and our wild-flower meadow mix, and get rid of any remaining brash and overhang. 1:30pm start – beer in The Bear at 4pm!!

Thanks to all who made it today. Was a good learning experience.

Paul

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A Good Day At The Rugby End…

Posted on October 9, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Well what a good turn-out today, with I reckon 20+ people volunteering to get some clearings made on the section between The Bear and the start of the railway path next to Henry Hinde Junior School.

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Some nice log piles made and really airy clearings. From a distance you can see the pool of sunlight that these clearings have created.

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We can just keep knocking back the clearings over the next few years and then see what grows in the sunshine.

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The last clearing. This is where the footpath that runs around Henry Hinde Junior School joins the greenway.

Massive thanks to everyone who made it today. We are growing in numbers and making a real difference. When we get the licence to do the Draycote end, we will have our traffic-free path down to Draycote Water and Leamington Spa.

If anyone wants to join us on our regular workdays, you will be most welcome.

Links:

https://cawstongreenway.wordpress.com/

https://www.facebook.com/cawstongreenway/

https://www.streetlife.com/conversation/mbfd83l0m9l2/

Thanks again to everyone.

Paul

 

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Update on Sunday’s Workday

Posted on October 3, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

I will send a message to the golf club that we have changed venue. If anyone turns up there, they can redirect them to The Bear bridge. I have been in touch with Sustrans (the land owners) and all is good. It is just about dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.

Please just bear with me. Really looking forward to Sunday. If we can make some good clearings and then get Men In Sheds to bang out some rustic picnic benches, we will be doing well. I hope to have all the bits in place for the Draycote end ready for November.

I can taste that beer in The Bear after Sunday’s workday!!! Haha!! 😀

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Awfully Slow Progress!!!

Posted on September 28, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Mick, Aaron and me down at Berrybanks again today. It is slow and hard work and we are literally inching along at a painfully slow pace.

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This is where we are at, a nice V shape with a flat bottom. We just need to keep cutting back the overhang.

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This photo shows where we are heading to, and the overhanging branches that need to be removed, if the path is ever to dry out.

Workday dates for the coming month can be found at

http://www.cawstongreenway.wordpress.com

or

http://www.facebook.com/cawstongreenway

There is loads to do and I feel like we are getting a bit bogged down in this section. We probably need fresh new blades for our saws and just dig deep to push on.

We need to spend time digging out the stumps of the felled trees, too.

I have a thread on streetlife that is more about the other end

http://www.streetlife.com/conversation/mbfd83l0m9l2/

We are close to getting our licence to work on the Potford’s Dam to Draycote bit and open up the path to get down to Draycote Water. It is all looking really good.

Great work today.

Paul

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Draycote Workday CHANGE OF PLAN

Posted on September 24, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

MASSIVE CHANGE OF PLAN WITH THE WORKDAY ON SUNDAY 9th OCTOBER:

We will not have a Habitat Management Plan in place, or the license agreement from Sustrans before next workday. Without these two things we cannot continue on the section between Potford’s Dam and Draycote. I am working hard with Sustrans to get these things in place as soon as possible.

However, we have a license to do work on the section from Potford’s Dam, to where the railway path now starts, which is next to Henry Hinde Junior School. We also have insurance that covers power-tools.

The workday will be at the same time (1:30pm) meeting by the bridge at The Bear pub. There are steps down on the pub side. We need to cut a number of clearings along the path so that the terrain alternates between overhanging tunnel-like woodland walk, to small clearing, then back to woodland walk. The length of the section is about 0.4 miles and I reckon we can create five clearings. One adjacent to Berrybanks, one big clearing around The Bear bridge (I have a group of lads going their Duke of Edinburgh Award doing this one), one where the path that goes around Henry Hinde Junior School joins the railway path and then two more either side of this last one. Apart for The Bear bridge clearing, they need to be about ten meters square and able to house a picnic bench with plenty of room for cyclists and pedestrians to get past. Depending on how many of us can make the day, we can see how far we can get with this.

At the end of the workday (4:30pm) I suggest that we all converge in The Bear and have a well earned refreshment and chat about progress and something else that is a job for the winter. Gates.

We need to work out how we can make some kissing-gates so that only cyclists and pedestrians can access the railway path. There are four ungated access points. The start by Henry Hinde School, Berrybanks and two in Cawston.

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There is a movement called MEN IN SHEDS that do not operate in Rugby. I think we could start one. Click on the link and have a think.

Link to our streetlife thread is HERE.

Sorry about the change of plan, hopefully all the bits will be in place by November for the other end.

Look forward to seeing you on October 9th.

Paul

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Wet Day

Posted on September 22, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Soggy old morning, made worse because we are clearing trees that are over large muddy puddles. The good thing is that the bits done in previous weeks are no longer puddled.

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Curious Robin came to have a look at what we were up to.

We managed to clear about five or six trees so more sunlight hitting the ground. The underpass is within sight, so we are close to finishing this section.

There is a huge amount of brash that needs burning off. Today was just too wet, but it is becoming a pressing problem.

Next workday on this section is Wednesday 28th September at 9:30.

Good work.

Paul

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