Cawston Greenway

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.

Enter a caption

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.

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bees, c, community, conservation, cycling, embankment, Limestone, nature, outdoors, path, plants, pride, railway, running, together, walk, walking, water, wildlife | Leave a comment

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.

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

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged butterflies, cawston greenway, community, cycling, greenway, meadow flowers, nature, outdoors, plants, railway paths, sustrans, volunteer work, wild flowers, wildflowers, wildlife | Leave a comment

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.

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

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

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

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bees, community, conservation, cycling, embankment, meadow flowers, nature, outdoors, plants, railway, running, walking | Leave a comment

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!! 😀

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged Draycote, national cycle network 41, NCN41, Potford's Dam | Leave a comment

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.

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

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

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

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bees, butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, community, conservation, conservation work, cycling, greenway, grizzled skipper, kidney vetch, national cycle network 41, nature, outdoors, path, small blue butterfly, volunteer work, walking, wild flowers, wildlife | Leave a comment

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.

kissing-gate
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

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bees, butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, community, conservation, conservation work, cycling, greenway, grizzled skipper, national cycle network 41, nature, outdoors, path, railway paths, small blue butterfly, volunteer work, walking, wild flowers, wildlife | 3 Comments

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.

robin

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

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, community, conservation, conservation work, cycling, greenway, grizzled skipper, national cycle network 41, nature, outdoors, small blue butterfly, volunteer work, wild flowers, wildlife | Leave a comment

Next Draycote Workday..

Posted on September 22, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Next Draycote workday is Sunday 9th October at 1:30pm. Working on the bit next to the golf club. We can park at the golf club and gain access via the public footpath. Ask at the golf shop for directions and they might ferry us across on a golf cart. CANNOT USE POWER TOOLS AT THE MOMENT (plans underway to change this).

My thoughts are this: The original path is pretty wet. I want to try and cut small gullies into the west side of the path, so that the water can run off. Bring a spade to create these gullies.

We also need to remove the overhanging branches that are stopping the path from drying out. I will bring five or six bow-saws so we can start cutting the overhang back. I don’t want to cut anything on the golf side if possible so that their view and buffer is not affected.

I had a good meeting with Sustrans today and they are very happy with our work. However, we need to think about the long-term implications of everything that we do. So please, please, please, if anyone thinks, “hang-on, if we do that, this might happen” please just shout it out.

So next workday, bring a spade and a saw and let’s see if we can push on for another half mile.

Streetlife progress is here –https://www.streetlife.com/conversation/mbfd83l0m9l2/

Blog at – www.cawstongreenway.wordpress.com

It’s looking good, so far!

Paul

Wednesday is the new Monday

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Our first Wednesday workday went well. Inching further ahead with the removal of the overhang at Berrybanks.

It is certainly dryer underfoot where we have cleared in previous weeks.

Mushrooms growing!

Next workday is Thursday 22nd September in the same place. We then alternate between Wednesdays and the weekend.

Steady progress today.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged butterflies, cawston, cawston greenway, community, conservation, conservation work, cycling, greenway, national cycle network 41, nature, outdoors, small blue butterfly, volunteer work, wild flowers, wildlife | 1 Comment

Draycote to Potford’s Dam

Posted on September 11, 2016 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Well what a great first workday getting the path cleared. We had about 15 people turn out and managed to cut the path back so it is now about six foot wide. We did about half a mile, which I am really pleased about, Progress at this rate will see us break through really quickly and then we can widen the wetter bits so there is dry ground to walk on.

Looking towards Draycote. Nice wide path that feels comfortable to walk down and hook up with National Cycle Network 41 to get to Leamington or Draycote Water.

Looking towards the A45. We cleared this to about six foot wide and got to the wet bit next to the golf club.

We have two options with this next bit. We can either brush-cut a new path on the slightly higher ground next to the puddled path, or we can dig drainage channels along the existing path so that the standing water has somewhere to drain to. I think the latter option is the one to try first. I sort of made a channel with a stick where there was a large puddle and it drained ok. With a spade and some deep channels I reckon we can have this section dry on the next workday.

Whitefields Golf Club have been absolute superstars in helping us gain access and on the next workday, we are allowed to park in their car-park and, they will ferry us to the path on golf carts.

We need to get rid of the over-hanging trees so it is bow-saw or if someone has a chain-saw to speed up progress…

Great day today and so good to see so many people turn out to make this connection from Potford’s Dam to Draycote a reality.

It is all about this post. It is going to get harder and harder as we get closer to the A45, but if we are resourceful and keep an open mind, we can create a nice wide and open path that will be a lovely and rewarding route connecting the north, west and south of Rugby to Draycote, via the Western Relief Road cycle path.

Massive thanks to everyone who turned out today. Community spirit at its best.

Next one is October 9th at the golf club. 1:30 start.

Paul