Cawston Greenway

It’s been a while since I have organised a workday, or even been down to the greenway due to babies, nappies and feeds. But I went down today to have a bit of a nose about and could see how wet it still is. There is a bit of litter building up so that needs to be cleared pretty quickly. Someone has chopped back the branches to make the path wider in the section that is near the entrance. Whoever this is, please bear in mind that we need to be uncovering the raised ballast path to get us all out of the mud.

Next workday is Tuesday 26rh March at 11am.  We can burn off the brash piles just past the picnic clearing, I will bring the litter picker so we can have a bit of a tidy too.

Paul

Well what a lovely morning we had. Basically we carried on clearing the bit between the clearings, if that makes sense. We need to clear out all the bits of the greenway that are in cutting and just push the path wider in the bits where we are on embankment.

We had a woeful attempt at starting a fire and thankfully Mike came along and answered our prayers. He once again showed us how to get a fire going and before long we had a raging fire and burnt off a whole load of the brash that we had chopped down.

Mike earned the nick-name Bear Grylls and I think we all enjoyed the banter.

I think about eight of us made it today which is good. We have until March to clear as much as we can before the bird nesting season starts. I will try and get down there tomorrow and burn off the rest of the brash so we can have a clear start on the next workday. Probably be at about 3 o’clock. It will be fun if it snows!!!

The next weekend workday will probably be in two weeks time. Next Sunday I have organised a litter pick in Cawston which starts at 2:30 at Budgens. Feel free to come along and help if you want.

Thanks everyone for today. We really are making a difference.

Paul

Happy New Year everyone!!

It’s been a struggle to get out this year. Mainly due to my extended family, my new job and the hideous weather that has made the greenway a quagmire and really quite unpleasant to walk down. However, we need to keep moving forwards and keep pushing back the path.

To remind us of our goal, we need to widen the path so that the ridge of ballast is clear. This will become the new path and allow the old one to recover somewhat.

I am in talks with the Probation Service to see if we can get some help via Community Payback on a set day in the week. This might just involve a group of people spending a day cutting down trees and clearing scrub, and then we can go along at the weekend and burn off the brash and tidy up. Early days but this might help us catch up.

Next workday is Sunday 13th January at 11am – back at the bit between the two clearings trying to make it one big clearing.

Clearing the path.

Look forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Paul

Tuesday’s workday was pretty wet and wild, nothing like the previous one where we had sunshine. Mike and myself discovered that the matches had got damp and would not light, so Mike worked hard with the embers of the fire from Sunday and eventually got a small fire going. This allowed us to burn off all the brash and scrub that we pulled off the bank.

Cleared bank.

We are going to leave the trees at the top of the bank so they act as a sound barrier, but everything on the bank needs to come out so that wild flowers can establish themselves.

Brash ready for the next workday bonfire.

There comes a point towards the end of a workday when we have to stop adding to the bonfire, or we never get to go home because we cannot just walk away leaving an unattended fire. Whilst the fire is burning down we spent the time pulling scrub off the bank ready for the next workday. The type of scrub is such poor quality and stopping anything else growing. Next workday will have to be a bit about trying to catch up with the burning off of the piles of scrub, and also push on with the clearance so that the two cleared areas becomes one huge open space.

On the last blog I suggested that the next workday will be on Sunday late afternoon, but this clashes with the last Formula One race of the season, and it also gets dark quite early so I don’t think it is really practical to start and then not be able to finish on time.

So the next workday will be on Tuesday 27th November at 10:30 back in the clearing.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Paul

Lovely workday and loads done.

We cleared the new path of trees and really started to connect the two clearings. We are going to remove all the scrub either side of the bridge and really make it the feature that it deserves to be.

Clearing the path.

We Just need to keep clearing this section so that the whole bit that is in the cutting can get some sunlight and dry out a bit.

Stumps!!

We left a lot of tree stumps and the plan is to chainsaw these to ground level and then drill a hole into the top and drip some Roundup Tree Stump and Root Killer in to kill the roots.

Next workday is on Tuesday 20th November at 10:30  in the same place pushing back more of the scrub. Hopefully we can rekindle the bonfire and really get going with it. After that we are back on it on Sunday 25th November at 2:45pm

Thanks to all who made it on Sunday – about six or so – many hands make light work!!

Paul

It was a real pleasure to see Graham back out with us. It was a quick workday due to external factors but we got a bit done.

This is a picture of what the railway-line looked like in the early 1980’s

Heading towards the bridge in the picnic clearing!!!

It is pretty amazing to see how overgrown it is now.

Next workday is Sunday 18th November starting at 10:30am. Cutting back the trees on the ridge of ballast in the picnic clearing.

The quicker we get this ridge cleared, the quicker the muddy old path will either dry out or become a permanent water feature.

The greenway has taken a real turn this season and has real purpose as to where it is going.

Paul

Another soggy workday but quite a bit done. We are still working on the section between the two big clearings and ridge of ballast that we are trying to turn into a new path is slowly getting cleared.

The ridge of ballast is now starting to clear.

We created another log pile with the tree trunks and this will rot down nicely.

New log pile.

Margaret managed to get the fire going today so we burnt off a load of the brash from last week’s workday.

Firestarter!!

If we keep banging away at it, we will eventually get there.

Next workdays – Thursday 15th November 11am start and Sunday 18th November 10:30am start. Same place as today.

Thanks,

Paul

Monday 5th November. 11am start. Working on the same area between the two clearings.

Hope to see you there.

Paul

Good workday today and we took out a few large trees on the ridge of ballast. We were helped by a couple of lads who we found down on the greenway, so thanks if you are reading.

We had to pile the brash up because it was just way too wet to burn. This will create a great habitat for small mammals, insects and fungi.

We really need to get the ridge cleared because the old path is now turning into a bog. If we just keep pushing away at it we will get there. Ashlawn Cutting has the same flooding problem and their path navigates around it so we really need to do the same. The wet bits will then host some wonderful wildlife. Maybe when the ridge is cleared we can rake the mud out of the boggy bits to make proper ponds?

Thanks to all who made it today. Next workday will be next week. Will let you know what day and time tomorrow.

Paul