Cawston Greenway

It is with great sorrow that report that Edmund lost his battle with cancer this morning. Edmund was a popular volunteer on the greenway and touched a lot of us with his kind nature. I have sent my condolences to Sally, his wife.

In terms of today’s workday, it was all about trying to connect with the cycleway that runs along the Western Relief Road. This is part of National Cycle Network 41 and as soon as we connect with it we can then connect with the rest of the route at Draycote village.

After trying to work out how to put steps into the very steep slope by the bridge, we eventually gave up because it would be more of a ladder that steps. We then tried to make a ramp but with no retaining barrier it was just not possible with spades.

Eventually we went to the area where the field next to the greenway narrows, and cut a small tunnel through to the edge.

Small tunnel leading to the edge of the greenway.

From the edge is a small bit of land that hopefully the landowner will give us access over and then our connection with the outside world will be made.

View from the edge to the gate. Just twenty yards.

The rest of the workday was spent pulling up nettles around any other wild flowers to give them a chance to establish themselves and spread a bit.

The cows found our nettle pulling quite amusing!

And just as we were finishing we found a Kidney Vetch plant. This is the sole food-plant for the Small Blue butterfly. If we can get this plant to spread we can hopefully have a Small Blue colony establish itself. This would be fantastic because the Small Blue is on the endangered species list in Warwickshire and needs as much habitat creation as possible.

Kidney Vetch.

Good day today up to the point where I learnt about Ed. I will put some more workdays on in the next couple of days, but in the meantime, I hope everyone has a great Jubilee celebration.

Paul

Aaron, Mike and myself did a lot of nettle pulling today in the picnic clearing. There are loads of shoots coming up underneath the nettles and we just need to give them a helping hand.

Lots of wild flower seedlings coming up.

It’s going to be really exciting to see what these wild flowers are, and what wildlife they attract. We saw an overwintered Peacock butterfly today and a lot of Orange-Tip butterflies, as well as bees and a Buzzard feeding on a dead rabbit.

We have the pleasure of  John Walton, the Plant Recorder for Warwickshire Flora Group coming along with a group of Botanists on Sunday 29th July to record all the plant life on the greenway. I have suggested they park at The Bear and work southbound. They start at 10am and we are very welcome to join them. I for one will be going.

Things are really starting to look good in the cleared areas and I think this summer will be a good time to see what a difference we have made.

Usual bonfire.

My fire starter skills are getting better because we soon had a roaring fire.

The next workday needs to be at the section where the brook runs under the greenway and has flooded (Next to the housing development called Berrybanks opposite The Bear). Matt has done a lot of work here already, but we still have not solved the flooding. Bring a spade and suitable footwear and remember, many hands make light work. There is some piping that had been left from when they were building the houses and maybe we can utilise this?

Sunday 22nd April at 11am is a good a time as any and will leave the afternoon free for anyone who wants to watch the Formula 1 on Sky.

Lastly, if you want to know what is going on with other paths and cycleways visit www.sustransrugby.wordpress.com and see how we link up with the bigger picture.

Thanks for today!

Paul

…and that means that we have to stop chopping away at the scrub and let spring roll into the summer. It also means that we can have our Sundays back too 🙂

I think moving forwards we will probably have a workday every fortnight, one on a Sunday and one on a weekday. There are various jobs that we can be getting on with like litter picking or trimming back any brambles that grow into the path. We will probably spend a lot of time pulling up nettles and digging out the roots of brambles in the areas that we have cleared. What we need is to keep the clearings open and bramble free, so that when we get to September, we can crack on with the rest of the scrub clearance up to The Bear pub, and beyond. There are steps that we need to put in by the bridge over the Coventry Road and also some work to do where the two gates are, and the flooded bit! We also need to start recording flowers, plants and butterflies that we see.

Anyhow, today’s workday was lovely due to the warm weather and we had five of us turning out. We saw a couple of Brimstone butterflies and the noise from birds around us was good to hear. We did a lot of work on the second clearing in the section between the new underpass and The Bear pub.

Second clearing.

If you look at the picture on one of the last few blogs you can see a picture from the end of the first clearing looking towards this clearing before we started work on it. it’s amazing what a difference we are making.

We still need to clear the south-facing bank and hopefully that can be the first job in September.

We also tried to direct the path around a little thicket of bramble. This will provide cover for birds and mammals and also provide nectar for insects that prefer bramble to what ever grows in the cleared areas. It also gives us a windbreak too.

See how we have directed the path to the right of the bramble as well leaving the original path on the left hand side. By doing this it makes the path more interesting and fun for children.

Well that’s about it. Thank-you to everyone who has played a part in where we are up to with the greenway. It really has been a terrific adventure and a really steep learning curve. The last picture is looking up the path from the new underpass and it really does look good.

Looking up the path.

Next workday will be on Sunday 1st April 11am to 2pm and I think we just need to have a good old litter-pick along the whole path and also revisit our management plan to see how we are getting along with it. If we meet at the entrance and I will bring bin-bags and litter-pickers. We also need to plan our AGM for April.

Thanks again to everyone who has supported Cawston Greenway 🙂

Paul