Cawston Greenway

Today started with a bit of head scratching and an exploratory dig at each end of an aqueduct that takes a spur of the Lawford Brook under the greenway. Whilst we uncovered each end, we were still unable to get the brook flowing through. The flooding problem still remains so we either need to somehow clear the aqueduct, or accept the fact that the water is now a feature of the greenway and use it to our advantage.

Firstly we started to clear the higher ground that runs alongside the water and as this gets trodden down it will become established as a new path.

Andy then had the brilliant idea of trying to funnel the standing water into a narrow stream. There is a slight current and sure enough, when we narrowed the path of the water, the current increased and we made a good flowing stream.

Our new stream flowing quite nicely.

This will be good for walkers because they will have dry ground to walk on and, it makes a fantastic feature for the greenway because it allows insects and other wildlife that need water to thrive and colonise. There are still areas of standing water that refused to drain into the new stream but these are host to boggy plant life so I guess they are OK to stay.

Same point looking north.

All in all a good workday with ten or so of us turning out. I think we made the best of what we had today and it will be interesting to see how this area of the greenway develops. There is a lot of tree cutting that needs to happen on the south facing bank that runs from The Bear pub all the way to the new underpass at the top of the Cawston Grange Drive. This is going to be tough and hard work but the rewards will be well worth it. However, we need to concentrate on the bits that we are currently working on before pushing on with this section.

There is a fantastic circular walk that Gary, one of our volunteers, has mapped out. It goes into Long Lawford and then through quite a few of the local villages, before returning along the Cawston Bridleway with the option of dropping down into the picnic clearing and coming back along the greenway, or reversing the walk by starting on the greenway. Either way it is well worth checking it out at:

http://tothehills.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/20110814_long-lawford-to-cawston-via-church-lawford-walk/

Well that’s about it for now. Next workday is Wednesday 30th November and back to the path clearing where we left off last time. We are almost onto embankment so this will get a lot easier. I will put some more workday dates in the workday bit on the new tab on the brown bar later today.

Thanks to all who made it today, we are making good progress.

Until next time!

Paul

Good midweeker today and we carried on with the path widening. It’s tough ripping out the scrub but it has to be done. What is left is a lovely wide path that will allow all users enough room to comfortably use the greenway. It will also allow walkers and cyclists to stick to dry ground as the rain creates puddles on the original path.

We cleared the path from the fire downwards. The last bit in the foreground is just about to be ripped out by me.

Hopefully grass will establish itself on the newly cleared areas. However, we have to bear in mind that we have not removed the bramble roots, so we need to do this at some point, or we will just be fighting a losing battle.

Looking north at the point where we are at with the path widening. It's daunting but we are making good progress.

We are about to break out onto the top of the embankment and the clearing gets a lot easier. I think it might be wise to carry on to the new underpass. When we get to this point then we need to go back to the second picnic clearing and push downwards towards Potford’s Dam. This is going to be tough because it is in cutting and also it is a long walk to get there.

The good news is that we are creating a lovely safe walk or cycleway to Draycote Water Park. I am going to investigate the flooding at the section that goes under the A45 and maybe just rip out all the trees so that a new path can be formed around the standing water. Eventually Sustrans will sort this bit out properly but due to the current spending cuts, this could be a long way off.

Next workday is at the flooded area near to The Bear. I am looking forward to seeing if we can fix this, or end up having to go around it!

Paul

Great workday today with good progress.

You might of received a blog notification email telling you about the dates for the next few weeks. I have changed it so that there is a ‘Workday Dates’ tab on the brown navigation bar, so the link on the email now leads to a blank page.

We pushed on with the path widening. It is such hard work but it is really starting to take shape and look good.

Narrow muddy path before we started.

We are switching from side to side to create kinks in the path. This will stop a wind-tunnel effect happening which will not be good for insects and butterflies.

This is the same shot after we cleared it.

If we let the vegetation on the left-hand side grow in slightly the old muddy path will become a bit of a run-off drain and force people to walk on the new path to keep it trodden down. We are keeping trees and will thin around them to give them the space to flourish. Notice the south-facing butt at the end of this run. This will be in full sunshine in the summer and also creates a windbreak where we switch to clearing the left-hand side and leave the right-hand side to encroach over the muddy path. Eventually we will have sweeping curves, with pockets of sheltered scallops, and plenty of clear ground for grass and wildflowers to grow.

Looking south towards the picnic clearing.

Ed took out one of the last few trees (the one with the bird box attached) that we want to remove in the picnic clearing with his chainsaw, and I got the fire going from the embers of Sunday’s fire, despite all the rain. Nice to see that the bird boxes that we put up last year were used over the summer and we must get on and put up the remaining ones.

Quite proud with myself for starting the fire from Sunday's embers.

Thanks to the four of us who made it today. Got plenty done and we can really see the outcome of our efforts.

Paul

Wow!! What a great workday. We pushed on with the path widening working from the first picnic clearing upwards towards the entrance. It is hard and slow work but soon enough we will be out of cutting and on to embankment. When we get there we just need to thin out the whips (very young trees) and clear around the more established young trees to help them to flourish.

This was narrow path before we started.

It was lovely to see Ed and Sally towards the end of the day and we must thank Ed for chainsawing a lot of the stumps left from cutting, as well as some more trees out of that picnic clearing without a picnic bench. My thoughts around this are thus – I would love to get another picnic bench but there is no point if it is going to go missing again, so how about we save some sections of tree-trunk and use these as the two legs to a simple bench, dug into the ground and simply put a plank across the top. Not quite a picnic bench but somewhere for people to sit and enjoy the clearing. We can probably make about four of these.

My thoughts here was trying to recreate the steam of the locomotives that would have worked their way up and down the line between Rugby and Leamington in the 1800's and pre-diesel 1900's.

Next workday is Tuesday 8th November 10am to 1pm where we can keep pushing the path back and brush-cutting the cleared areas. Meet at the area that we left off today and who wants to bet that I can get the fire started from the embers of today’s fire!!!!

I am going to try and create a new part to the blog for dates, but in case it does not work – future work days are:

Monday 21st November 2 – 4 (path widening)

Sunday 27th November 1 – 4 (at the flooded bit by The Bear trying to sort out why it is flooding)

Wednesday 30th November 10 – 12 (path widening)

Sunday 11th December 11 – 2 (path widening)

Thanks to all who turned out today.

until next time!

Paul

Good midweek workday today and we pushed on with the path widening between the two large clearings. It is worth bearing in mind that we need to create as many scallops along the path as possible. These will be warmer pockets that are sheltered and the wavy edge means we really maximise the length of the path, which will be beneficial for insects and plant life, and the mammals and birds that will feed on them.

Path looking north.

We left the specimen tree at the end of where we switch sides to create a bit of variety, and also to create an aerial runway so that mammals that do not like to travel on the ground can still benefit from both sides of the greenway. It would be detrimental to the wildlife if we don’t have various pinch points where mammals can cross. Ideally we need a tree to grow on the other side next to this tree, and the canopy touching. With the path running virtually north to south at the bottom end, it is really important to maximise the south facing edge that is left each time we switch sides. These need to have as much of the path edge facing south as is possible, to create a warm micro-habitat, so tapering these south sides towards the switch over is not the way forwards. They need to be straight and wide. The north facing edges needs to be tapered to that they will receive sunlight at the start or end of the day.

We looked at the bank where we pulled up a load of nettles in the picnic clearing and whilst it looks at first glance that the nettles have grown back, there is actually a lot of Herb Robert growing and creating ground-cover. I think it would be worth going over this area again and pull up more of the nettles.

Next workday is Sunday 6th November 1pm to 4pm and we need to push the path back from the picnic clearing, northbound towards the entrance. If we meet at the picnic clearing and push on. Bear in mind that the greenway starts to curve from north to an easterly direction as we work up the path, so the sun will be rich on the ground on the left hand side and the shade needs to be minimal on the right hand side.

Thanks to all who made it today!

Paul

Really good day with ten or so of us turning out and we really pushed on with the path widening between the two clearings. We are switching from either side of the original path so that we create a snaking effect. This is really good because it means that for every time that we switch sides, we create a south-facing micro-habitat. If we can encourage nectar-rich flowers to grow in these bits the insect life will be fantastic.

The south-facing edges that we are creating as we snake from side to side.

I have seeded the west-facing bank of the picnic clearing with a calcareous seed mix and I am happy to see that quite a bit of sunlight was hitting the ground today. I still think a couple of the big trees near the bridge need to come out, but other than that, mostly all the tree removal is done. It is now all about scrub clearance and making the path wide enough for the varied users. The more people who trample on the new ground the better. This is the only way that the wider path will become established.

We almost got to the second clearing today.

There is quite a bit of dead wood behind the scrub that could probably do with being removed at some point. However, I think it would be good to get the path nice and wide first and then cherry-pick the bits that we want to push out further. I will buzz over the work done today with the brush-cutter to remove any bramble shoots that we missed. All in all it is really starting to take shape.

Thanks to all who made it today. We certainly had the weather for it!

Next workdays (I will be putting the workdays on a separate blog so that they are easy to find in future)

Tuesday 25th October: 11am to 2pm – finish the path widening between the two clearings.

Sunday 6th October: 1pm to 4pm – work back from the picnic clearing northwards to widen the path.

Tuesday 8th October: 10am to 1pm – push on northbound.

Until the next one!

Paul

Great workday today and we had some unexpected visitors in the form of two big firemen. Someone had seen the smoke from our bonfire and thought that we were burning the greenway down. We have had a fire almost every workday for the last two years, so it is puzzling as to why the Fire Brigade were called today.

The workday was all about pushing the path back and whilst it was hard work, we could really see the results starting to take shape.

The path between the cuttings before we started. Everything is pushed onto the narrow path which becomes very muddy in the winter.

The same bit of path after we had cut back. As more people use the new path it will become more established.

Basically it is about creating a wide enough path to allow people good access to the greenway and, at the edges of the path we need low shrubbery that will get maximum sunshine throughout the day. You will notice in the second photo that I have left a bank of bramble to create a bit of a windbreak and also this gives that bank a south facing side, as does the path on the other side. You will see better from the next photo.

From the bridge. You can see how the new path switches from right to left to create a natural windbreak and also micro-habitats with full on south-facing edges.

One thing that we didn’t do last summer was keep the cleared sections clear. I was not sure about what we could and could not do in the bird nesting season, but since then I have learnt that it is OK to cut back any growth in the already cleared bits. We just cannot cut trees and scrub back in other areas.

This is basically what we need to do in all the areas where the path is in cutting. Where it is on embankment we just need to clear the new tree growth along the top and keep it pushed back to the edges of the top, whilst maintaining any specimen trees. Most of the path on the embankment is pretty much OK as it is.

Hard at work!!

Thanks to all who turned out today. About seven of us, and whilst it was slow progress, it was nice to see the results of our hard work.

Paul

Good but hard day on the greenway today, brush cutting all the growth from the stumps and bramble that has completely covered areas that we cleared last season. We need to think hard about what we are going to do to stop this regrowth because we are now spending time cutting back stuff that we should of not allowed to grow back quite so vigorously.

Me with my baby....

The good news is that quite a few wildflowers came up in the second clearing as well as stump regrowth, brambles and nettles. We have to remember that this area was totally dead last year due to the dense tree cover. I guess that we can encourage certain things to happen in the clearings, or we can let nature take its course and see what the outcome is.  However, whichever way we decide to go, the scrub needs to be managed and the trees need to be coppiced.

We had a good day for it.

The next workday is pushing back the path between the two clearings. I think we need a clear three metre wide path and then leave shrubbery leading to the mature trees on the edges, for the path that is in the cutting. The path is already a metre of more wide so it is not as daunting as it sounds, and any specimen trees will make a good wind-break.

For the path on the embankment, we have a lot of mature trees on the banks and we can push the path back along the top of the embankment and still retain a lot of tree cover to the sides that is way taller than the level of the embankment. The trees that we will be taking out will be young poor value whips, and young trees that are growing in way too dense proximity to be healthy for them.

It’s coming together and this season will see great strides forward.

Until the next one!

Paul

Really chilled out day on the greenway today. Mike showed us how to lay a hedge and it is starting to look really good. There is still loads to do to create a boundary but we made good progress. The clearing is way down towards the Potford’s Dam end and is adjacent to farmland, so will not affect the noise from the relief road. It is also in a cutting so there is a natural bank between the road and the houses close to the greenway.

Hedge laying. The next Hawthorn will lay on top of this one to create a living hedge.

This is a good contrast to what we did last year, which was to create a dead-hedge using the brash from cut down trees. Hopefully the dead-hedge will become ‘alive’ as climbing plants grow over it, but it will never look as good as what we did today.

Dead-hedge on the other side of the clearing.

Every tree that we cut down last season is now sprouting loads of shoots from the stump so we need to brush cut the clearings and find a way of killing the tree stumps that we don’t want to grow again. We need to find a way that is good for the greenway and one way would be to drill holes into the stumps and fill them with a high nitrogen fertilizer. If we keep the stumps moist, the nitrogen will feed fungi, which will naturally decompose the stump. This would be a safe way to tackle this issue. If anyone has any other ideas please shout out, but I would not feel comfortable putting some sort of toxic substance down that might harm a child or dog if they somehow got it into their mouths.

We felled all these trees and then had to chop them into bits to get them onto the bonfire.

We decided today that we need to gently widen the paths between the clearings and then maximise the clearings to create fantastic nature habitats. This means sunlight galore!!! We really needed to trim back the cleared areas over the summer because a lot of what we cleared last year is now overgrown again.

Next workdays:

Tuesday 27th September – 12:30pm to 2:30pm – brush-cut the clearing that we were working in today.

Sunday 9th October – 1pm to 3pm – widen the path between the clearing under the bridge and the clearing further down towards Potford’s Dam.

Wednesday 19th October – 2pm to 4pm – push path back from clearing under the bridge upwards towards the entrance.

Sunday 23rd October – 11:30am to 1:30pm – carry on with gently widening the path northbound.

Thanks to all who turned out today, it was a good day and we dodged the rain.

Looking forwards to the next few workdays in October and after we have finished the above, we need to tackle the flooding. I don’t quite know what or why the brook is flooding but it will be interesting for the engineers amongst us to try and solve this.

Until the next one!

Paul

PS: If anyone has a chainsaw please feel free to chop down the high tree stumps that are left from today.

Nice and gentle workday today with a bit of tidying and clearing of brash in the clearing under the bridge that was once called the picnic clearing. However, without our picnic bench, I think we may just call it the clearing under the bridge for now.

Burning off brash.

To maximise this area we really need to cut back a lot more of the trees casting shade on the clearing. Whilst I would never want to cut right back to the edge and destroy the visual barrier, if we are to encourage wildlife we need sunshine on the ground. The good news is that the greenway runs roughly north to south, so we don’t need to chop the trees at the edges to get the best of the sunshine.

This area should have been full of wild flowers this summer.

In terms of the path, we know that it needs to be a lot wider to accommodate walkers, runners, cyclists, dog-walkers and horse-riders. At the moment all the traffic is concertinaed onto the narrow path and it gets muddy and mucky in the winter. If we push the scrub back and remove the young trees we can create a much more usable green space for everyone.

More dead ground that needs sunlight to bring it back to life.

I will try and source another picnic bench for the clearing. I would really love to make one from the trees that we chop down, but I don’t want people complaining about getting splinters in their bums so maybe I will leave this for now.

I hope you like the new look blog, based on iPhone notes. I like it and it feels quite funky and modern. We have an article going into the Parish magazine around about now and this will hopefully pull in some new blood.

Next workday is Sunday 25th September at a time that I cannot remember, but it is on the last blog. Meet at the clearing under the bridge and take out the last few trees casting shade on the ground.

See you then!

Paul