Cawston Greenway

Right then, where to start!! This is the first time that we have set ourselves a goal on the greenway and happily we achieved it.

Basically at the point where we finished on the last workday, to the point that is where the greenway crosses the Coventry Road (the end) is 0.20 miles. I decided that if we clear 0.04 miles of path on each of the next five workdays, then we will get to the end before the end of the month. 0.04 of a mile sounds like no distance at all but convert it into meters and suddenly it is 65 scrubby, hawthorny, blackthorny, brambly meters and it isn’t quite the easy ride that it looks, in my mind’s-eye.

We are working round larger trees. Look how the higher trees on the edge have forced this tree to grow at an angle.

But we made it and managed to release a lovely Ash clearing whilst we were at it. We didn’t chop and trees down but did a lot of lopping of branches on the inside edge of the path.

65 meters of cleared path. If you look at the last blog you will see the photo of this before we cut it back.

There are loads of Ash trees and also some really good specimen trees, as we push on down, and I really think that we need to clear the scrub around them and kind of release these trees to allow them to thrive. At the moment they are just being crowded out by the higher trees on the edges overhanging the path.

Ash clearing that previously we would of cut down. We are now a bit more imaginative...

Mike continued with his hedge-laying and Matt found out why we are flooding up by The Bear. Plenty to do and time is ticking by. I wonder if we can do another 65 meters tomorrow?

Good turn out today with nine of us making it. Thanks to all who mucked in. I am really impressed with where we are at.

Until tomorrow!

Paul

Busy afternoon on the greenway with six or so of us making it and we did a bit more hedge-laying in the bird-box clearing (the one with the bench and bird-boxes that young Paul put up last year). Mike was pretty much doing the hedge-laying and it’s starting to look pretty good now.

The rest of us got on with clearing the path downwards from this clearing, which was a slight deviation from the plan, due to Mike having concerns that we maybe had cut back a bit too savagely on the last workday. This is where the path is quite narrow so we made it very open with views across each side.

It is good to see that in the areas that we have widened previously, there are loads of shoots coming up. Don’t have a clue what the shoots are but I guess we will find out soon enough.

The next workday is next Sunday and I think we need to press on downwards from where we left off today. I would also like to put the rest of the bird-boxes up in the clearing. We also have a lot of insect houses that need to go up, so plenty to do. As soon as we get to the end, we can then push back the scrub in selected areas and see what starts to grow. In the bit that we cleared today, the ground was totally dead underneath the scrub.

Thanks to all who made it today. We got lucky with the weather, just 🙂

Until next time!

Paul

Great workday yesterday and good to see that about six or seven of us made it. We started pushing back the path northbound from where we last left off and discovered a group of struggling young Hawthorn trees, that were fighting with the scrub around them, and the higher trees on the edges that were overhanging and tangling with the Hawthorn growth.

Hawthorn clearing.

We cleared the path either side of these trees and it will be nice to see them develop. They will have white flowers in the late spring that are pollinated by midges, and later in the year bear numerous haws. The haw is a small, oval dark red fruit about 1 cm long, berry-like, but structurally a pome containing a single seed. Haws are important for wildlife in winter, particularly thrushes and waxwings; these birds eat the haws and disperse the seeds in their droppings.

Haw fruit on our Hawthorn trees.

We started to make a dead-hedge on one side of the clearing and this will be a fantastic habitat for lots of wildlife as it becomes established. The clearing is at a section where the path changes from being in cutting to being pretty flat, before becoming high on embankment. This gives us an opportunity to lay hedges of the edges and allow people to enjoy the views across open countryside on each side.

Good progress was made and the naturally open and flat section that we worked on, felt different again to the sections worked on previously that have been in cutting, and can sometimes feel a bit claustrophobic. Especially before we started to widen the path.

As we push on it will be interesting to see what else we discover and I think we all need to be as creative and open-minded as possible. This workday was a mish-mash of ideas thrown into the melting pot on the hoof. The outcome was truly fantastic and we have created yet another varied piece to our rich and diverse greenway.

I have put a couple more workdays on the list at https://cawstongreenway.wordpress.com/workday-dates/

Lastly, thanks to Fin and Aaron for bringing marshmallows. We roasted them over the fire at the end of the day and they were yummy.

Until the next one!

Paul

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