Cawston Greenway

It’s gonna be a big one!!

We need to rip the canopy out. No more gentle pruning and cutting back. it’s gonna be brutal!

Me and someone else will lead and go down the path felling the trees and pulling them length-ways along the path.

They are low value Ash so don’t worry about loss of habitat. Any nice specimen trees will be left and the path directed around them.

Everyone else can work on the felled trees. They need to be cut into manageable lengths and stacked off the path in neat and tidy piles.

We need to be careful with falling trees, hence only two people doing the felling and getting a good distance ahead of the group.

I spent about three hours on the section between The Bear and Cawston roundabout this morning and did about twenty five trees, felled, chopped and stacked. It’s hard work but the wood is quite soft so it is not too difficult to saw through, or cut the thinner branches with loppers.

In the small area that I did, about 20 metres along the path maybe, the difference was rewarding. Sunlight streamed through the opening and the dark dreary undergrowth was suddenly bright and airy.

We have six bow saws, three pairs of loppers and 5 pruners in our tool-box. If you can bring your own tools, all the better. Gloves are a must and wear old clothes, it’s a dirty job!!

Meet at The Bear car park and push southbound into Cawston.

Look forwards to seeing everyone on the day at 12 o’clock.

Great day with a great turnout of about 20 or so people. We pushed on past The Bear pub and cleared all the rubbish under the Victorian bridge. It was really bad so a good job done.

Bags and bags of litter and also lots of random items dumped over the years.

We also dug out the original steps, which made life a lot easier getting back up to the top.

And finally this is the path as it runs past The Bear northwards to link up with Sustrans cycle route 41 on the Western Relief Road. The  canopy above the path has got to be cleared to let sunlight in to encourage plant life, and then wildlife. At the moment it is a very dark, very wet place. 

Thanks to everyone who turned out, we seemed to get loads done and slowly we are making good progress. As a priority I think we need to clear the canopy and open up the natural clearings to encourage grass and berry producing shrubs to grow. The scrub clearance should ideally start in October and run through to February in the following year.

Sunday 15th… meet in the Bear carpark and hit the section from there to the WRR cycle path spur. There is loads of litter around the bridge that is by the Bear, and it is passable along the greenway, but quite overgrown, so I suggest we break into two groups. One group getting the litter out and the other group cutting back the path to make a clear run down to what will actually be the start of Cawston Greenway!!

I have sent the cheque off today to get the insurance upgraded so we can use power tools, I have also got a load of hand tools from BTCV which include bow saws, cutters and rakes. Having never done anything like this before, I hope we are on the right track. If anyone feels or knows that we should be doing something differently, just give me your input. I will listen to all ideas and suggestions warmly.

Lastly, we will be having a much needed committee meeting in early September. By then we will have our Management Plan and we can coordinate our work efforts throughout the winter. For me, it’s all about creating a superb habitat for wildlife such as badgers, foxes and butterflies, but just as importantly, creating a place for people to walk or cycle and kind of just get away from it all. This is why I want picnic benches in some of the clearings and benches in others.  If anyone else wants to add their ideas or wants, this is the time to do it…..

cawston greenway

We are upgrading our insurance to allow us to use power tools. This means we can cut through the scrub with a brush cutter, which is like an industrial strimmer.

This is going to make our job so much easier. I have been trawling ebay for one, and Michael already has one.

Boys and their toys… hehehe 😀

Cawston Greenway

Right then – time for a radical change in plan!

I walked the greenway past The Bear pub and Carrillion who built the Western Relief Road and the cycle path that runs along side it, have created a spur that joins the greenway about half a mile down from The Bear, with the cycle path (which is now part of National Cycle Network Route 41).

I suggest that we extend our efforts to where this spur connects to the WRR cycle path. It’s a lot more work and it really is overgrown, but it creates a complete corridor and alternative route from A to B, with B being Potsford’s Dam where Sustrans will pick up the task of managing the greenway down to Draycote.

The wildlife that I am seeing already is fantastic. Butterflies, foxes and badgers to name but a few. Wild berries are starting to ripen and it feels like a really good place to be. I am hoping to get some picnic benches put into the clearings and cut back the rides between the clearings. There are a lot of wild raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and sloe berries, which are the fruit of the blackthorn plant. There are also cherry trees, so what we have is a solid foundation to build from.

So the August workday is all about clearing the litter from the new underpass, to The Bear and down to the spur. Pretty horrible but it needs to be done.

I hope that we can get a good number of us on this. It will be well worth the extra effort.

Cawston Greenway

Fantastic workday, a lot of cutting back to keep the path clear and saw some wonderful butterflies such as Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Large White, Comma, Red Admiral, Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell. Made some good plans for the open areas. We are going to make a feature of the Victorian bridge by clearing the area and having a couple of picnic benches either side of it. A really enjoyable day.

We now have a facebook page as well as the website and blog . You can find it at

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cawston-Greenway/144446008903732

Or just press the button on the website  As you can see, there are also buttons at the top of this blog to take you to the facebook page and the website. This is for people who stumble across the blog. I will try to remember to put them at the start of each blog from now on.

We also have an article going in the Parish Council magazine in September so that should generate a bit of interest.

Thanks everyone for the help today, nice to see a few new faces too. Next light workday will be in August and then the hard work really begins with the clearing back of the scrub. I personally cannot wait!!

See you all soon,

Paul

This is a photo of the Offchurch Greenway. Hopefully we can achieve something similar, but with a much denser strips of trees on either side, especially between the greenway and the Relief Road.

This is a photo of the Cawston Greenway, obviously there is a lot of work to do.

The efforts will be very well rewarded though. Offchurch Greenway is well used and has a massive amount of wildlife. It’s a really great place to be.

I would like to have a picnic bench at the clearing by the gate that looks out over the fields, and maybe clear the area by the bridge and have one there too, eventually putting a ramp to make easy access to the Cawston Bridleway, of which the bridge is part of. 

Lots to do!!!

General cutting back along the path. It is getting quite overgrown on the section towards Potsford’s Dam so maybe our efforts would be best placed there. Please bring your own pruners, we only have four pairs in our tool-box!!

Rugby Friends of the Earth group are getting quite interested in our greenway so maybe visit their website to see what they are up to at www.rugbyfoe.co.uk. They are planning an event on the 14th July incorporating the greenway, so please support it if you can.

Sustrans, the charity that makes all the cycle networks are well on their way to developing the section of the greenway from Potsford’s Dam to Draycote. From my understanding, they have a man with a JCB ready to clear the route, have plans to sort out the badly waterlogged sections, and I think I read correctly, funding for a bridge to span the Fosse Way at Offchurch to link up the Offchurch Greenway, which is a little bit further on from Draycote, but well worth a visit.

www.warwickshire.gov.uk/web/corporate/pages.nsf/Links/94BDEFED31F9DCAE80256B7D00502F00

And of course, there is the wonderful pub at Offchurch called The Stag www.thestagatoffchurch.com with their fantastic foods and beers. This will be an eventual nine mile jaunt from Cawston to Offchurch, along the greenway (National Cycle Network 41) and well worth a visit. There is a bus route back to Cawston too, which can be found on www.transportdirect.info.

I look forwards to seeing you on the 18th, usual meeting point and hopefully we will have good weather. And don’t forget the Rugby Friends of the Earth bash on the 14th.

I attended this on Tuesday and am really impressed with the enthusiasm and hard work that is going on with projects like ours, in Warwickshire.

There were presentations and then guest speakers from St Peter’s Church Wellesbourne Wildlife Project and The Yellow Land in Bishops Itchington, which we did a site visit to, in the afternoon of the day.

There were various displays from other local groups with a lot of ‘before and after’ pictures.

It really gave me a great deal of confidence and motivation for Cawston Greenway. Yes, there is a lot of work to do with scrub clearance, horrible work as we fight to reclaim the greenway. Cutting back trees and turning it from a dark corridor to a light and airy pathway full of interesting flora and fauna.

In my mind’s eye, I can picture a gradually snaking series of woodland rides breaking out into open glades with views across open countryside. Keeping the woodland feel is valuable for a few reasons. Firstly it creates a visual and noise buffer between the greenway and the new relief road and secondly, it makes the greenway quite unique and different from the rest of the route down to Draycote, where it is cut right back and is very open.

September is the month when it all starts to happen. I am so looking forward to cracking on with it!

Great workday on the greenway this afternoon and great to see some new faces mucking in with the regulars.

We really shifted some rubbish, as you can see….

Thanks everyone for all your hard work and I look forward to seeing you next month!