Thank You, George.

Posted on August 28, 2024 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

This week is the last week of the school summer holidays and also the last week that George is with us for his six-month Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award. It’s been great having you on the team, George, and your little bit of legacy is your bench.

Designed by Andrew who also made the Bethel “Wiggers” bench, so we know that it’s gonna be there for a very long time.

We look forward to seeing you at half-term.

We strimmed back the path, fanning out from the JLR bench and started to think about the deep scallops that we need to cut onto the scrub now the bird-nesting season is all but over.

We can see how this is starting to take shape and how we are using mature trees as a feature within the scallop if we can.

The deeper we go in, the better, because each scallop will be a sheltered little micro-habitat for biodiversity. It also makes it far more interesting for people who enjoy walking or cycling on the path.

I had my litter-picking crew today, due to the school holidays, and they did us proud.

Two kilometres covered (there and back that’s 4 km) so well done, kids. A well-earned McDonald’s followed…

Not a regular thing so don’t worry!

We enjoyed coffee and Goerge made us all some banana loaf, which was delicious.

This is probably one of the best parts of us getting together every week and doing what we do.

Next month we have Bilton Beavers helping and also a group from Jaguar Land Rover, who might try to do something with this bench as part of their day with us.

If not, we know how to turn it into a 4-seater.

Here is our YouTube of some of the progress today.

The reason that we use YouTube is because I am unable to load videos directly onto the blog without signing up to the next tier, which will cost me even more money. Of course, I would love to be a YouTuber with 500,000 subscribers and enough imagination to put out interesting and engaging content every week, but sadly, I’m not.

Lastly, here is a rather nice photo from Matthew Gordon (Cawston resident) of the sunset behind one of our benches.

I love it.

Dunchurch Bridleway

Somehow we continue to push on westwards and there are just 70 metres of path snipping back left, until the bridleway meets the railway. When we see 70 metres against the whole length of the bridleway, it looks like nothing.

I’m not really that bothered about this bit, preferring to wait until the cycle path along the new road connects us, but someone unknown seems to want it open and accessible.

The temporary Right of Way that connects to the greenway has been cleared by about 50 metres, so slowly it’s kinda coming together.

If it gets people walking or cycling between Cawston and Dunchurch, then I guess it’s all good.

Next week we are back at Potford Dam and for me, this is Dream Street because we can start to create the deep scallops with our hedge trimmers. Butterflies and bees, thank me later…

Until then!

Paul

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Time to Visit the September Jobs List

Posted on August 21, 2024 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We have one last week until the birdnesting season ends and we can visit our list of jobs to do (top right of menu bar) over autumn and winter.

Six of us made it today and trimmed the path back about 400 metres, fanning out from the bird feeder clearing.

We’ve got the width that we need so cyclists and pedestrians can share the path, we have kinks and curves so we haven’t created a wind-tunnel effect, we have plenty of benches for picnics, or just to sit at and enjoy the birdsong and green space. All-in-all, it has a great feel to it.

The next stage, which just so happens to be a winter job when all the berries have gone, is to cut back the bramble and start to manage the blackberries.

The lifecycle of bramble is – loads of runners but no fruit in the first year, bumper fruit in the second year, stems die in the third year so need to be cut right back to ground level.

It will look something like this – winter 2024 cut back – summer 2025 new growth – summer 2026 fruit – cut back winter 2026/7 so the cycle starts all over again.

If we work out a rotation strategy we will always have a bumper crop of berries every year.

We also need to cut really deep scallops into the path edge. This year we have been a bit quick to get to the edge of the scrub when strimming because we didn’t really have the time and manpower to knock the scrub back into the scallops that we needed. Once we have these, they will be full of longer grass, wildflowers and basically we will be creating little micro-habitats up and down the whole path.

We have been awarded a grant from Warwickshire County Council for a new strimmer and a hedge trimmer so we will have the tools to do the job.

We also litter-picked up and down.

Considering that it’s the school holidays – not a lot of litter at all!!

Someone called Simon gently snipped back the path from Potford Dam down to the A45. No idea who Simon is but thanks for keeping this bit usable.

Here is our YouTube of the area that we did today.

Hopefully, you can see what we are trying to achieve.

Dunchurch Bridleway

Lots happening on this bit of the path. We got the two loops open and also pushed on to the new spine road cutting across the bridleway.

The next jobs are to get the Geocaching trail re-done so it goes past Solstice coffee shop and hopefully encourages people to pop in for a cuppa, and to install our rebuilt picnic bench, once all the berries have gone over and we can cut an area to accommodate it.

Someone has pushed a further 350 metres westward from the spine road. No idea who this is, but good work if it means people have further to walk and cycle.

It comes to an abrupt halt at the last photo, but I am intrigued to see if it will carry on to the end, which is about 250 metres or so. Thank you, whoever you are.

Here is a kinda updated map of the paths to give you an idea where it all sort of fits together.

My plan is to get a Geocaching trail around both loops, and hopefully connect the Dunchurch and Cawston communities somehow, or maybe it will just happen as people naturally forge a traffic-free way through.

Next week we are at the JLR picnic bench snipping back, and after that, it’s all hands to the pump!!

Until then!

Paul

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Forest School Area

Posted on August 14, 2024 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Hopefully, this will be the last session down this end for a couple of weeks. I for one tend to get itchy feet when we are committing a lot of our time in a single place.

Six of us met up and we made a second triangle of benches, and made an area that we feel is suitable for Forest School and Bushcraft skills.

Thanks to Andrew, who let us use his driveway to drop off all the heavy stuff, and the lend of a sack-barrow and wheelbarrow to get said heavy stuff onto the path.

We had to make our way across the cow field.

That was errr, interesting, in a buttock-clenching sort of way… But actually, the young bullocks showed nothing more than a slightly bemused interest.

George and Dave got the benches in, whilst the rest of us cut a massive pile of sticks to allow dens and shelters to be built.

If you ever find yourself lost in the wilderness, there are three things that you need to guarantee your survival – FOOD, WATER, and SHELTER.

Thank me later when you’re tucked up in a wooden teepee feasting on a roasted grey squirrel.

The benches are the usual “goalpost” design and made with tanalised (pressure-treated) timber to ward off any rot, and they are each held together with eleven 80 mm screws, so if a naughty non-grey squirrel tries to damage them, there is a high chance of personal injury.

My poor neighbours probably think I have turned my back garden into a timber yard!!

We broke for coffee and flapjack at the halfway point.

And gave the benches the usual baptism of caffeine.

Hopefully, the school that we are behind will allow the kids to do a bit of Forest School, or mums and dads can just enjoy a cheeky coffee whilst their children build things and play.

Many thanks to Pauline, Wendy and Andrew for the buy-me-a-coffee donations to make this area happen.

Here is our YouTube of the path.

We now have 75 subscribers so we are growing very slowly.

Dunchurch Bridleway

I had to cancel the workday due to childcare duties on Friday, but I did grab a few little pockets of time here and there.

Just 200 metres to go until the Solstice turn and then about 50 metres on the path that leads off to the cafe. It’s just really tough and coarse grass, so progress is slow, but once it’s done it’s just a case of keeping on top of it and slowly widening this part to about 2 metres.

I also strimmed around the three benches to keep them accessible.

It’s coming together nicely and I think the next session will have the path totally open.

It was good to finally try out our hedge-trimmer and it really works well.

We need to open up the two loops and then work out how to connect with the greenway.

The point of the westerly red dot is where the new spine road goes from the roundabout, northwards to the Potford Dam roundabout. We can follow the cycle path along this new road, or push on westward and try to connect to the greenway somewhere.

Something to think about over the winter.

Until next time!

Paul

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Back in the Gutter

Posted on August 7, 2024 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

No workday for me last week due to a well-earned holiday. I swapped my usual view for this.

However, the guys did a load of work on the path width from The Bear bridge right to the northern end.

It’s made a huge difference with grass starting to grow at the edges, and we have our flop zone when everything goes over and starts to wilt, it is no longer going to fall towards the middle of the path.

Seven of us congregated this week with drain rods, spades, a length of pipe, saws, and all sorts to try and get the source of the overflow sorted and the path flat again.

Sadly, the blocked drain remains blocked, but we did fill in the gully with the bit of pipe.

This is one of our core values – a path for everyone, so people with a pushchair, mobility scooter, or just a child on a small-wheeled bike can use the path whilst the water quietly drains away.

Let’s hope it works!! We will not know until late winter, probably.

We had a break and enjoyed a coffee in our all-terrain mugs and a tasty flapjack.

We then litter-picked, and decided that this bench really needs work.

It’s a terrible design and not suitable for public use whatsoever. But it does lead me to the one that got smashed up by the naughty squirrels.

I had an old pallet, a bit of timber from my local DIY store, and a window of time.

You guessed it – reuse-recycle-repurpose kicked in…

I’m happy with that, and the timber, with my Wickes Trade Discount, cost just £13.50. We will probably stick this one on the Dunchurch part of the path. But more importantly, we know how to fix the other one when it finally falls apart.

Forest School & Bushcraft Area

This area has kind of grown in my head.

We are keeping the triangle of benches and will probably put a tarp up above it to keep the area dry, and then start a bushcraft area where kids can build a shelter, have logs to sit on, and generally learn some forestry skills.

There are various bits of wood that we can drag into a bit of a circle for extra seating and loads of one to two-inch branches for building.

It’s just another avenue of engagement for youngsters to learn about stuff.

Lastly, our YouTube of the path where we worked today.

The width is starting to happen at this end and I feel like we have balanced the path up a bit, in terms of seating and useability.

Next week we are putting in the triangle of benches behind the school and have to cart a load of Postcrete down to the area.

I will drop off all the heavy stuff at the Apple Grove Play Park to make life a bit easier.

Until then!

Paul

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Poking Around The Drains

Posted on July 24, 2024 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Four of us got out today at Berrybanks, we missed Dave, but cracked on with going backwards to pick up where we got to last week, and then we ploughed on northbound and got to spitting distance of The Bear bridge.

Reece had a poke about with the drainage and we are coming back in the first week of August to try and understand what is happening with the constant overflow.

This is the width that we need here, and probably a bit more on the westerly side if the stream reappears in the winter.

The bit between the underpass and Berrybanks is quite tight in places so we need to be making deep scallops in the autumn for wildflower-rich grass to get established.

We just need that buffer between the path and scrub so we really maximise with the wildlife biodiversity.

Our YouTube of our progress.

We now have 72 YouTube subscribers. How that happened I do not know, but it would be nice to get it to 100, so please subscribe to the channel if you can.

I quickly zipped up to the Potford Dam end and knocked back any opportunist bramble runners, and also strimmed under all the benches. A couple of lovely ladies were sitting at the Spinney’s View bench and wanted their picture taken. How could I possibly refuse?

If the grass is long then critters will go up trouser-legs and start taking chunks out of the soft skin towards the back of the shin, the inside of the thigh, and worse…

The benches do need a quick splash of Ronseal wood-stain and it’s on my “to do” list before dampness returns to the air in September and summer gives way to autumn.

I was under very strict instructions to make sure I was back at the Berrybanks picnic bench for our 11 o’clock coffee and cookies. I was wondering if we had a “special guest” as I literally had to run for the last 200 metres or so…

But no “Jeremy Beadle” type surprises or anything like that, just a reminder to be on blooming time for once in my life!

We have had an incredibly generous buy-me-a-coffee donation from Andrew (who looks after the geocaching trail) for £20 to go towards the Forest School area behind the actual school. We had a donation from Wendy for £15 and two donations from Pauline for £10 so we are kinda there or thereabouts.

Thank you guys. Very much appreciated.

This is the area that I feel is suitable. It’s raised off the track-bed so should remain dry.

I will run it past the group first to make sure it really is OK, and then we can clear it off ready. We can also cut a load of timber so dens and camps can be made. I’m actually really excited about this and we have scheduled it to go in on August 14th.

I couldn’t help but spot some friendly neighbours.

Up close they are quite intimidating, although probably not meaning to be.

Dunchurch Bridleway

No workday to report this week but I did a bit on Sunday.

Just 65 metres along this stretch of 240 metres. It’s pretty heavy going with an electric strimmer but I didn’t want to use anything more powerful when working on my own. It’s more of a statement of intent showing how it will look when the whole path is trimmed back, than a serious session.

We also replaced the logo badges on our benches.

Once again, thank you so much to The Kitchens Inc for sponsoring the benches.

Loads of people using the path, the first loop, and sitting on the benches.

The first loop should be called the Windmill Loop because there used to be a windmill, that dates back to 1546 or earlier, in the field that the path goes through, and of course Windmill Farm is still there.

The second loop should be called the Solstice Loop because it goes past the Solstice Coffee Shop.

This whole area was referred to as “west heathe” back in centuries past, and even today the fields are full of wheat ready to be harvested and turned into bread, with the exception of one field which, I am reliably informed, is barley. And we all know what barley makes – beer!

A picture of how harvest might have looked in the 17th Century.

Well that’s about it for this week. Always spare coffee in the pot if anyone wants to pop along and join in. It’s good fun, massively therapeutic and a great way to meet new people and make friends.

Until next time!

Paul

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Summer Rolls On…

Posted on July 17, 2024 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Oh no!! It rained on St. Swithin’s Day (15th July) – According to the old saying, if it rains on St. Swithin’s Day it will rain for the next 40 days. If St. Swithin’s Day is dry, the next 40 days will also be dry.

Thankfully, today was blisteringly hot with not a drop of rain. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, St. Swithin…

Five of us met at the quadrant and pushed southwards to the Bethel bench and then northwards to Berrybanks.

Views up, down and to the sides. I carried on southwards to the Potford Dam end just snipping back bramble runners. It was like the triffids were taking over…

After a near death battle I managed to get back for coffee and nibbles and then caught up with the expedition northbound.

Our underpass wildflower clearing is doing well.

Sadly, the next wildflower clearing is a bit grass-heavy and looks a bit tatty. Nothing we can do until autumn when we can clear it out and re-sow it ready for next year.

The path is nice and wide with loads of dappled sunlight and quite a few butterflies, damselflies and bees flying about.

Our YouTube of a bit of the progress today.

Dunchurch Bridleway

We had our fortnightly workday last Friday where Dave and me pushed on with another 200 metres or so.

We really are deep into the countryside here and it feels really good for the soul to be surrounded by fields full of crops and to be opening up this ancient bridleway. One cannot help but stop and wonder why it is here and what was its purpose? And of course, how many people through the last few hundreds, if not thousands of years have trudged up and down it.

Notice the new Land Rover mug – which reminds me, we have another team coming from Jaguar Land Rover for a Community Volunteer Day in September.

We opened up the first looping path that starts from the little brown bench, that was part of a stile, that we rescued last week.

It’s a rather nice 1.3 km circular walk that crosses a field full of barley (so I am told) and then wheat. At the 1 km point there are stiles with paths off that go through the woods to the villages of Cawston and Bilton.

The next challenge is to get to the Solstice coffee shop. We have 630 metres left to clear and will create a 2 km circular walk.

By the time we have this done, I reckon we will be towards the end of August and the bird-nesting season will be over. We can then start pushing on to connect with Cawston Greenway and really push back the scrub on the looping paths a good metre or so to create the wildflower-rich strip between path and bramble.

We decided that we would go ahead with the triangle of benches behind the school.

It’s a popular access point so will get a lot of use and is open for the school to use for Forest School if they want. We have £20 worth of buy-me-a-coffee donations, The cost of three benches is £27 and three bags of Postcrete is £21 so it would be nice if we can have a few more people donating towards this.

That’s about it for this week.

Next week we are at Berrybanks.

Paul

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More Donations

Posted on July 10, 2024 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We had an incredibly generous donation from Dunchurch Pantomaniacs.

They have funded our fourth strimmer, a hedge-trimmer, a couple of extra batteries, and five bird-boxes.

This will be so useful in the autumn when we can push the scrub right back, and it is all the same range from Wickes DIY, so the batteries are all interchangeable.

Thank you so much.

We have made a couple of seats for the youth who tend to congregate under The Bear pub bridge.

When it was non-stop raining and it felt like we were living in a monsoon, they decided to try to move one of our picnic benches under the bridge. On finding that it was concreted to the ground, rather than get a spanner and undo the bolts, they decided to smash the seats off and try to make some seating in the dry.

Come on… This was never going to work out in a million years!!

We have salvaged a couple of pallets and made seating. There is no way in a month of Sundays that I am going to spend any money here when I am already down a picnic bench.

So we made this.

Aesthetically, they don’t look great, but these bad boys are as strong as a brace of oxen and are not going anywhere. And we have sanded them so nobody is going to get a ruddy great splinter in their bum…

Youth: If you want seating, talk to me and we can work something out!!

Today, we met at the Cawston Bridleway bridge and everyone carried on strimming northwards, whilst I just gave the top of the bridge a quick snip and trim. We covered about 500 metres today, so pretty impressive.

We make an effort to keep the access points open so people can get on and off. The width is just right along the path.

We had George back with us, who is doing his Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award.

Great to see you again, George, and a good shift put in.

Dave carried on with his bench name-plates.

We have nine picnic benches in total and they now all have names, thanks to Dave.

Whilst on the subject of benches, I noticed a huge clump of nettle-leaved bell-flowers just by Mick’s sunset bench.

Mick found this plant on the bit between the underpass and Berrybanks years ago and it disappeared one summer morning. Mick went on and on and on about it for about three years after. And suddenly here is a clump just by his bench. How odd.

A couple of other wildflowers popping up.

  • Rosebay willow herb
  • Mullein

And the view from the little bench by Charlie’s wildflower clearing.

We have had some incredibly generous buy-me-a-coffee donations from Wendy and Pauline last week. I’m not sure if you are trying to kill me off by making me carry more Postcrete down the path, but my initial thought was to replicate the triangle of benches behind Henry Hinde Junior School where a public right of way goes past the school and over the greenway? This will allow the children to do Forest School if they so wish.

And just a reminder – this is the school that I went to and we would wave at the train driver and guard as the train trundled past at break times, back in the 1970’s.

Photograph courtesy Martin Kavanagh

Yes, I really am that old!!

Please let me know if another trio of benches sounds like a good idea.

Dunchurch Bridleway

No workday last week but I found a little bit of time to snip back the bramble that is trying to leap into the middle of the path.

I also found a little bench in the hedgerow, so released it and gave it a bit of woodstain to perk it up a bit.

This is the area that we have done just over 230 metres of path widening and I cleared the bramble on the rest.

There’s a fantastic little coffee stop called Solstice just east of where it pops out, and as you can see, a nice circular walk with off-road car parking to the north-east of the starting point. I’m going to re-do the geocaching trail from the car park, going past the coffee shop and working its way around the circuit, rather than the there-and-back route that currently exists.

Photograph courtesy Phil Johnson

I think the red line on the map above needs to be our first goal, and then try to work out how to connect the whole thing with the greenway. All we are looking for is a 1.5 metre wide path.

Football fever has taken over the UK and beating Switzerland in the quarter-finals was a big plus…

It’ll be amazing if we have similar luck in the semi-finals. Nether give up hope…

That’s it for this week. On Friday we are back at Dunchurch and hopefully in the UEFA Euro 2024 Final on Sunday!

Paul

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The Last Post(crete)

Posted on July 3, 2024 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

This really is the last time that I am going to hump bags of Postcrete about.

If not, it will probably be the end of me!!

We cracked on with the smashed-up picnic bench replacement just north of The Bear bridge. Rather than fork out for a new bench, or try to fix up the broken bench and get into a cat-and-mouse game with the naughty squirrels, we used Rich’s very kind “buy-me-a-coffee” donation to fund building three benches that are as strong as heavy plow horses. If these bad-boys get damaged then I’ll be the one blowing the bugle, because I ain’t spending no more time and money at this end trying to make it nice for people.

And no need to send the grammar police, the double negative was on purpose. I’m far too much of an optimistic fool.

I was a little worried that the triangle would not be equilateral and my OCD would surface and bug me for an eternity. Luckily, we got it there or thereabouts, and we all thought it looked pretty good.

Marcus did a massive litter pick from Berrybanks to the northern end.

Reappearing just as the coffee was calling out “drink me…”

It’s always nice to see a new bench set launched with coffee and tasty treats. A little bit of a baptism and a welcome to years of loyal service, and a commitment from us that we will look after them.

The little stream is back!!

However, when I popped down later in the day it had stopped flowing and was starting to dry out again. I sat at the new benches and the birdsong was utterly magical.

This trio of benches is of course for everyone, but hopefully like the quad of benches, it’s somewhere that local youth can hang out and just chill without causing conflict with anyone else. I’m going to make some seats/stools out of old pallets to go under The Bear bridge so they have somewhere to sit when it rains.

All-in-all, a cracking morning.

Dunchurch Bridleway

We did a fair bit of work on this during our Friday workday. A total of 230 metres strimmed back to allow people to walk side-by-side and not be brushing up against bramble, grass with bitey things hiding in it, and nettles.

We really are deep into the countryside here, with a wood to the north and plenty of public right of way footpaths going from the path, into the wood.

We only want to go as far as the RofW path R168, which connects the bridleway to the greenway.

The easterly end of the Dunchurch Bridleway connects to the National Cycle Network 41, so it really is our umbilical-cord to the big world out there.

And that really is that, for another week.

Please do pop along if you want to see what we’re all about, or just fancy a coffee and a chat. We’re all pretty much laid-back and chilled. I would hate to think of anyone wanting to join in but a little bit of anxiety is holding them back. I know, because that is me all over.

Next week we are at the Cawston Bridleway bridge ploughing on northwards with the path edges.

Until then,

Paul

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Last Week Of Men’s Health Month.

Posted on June 26, 2024 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you didn’t know, it’s been Men’s Health Month in June. I like the mental health, or mental welbeing aspect of this and has been something that I have been banging on about for literally years and years.

One of the core reasons that we do what we do is for mental wellbeing, both for us and the people who use the path.

Getting out into a green space reduces stress, anxiety and thoughts of depression. Doing something with purpose and passion builds self confidence and gives us a reason to get up in the morning, and just the action of giving without expecting something back is so good for the soul.

Today five of us met and carried on with keeping the path wide so people can walk side-by-side and have a conversation, or mountain bikers and walkers can pass each other without the walker having to leap into the scrubby margins and suffer stinging nettle stings and bramble clawing at their legs.

It looks and feels really good. So good that as I did a litter pick, I lost all track of time until my phone buzzed with a WhatsApp message telling me it was coffee break time.

I was about half a mile away so had to get back to the coffee double quick. Luckily there was not a lot of litter.

On my trek I came across a Bloody Nosed Beetle, which was nice.

He was ambling along in the middle of the path, so I moved him to the side to save him being trampled.

David has made name plates for the picnic benches and they look absolutely fantastic.

There is no excuse for us not to know where we are meeting now. There are a few more to do next week on the northern benches.

Wildflower wise, we are looking good. Ox-eye daisies have started coming up and Rosebay Willow-herb is about to bloom with beautiful purple flowers.

Lastly, we have finally dried out and no longer have the stream running down the northern end of the path and forming a lake.

This was a good six to eight inches underwater for ages. We just need to get the path flat around the Berrybanks bit so access is for everyone, again.

That’s about it for this week.

On Friday we are at the Dunchurch Bridleway and next week we are putting in the replacement benches north of The Bear bridge.

Until then,

Paul

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Last Day of Spring…

Posted on June 19, 2024 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We found ourselves back at the start today, in what we thought was going to be a quick strim over the path edges. However, the growth since the last strim has been really heavy and progress was slowish. We managed 250 metres and it’s 1.6 km to the underpass. I think we speed up as we progress onwards.

Lots of lovely dappled sunlight where we have eased the tree canopy back slightly.

Some might question why we are keeping the path cut back. If we don’t, it very quickly starts to look like this.

Which is no good for walkers and mountain bikers sharing, and also pretty rubbish on the legs as brambles, nettles, and insects that bite, will be hiding in the greenery.

Our coffee stop was a welcome break.

And gave us chance to chat about a mini-tornado that swept across the path at the weekend and brought down some trees.

Ian, who is standing, and his daughter, Wendy, cleared the branches as much as possible so people could clamber over the trunk, and then someone came along with a chainsaw and chopped the rest of it up. Thank you, whoever you are.

Our little bench took a direct hit and the loose bit was flung quite a distance.

We did an ad-hoc repair, just to keep the bits all together, really. We can fix it properly at some point in the next month or two. I’m sure there is a sponsor deal somewhere with DeWalt tools, seeing as every other blog post has one of their tools photobombing the pics.

We also had a group of lads from Bilton Grange Prep School doing a bit of a community session. They cleared the Hawthorn Trail and started to level the path.

Our YouTube of the Hawthorn Trail.

Fantastic work and a really hardworking group of decent young men. Thank you.

Someone has been pushing back the trail past the point where we stop at Potford Dam.

They have even put up a sign, no clue who this is, or how far they have got, but it does bring us neatly onto the Dunchurch Bridleway, which is where the path leads to, via a public right-of-way footpath.

We installed our benches on the Dunchurch trail and the quality is right up there, as is the comfort because of the wider top.

They’re made from reclaimed scaffold boards, which reminds us of the industrial heritage of the railway, and the bridleway that would’ve been used to ferry people to and from the Dunchurch railway station, back in the second half of the 1800’s. And it also gives us that shiver of “feel good” down our spines knowing that we are recycling and reusing stuff.

That’s about it for this week. Loads going on and loads to do.

We got to this bench today, so will be pushing on from there next week.

Until then!

Paul

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