“Mud, glorious mud”. Said restoration project manager, Tom Fulda, “This winter is characterised by persistent rainfall. The current area of site is generally well drained, but that counts for nowt when plant tracks over it”.
Heavy rainfall overnight on Thursday and cold, showery weather on Friday did not seem to deter volunteers who turned out in large numbers throughout the work party and continued to smile despite the mud and muck. Drizzle eventually eased off and on Sunday we even got the briefest glimpse of what, from memory, was believed to be blue sky.
With the channel out of bounds to all but heavy plant, most activity was focussed on towpath and hedging works. Excellent progress was made on hedge laying with two teams working simultaneously, aided by a team clearing the site ahead of the ‘layers’ and another continuously removing the arisings. With perseverance, it was even possible to get a bonfire going on Saturday. By close of play Sunday, all the brash has been disposed of. Over 70 metres of hedge has been laid this winter so far. There will be one more session next month before the winter environmental programme finishes for the season.
- Thank you Aico
- Snowdrop salvage
- Snowdrop planting
The programme also includes hedge planting. So far this winter over 500 whips have been planted with more to go next month. These are used both as infill for the hedge laying and also new hedging by the offside field in Phase 1B. Special thanks are due to CGI UK Ltd who have now provided hedging materials for three consecutive years, and also to the three corporate volunteers from Aico in Oswestry who turned up on Friday to assist with the hedge clearing and planting.
Two further teams of volunteers focussed on towpath works, one fixing the boards and the other laying and compacting the aggregate. Like everything else, the aggregate was completely sodden making for very heavy work. Despite this, a tremendous 235 metres of towpath was completed this work party. The length from Schoolhouse Bridge southwards to Malthouse Bridge is now finished. North of the compound, a further 100 metre plus length, continuing southwards from towpath completed last year, has also been finished.
Despite the wet conditions it was still possible to make further progress shaping the channel in Phase 2. There is now a decent length prepared ready for lining and blocking when the site has dried sufficiently to make a start. Judging by the conditions experienced this month, that could take a while.
Snowdrop salvage: a final group of volunteers, armed with wheelbarrows, undertook an expedition to Waen Wen to retrieve snowdrops and daffodils from the basin, where tree clearance work took place last November. A total of 5 barrow loads were relocated to the current site where they were replanted in the bank beneath the newly laid hedge.
