Hare Hill 9/11/8

Four of the usual suspects turned out on Sunday to investigate and perform maintenance on the network of culverts, and field drains that the Victorians installed under the parkland around Hare Hill Garden.

The area was originally boggy ground - and was drained to create grazing parkland. The slope from the highest point to the lowest is less than 1 degree - the system is an engineering marvel to work at all. The problem with the small slope is that the water flows slowly so it doesn't clean mud out of the system. After over 100 years of neglect the accumulated mud in parts of the network caused blockages, some of the land flooded and trees started to die.

So now the staff with volunteer help are gradually finding the drains and clearing the accumulated mud....

The weather was mixed and the work muddy, but we enjoyed ourselves - stopping for a silence at 11am.

We opened the system at five points, and cleared the accumulated silt between those points using drain rods.