Pathwork at Styal on Sun 14th Feb 2016

We were originally scheduled to do 
fencework on this workday but Colin, the
Lead Ranger, said that the ground was too wet, so we were asked to clean up one of the paths at Worm's Hill near Twinnies bridge instead.

Eleven of us turned out on this beautiful but cold winters day. We used a wheelbarrow to transport some of the tools we needed and carried the rest. When we got to Worm's Hill and saw the path in question, we had a health & safety talk and risk assessment before starting work. The majority of us started using the spades to 'slice' the soil that had been washed up over the path edges and then grass had grown into it. We removed layer and layer of soil and grass until we reached the stone on the path. It was hard work, similar to cutting up sods of earth, but the end result was amazing and made the path look almost as if it had just been laid:-)


lunchbreak

There were a couple of  extra jobs that we did as well. There was a gap an the existing hedge which had enabled walkers to create a short-cut from the lower path to the upper path. Due to a lot of use, this had become muddy and unsightly, and was particularly slippy and dangerous to use when it was wet. A few of our Group cut down branches from nearby tree's and laid them across the gap, intertwining the branches where they could. Hopefully this 'psychological' barrier will persuade people to use the path instead and the grass will grow back over time.

new 'barrier' to persuade people to use the footpath

In addition, there was unslightly rubbish along the lengths of the path including poo-bags, either thrown down on the ground or even hung from trees?! - why?! Two of the Group, in high-viz vests and with grapplers and bin bags, did a stirling job of clearing the litter and poo-bags, so they could be disposed of properly.
Colin was very appreciative of what we'd done and has subsequently contacted us to report that many of the visitors to the woods have commented on how nice the path now looks:-)


starting to look good:-)