Waking up on a foggy Sunday morning in the dark is not the best way to start at workday but hey ho, I put on the thermals and brewed up a strong pot of Yorkshire Tea for my flask. Never has inclement weather stopped us MNTV'ers from getting on with the task in hand!
Four of us arrived at Bosley Cloud and thankfully we were joined by the Congleton group as the task of laying a footpath was back breaking work! For a first timer at Bosley Cloud I wasn't quite expecting the 30 minute walk up a vertical steep incline carrying tools part of the way and then pushing wheelbarrows containing the rest of the tools to the site. That was a challenge in itself... then the real work began! By this time it was nearly 11am, we skipped tea break and set to the task in hand.
Firstly we started by shovelling out the mud and leaves from the path to create a foundation for the path to be laid upon.
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| Picture shows muddy path before work started |
The tree trunks on these photos were felled from the wood a few weeks ago and were used to lay the edging for the new foothpath. Good job we had plenty of strong men and women as it took six people to carry each trunk from the wood to the path.
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| Picture shows tree trunks used to create edging for path |
Firstly we split up into teams, four people cleared the pathway, one person was making stakes to hold the tree trunks in position and six people carried each tree trunk to the site.
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| Picture shows stakes being driven into the ground to secure the edging |
The stakes were driven into the ground and nailed to the tree trunks to form a secure footpath edge. In one area of the path it was particularly muddy so we created drainage channels for the water to run underneath the path and down the hillside.
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| Picture shows drainage channels created |
By lunchtime our MNTV team were down to three people and we stopped for a short lunch break and a slice of homemade Yorkshire parkin. Congleton group decided to carry on in earnest and started to transfer the gravel from a huge mound which had been strategically placed in the wood and covered with tarpaulin. (The gravel came from a local quarry).
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| Picture shows part construction of path with drainage |
This is when the hard work got very hard.... digging gravel out of a mound and transferring it into wheelbarrows is back breaking work and we soon discovered that a pick axe was needed to loosen the gravel. From then on our system was dig, dump and rake and a couple of hours later we had our finished path.
The finished path... to be continued... by another volunteer group...
The fog did clear but I didn't notice until until I was part way down the hillside pushing a wheelbarrow full of tools, trying not to slip in the mud or topple the barrow over so couldn't get a photo but it was a splendid view... maybe I will come back to Bosley Cloud again... if they install a chair lift!
That's all for now, see you next week for bash and burn. Denise
2 comments:
Great job. Full of admiration. Perhaps you need to be sponsored by Voltarol!
I loved reading your blog, really interesting I loved reading it, so well written, and the way you have explained it, so amazing. Please keep on writing blogs like this in future as well.
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