May 5-8
Volunteer effort in May was spread across a wide variety of activities and experienced variable weather conditions. The one constant being the incredible output and progress made.
Work commenced on the towpath improvements in Phase 1A which are supported by a grant from Oswestry Rural Parish Council. The finished specification for the towpath won’t be delivered until works in this area are completed but this provides a level, self-draining path in the meantime by removing slip and trip hazards from mud and tree roots. On this occasion, a four-day work party had been organised to include bank holiday Monday – the Coronation Big Help Out event. It was by no means certain the works would be finished in this time. In the event, the towpath improvements were completed in barely more than two days. Remarkable! Compliments abounded from passing pedestrians and cyclists.
Much time and effort was spent during this work party concluding the decommissioning activities for the previous project north of Crickheath Bridge. Tidying up of the previous works compound by Crickheath Basin was completed and two large spoil heaps were levelled. ‘Spoil’ does little justice to the material since over the years this site strip and vegetation had composted down to high quality topsoil.
Repairs to the wharf wall continued and received considerable focus. This is no small task and will feature in many future reports but here again, great progress was made with a good number of the Society’s regular volunteers getting involved and picking up skills from the Dry Stone Walling Association volunteers. A start was made in filling the void left by the monster stump removal.
It is likely that the saga of the stump will also feature in a number of future reports. During this work party a substantial quantity was removed – but it’s still huge!
With several other tidying up jobs completed on day four, the opportunity was taken by those still standing to ‘knock off’ early and reflect on the progress made.
