Weston & Fiveways - marker posts

Having had a successful morning over at Purslow Wood we decided to keep the momentum by installing a couple of marker posts that had been nagging at Mike for a few months. 

One of these was to go in near to Weston Farm on the way to the bat sanctuary at Cwm and the other at the head of the track at Fiveways leading down to Gripes Nest.

The whole job including travel only took about 90 minutes and was well worth the effort. All we need now is to get the tamper fixed!!

The new waymark post near Weston Farm

Fiveways and the new post

Purslow Wood area revisited

Mike and I met up with David Hardwick and his fellow worker Matt to finish off the stile we installed on the last visit in Purslow Wood (the second step needed finishing off) and to install a new stile making it into a double stile closer to Twitchen.

Starting to dig out the first hole

David and Graham watch Matt assemble the stile

Tamping in the two stile posts

Whilst David and Matt clattered off, Mike and I set to with a vengeance and very soon had untangled the wire fence and had dug the two holes for the new stile.  Before we installed the new stile though we had to take a fairly long walk up onto the Forestry Commission track to collect rocks for use in bracing up the stile posts.

The top step is lined up

then the lower step goes in

Davis uses the stile as an improvised ladde
to clear away the overhanging branches

The finished double stile

 After a bit of jiggling we eventually tamped in the 2 new posts and then installed the steps for the new stile - bridging the gap between the old stile and the new. Certainly a huge improvement on the previous arrangement.

Purslow Wood

Another day, another parish!

Mike received a call from David Hardwick asking if we'd care to help out to change a stile in Purslow Wood.  Sharp at 10.00am on a misty morning we met up and soon demolished an old and rickety stile at the road entrance to Purslow Wood.

Before...

..and after - proper job

The we set about digging holes for a new galvanised field gate - a much better prospect for walkers, and after 2 hours the job was done.   Then David set off with his brush cutter to clear the path north west from the gate to the Forestry Commission track with Mike and I pruning the encroaching undergrowth as we followed on behind.

After a coffee break we drove down through the wood to a second collapsed stile and in desperate need of replacement.  Another 2 hours or so during which time more brush cutting to force a way through, and the planting of a way mark post and we were done.  

Before - David with the brush cutter

Mike and David with the new stile in place

A good effort and will undoubtedly be much appreciated by walkers in Purslow Wood in the future.

Honeyhole - path clearance

This path had been nagging at Mike for some time and so today we made an early start. We parked at Fiveways and walked down the fields to the path in question. It leads north to a large field and the path was pretty well impassable and greatly in need of some tlc.

Mike set to with the brush cutter and we were soon into our stride, only stopping for a slight mechanical malfunction and a coffee break.

We completed the job in just over 2 hours and I emerged with numerous scratches courtesy of the spiteful brambles and blackthorn.

Replacement gate post in Bucknell

It seemed like a really good idea. Mike had a 'spare' gate post; there was a fence post masquerading as a gate post in a rather drunken fashion near to the Sitwell Arms - surely a couple of hours would sort that out. You think?

Removal of the fence post took a matter of minutes - then the true nature of the removal of the original old stump manifested itself.

OK - so just a little hole required then!

It really was quite a slog because although the old original gate post had rotted at ground level, below ground was a different thing. Suffice it to say that our tamper/chisel was almost wrecked in the process; tools strangely went missing and a lot of rude words were uttered at the ever deepening hole.

3½ hours later....

Job done - a satisfied and weary Mike checks the gate post out

Finally the job was done - 4 hours of hard slog - particularly by Mike, who was like a man possessed.