Working Party 27 April 2017
Team: Clive Bostle, Glyn Hayter, Pat Morcombe, Roy Pritchard, Alan Saunders, Dennis Skelcher, Geoff Smith, Geoff Thould, Derek Williams, Paul Wood
The main task for the day was the construction of a new footbridge over the stream at the bottom of the Recreation Ground in Honeybourne. While we waited for our contractor Nick to arrive with the bridge, a local resident approached Roy to tell us “You can’t walk far down that path because the bridge is missing”.
As we were ‘out in force’, a decision was made to allocate different projects to members of the group – Glyn and Pat to inspect and waymark paths beyond the church; Clive and Geoff to replace a handrail on a bridge on a path towards Bretforton; Alan to install a waymark post and a new handrail in Offenham, assisted by Louisa and Alice from the County Council; the remaining five to commence work on the replacement of the bridge.
By mid-day all of the working party was reunited, with mixed outcomes. Clive and Geoff had to abandon the plan to replace the handrail as the bridge had collapsed; Glyn and Pat returned with as many new waymarking problems as they had resolved; Alan hadn’t encountered any difficulties, so mission accomplished.
Soon everyone was helping with the various tasks required to complete the bridge, and what a splendid bridge!
I have recently received an email from the Honeybourne Parish Path Warden to say what a fantastic job we have done, and that the bridge has certainly been built to last. He asked me to pass on thanks from all the walkers from the village who use the path. And my thanks to the ‘crew’ who, once again, put so much time and effort into improving our footpaths.
The date of the next Working Party has yet to be arranged, but as usual I’ll be looking for willing volunteers.
