Working Party 20 December 2018
The team: Clive Bostle, Roy Pritchard, Alan Saunders, Geoff Smith, Peter Lee-Smith, Mike Taylor, Geoff Thould
Seven members of Evesham Rambling Club, ably assisted by Jock McLaren, Parish Path Warden for Norton & Lenchwick, carried out improvements to the riverside footpath at The Valley, Evesham.
Tom Arnold from the Countryside Service was able to get his van very close to the riverside which meant that Mike, Geoff T and Peter were able to move all of the materials required to assemble the first bridge without too many problems. They quickly removed the old rotten bridge and commenced the assembly of the replacement.
Clive and Roy, however, were not as lucky, as the farthest bridge that required repairing was over half a mile upstream and all of the materials required manhandling.
Alan and Jock, with the aid of a brush cutter and hedge trimmer, were quickly in action clearing brambles and undergrowth from the path with the aim of making it sufficiently wide that future maintenance of the path could be carried out using a tractor and strimmer from The Vale.
Geoff S, who had a bad shoulder, was on hand as the official photographer.
After a short break for coffee, mince pies, doughnuts and chocolate biscuits, the first two tasks were quickly completed and, with rain now falling, repairs to the farthest bridge were also finished.
Jock thanked the team for their efforts – “It has been a burning ambition of mine to make this lovely path available to walkers since I first became a warden, and you and your team fixed it in a day.”
Alan Saunders
