Our Green team worked on six of our sites during October to December quarter and, despite all the rain, only cancelled a couple of times.
It was exciting to be back in Darnford Park again at the end of October. Five volunteers from Network Rail, led by Paul Brettell, cleared a lot of overgrowth to make new pathways, which our Saturday team then spent two sessions cutting up and using the mighty chipper, proceeds of which were then laid on the new paths. The second session created more edgings for the paths and pegs to hold the path edgings in place, and stakes for later use elsewhere with transplanted trees.
Nigel’s after school Duke of Edinburgh group dug up self-set silver birches from what will be the canal bed at Darnford Park and transplanted them in the empty gaps in the bunds on Falkland Road. That small group also did some cutting back at our Tamworth Road Compound, and dug up saplings from the nursery we created by Lock 26, in anticipation of the need for infilling gaps on bunds at Tamworth and Falkland Roads.
The dedicated team even braved the minus three degree temperature on one Saturday morning, to tidy up the bund on Tamworth Road. The cold did get the better of them, so they packed up at 11am and went home to get warm. Excellent dedication nonetheless!
Moving to a fifth site, Darnford Moors, and another Network Rail volunteer group of four people, under the leadership of Philip Skelton, they prepared ground alongside the towpath for seeding and sowed it, which hopefully will develop in to a wild flower meadow. Our Saturday teams weeded the turning circle and also checked saplings on the north side of the boundary with the golf club.
And now site six: Fosseway Heath – gorse, gorse, gorse! Despite many sessions earlier in the year, removing the gorse in order to protect the rebuilt canal wall, it’s grown back with a vengeance. Five sessions there and it’s almost cleared. (For those rightly concerned about the birds, there is plenty more gorse on the site and on the railway embankment).
Huge thanks to Paul Jewitt who has, not only continued his self-appointed task of grounds maintenance at Fosseway Heath, but has also done a splendid tidy up of what we are referring to as the Fosseway Haven, the big turning area at the Falkland Road end.
It’s important to also recognise the contribution of other Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) sessions. These groups created gabions and towpath edging. There were eight volunteers from National Highways and thirty-seven (over three days) from Jaguar Land Rover. Their work hugely compliments that of our own volunteers.
Chris Bull, Environment Trustee
