The Darnford Moors volunteer team relocated to Fosseway Lane in mid-April and the first task was to tidy up the canal bed by reinstating the coping stones to the south wall and also carry out a bit of pointing.
That work took us a couple of weeks to complete and by late April the south wall was looking much better.
So, onto the main task here, which was to construct a gabion basket wall on the north side. The only issue was that a surface water drain pipe had to be routed through the baskets, to emerge at ground level and hence run into the canal.
We dug out as close to the road as we dared and started with a 2m basket wall. We were following the profile of the path down to the ‘towpath’ and so the basket height gradually reduces. We had some modern red bricks, which we used for facing and then filled the rest of the baskets with all sorts of building rubble and even the bricks and other material that we dug out.
After a couple of weeks work it was starting to look pretty good. The next challenge was to curve the basket wall so that it could be joined onto the original wall. We did this by cutting out a couple of columns of squares from the rear of the baskets – effectively reprofiling the baskets.
Routing the drain pipe through the baskets was a further challenge.
We then ran out of the modern red bricks and so had to find the best of the old imperial bricks to face the remainder of the gabions. This was a bit disappointing at the time. However, now its complete it looks aesthetically pleasing – with the original imperial bricks matching well with the original wall. Eventually, of course, the modern red bricks will lead up to a modern looking bridge.
The path will split at this bottom point with an upper path going to the road and the lower path (in front of the baskets) being the new narrow towpath, which will go under the new bridge.
Within the upper baskets we have also fitted 3” plastic pipes at regular intervals, which are to accept keyclamp type handrail risers.
Mike Babb
LHCRT Workparty Volunteer
