On Wednesday April 6th, the team – bedraggled and shattered – completed
the first week of work on (non-public) rights-of-way and land access at
Wenhaston Station. Most of the area by Blyford Lane is now prepared
(heavy farm vehicles will be using this from time to time), and about a
quarter of the new access (for SRT and our neighbour) is done: building
over a quarter-mile of roadway in very wet ground is not easy,
particularly when you have to ensure that it does not dam up floods. We
have laid down 300 metres of terram, and about 130 tonnes of stone and
flint (almost all finally raked by hand: one volunteer, who shall be
nameless – well, actually he won’t – it was Ken – suggested that he
“liked raking” – cue hollow laughter). Harford Hire – a very efficient
and friendly firm – provided a jar of exceptionally fiery pickled
onions, which kept elements of the team going in the drizzle. The
conditions were not too good, but we had to get on with this large (and
expensive) task before the new boundary stock fencing is installed: this
will not only require lots of opening and shutting of the new gates,
but is also likely to be damaged by the machinery. We took the
opportunity, as usual, to train more staff in machine operation –
training is part of our charitable remit. The sooner we complete this
essential work, the sooner the grass can grow back over the works.
Meanwhile, the trackbed fencing team have pretty well closed the gap
between the west end works and the driftway crossing works – a
magnificent effort in tree roots, brambles, and thorns – leaving only
about 17 or 18 panels to do, at the west end, to complete the southern
boundary. A violent recent thunderstorm inevitably brought down more
dead elm, but this is an on-going job, which the team is well used to.
The dreaded ash dieback has not yet reached Wenhaston, but is probably
inevitable – a great pity, as we have several large and imposing
specimens.
Wednesday afternoon was dedicated to cleaning up the machinery to return
it to the hirer: not easy where there is no clean water (and it
rained). At times, we seemed to be chasing ourselves around the
muck-strewn work-area: clean inside the digger cab, and then have to
move it, meaning mud inside and another clean-up – and so on, and so on.
James, attempting to scoop up water from the ditch, very nearly managed
to throw himself in (which might at least have provided a laugh). Then
the bucket-removal rod got irretrievably stuck under the track throttle
levers, with results that you can imagine. What with all the cleaning,
and filling machines, and fetching diesel again and again, the job ended
at about 9.00 pm, in the dark (an easy time to lose keys – a hard time
to find them).
And in a few weeks, it’ll all have to be done again (only more).