Well
things are still pretty quiet here in West Vale! With such a small branch,
with so few volunteers, it can never be much different. So that is why we
always welcome the visits from WRG so much here, and we are getting quite a
lot lately, and a lot gets done!
On
their last visit a few days ago more work was done especially on
Steppingstone
Bridge
. The towpath-side supporting wall had to be taken down to a solid
foundation and moved outwards for almost two feet. The brickwork was
remarkably sound but needs to be widened to accommodate the formers we have
for the arch. The formers we had to hand are almost two feet wider so the
supporting wall needs to be two feet further back. It was a choice of
purchase new formers – v. expensive! Or move the foundations – cheap.
Guess which we chose - and it’s turned out the existing foundation
brickwork is so large not much extra is needed after all.
Still,
getting the bricks, aggregates etc to site is a major task as the nearest
road is a country half mile along a very rutted track, and we have a
two-week WRG summer camp in the near future and an overflow camp as well.
So
that’s what us locals are doing along with the annual major task of
battling the weeds that block the towpaths and cutting the grass at the
Canalside
Park
, and of course to two trees that were blown down across the path in last
weekends blustery weather.
We
progress!
On the
leases for parts of the canal here in West Vale the branch have been making
such insignificant progress of late that we have reluctantly passed the
matter over to the full time ‘hired staff’, I’m sure they will come up
with the goods in due course.
Must
rush the grass needs cutting!
Alan Norris
Branch Chairman