West Vale Branch
Projects
Steppingstone Lane Bridge Restoration

With a lot of people going away for their holidays work parties have had to fitted in as-and-when. Regular Wednesday work parties have kept the grass at bay at the Pocket Park.

Having been given official permission to divert the bridleway (after some further unnecessary bureaucratic delays) this work party had two aims: firstly to close off the diverted bridleway using fencing and gates; secondly to attack the large tree stump adjacent to the southeastern bridge abutment. See the 15 June report for pictures.

The stump was attacked with axes and finished off with a Tirfor winch.

The stump eventually succumbed to the Tirfor winch

While Chris and Phil were busy removing the stump, others were busy erecting the gate and fencing to close off the bridleway across the bridge.

The northern end of the bridge was closed off by extending the fencing.

The southern end was closed off with a gate. The diversion can be seen heading off through the copse on the left.

By the end of the day the objectives had been reached: the stump was removed and the bridleway closed - all "traffic" now uses the diversion. There was even a little time to investigate the bank adjacent to the northeastern corner of the bridge.

  
The stump lies on the bank

Excavations on the northeastern bank revealed more stonework

With everything slipping nicely into place for the restoration of the bridge, our next task will be to bring more storage to the site so that the hard-working navvies have somewhere to shelter and have a brew.