Path repairs at Allan Bank and replacing a bridge in Windermere

Back in 2012, we started work on creating a woodland trail at Allan Bank. This consisted of repairing the old stone steps and linking them together with a gravel pathway edged with timber. We also added wooden risers to the steeper sections and improved the drainage. We then continued making further improvements to the path in 2013. You can see all the work that was originally carried out here... Allan Bank Woodland Trail

Working on the footpath at Allan Bank

As it's been over ten years since we started the work, several pieces of the timber path edging had started to rot away, so it was time to replace a few sections to give the path a new lease of life.

Moving a large trunk for the path

We made use of a few trees which were felled as part of the woodland thinning operations but we also used timber that had been previously felled. We found a nice pile of Larch that was felled several years ago but was still in great condition, though a little on the large side. We only had to move the trunk around 50 metres, so using bars, posts (for rollers) and a fair amount of brute force we managed to (slowly) move the trunk into place.

Rare video footage of tree trunk moving in progress

Using some of these larger pieces means that the path edges should last many years, which is great as future repairs could become a problem if there's a lack of suitable timber available.

Path with log in place (at top of picture)

The path was looking in great condition by the time we'd finished, although a few of the wooden risers were still in need of repair, so we'll pop back later and fix them if we get the chance, or volunteers will carry out the repairs later on in the year.

Finishing off the path near the Walled Garden

Another site that we'd previously worked on was this bridge at St. Catherines, Windermere. Back in 2019 we replaced the treads and handrails of the bridge as the beams still had some life left in them. Unfortunately over the last six years the beams had become much worse, so the decision was taken to replace the whole bridge.

Removing the old bridge

To make the new bridge last longer and give it some extra strength, it was decided that we'd use steel I-beams for the joists and the rest would be made using untreated Larch. The joists needed to have holes drilled into them so we could attach them to the rest of the structure. This proved to be a slow job with the holes taking up to thirty minutes each to drill.

Drilling the beams in the workshop

Once the wooden beams were bolted on to the I-beams we started to position them in place, being careful to level each one, by building up the dry stone wall abutment. 

Getting the first few beams level

We temporarily fixed the beams to each other, to hold them in place while we built up the wall between each of the joists.

All the beams in place

After carefully calculating a suitable sized gap between each tread, we attached each one in place and also connected each of the three uprights. All that's left now is to fix on the handrails and build gravel up to the right level on each side of the bridge.

Just the handrails to go on