Replacing the bridge at Tongue Gill

With our upland path repair work finished for this year, our work has now shifted focus onto estate work around the Central and Eastern Lakes property. Our first job was replacing the bridge over Tongue Gill, just outside Grasmere. Although the bridge had been condemned a while ago, we had a few problems in getting hold of all the materials. Since the bridge isn't on the official right-of-way and there's another route avoiding the bridge, the delay in materials wasn't such a problem, but it was still nice to finally get started.

The Old Bridge at Tongue Gill in need of replacing

Once the materials arrived they were transported up to the site by the Area Ranger Neil using his Land Rover. Our job was to take down the old bridge and construct the new one. Although it may look like a giant jigsaw puzzle, there's a lot of meticulous measuring, and remeasuring, as all of the bridge parts still had to be drilled and if you don't get it spot on you can end up with a very strange looking bridge!

The materials at the site

Once the beams and uprights had been drilled, the next job was to remove the old uprights and hand rails from the original bridge. We decided to leave the old beams and treads where they were, so they could be used to help us get the (very heavy) replacement beams into the right place. We did this by making a number of rollers out of cut-down fence posts and used the traditional technique of levering and rolling until the beams were in position.

The new beams spanning the gill

The next job was to remove the rest of the old bridge and dig the new beams into position in exactly the right place. Once we were happy with the placement, the two new beams were fastened the correct distance apart by using lengths of threaded bar and three large wooden "spacers". With the beams now joined to each other it was time to start attaching the uprights and the treads. For this stage, we were assisted by Bill, one of the Estate Rangers based in Ullswater, as a couple of the Fell Rangers were unavailable to help.

Bill on the new bridge, with the uprights and treads in position

The final stage to complete the bridge was the addition of the hand rails. Once the bridge was finished, we erected a few sections of post and rail fencing to either side of the bridge. This was added to act as a funnel and help the local farmer herd his sheep across.

The Finished Bridge

Finishing off at Stickle Ghyll & working on Gowbarrow

During the end of October and early November we finally finished off our path repair project at Stickle Ghyll. Our main piece of work was a short section of pitching with an incorporated drain just before the stepping stones.

Area before the stepping stones in need of repair

We managed to squeeze all four Rangers onto the section that needed to be worked on so we rattled through the work in just a few days.

Section just prior to completion

Once we'd finished the pitching and drain we put down the last of our grass seed, and had a general tidying up of the area. This involved removing any excess rock that had been dug out, taking down our signs, collecting all the helicopter bags together and dismantling the shed.

With our work at Stickle Ghyll now completed for the year we moved on to work on a section of path at Gowbarrow in Ullswater.

Unloading the bags at Gowbarrow

As you can see in the photograph above, the section we were working on was particularly wet and boggy. This had caused people to try and avoid the area which in turn had produced several additional paths, so our work was to remove all the extra paths and get everyone back on to one line again.

Pete working on the drain

The work involved constructing around ten metres of pitched path and a large stone drain that would remove much of the water from the path. The work was made more difficult by the boggy conditions but the path quickly started to take shape.

Section of path before the drain

Once the pitching was all in place we were left with large quantities of peat that had been dug out from the path. This was moved either by shovelling, or using plastic trugs, to fill in the additional paths and other eroded areas around the footpath and recreate a more natural looking landscape.

Section of path above the drain

With this work completed and winter looming that's the end of our upland footpath repair work for this year. So over the next few months we'll be turning our hands to a wider range of estate work around the property. Of course, we'll keep you updated.

Resuming our work at Stickle Ghyll

With our work all finished at Mickleden our attentions have now turned back to Stickle Ghyll. We started our work here back in the spring before heading over to Mickleden for the summer months, and we've only around two weeks of work left until this project is also complete.

It's really apparent that the seasons have changed since we were last working at Stickle, it is now feeling much more autumnal which is providing us with some classic Lake District views. It certainly makes the walk to work that little bit easier after prising yourself out of bed in the pitch black at the start of the day.

A misty morning in Langdale

The section of path that we've been working on has proved quite challenging as there is a lot of bedrock right where the path needs to be built, meaning the path has to fit around the bedrock, or alternatively it has to be chipped out with crowbars and sledgehammers.

Another thing that has made building the path a bit more complicated than usual is the amount of large boulders that are in the way. These large rocks have either been used for landscaping or, if they're suitably shaped, we've also been using them to pitch with.

Nic pitching with large boulders

Pitching with large stone like this really helps tie the path in with the landscape, but if they don't go in correctly the first time around it can really slow down progress. It can easily result in two, or sometimes even three of us levering the boulder with our bars to get it into the correct position, and it's not always a particularly quick process!

Finishing our repair work at Mickleden

Over the last couple of weeks we've been busily working on the Mickleden project, so we can move back onto Stickle Ghyll for a few weeks, and hopefully finish our work there before the weather deteriorates too much.

Much of this work has again been upgrading the old path to make it more user friendly. You can see in the photograph below a set of risers (a line of stones dug into the ground to slow down the rate of erosion). Originally these risers would have been dug in at ground-level or, at least, with very little stone showing above the ground. Over time, the soil has eroded out in front of the risers leaving behind large steps that are more difficult to walk on.

Path before repair work

As this section of path is next to a beck which has been known to overflow during heavy rain we decided to build a pitched path incorporating the old risers. This has helped reduce the height of the steps and will also help the path stand up to the rigours of flooding.

Completed section of path

Another important part of this project has been the landscaping. You can see by comparing the two photographs above how the side-stones that run in a straight line (top picture) have also been removed and replaced with larger stones, in a more natural looking way. Subtle changes like this are unlikely to be noticed by most people but it's all part of our work trying to make the paths blend in more sympathetically with the surrounding landscape.

Once the path and landscaping was done we finished off this section by selecting a suitably large, and flat, stone and moved it into position as a stepping stone. The beck, which flows out of Rossett Ghyll can be really difficult to cross after heavy rain, so with the new stone in position people will be able to get to the other side much more safely.

New Stepping Stone in place

With our work at Mickleden finished (at least for this year), it was finally time to take down the shed, so there's no chance of it getting blown down in the winter. It'll stay here until it's ready to be moved to a new site next year.

Flat-packed shed, ready to go

Finishing off the top Section of path at Mickleden

Over the last couple of weeks we've been finishing off replacing the old and steep section of path at Mickleden, and landscaping the newly built path to help it blend in with it's surroundings.

With all the pitching now completed and the drains in place, we got on with roughing up the edges of the path with left over stone to make things look a bit more natural and also to encourage people not to wander off the path and create another erosion problem.

Moving a stone into position to help reduce corner cutting

Flat sections off the path were also made less attractive to walk on by digging holes and putting in smaller stones, that had been dug out while replacing the path. These stones were covered over with the soil that had been removed from the hole and the turf placed back on top, to create bumpy areas. This also helps to tidy up the area, rather than leaving a lot of left-over waste material around the worksite.

Once this was done we put down some grass seed and fertilizer. Though it's a little late in the season there's still a good chance that much of the seed will lay dormant over winter and sprout next spring. We'll come back and check it's progress in 2012 and if required put more seed down over the next couple of years.

The completed path, with freshly seeded areas

With the main section of path now finished we've moved on to some work lower down the path. We're mostly replacing sections where the steps are a bit too high, either because of the way the path was built, or because the ground has now eroded away since they were put in. Once we've finished these last few sections it should make for a far more pleasant walk down.

Replacing one of the short sections of path

Continuing the work at Mickleden

Since working with the National Trust volunteers on the Working Holiday, we've continued to replace the old section of pitching at Mickleden, making it more user-friendly by re-aligning the path, adding some bends and reducing the height of the steps. We've now almost fully completed this section and it's really starting to take shape.

A section of the almost finished path

You can see in the image below, with only a few metres left until the path is finished, how it now winds it's route through the landscape. The bank of soil that can be seen in the distance, between Pete and Leo, shows the original line of the path. By adding a series of bends, rather than taking a more direct route, the gradient is greatly reduced making it much easier to walk down.

 

The path, showing the new line and the old route

With the path being on such a steep slope, during heavy rain there is a lot of surface water that if left to it's own devices would run straight down the path and likely cause damage. To help address this problem, we arranged a day with the Fix the Fells volunteers to build a turf drain across the slope. This feeds the rainwater into a stone drain that is built into the path, which then sheds it out of the way.

Volunteers digging out a turf drain

Over the next week, we'll get the last few sections joined up, cover over much of the soil with turfs, and re-seed the whole area around the path and between the pitching. Providing that most of the seed germinates (we'll put some more down next spring/summer if it's required) by this time next year you'll hardly know that that the original route ever existed.

National Trust Working Holiday at Mickleden

Over the last week we've had a group of volunteers on a National Trust Working Holiday helping us out with some path repair at Mickleden. We had a group of ten, who were all stopping over in accommodation at the National Trust High Wray Basecamp, four miles outside of Ambleside.

On the first day we had to carry all the tools up to the work site, so we shared out mattocks, shovels and crowbars between everybody and headed up towards Rossett Ghyll where we would be working for the rest of the week.

Volunteers starting work on the first day

The group was split into pairs, and each pair given a section to work on, and with four staff at hand it meant we could give everybody plenty of help and guidance. The first day is always the hardest, as it takes a lot more digging to get the first course of pitching in the ground, and the stones you start with are always deep ones. By the end of the day everyone had made a good start and had their first few stones in place.
As the week went on everyone started to get the hang of things and began to get more of an eye for how the stones should fit together.

The path starting to take shape

Unfortunately, as is becoming usual for August in the Lake District, the weather didn't remain dry throughout the week and there were lots of heavy showers about. Even on Tuesday when the weather was particularly bad, everyone remained in good spirits and kept up the good work.

Working hard through rain, and shine

By the end of Thursday everybody was making good progress and several of the sections only needed another course, or two, to join up.

Not much further now...

On the final day we managed to get each of the sections joined and most of the landscaping completed too. Everybody had a really good time, although a few people had said it was much harder work than they'd imagined it would be. As with previous years the standard of work was fantastic.

A job well done!