Our biggest challenge to date! Fortunately we had assistance from the County Council rangers and volunteers. The forecast was for rain in the morning, fortunately the forecasters got it wrong (nothing new there) and the rain did not come until we had almost finished!
We replaced a sleeper footbridge and two stiles on the footpath to Gayton from Coton Mill Barns. There were three of us from Milwich, Mark, Paul and Richard together with five guys from the Council. Before I could even get the camera out, between them they had removed one of the stiles and were halfway through the second so the second photo is not a true “before”!
There was some leaning on shovels while the best way to tackle the job was discussed; then it was hard at it for 3 hours but the results were impressive. The banks of the stream were shored up and the new bridge was longer than the old so it should stay in place whatever the weather. Instead of barbed wire being attached to the stiles, a significant amount of post and rail fencing was installed.
We were done by about 1 pm. Then we broke the bad news to the guys, it was Wednesday and the Green Man was closed till 5 pm!
See the results for yourself in the pictures below. We could tackle anything now! Any Suggestions?
