Tag Archives: Path Clearance

Brambles Beware! Path Clearance in Dereham.

 

As is well known, Spring is the growing season.  Unfortunately for walkers, growth is not restricted to those nice flowers in your garden, but also includes rampant growth of brambles and nettles across public rights of way.  In Dereham, two paths are particularly prone to this – Restricted Byways 30 and 31.  These carry the legal right for horse and carriage drivers to use them between Neatherd Moor and Northall Green, but at their best, they are currently suitable only for walkers, cyclists and horse riders.  And even those users can find their way blocked by nettle and bramble growth, so to tackle this before the route became impossible, Dereham Walkers are Welcome and The Ramblers together cut the paths on 3 May.

Peter James, the Area Treasurer, laying new protective covers for the path, from a previous path clearance day.

Not in the pictures were Rambler Gerald and Ken Hawkins from Dereham WaW.  Try these paths for yourself – and let us know of any potential blockages on these or any other paths. We like to keep Peter busy!  🙂

 

Path Clearance by Norfolk Ramblers at Mulbarton and Bracon Ash

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Volunteers from Norfolk Ramblers have cleared FP3 (footpath 3) beside the Paddocks and FP4 from the road in Mulbarton. Much fun was had by those involved in what was another well organised event by Peter James, the area treasurer.

mulbarton-fp-3-before

Above is the FP3 path before clearance, and below is after clearance was completed.

mulbarton-fp3-after

Opposite the common land area at Mulbarton the footpath FP4 has been completely blocked for over two years. The volunteers were able to clear many fallen branches and trees, with the brambles then cut back.

bracon-ash-fp1-before bracon-ash-fp1-after

The volunteers, not yet tired by their hard work, then moved on to Bracon Ash FP1 which had previously been completely blocked. The two photos above show this path before and after clearance. They were able to get halfway along this path and will return as soon as practical to finish off the clearance.

Anyone wanting to get involved in path clearance, please get in touch with Peter James, his contact details are at http://www.norfolkra.org.uk/, it’s a fun day out and the area Ramblers have invested in a range of equipment to make the task easier.

Boardwalk Improvement at Scarning Fen

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On a fine but frosty day, Peter James was out once again, but this time without path cutting equipment.  Instead, he was geared up with generator, compressor and staple gun to renew 50 metres of decaying wire mesh on the boardwalk at Scarning Fen in Dereham (Footpath 14a).

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Once the equipment had been carried on site (a small job in itself), Ken and Catherine Hawkins scraped off the old wire netting – and the frozen on leaves – and Peter followed up installing the new wire mesh.

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It was gratifying that a number of people using the path stopped by to say ‘thank you’ for the work being done.  Four hours later, and the mesh was down and ready for use.

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We’re always keen to get more volunteers for path clearance work, it’s good exercise, great for the local community and also fun! We have lots of equipment available to use, and we’re also keen to hear from anyone who has blocked paths near to where they live. Please do contact us (we love hearing from people!), our details are available at http://www.norfolkra.org.uk/.

Work to clear overgrown pathways in Dereham

Dereham 01a-30

Members from Norfolk Ramblers have again been battling overgrown footpaths in the county, this time our equipment has been used in Dereham.

The rapid growth of nettles and brambles had once again rendered Dereham Restricted Byway 31 virtually impassable for ordinary walkers. In addition to ordinary walkers denied access to this path, it was scheduled for a Ramblers’ walk next weekend.

Dereham 31-26

So Peter James, supported by Catherine and Ken Hawkins, spent the morning of 16 June clearing it to his usual high standard. Not content with this, he went on to clear a nearby footpath (1a), where the farmer had cleared the crop, but weeds had grown up making walking difficult (and unpleasant in wet weather).

Dereham 28-94

Thanks to those involved with this clearance – which is much appreciated not just by members of the Ramblers, but also by the local community. Please get in touch with us if you have problems with overgrown footpaths in any other parts of the county.

Peter James will soon become the new Anneka Rice in Challenge Anneka type projects to clear footpaths across Norfolk! There is video footage of his path clearance on our Facebook page at:

https://www.facebook.com/norfolkramblers/

More Path Clearance Work from Norfolk Ramblers

Dereham 18fp.2016.03.02.Peter mulching the trimmings.DSCN4822
A photo from an earlier path clearance project in Dereham

After our investment in new path clearance equipment we’ve been able to clear several footpaths in the area already. We will put photos on this site on an ongoing basis to show the work that has been achieved.

Below are two further examples of footpaths which are now passable and many thanks to the volunteers who have been involved with this project.

The photos below show paths at Little Ellingham (FP7) and Great Ellingham (FP12) before and after our work.

2016-04-19 23.04.18 before (1)

2016-04-19 23.19.12 after (1)

2016-04-20 00.34.56 before (1)

2016-04-20 01.06.20 (1)