A good day for washing

Thursday 29^th May

Warm, sunny and with a strong south westerly breeze, ideal conditions for drying washing outside – and also almost ideal conditions for working outside.

The target location for today’s team of eight was either side Little Buckland bridge.

The first tasks were placing some scour prevention rocks in the bed of the outlet streams of culverts 3B and 4A. Next, taking advantage of the continuing spell of dry weather; two of the team checked the outlet manhole of cross drain 3A, removing the last little bit of silt.

4A outlet - the stones we added in the bed are there (honest!).

Still a small flow off the adjoining fields into the toe ditch/pipe and then into 4A inlet. [Photo by Jonathan]

A ‘dry day’ task that we were not able to undertake was some minor repointing of the outlet headwall of culvert 3B. Whilst the water level was low; the amount of vegetation growing on the steep sides of the outlet channel prevented safe access. We will have to devise a safe way of clearing all of this before proceeding.

A deep and steep drop to the outlet of 3B.

The main task for the day was in the toe ditch on the down (Cotswold) side on the low mileage side of culvert 4A. Two brush cutters and one hedge trimmer were put to action to clear access from the lineside and then along the length of the ditch. There are two chambers in this ditch on the low mileage side of the culvert, these are where run offs from the adjoining field enter. The ditch is piped between the second chamber and the inlet of 4B. One section of pipe was missing; so we repaired this with a length of plastic twinwall, neatly cut to fit into the existing pipe and the adjacent chamber. We also cleared out both chambers and the inlet of 4A. Most of the material from the chambers was badger bedding – not surprising as there is a large active badger sett in the side of the embankment. Worryingly there are also signs of badger excavations on the up (Malvern) side too.

The gap in the toe ditch pipe filled with a length of twinwall.

One of the entrances to the badger sett on the down side.

Continuing with our programme of installing safety markers for headwalls, we measured up the headwalls of 3A, 3B, 4A, 5A, 5B and 5C. 5C is over half way on to Laverton Meadow; so that was quite a long work. However, this did give us the chance to inspect all the drainage and fencing improvements made by our neighbour at Archer Farm. This will have sorted out the long standing problem of pooling water during the wet seasons in parts of the down side toe ditch.

Cross drain 5B inlet chamber in the down side toe ditch along side Archer Farm, reconfigured with a new overflow pipe from the farm's pond.

What a difference - the reinstated toe ditch and sheep proof fence near 5B. [Photo by Jonathan]

Almost the same spot back in October last year before work commenced.

For the record the team today (in no particular order!) was Peter, Nigel, Roger, Polly, Dave, Martin, Andrew, Jonathan.

Wildlife report: The interesting observations were early in the day – we found both a frog and toad in the yard at Winchcombe whilst loading materials. Near Peasbrook we spotted more roe deer; and several rabbits. Plenty of insects of a multitude of species – including some ladybirds. Taking advantage of the abundance of flying inserts were several swifts.

Gala overtime

Like many GWSR volunteers, several members of the Drainage team also help out with other teams and departments. This is especially true with Special Events. For the 2025 Cotswold Festival of Steam (‘Spring Gala’) four of the team were assisting. Roger spent all three days manning the First Response Team's mobile unit; Jonathan was on crossing duty at Winchcombe; Andrew put in a turn as good train chaperone; and Ian helped prepare 76077 for display in the steam shed at Toddington.

Riding a freight train south of Cheltenham Racecourse was an unusual opportunity to inspect the cess drains without a long walk from the station.

 

 

 

 

Looking almost like a complete loco, 76077 in the steam shed at Toddington.

Late arrival at Gretton (updated)

Thursday 22^nd May

After various delays over the past few months, the two wagon loads of spoil excavated from the foundations of the new platform 2 building at Broadway finally arrived at Gretton.

The Motive Power folk shunted the two wagons onto the car park unloading siding at Toddington, in between offloading visiting locomotives for the Cotswold Festival of Steam (the Spring ‘gala’). Then a grab and tipper lorry emptied the wagons. Martin and Peter provided assistance for this. Due to the nature of the spoil and the fact it had sat in the wagons for several months, the spoil from the corners of the wagons had to be manually dug out. Three lorry loads were taken to the top of the haul road from Working Lane, opposite the Royal Oak pub. Here Jonathan was waiting with the telehandler to level out the material once tipped from the lorry. Also Stuart, Dave and Andrew were on hand with shovels and rakes to break up the large lumps of clay and to remove the few bits of brick and concrete. Most of the material went in the embankment hollow between culvert 24A outlet and the top of the haul road; with a bit just beyond (high mileage) of the culvert. The hollow is now less pronounced; however, there is still scope for more infill to complete the levelling out.

Unloading spoil from Broadway via Toddington.

Using the telehandler to compact and level out the spoil.

Job done - telehandler departs.

Whilst waiting for the first lorry load of spoil, Stuart, Dave and Andrew fitted an extra GRP chamber ring to the outlet chamber of culvert 24A. This will ensure that when the vegetation grows taller (brambles have started growing already) the chamber will be readily visible. 

Now proud of the embankment all round, the outlet chamber of 24A.

Despite the dry spell, culvert 24A still had a small amount of water trickling through it. This was all coming from the down side cess near Greet tunnel, this collects a lot of water running of and percolating through Langley Hill. Cross drain 24B was completely dry – so Dave took the opportunity to clear the apron between the railway embankment and the haul road of the moss and weed that had accumulated.

24B apron cleared. [Photo by Dave]

Stuart, Dave and Andrew also paid a visit to Gretton to investigate a report of some culverts being contaminated with foul water. Some evidence was found; which is now with Tewkesbury Borough Council Environment Health and the Environment Agency to investigate further. *Update Friday evening* - Severn Trent Water attended on Friday. They determined the cause was a broken joint in a foul water pipe in an adjoining property. Now fixed.

Meanwhile, Nigel and Polly made a return visit to Didbrook to make the repairs to the broken pipe leading from the down side cess at culvert 16A to the road under Didbrook No2 bridge (16). The small break was fixed with concrete sitting on a saddle made from a half section of a larger diameter twinwall pipe.

Twinwall saddle on the small break; holds the concrete repair. [Photo by Polly]

For the large break, where several section of SGP pipe had completely broken, the repair was mixture of a replacement section of 9” SGP pipe and a new sleeve fashioned from 300mm twinwall pipe. The twinwall overlaps the SGP, with the resultant small gaps plugged with mortar. Finally some spent ballast from the winter relaying work at Hayles Abbey filled in the excavations. Thus a satisfactory completion of a task that has been on our ‘to do’ list for over 4 years! Most of that time was waiting for a suitable dry spell so that the pipe was not running.

Large break repair almost complete; just another barrow load of spent ballast to entirely cover the twinwall pipe needed. [Photo by Polly]

Nigel demonstrates the height of the undergrowth. [Photo by Polly]

Final task for the day was to cut some of the lengths of old scaffold pole to the correct lengths to install as safety markers on the structures between Toddington and Winchcombe which we measured last week.

Wildlife report: Our arrival at the top of the haul road opposite the Royal Oak disturbed a roe deer. We also spotted many rabbits there – so too did a Red Kite circling overhead. We spotted wild garlic in the damp and shade at Gretton; whilst by the haul road there is lots of cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) and red campion (Silene dioica) plants. Also Dipsacus fullonum, wild teasel, last year’s plants with their dead teasel heads are easy to spot; but this year’s growth without the flower heads takes is not so easy to distinguish.

New teasel plant. [Photo by Dave]

In Winchcombe yard, we noted the house martins were glad of the overnight rain which had produced a few puddles and thus mud for nest building.

Dry work

On our list of outstanding tasks, there are several marked as requiring a dry spell. With no significant rain for nearly two months in the Cotswolds, we are certainly in a dry spell. So time to attend to some of those tasks.

Thursday 15^th May

The Toddington to Winchcombe section was the main target of our dry spell work. However, first of all Nigel, Roger and Andrew went to Two Hedges Road at Bishops Cleeve to place the concrete lids on the rebuilt syphon inlet chamber of cross drain 39B. A straightforward task, apart from carrying the lids up the cutting side, definitely a three man operation.

39B syphon inlet chamber complete with concrete lids. Just some infill to add and that job is done - that will have to wait until after some rain has softened the ground!

Martin and Peter were first in at Toddington. Their main task was to measure all the structures between Toddington and Winchcombe which require fitting of safety markers or handrails. This included the long filled in underbridge located a 9m 70c. Formerly this was bridge 14, but is now known as 14X as Toddington Station footbridge is now number 14. Whilst measuring the up side (Malvern) of culvert 14B, they removed two old sleepers from the outfall pond. These were once part of a farmers bridge upstream, washed away in one of the winter storms.

The first two old sleepers removed from the outlet pool of 14B. Third one resting against the outlet pipe - waiting for a five man team to remove. [Photo by Jonathan]

Another ‘dry day’ tasks they completed was the removal of silt and vegetation from the inlet apron of cross drain 20C on the down (Cotswold) side at Chicken Curve.

Once Jonathan had completed the weekly vehicle checks, and made some minor repairs; he and Polly also made their way to Toddington South. They tacked the three old sleepers in the inlet channel on down side of culvert 14B.

Two of the old sleepers removed from 14B inlet. [Photo by Jonathan]

 

Taking advantage of the low water levels, Andrew takes a photo of the inside of the 14B bore. [Photo by Jonathan]

Looking inside the 14B bore.

When Nigel, Roger and Andrew joined, the final old sleeper in the up side outlet pond was removed. This was up against the outlet pipe; so once removed the water level dropped a bit more. The low water level revealed the extend of the undercutting of the up side high mileage wing wall. Repairing this will needs a much lower water level.

14B outlet pond - low water level obvious. End coping stone of the high mileage wing wall visible under the vegetation.

The group of five next moved south to the down side inlet of culvert 15A. The winter storms had dislodged three of the concrete slabs which form the bank protection here. Despite the dry spell, this stream still had a very slight flow running; plus some deep pools in the inlet channel meant careful placement of feet to avoid wet boots.

All slabs on 15A inlet now upright, looking up stream ... [Photo by Jonathan]

... and downstream to the down side headwall. [Photo by Jonathan]

Having completed the measuring tasks, Martin and Peter joined the rest of the team for lunch at Didbrook. Then for all the afternoon task was digging out around breaks in a SGP pipe which carries excess water from the down side inlet of cross drain 16A to the road under Didbrook No2 bridge. This pipe is very old 9inch internal diameter SGP, probably dating from the building of the line. One break is going to be simple to repair with a concrete patch. The other beak which is around 6 foot long will be more challenging. We no longer have sufficient 9 inch SGP spare, and standard sizes of modern plastic pipe is either too big or too small.

The small break, essentially where the collar of the downstream section has broken off. Easily fixed!

The big break - two completely broken sections of 9" SGP pipe removed.

Upstream end of the break, this section of SGP is cracked.

Downstream end of the break, slightly damaged collar on this section of pipe.

We were delighted to note that Gloucestershire County Council highways have repaired the roadside headwall up side high mileage of Didbrook No2 bridge. This is the exit from the pipe from the 16A inlet - interestingly there was a small flow here, where as it is completely dry higher up where the breaks are.

GCC repaired roadside headwall - and verge markers installed to make it more visible to vehicles. [Photo by Jonathan]

Wildlife report: As now usual when at Bishops Cleeve, the larger flock of gulls was noted, audibly first then visually. Otherwise the main items to note were some Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) plants at Didbrook. This can cause skin iterations, but is not so dangerous as Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum). Fortunately we have not encountered any Giant Hogweed - so far! An interesting insect spotted was a green lacewing – not surprisingly as there are over 1,300 known species we did not make a positive identification. No fish spotted in any watercourse today - and still no sign of hedgehogs.

Problem located

Thursday 8^th May

Another day with complex logistics. With nine of the Drainage team attending for work at three sites we required three vehicles. S&T required another and so did the Heritage team – all of us taking advantage of a non-running day. With only four vehicles available, we needed a cunning plan!

Martin and Peter took the tipper Transit to Toddington to collect safety rails for the former bridge 41 south of Two Hedges Road. Neal from the heritage team had made these from scrap boiler tubes removed from Dinmore Manor. They then delivered these to the bridge site, where Neal and Joe installed them. Then with Stuart joining them, they headed back north, installing our prepared safety markers for the headwalls of cross drains 37G, 37E, 37D, 37C and 37B. These used recycled scaffold poles. They achieved the award for the most productive group of the day, as this enabled five tasks on our ‘To Do’ list to be marked complete.

Nigel, Polly and Roger had the blue tail-lift Transit, carefully loaded with a cement mixer, a supply of sand and bricks and some heras fence panels. They offloaded the bricks, sand and mixer offloaded at Two Hedges Road and then took the fence panels a bit further south to the Bonsai World stream entry. Once the third vehicle arrived with cement and water; they started on the final brick courses for the rebuild of down side inlet chamber of syphon cross drain 39B.

Good to have our master bricklayer Polly back after an illness. He soon had the final couple of dozen bricks laid on the 39B down side inlet.

Blue mesh lid on the 39B inlet is temporary; once the mortar has fully set we will replace this with concrete lids.

Andrew, Dave and Stuart were in vehicle three (the Isuzu) and Jonathan made his own way to Two Hedges Road (Bishops Cleeve). Once the materials for the brick laying were offloaded; they continued down to the Bonsai World stream. After coffee break, a change of group memberships saw Stuart joining the safety rail installers, and Roger joining the investigators at the Bonsai World stream. Here, we had permission to remove a section of fence and enter the former Bonsai World site. This enabled a proper examination of the structure under the drive way and footpath. This turns out to be concrete blocks and slabs forming a 12 by 9 inch rectangular passage under the drive way. It is approximately 3m long where it terminates against a 450mm diameter concrete pipe which runs into the manhole on top of the cutting crest. It is the joins between the concrete blocks and the lack of a proper join between the rectangular section and the 450mm diameter pipe which is causing the leakage under the manhole and then down the cutting side to the down side cess. So we have found the cause of the problem. Our preferred plan to fix it, is to replace the rectangular block section with a longer section of 450mm diameter concrete pipe. Not only should that stop the leaks, it will also more than double the capacity of the bore, thus preventing the stream backing up and overflowing into the adjoining field. After very wet weather, this stream can be a raging torrent. A good job today it was bone dry. However, our rebuild plan requires excavation across the drive way and footpath; so we will need to obtain a temporary footpath closure authority from the County Council. That will take a few weeks at least – and no doubt by then the spell of dry weather will have come to an end.

Entry to the under drive way channel in the corner of the Bonsai World site.

 

Looking from the inlet side showing the joins in the concrete block sections. [Photo by Jonathan]

Looking back up from the circular pipe which enters the manhole showing the butt joint to the rectangular section. [Photo by Dave]

The 450mm concrete pipe which enters into the circular manhole. Just a inch or so of standing water in the bottom of the manhole - normally we have 6 or so inches here.

Before leaving we replaced the hole in the fence with a heras panel; and installed a couple more heras sections to plug gaps in the fence between the footpath and the top of the down side cutting.

Temporary heras fencing by the gate at the end of the drive way.

After lunch, we attended to some routine maintenance on three brush cutters. During the spring and summer, our colleagues in the Lineside Clearance teams are the main users of these. Changing spark plugs and air filters fixed two machines. For a third, we called in the expertise of Stuart from C&W; who diagnosed and then fixed a sticky carburettor diaphragm.

Wildlife report: Lots of birdlife spotted in the dense tree and vegetation growth on the down side south of Two Hedges Road bridge beside the drive way and footpath; including blue tits, robins, blackbirds, starlings, magpies. Plus a muntjac deer on the drive way. One item we missed on last week’s report was the sighting of brown trout in the River Isbourne.

 

 

Bone dry

This time last year we were dealing with the effects of a wet spring with several days of heavy rainfall. What a change this year! April showers noticeable by their absence and temperatures well above average. The combined March and April rainfall for the Cotswold escarpment in Gloucestershire is around one third of normal.

Thursday 1^st May

Six team members working on a glorious hot and sunny day – the maximum day time temperature recorded in Winchcombe was around 25C. Certainly it felt more like the height of summer than the end of spring.

Ice cream break - Infrastructure Manager Sarah provided welcome ice creams during a chat with the bricking team. Note the welcome shade from the cherry tree.

Roger, John and Dave were the brick laying gang. They progressed the rebuilt of the down (Cotswold) side syphon inlet chamber of cross drain 39B at Two Hedges Road. They laid around sixty bricks, this almost completes the rebuilt of this chamber.

Roger brick laying. [Photo by Dave]

Just a dozen or so more bricks to finish - and then some concrete lids. [Photo by Dave]

Peter, Jonathan and Andrew were working the other side of Two Hedges Road. Main task was some further vegetation clearance along the lane than runs south by the cutting on the down side. After the tribulations of reversing our tipper Transit down this lane last week, we are now planning to use a hired dumper to bring in infill material for the repairs to the crest pipe and ditch which takes the ‘Bonsai World’ stream. The resident of the adjacent bungalow on Two Hedges Road welcomed this work, in the past she had paid someone else to do the clearance. Wearing full PPE for brush cutting and hedge trimming made this hot work, especially the first few yards which were in full sun. Fortunately the rest of the lane was in shade, enabling the clearance to be completed by lunchtime. After lunch they tested the clearance by reserving the Ford Ranger down to the field gate at the end of the lane. This reduced the distance to carry yet more sandbags to plug the voids in the crest ditch which takes the ‘Bonsai World’ stream south to cross drain 40B. A sign of how unusually dry the weather in the past two months has been is that this stream currently is bone dry. Something we have not observed for several years.

The sunny end of the cleared lane by Two Hedges Road.

More room for a vehicle at the end of the lane - just. Temporary heras fence erected last week by the crest ditch entry. [Photo by Jonathan]

Not a drop of water in the 'Bonsai' World stream where it flows under the lane.

 

Taking advantage of the dry spell and consequent low water level in the River Isbourne, Jonathan and Andrew undertook some trimming of the vegetation growing on the down side wing walls of the river bridge.

The coolest spot - under the River Isbourne bridge. Cut vegetation floating down to be raked out. [Photo by Jonathan]

Wildlife report: “Ne'er cast a clout til May be out” – probably this old English saying means don’t pack away your winter clothes until the end of May. Or maybe until the May blossom is out. Today the May blossom, Hawthorne, was in full bloom – and summer clothes were the order of the day. We noted both sweet chestnut and horse chestnut trees in full bloom, whilst the bluebells have just past their peak flowering. The field between the railway and New Road was yellow with a vast crop of dandelions. We noted a few of the resident gulls of Bishops Cleeve circling high up – whilst at a similar altitude over Winchcombe was a Red Kite. Several house martins were flitting around Winchcombe Yard trying to find some soft mud for their nest building. With the lack or rain the usual puddles in the yard are nowhere to be found.