Season of Plenty

Thursday 11^th September

Certainly autumn now, the season of plenty. Another day when the weather turned out better than forecast; the showers held off until lunchtime and then were not that heavy or thundery. A strong breeze kept the temperature down, but still warm enough for physical work outside. A team of eight in attendance, initially splitting into a group of two and a group of six.

The pair were Jonathan and Polly, their first task was the removal of old fencing wire from the very end of the low mileage down side toe ditch which leads into the River Isbourne. To avoid a long walk along the ditch, and the climb down from the railway; they accessed the ditch using the old gate from the B4632 roadside. They took the recovered debris back to the metal skip in Winchcombe Yard; then collected bricklaying tools plus some sand, cement and water to head to Stanton.

The gate by the roadside with the pipe under the road just visible bottom left. [Photo by Jonathan]

Cleared ditch flowing slowly down to the Isbourne.[Photo by Jonathan]

Meanwhile the group of six travelled to Stanton Yard; and then splitting further. Roger and Martin accessed the line at Stanton Field bridge (7); then proceeded to clear vegetation from around the cess chambers on both sides of the line north to Laverton foot crossing. They also cleared around the mileposts, including 7¼, which is just north of the foot crossing. This one is set well back from the vacant trackbed where the up line was; so encroaching vegetation can soon obstruct it.

Milepost 7¼ no longer hiding in the undergrowth. [Photo by Roger]

Looking north from culvert 7A towards Stanton Fields bridge (7); cleared cess chamber on left. Note how the vegetation has grown on the up side bank on the left. The whole length between bridges 8 and 7 was flailed back in April. 

Nigel, Martin, Andrew and Ian tackled the vegetation clearance at syphon culvert 7A. There was only a dribble of water flowing through this, and the outlet of this was dry. This enabled the removal of the silt covering the base; and some of that in the outlet ditch back to the boundary fence. Usually there is standing water over 2 feet deep here. Once Polly and Jonathan arrived with the bricklaying tools and materials; they set to work filling the cracks around the outlet bore and in the wing and headwalls of the outlet.

Crack around the outlet bore of 7A, previous repair stopped at the normal waterline. With no water in the outlet ditch; Polly was able to re-point right round the bore.

Whilst Andrew completed the visual inspection of 7A; Nigel, Dave, Martin, Roger and Ian continued with vegetation clearance. They completed all the cess chambers between bridge 7 and bridge 10; the access paths to both sides of Stanton Aqueduct, the down side slip marker posts under the aqueduct, around the mileposts and the small chambers on the down side cutting crest high mileage of bridge 10.

A cess chamber in need of attention; probably hit by a vehicle loading or unloading ballast at Stanton. We will have to raise the height of this to make it more visible.

The first rain shower arrived conveniently at lunch time; so no use of deckchairs today. Fortunately with three vehicles, there was a reasonable amount of space for all eight of us to eat in the dry. After lunch, the combined team headed down the line towards Stanway, clearing the cess chambers and then culvert 11A and cross drain 11B. This enabled visual inspections of these two structures; the small stream which flows through 11A was just a trickle; the cess drains were dry, so too was 11B.

Roger cutting an access down to the main entry of culvert 11A.

Another rain shower temporarily halted work; so we decided to leave clearing and inspecting culvert 11C until next week. Of course, as soon as we packed up and headed back to Winchcombe, the sun came out!

Smiles from some of the team (Ian on right) as it is the end of todays work so head back to the trucks and off to Winchcombe for a cup of tea in the cafe.

Wildlife report: An early sighting at Stanton were some red admiral butterflies, with a few cabbage whites seen later. As befits autumn, the season of plenty, the abundance of fruit was very obvious. All the pear trees at Stanton were heavy with fruit; some still rock hard as they are perry pears, but others are eaters and were just ripening. Juicy but very dry was the taste verdict of one team member. Still plenty of blackberries on the brambles, but now past their best. The remaining berries are smaller and not so sweet. Also well past their peak are the damsons, most had fallen off the trees and were lying on the ground. In contrast, although now ripe the majority of sloes were still on the trees. In the brush we noted several wild roses with plenty of hips, plus a few asparagus plants which had fully grown into tall ferns. Just a few flowers remain; including cornflowers and a few daisies.

Red admiral.

A laden Stanton pear tree.

Flowing again

Thursday 4^th September

Almost all of the team attended on what initially looked like it would be the wettest day we have worked for a long time.

Ian, Martin and Jonathan took on the completion of the clearance of the down side low mileage toe ditch at the River Isbourne bridge (21A). This is the ditch that runs alongside the Winchcombe Industrial estate, with Winchcombe Reclamation being the immediate adjoining premises. They finished the vegetation clearance right up to the B4632 main road. This revealed an old gate from the roadside, however it is immediately above the ditch, so of no use for access with mechanical plant. The group cleared the two sections of ditch that was obstructed with soil; and also removed an obstruction at the end of the (non railway) culvert that runs under the B4632 road. The result of this was that water began to flow down the ditch, although slowly. Apart from the River Isbourne, this was the only flowing water the team encountered today.

The old gate is just visible above where the toe ditch ends. [Photo by Jonathan]

With the exit from the culvert under the road cleared, water begins flowing down the ditch. [Photo by Jonathan]

Ian (l) and Martin showing how shallow the River Isbourne still is. [Photo by Jonathan]

An afternoon task was the cataloguing of our stock of tubes for the manufacture of safety rails and markers. Some of this is bespoke handrail tube, but most of recycled scaffold poles.

The other seven attendees undertook the culvert and cross drain visual inspections and clearance for the day. They travelled north to Little Buckland; where they split into to teams. Dave, Nigel and Peter headed south to deal with cross drains 5D and 6A at Laverton; also clearing the up side toe drain chambers north of bridge 6. 

Nigel on the brushcutter clears around the 6A exit chamber whilst Peter removes a sapling with the loppers. [Photo by Dave] 

The end result - chamber lids exposed and access cleared.

Roger, John, Polly and Andrew headed north to Peasebrook to attend to cross drain 3A. On the way they cleared around the now disused field access on the down side – this to ensure we can safely turn our vehicles here. This reduces the distance travelled in reverse between Little Buckland and Peasebrook. Next item for clearing was the length of the down side toe ditch between cross drain 5B and the northern most foot crossing. Even after the rain over the past few days; there was no water in this ditch.

Adhering to our confined spaces procedure, Roger enters the exit chamber of 3A whilst John holds the gas detection unit.

John tidying around the down side of the northern most foot crossing at Little Buckland. 

All seven then met up at Meadow Lane bridge for lunch – slightly extended to await the passing of a short but heavy shower of rain. After lunch the final structure for clearing and inspecting was the syphon cross drain 6C, which is just north of Stanton Fields bridge (7).

The inspection and clearing team (well 5 out of the 7) finish off and start packing up at 6C. Stanton Fields bridge 7 in background.

Wildlife report: No interesting mammal sightings today. At Little Buckland we noted a buzzard hunting over the adjacent field, so probably there are some small mammals there. The work at Stanton Fields disturbed a family of crows. The most numerous creatures we encountered were arachnids. Every chamber we inspected seemed to have a resident spider or two. 

Apologies to anyone suffering from Arachnophobia.