From the furthest South to the furthest North, beautifully organised with no wasted driving around the parish for hours.

Balance?

Ballet?

Those posts are not upright (or is it the bloody idiots in yellow?)

John N, Ben C, John C, Ian P, Jon P, Rob D, Simon H, Andy P, Mike I, Tom P rarely as large a group as this, must be nearing the time of funny milk.

Where were we then?, First the South, two new signposts:

The North, replaced very heavy gate post, cleared scrub, installed and signed new waymark post; routes 812, 813 and 814 split here with this little postage stamp sized bit of Martley North of Ockeridge Lane

No, that way, blimey you live locally, don’t you know the paths round ‘ere?

Darth Vader put in a guest appearance too.  Spot the new post

Something like the Russian Army on manoeuvres arrived, terrified the locals and swept off  not to be seen hereabouts for another 20 years

Bulmers yes, but before that a route on the popular Walk No.10 that Ian had spotted last month needed full length clearance, hedge trimming and attention to the stile.  Route 539 on map below:

Route 639 from Pudford Farm to B4204

After the above, off to Bulmers.  Ben (and Simon) painted hundreds of trees after the style of Monet, i.e. somewhat blurred and smudged (routes 604, 605, 608, 595). Waymark posts were re-discovered in the undergrowth and several re-installed.  The bridge on 595 showed signs of collapse so JP and gang erected a quality support leg under the defective longeron.  Dozens of trees were cleared of overhanging branches on route 595.  All in all a good day and Bulmers, an area not visited for a couple of years was left in good state.  Later Tim (thanks Tim) cleared a wide swathe on route 595 across to B4197.

In addition the team completed clearance of overgrowth on causeway 602 and resigning of route 600 with additional waymark post.

Bridge that needs replacing

A record of several journeys into the jungles of our local paths during the month.

Most exciting thing that happened was the phone call received after clearing paths along Mike Nott’s garden panelling.  We cut back a very overhanging barrier of honeysuckle (I think) that severely impeded progress along the right of way.  Mike, in good humour to be fair, but harried from behind I was made to understand, wanted to know why we had cut it back, it not being the end of the month of August n’all.  After this date it seems, vegetation can be tackled with vengeance and no fear of retribution and imprisonment from jobsworths at DEFRA.   I suggested that the 16th August wasn’t too distant from the end of the month so maybe punishment would be withheld.  I asked him if it was his spaniel that had rushed out and bitten us and what did he think about that (it was and it didn’t). Anyway he praised the PONS for the work they do.

Mike Nott’s Area FP740 cleared

Apart from that little task, good progress was made around Quarry Farm , near Mel Farmers and the path off Pudford Lane between Hollins Lane and B4297

Quarry Farm Area FP555. 556 (all round the quarry) cleared

On

Mel Farmer’s Area, FP704 and 705 cleared

Tuesday 18th Ian, Simon and self cleared paths around Aldens and David Harrisons–those not done a month ago then Ben went out on 20th and 21st to clear off some stiles–thanks Ben.  He worked his way down Pudford Lane, also along the road towards the Masons (not sure how long that took) and up Easinghope Lane area too , excellent thanks.  Thanks too to Alan Gosling who checked out a couple of machines this month.

Aldens and David Harrisons Area FP 640 and 641 parts cleared and 620

Given that many could not be with us today there was a good turn out of eight on a mission to deal a fatal blow to the massive growth on paths between Ross’s Lane and Brook Court. So massive that the route through the ‘new’ spinney on Trevor Sanders land was scarcely traceable. With teams operating in three places excellent progress was made on all of the routes in this quarter of the parish, indeed all routes were cleared and hopefully this will last to the end of the season. Thanks to Ben, Tom, Tim, Charlotte, Colin, John C, Mike and of course to Jan with coffee and wow, cake. The walk behinds tho are showing signs of all the very hard work so some in depth maintenance is needed, immediately in the case of one of them. A good day to be out, warm but what wonderful weather.
Routes cleared:622, 628, 638, 640, 631, 637, 632, 634, 646, 633

Off for coffee

28th June is late in the year to start clearance of Martley’s paths, very late; a few turned out and were soon lost in a welter of nettles, brambles and burdock. At least we made a start and a difference too–the up river path from Ham Bridge–hadn’t been cleared in around 100 years,Simon says he remembers doing it, is now open; many styles too.

Riverside Path Before

River Side Path After, Simon

One of Ben’s at Trevor Sanders Farm

Doing

Alan–Done

Mothering Sunday, 15th March 15 or Mothers’ Day is it these modern days? Good turn out and much done including The Nubbins, a job that has been on the list for years probably near a decade, so big sense of achievement when completed. We cleaned up the steps at the bottom, moved the path on to its correct line and replaced steps at base of steep hill, installed a stubby waymark post at the top of the hill to provide a sight line for those coming from the field above and cut steps in the rock/earth from the top down on the steepest part. They will be eroded but we made the effort. Later, replaced a broken signpost on Ankerdine and strengthened a stile and replaced its step right down in the South of the parish near Wants Green. Good stuff–thanks all who attended.

Ben and me, inspecting a list of problems from Jon White our Area Officer and doing a bit of part time signing in the rain (geddid?); map below showing our route then pics of the worker.

Route taken with Signing Points

Pics from Sundays work party when we installed, renewed, fixed up around 10 signposts plus some waymarking. Map reading courses available to needy people (if you write this then you will get a chance to say how history happened).  Must be a lol somewhere.  Thanks to all who came along, only about 3 SPs left in stock to do.  Ben and I will check out other reported problems this week hopefully.  Next meet 15th March

Ian passed me a folder of PONS stuff and it proved interesting, well a little, so I thought that I would put them in the blog as a little bit of our history.

Here is a list of PONS members from December 1992:

of the above, four are still active members and Audrey too.

This is the list from 1995: so in this list Ben has appeared so it makes 5 still active.

Here, now is a letter from Keith (Trumper) our first footpath officer and founder of the PONS group, to Ian Pennell dated 12 Jan 1996 suggesting it was time to find a new ‘leader’ but as he refers to the County’s new scheme (the Parish Paths Partnership P3) and the Parish Council, he means a new footpath officer.

For the record, the PONS is still going strong, Feb 2015, full credit to Keith and the founder members.  The group remains very active and well represented; here are the current members:

Jon Pearsall, Tom Pearsall, John Corbett, Tim Nott (and sometimes his family members), Ian Pennell, Ben Cartwright, Simon Honeybourne, Alasdair Maxwell-Stewart, Tony Lewington, Mike Install, Rob and Ross Day, Carl Armstrong, Andy Palmer.  We hope and believe that Keith would be proud, we know Audrey (Keith’s wife), now moved to the village centre, is.

Following on the apology from the Chief Exec. of MHDC, HERE is a letter from Kevin Oliver, Countryside Access Manager, on behalf of Mr Ian Bamforth, Head of Service at Worcestershire County Council.