Good turn out of 10 today, all ended up hot and sweaty, steamy weather.  Huge amount done all round Horsham, by Colin Griffiths house, behind Hope House Farm, the longish path opposite Robs (very bad indeed) and the one by Mel Farmers plus all the stiles at the south end of the parish.  Ongoing complaints about the path by Mel Farmers (MT705) and the one through Taylor’s old yard (now Pencroft MT723) have not been attended to by County so will make them aware of these issues once again.
Here are maps with work done in green and stiles cleared as black dots

Loads of clearance done, all over the parish and much more to do; many paths we have cut twice–well done all those involved.  The Worcester Ramblers came along on Thursday for a geology walk, 38 of them! and commented on how good they thought our paths were.  Praise indeed, thanks Rams.

Terrible amount of rubbish left near the old weir at Kingswood, suspected school leavers party–why do it?  The Ramblers took some of the litter away then, mysteriously, on Friday 27th morning, there was this lovely little red car parked down there!  We caught it as it was being towed away by a friendly farmer.  Don’t worry, we know whose it is but have blanked out the plate.  Rest of the rubbish disappeared too.  Unfortunately the adjacent gate on the GeoParkWay was wrenched off its top hinge.  Be good if the offending party would fix it for us.

Little red car at Kingswood Weir, Friday 27th June

Damaged Gate

Damaged Gate

March 30th 2014; a lovely day, good turn out, much done  The appearance of Tony and of JP back from a jet setting holiday in places normally seen in the confines of the colour supplement, presaged significant achievements, and so it proved–6 sign posts, a new gate, a new style and a waymark post. Thanks too to Jan Corbett for the coffee and the elegant mugs in which it was served. A 25 strong walking party from Walsall passed through on a ten mile walk and later they returned on the track by The Chandlery, whilst I was cutting firewood.  One asked me about my small pool and were there any fish in it.  I said there used to be but not now, they had all died. How she asked.  They drowned, I said.  I caught a bit of Black Country muttering as they descended towards the church–‘bloody comedian he is’.

Here are the pics:

The Path-or-Nones project to replace over 60 roadside signposts is well under way with around 10 being replaced each working session.  Sunday 23rd Feb saw 11 of us working at the North end of the parish.  Here is a double installation (one is in Great Witley parish) up Hockhams Lane with Colin and Rob

Route 671 along the river from Kingswood weir has been closed by Worcestershire County Council Rights of Way, for a period of at least 6 months from end Feb 2014.  As previously reported severe erosion had caused difficult walking; now, sections of the path have completely disappeared.  Once subsidence has run its course (if ever) a new route might be possible.  Recommended diversion is along the Worcestershire Way that is further up the bank.

The GeoPark Way that runs through Martley parish and in particular along the fast flowing Teme at Kingswood, is almost impassable owing to severe subsidence. This has been reported to the County Council but no doubt the local group, the Path-or-Nones will carry out some maintenance in an attempt to make the route easier to negotiate.  Much of the banks of the Teme are on the move, but made much worse in places by massive earthworks carried out at the top of the banks.  Here are some pictures but they really do not show the extent of the problem:

Hurray, at last our local seems to be in the act of revival under the care and experience of David and Jules–thank you both (and your whole team) for all the work you are doing, we will be so pleased to get our pub back and you will receive our full support! Eight PONS made the ‘annual’ breakfast and several ladies too for a good old fry up, and a few beers too. Here are some pics:

Ben, Cheryl, Jan, John

Jan, John, Pam, Ian, Andy

Andy, John N, Jon P, Simon

Andy, John N

In November we descended en-masse on Pudford Lane, the bridle way that climbs Pudford/Rodge Hill from opposite the entrance to Pudford Farm. JP had decided we needed to replace the old, decrepit (bit like some of the PON members) gate with a shiny new, self closing galvanized one (very unlike the PON members). Big job, last one put in many many years BP (before PONS) fixed to half a tree trunk for support, mud everywhere. After a great deal of digging, poking, shoving and heaving the post was removed, no doubt to end up on someone’s wood burner, unfortunately not mine, and the job finished. Ian installed a new signpost down the lane too. If you don’t look too carefully this shows ALL of us on the job, but it is a really bad stitch up-sorry!

The Whole Crew, with too many legs

There is an intruder in the village, in the midst of all the sandstone at Scar Cottage–an objet d’art–from Portland Stone.  Here it is with the author–sorry, sculptor.  So now Martley has 8 geological periods on show–this one being Jurassic