M – Clee View Bridleways Group

Broken Gatepost Hill Houses

The gatepost (latch side) at the top of Hill Houses going onto the common has been snapped off at the base and at last check makes it nearly impossible to use without dismounting.

At a quick look it will need the fence taking down and the base of the old one taking out of the ground and replaced with a new post.

If we have one in stock we will try to arrange a work party to look at this.

As a general comment please let us know if you do accidentally damage any gates etc or if you are aware of any problems so we can let the group know.

Thanks

Fallen Tree – Route M Hill Houses

The fallen tree blocking the bridleway has now been cleared by Pete and Chris.

Meeting held with Chris and SWT reserves manager to discuss improvements to bridleway on Catherton Common coming down to the stream before gate to Crammer Gutter. SWT have no issue with us digging out a ditch to left of path going towards Crammer Gutter and putting in a cross drain and stone to improve the going. Main issue is that because this is SSI it will need approval from Natural England. SWT will contact Natural England to discuss. It is therefore unlikely we will be able to do anything in immediate future! Will probably need to chase.

Gates by Cattle Grids on Catherton Common. Gate clapper post by Abkats was lose and difficult to close. This has been repaired by Chris. Fence across cattle grid at Riddings Gate had been damaged and lose netting was making it difficult to use the gate. This has been repaired by Chris.

Hill Houses. Jo and Chris have cleared overhanging branches and brambles so should be easier to use.

Please let me know if you find any urgent issues that need to be looked at and also let me/John know if you do any work on any routes as we can log these with the council. Do feel free to use our Facebook/Whatsapp group to notify the group if you want to arrange a work party.

Routes P and M Cleared

Work parties Sunday 13th August – John and Yvonne cleared overhanging branches, brambles etc. from route P Prescott over the river and Chris and Jo did similar on the top half of the main Hill Houses route up onto the common. Also thanks to Jon for trying his best to join the work parties.

Over the last 3 weeks we have completed approaching 100 hrs of voluntary work on the bridleways. Something we can use to try to get help from the council towards larger projects. We will be chasing them.

Good News – Walters Lane

Had a call from council byways to say they will start work on improving Walters Lane in next couple of weeks. Hopefully the stone will be delivered next week and then they will bring their digger over and complete the work.

Not sure if any of our members did contact the council following my recent email but if so thank you.

New Wider Gate Installed

Steve, John, Chris and Pete installed a new wicket gate at the top of Hill Houses to replace a narrow gate which was difficult to open and had a dangerous latch sticking out. It is now usable but we do need to build up the ground under the gate over the large stone.

Clearance Party

A group of us (John, Steve, Yvonne, Pete, Olwen, James, Gill, Clare, Arthur and myself) cleared this route. Great to see so many helpers but we always need more. We filled Steve’s large farm trailer with brashings (thanks Steve for bringing this with your tractor and taking it away).

The aim is to allow access by a mini digger so that we can dig some drains to hopefully make this route suitable even in wet weather which at the moment it is not.

Will update with further info when we have worked on the drainage.

The route is still OK to ride while it is still dry.

Category: M