Toft Gate: 11-05-2021

 

KEEP RIGHT ON TO THE END OF THE ROAD.....

Devils for punishment? Masochists? Mad? Just plain perverse? 

Pick any one of these as a descriptor of the NCVs who returned to Toft Gate lime kiln this week, knowing full well what lay ahead. Same applies to those who turned out for the first time, knowing what was in store after having read last week's blog 

Yes - it was more of the same footpath restoration work as previously carried out, although not nearly so much turf removal AND much more benign weather conditions. Phew!! We even had the songs of lapwings and sky larks to listen to.

If you remember, the NCVs managed to remove encroaching turf from about 4/5  of the path and then lay gravel along about a third of its length (I think the blog stated half last week - sadly this was found to be an over estimate!), so there was still a good deal to do. Let's see them soldiering on shall we?

This week everyone had first to walk down to the far end 

of the path where the next gravel heap had been delivered.

Andrew and Dave got busy on removing grass from

 the remainder of the upper level of path.

Dave was already on his knees with the effort within 10 minutes.

Meanwhile Ken and Paul got busy on the same task, 

working their way backwards from the very end of the path.

Paul, too, was on his knees from the start. However - 

he did have an excuse as he had cycled all the way from Grewelthorpe,

 including up Greenhow Hill.

(Now - before you give him too much admiration 

bear in mind he was on an electric bike.....)

The rest of the 17 strong team got busy with gravelling.

Before they could start, pick axes had to be wielded 

in order to break up the heap that had set, 

concrete like, after all the rain the previous day.

Once the gravel was able to be shovelled there was, 

as you would expect, a lot of toing and froing,

 carting it to where it was needed.

Unfortunately some had to be barrowed ALL the way up the path, 

almost back to the car park, to fill in the gap that we had 

(in retrospect unwisely) ignored last week.

With the extra manpower this week the 

barrows were arriving thick and fast.

(Adrian - please ensure that all the gravel stays

 on the path and doesn't go on the grass!)

However - the expert rakers and tampers 

coped admirably under pressure.

This expert in multi-tasking even managed to 

continue tamping whilst fielding phone calls.

Work began at this point (apart from the bit up near the car park).

By coffee time the newly laid gravel wasn't far off 

the hairpin bend. We were level with the furthest rake on the left.

Within half an hour after coffee we had reached the hairpin 

and already started down the final stretch. Woo Hoo! 

It was going to be an early finish!

Question - would there be enough gravel to finish the job?

It was looking a bit dubious.

Ken and Dave didn't help the situation by taking an executive 

decision to create a 'turning circle' at the end of the path. 

This meant that extra gravel was needed.

(Last time we leave those two alone on a job!)

However, with some judicious re-arranging of some slightly

 thicker patches of stone, the turning circle was complete. Just. 

Wheelchair users should find it helpful. 

All that needed doing now was to clean off the tools and barrows.

Everything had a first wash in a barrow....

...before being passed on to the shower room.

Here Brenda was on pump priming duty 

whilst Liz hosed off the final layer of dirt.

By noon everyone was able to relax over their lunch, 

secure in the knowledge that the job was well and truly finished!