A not entirely spontaneous work party

By ‘C’:

To begin with it was not so much a question of spot the Green-Gymmer …

as spot the Site Warden.

Tuesday, ten ack emma, and a Green-Gym force in place at the RV point, fully equipped with tools and tea-crate, all eager to get cracking.  No site warden!

Nothing daunted, while a couple of volunteers checked that site warden was merely delayed in getting to the place, and nothing awful had happened to him, the rest of the troop worked out what could usefully be done on site – and got stuck in.  One section gleefully climbed into the stream, to dig out some more of the sticky mud, which accumulates when the otherwise natural Chilterns chalk stream is hemmed in by artificial boundaries:

The rest of the squad devoted themselves to one serious nettle-bash, along the line of metal railings.  With shears, slashers, dassel-bashers, or plain gloved hands:

Genetically related to roses they may be, but nettles are not welcome here.

Were we doing the right thing, though?  From the instructions we had been given in advance, and from our own previous experience at the site, we were fairly confident that the answer was YES.  It was purely a joke between some of the diggers of mud that in the second half of the session the task would be “putting all the mud back.”

Thankfully, when the warden did duly arrive on site, the news was that we were indeed doing exactly the right thing.  The only elaboration to the plan put in place, was to ‘join up’ the two tasks.  Mud dug out, was loaded into wheelbarrows …

Spectator’s view from the bank

Workers’ view from the pond

wheeled along the pavement-side of the metal railings …

forked into place along the fence-line to fill the gaps where weeds had been removed …

and heeled in:

“Give it two or three weeks, and if you’re out of mint, there’ll be some on this corner”

A repetitive task?  Certainly, but as usual the weather was glorious, it was a beautiful spot, and there was a range of occasional distractions.  The odd find, for instance – and the delight of guessing what it was (answer: a balloon weight) …

activity at the air station just over the road …

and coming across new growth:

By session end, there was still a big pile of mud beside the brook for anyone who would have a use for it!

And there was one beautiful clean fence line, without the heavy nettle:

Tearing down fences – legally

By the Session Leader:

A big task today!  To pull out, by hand, 500 metres of old fencing: staples, barbed wire, and posts. 

Fortunately, we were joined by a group of eight volunteers from the Environment Agency, whose office is just up the road [or across the river – Ed.] at Red Kite House.  This was just as well, as there were only seven of us, an unusually low turn-out for us.  Most of the EA volunteers were able to stay on for the afternoon, but few [possibly only one? – Ed.] of the Green-Gymmers after our usual end-time of 1 pm.

The old fencing, between King’s Meadow Wallingford and the Thames footpath, had to go because it was finally being replaced.  Over the years we (WGG) had administered first aid to several sections of the fence line, to keep it serviceable, but anno domini had finally caught up with it.  Here, “a good photograph of a rotten post”:

In the background of the picture: the river Thames.

After we had done our demolition job, a contractor was going to install new fencing.  In fact they were already working on another shorter side of the field, and were going to be chasing us as we worked:

Some sections of the fencing were overgrown with blackthorn and other scrub, so one noble team went off to clear that away.  Others started on the task of removing the staples holding the four strands of barbed wire to the posts:

Removing the staples was not always easy.  A good fencing technique is not to drive the staples all the way in, but to leave them slightly proud, so that fencing pliers could get in to prise them out.  Some were easy, but some had been driven in very hard.   [I was glad to see that the staples inserted by our predecessors in Green-Gym fencing-repair teams had all been done, as we were taught, with one eye to those whose job it would be in the fullness of time to pull them out again. – Ed.]

Worse still, the bottom strand of the four lines of wiring had been completely grown over.  It was now protected by thick grass and nettles:

By now the 15 people were spread out all along the fence line – and attracting some attention from passers-by who were out enjoying a constitutional:

Newer volunteers were learning from experience that old barbed wire is not so much rolled as folded over into loops.

Once all the wires had been removed from a post, ‘all’ that was needed was to get the post out.  On the whole, the men tended to try and demonstrate their strength one at a time, whereas the women adopted a teamwork approach.  Some posts could simply be lifted out, with gloved hands:

Other posts needed excavation and leverage:

Some impressive piles of posts and coils of barbed wire were accumulating:

The double sized posts that had been supporting the gates, however, were too difficult to get out manually.  Fortunately the friendly contractors had caught up with us, and showed us how some jobs were better done by machine:

After lunch, the target was to complete the removal of the metalwork: staples and wire.  It was a shame we did not have a better turnout.  With more pairs of hands, we could have, and would like to have, finished the post removal too.  But never mind: we got lots done.  For some, there were new skills to learn; for others, the pleasure of re-acquaintance with various tools we have not used in a while.  It was nice to meet some more new people.  And it was most pleasant to be outdoors in perfect Green-Gym weather: warm and dry, but not too warm.