COLEFORD
2006/7
During
2006/2007 the group concentrated on parishes around Coleford.
Photographs of recent work parties can be found by clicking
the links below
The
culmination of each year's work is the August Bank Holiday
Walking Festival when we invite people to walk our routes
(and admire our handiwork!!)
The
Team at Work
Mendip Ramblers
Working Party work with the Rights of Way Department at
MDC to maintain footpaths and stiles throughout the MDC
area. This year just under a 100 stiles, along with more
than a dozen kissing gates, many plank bridges and marker
posts have been installed. Several heavily overgrown paths
have also been cleared and made easily useable. The culmination
of the year’s effort is the Walking Festival.
|
MENDIP
RAMBLERS FOOTPATH WORK
Mendip
Ramblers Group has been working on footpaths in the Mendip
area for the past six years, organised and co-ordinated throughout
by Bob Berry. Every year an area is chosen and routes selected
within it to produce about a dozen varied walks. The work
party group then walks these routes and identifies problems
associated with them. Problems range from minor repairs to
stiles and steps and clearing of undergrowth to complete reopening
of totally obstructed paths. The work party then spends every
Tuesday for a year correcting all the problems!! Often hedges
have to be cut through and new stiles installed where none
previously existed or have long since disappeared. Sometimes
ditches and small streams have to be bridged and at others
flights of steps are required up steep slopes and banks. The
tasks are varied and various and as our experience has grown
so has our ability to tackle most situations we are likely
to meet!!
Group
photo on Sunday
Mendip Ramblers Walking
Festival over the August Bank Holiday was again very successful
with over 190 walkers participating in the 3 day event.
Mendip Ramblers work closely with Mendip District Council
(MDC).
The starting
point was the British Legion car park in Coleford and we
were lucky to have good walking weather on all the days.
After the walks tea and huge quantities of cakeswere available
in the Legion building
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PREVIOUS YEARS
| Shepton
Mallet |
2006 |
| Batcombe |
2005 |
| Beckington |
2005 |
| Westbury-Sub-Mendip |
2004
|
| Binegar |
2003 |
| West
Pennard |
2002 |
| Photos
of our work in those areas (and various other "one
off" jobs) can be found within the archive
section of our website |
Next
year the aim is to hold the festival in the Wookey area, make
a note in your diaries for August Bank Holiday 2008 weekend.
The festival
wouldn’t be possible without the Working Party volunteers,
MDC Rights of Way Officers (Shelia Petherbridge and Clare
Haskins) and the cooperation of the many farmers and land
owners with Rights of Way across their land.
Sheila Petheridge joined us
every day on the walks. |
The
following seven photos are from Saturday's short walk to Kilmersdon
led by Les |
| 
Ready to go on Saturday |
Colin, a
work party stalwart, with Reg, from Sedgemoor group and
Paula
|
Walks are very leisurely
-- everyone enjoys coffee breaks
|
Leaving Kilmersdon on the way up
to Babington
|
TrevorII
with a football up his front? This is alongside Babington
where Luke went off in search of "posh sandwiches"
!!
|
This is a typical example of the
sort of job the work party does. The photo below is it being
constucted in January
|
| 
Nearly back -- tea and cakes await |
This is the "stile" before
we started work |
And here are Gus and Bryn in silly
hats with the double stile plank bridge almost complete |
| This
next lot of photos are from Sunday's medium walk through Harridge
Woods led by Owen |
Wendy, Sandra from West Wilts group,
Colin -- and centre stage an octagenarian from Surrey who
totally belied his age |
Lisa, who will be our Mendip Group
secretary from October, at one of the many kissing gates we
put in this year |
Probably the most satisfying job we
did this year -- a trackway through a pond near Huddlestone
woods.
Below are a set of photos showing
it being constructed |
 |
 |
|
|
Robin points the way |
Coffee break -- but the chosen site
is somewhat precarious if you have short legs like Wendy's! |
Sheila strides on followed by our
Valerie, who's done stirling work as Group secretary for the
past three years. |
| 
What's going on behind this wall? |
Rick, our Programme Secretary, with
Lisa and Margaret |
This is a fill in photo. The work
party king pin BOB BERRY is shown with Rick and Colin beside
one of a series of stiles we put in alongside Mells Stream
|
| Finally
photos from Monday's medium walk through Leigh-on-Mendip led
by Dave |
|
Think up your own caption here!
|
Alan, one of the "Sunday regulars",
at one of the 90 plus stiles we've put in this year. |
Glennis leads us uphill beside the
maize |
|
Alice practising her dance steps for
Ilfracombe? |
Nick and Bryn |
Two Sheilas and two Trevors plus a
Bill |
|
Our leaders Dave and Emily (the dog!)
with Brian and Peter from South Somerset group |
And this is Peter when we persuaded
him to come to a work party last May |
Wend(y?)ing back to Coleford. Is there's
enough cake left for them with our 80 walkers out today! |
