By John Guyler
From the first Wednesday in January, the work parties have worked to clear the flood plain extension at Beggarlee. This was the dense area of vegetation which in places had some very thick bushes, brambles and self-sown trees including a lot of Blackthorn and Hawthorn. On a couple of work parties, heavy rain cut the work short. We finished the actual cutting and most of the clearing by the end of March.
On 10th April, 13 volunteers finished clearing all the brush on the flood plain extension, all the volunteers having been briefed to look out for birds’ nests and any animals that might have been in the piles of brush. They were instructed to pull piles of brush apart and not burn piles as they were; this was adhered to. The heavy rain started at about noon and the wind picked up, but the task was finished
The next work on the flood plain was pulling out the remaining tree stumps. A large number were pulled by the ECPDA work party in April, led by Dave Turner. The FCC job over the coming weeks will be now to collect and dispose of the stumps: a daunting task.
On 24th April, the job was clearing and cleaning out the welfare unit, putting all the stored wood and other items under a waterproof sheet, on a pallet in Wernick’s yard. After that was done, we had another job. Because the FCC is hosting the Northern Canals Association at Langley Mill next March, the very boggy footpath from Langley Mill boatyard will have to be upgraded to allow those of the association who choose to visit Beggarlee site to do so.
The work party concentrated on clearing and backfilling the footpath towards the boatyard, to get rid of all the muddy patches. Material used was clean aggregate which had been put on the flood plain and which we had permission to use. We are being very careful not to get any soil and rubbish in the gravel, because we cannot guarantee non-contamination. We cleared around 50m at the Beggarlee end and also started to fill in some boggy sections. The whole lot will require a lot more work and a top dressing and compacting to complete the job.
