Clearing the footpath on Shawford Down

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Footpath Working Party: Wednesday 4 September

Volunteers hard at work clearing the path
Volunteers hard at work clearing the path

On a fine early September morning, John Wilkinson assembled a group of 7 or 8 volunteer parishioners to help clear the top end of the path from Southdown Road across Shawford Down to Shawford Station.

Help was provided by personnel from Hampshire County Council’s Countryside Services Department. They had arranged for 4 tons of scalpings to be delivered, and had brought along a handy powered wheelbarrow to move the scalpings into place.

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The powered wheelbarrow makes light work of moving the scalpings

 

 

 

 

 

The scalpings in place, raising the level of the path
The scalpings in place, raising the level of the path

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View of Twyford Church from the newly cleared path
View of Twyford Church from the newly cleared path
Joggers enjoying the new path
Joggers enjoying the new path

By lunchtime the section of the path most likely to become muddy had been cleared. The scalpings had been laid and tamped down, raising the level of the path as much as possible with the amount of scalpings available.

And by the afternoon the site had been cleared, ready for walkers, joggers and commuters to enjoy an easier path and the lovely views across the Down and the Itchen Valley.