Today 5 of us met up near Frieston’s bridge (Bridge 21) and set out to do some bench & notice board maintenance plus some littler picking and necessary pruning along the way. We first set off with 2 of us doing the bench down past bridge 20 whilst the other 3 did some litter picking & pruning between bridges 20 & 21. We then walked back to our cars and drove the short distance to Bridge 22 on Basin Bridge Lane where there is a nice picnic area and some parking spaces and set about treating the notice board & benches that are there.

Today Arran & Anne-Marie were painting the trim detail on the metal posts for the welcome sign. The posts had previously been painted green but still required some orange and black detailing to be added for them to be complete.

Today Dave, Arran & Anne-Marie were collecting and transporting soil destined for filling the new planter area under the welcome sign at Snarestone Wharf. A local homeowner in Measham had kindly offered the soil as they had some that was surplus to requirements after having some ground works done at their property.

It took several trailer loads to sufficiently fill the planter so it was quite an energetic day for all involved. Michael will now plant some wild flower seeds in there and before long we will have a very pretty display below the sign for all to see as they approach the Wharf up the canal.

Today Arran & Anne-Marie visited Gopsall Wharf to perform some maintenance on the notice board. It was in need of some TLC so it got a fresh coat of paint. Unfortunately so did Anne-Marie’s trousers. Oops!

Today there was a work party held at Ilott Wharf to trim back the trees and bushes running alongside the hedgerow at the side of the site adjacent with the road. There was a good turnout and quite a lot was achieved. Despite all of the usual Health & Safety measures being followed we still appeared to have caught a child in a tree!

At the beginning of the year, during the snow we planted a large number of tree whips a few feet away from but following the fence line along the inside border at Ilott Wharf. During the course of the spring & Summer a lot of brush had grown and had filled the space between the fence and the young tree whips. This overgrowth would of course make it difficult for the trees to grow as they would be starved of light etc so we worked our way along clearing the brush from the fence to just behind the whips, being careful as we went along to not accidentally damage any of the whips that were now hidden deep amongst the brush.

We had a reasonable turnout and managed to achieve what we set out to do. When we got closer to the end of the run we came to an area where there had been some damage sustained to a tree during a recent storm and this had subsequently damaged the fence below. We did some work to detach the damaged part of the tree so that it could be cleared from the fence but repairs to the fence itself would have to be left until another day.

Today we held a work party at Ilott Wharf to clear some of the overgrown brush from the site. There were a small but reasonable number of people present and between us we were able to cut and burn a not insignificant amount of overgrowth.

Today we were doing a small bit of archaeology at the very top corner of Ilott Wharf where there had once been some buildings and the level crossing for the colliery railway that ran across the road there. The purpose of this was to find out what remains were still present and to log our finds before the new line of the canal eventually runs through the site and any remains are removed. The session was ran under the supervision of a man from Leicester University’s Archaeological department.

We found what appeared to be the base of a fireplace and some brick foundations plus the base of the old street light that still had some cable attached!

In the coming weeks there will be a team from the University bringing equipment to survey the entire site at Ilott Wharf and through use of geophysics etc we should get a picture of what other remains, if any are still present beneath the ground.

This was all funded by a £10,000 National Lottery Heritage grant that we were awarded to complete this work before reinstating the canal through the site.

Today we visited the site at Ilott Wharf to assess the extent of the overgrowth in preparation for Sunday’s upcoming work party where we will try to clear as much as possible.

We also wanted to take these ‘before’ photos. Look out for the upcoming post from after the work party for the ‘after’ photos!