Friends of Cock Road Ridge

This is to formally declare that the Friends of C**k Road Ridge no longer exist. The dwindling number of volunteers has reached a state where there are no longer sufficient members to safely work on the Ridge. The council have been informed.

At the moment the original website has been removed, but at some future point it will be replaced with a free hosting website with a copy of the original content so that we have a historical record of what has taken place over the years.

Please don't ask any questions - there will not be anyone to respond.

Thanks to those of you who supported us in one way or another, it was always appreciated. We thoroughly enjoyed our time over 28 years of maintaining and improving the Ridge.

Looks like someone had to walk home after roaming the Ridge! If you've lost keys, or know someone who has, get in touch with us and we'll pass on the message to the person who found them.

We have to say a big thank you to Derek and Sheryl. The weather, illness and our dwindling numbers have meant The Friends of C**k Road Ridge haven't been able to get out on the Ridge as much as we would have liked.

Derek and Sheryl, members of the public, decided to clear the brambles away from one of our benches to make it accessible again (one of those items that was on our to-do list).

The bench is dedicated to Tom Leppier, and as the plaque on the bench says, he was a founder member and former Secretary of the Friends of C**k Road Ridge. Tom introduced and maintened the original C**k Road Ridge website and was extremely diligent as a Secretary. In fact he was a hard-working, witty and well respected member of the group. We still talk about him often.

Derek is Tom's son, so once again, thank you Derek and Sheryl!

On the 29th November, 2 of our team planted a Scots Pine on the Ridge. The Pine was donated by a lady who was keen to have it escape a large pot in her garden, so it could grow away.

Keep a look out for it - it's on the slope opposite the pond just to the side of the orchard.

Here's a number of photographs taken from our last workday. They are all before-&-after photos where we tackled:

- cutting back growing vegetation around the pond.
- making paths more easily accessible by widening and cutting back.
- removing falling or drooping branches.
- covering up deep muddy patches near entrances with wood chippings.

It all helps our visitors enjoy more and makes it easier to access.

We're on for today (Saturday 16th April). So we're meeting at the fish pond at 10.30am for litter picking. Some grabbers, bags, gloves may be available for anyone coming along.

Workday (Saturday 7th November) cancelled. Had a quick chat this morning and agreed it was not suitable weather for the sort of work we're doing - working with power tools and other equipment in driving rain and mud can be dangerous as well as very difficult.

Quite a productive session on the workday!

Splitting into 2 groups, one group took the two brushcutters and paved their way through some of the paths in the field at the Wraxhall Road end. These had become overgrown and impassable in places. The equipment made short work of that task.

The other group first tackled a vandalised bench in the middle field at the top of Steps Wood. Someone had sawn through one of the seat planks making it virtually unusable [see photo].

The plank, made of recycled plastic, was replaced quite quickly [see second photo].

That group then went on to saw up and remove a medium-size conifer that had fallen near Westons Way entrance.

Finally, we all came together for a big push on widening the gaps in a hedgerow in the Westons Way end field. The wide gap is needed so that the councils mower can get through to all fields. Otherwise we'll lose the paths since we don't have any equipment ourselves to keep them clear.

The final photo shows two of the group widening one of the gaps as well as clearing around one of the other benches.

This workday we managed a good number of tasks. First thing saw half the members trekking across the Ridge on our annual 'Litter Picking Day'. This is where we traditionally, with the support of the council who provided litter pickers, gloves, bags etc, work across the Ridge removing all the litter we can find.

It's done this time of the year just before all the undergrowth starts going mad, so we can still see and access any rubbish. It was another successful hunt and members reported probably less rubbish around than in previous years.

Meanwhile the other half of the members started tackling a seriously muddy access point at the Hollyguest Lane end. We suspected that a lot of rain was washing down the Lane and not draining away at the entrance.

So we attempted to tackle this is two ways. First, we dug a trench from the entrance and down the slope leading away. You can just see the trench to the right of the picture with the waste bin in it.

Secondly, we filled the style walkway with a good depth of chippings to absorb the water and cover the mud. We will be monitoring this to see it if it's successful, otherwise we may have to dig a french drain across the entrance somehow to take all the water away.

Whilst we were there we noticed for the first time that the council had installed a combined Litter and Dog Waste bin. Later on, the other members on their litter picking exercise also reported similar bins at the other entrances. So we now have these at all the main entrances to the Ridge. Hopefully this will encourage dog owners to make use of them.

Lastly, we replaced one of the young apple trees on the Ridge which had succumbed to a disease.

So overall, we achieved a lot this workday, given that there were only six of us.

Just in... One of our members captured a few photos of the culprit that spun the web in one of our bird boxes (reported earlier below). Anyone squeamish... look away now.