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Projects 2009
2008
Working sessions
As discussed at flood group meeting no. 3, we proposed that we organise once per month working sessions rather than one big weekend. Each session will be from 9.00 until 12:00 on the 3rd Saturday in the month.
REMAINING DATES FOR 2009:
None. We are cancelling the flood group session on 19th December as many will want or have to go shopping.
For 2010 we are going to move the sessions to the second Saturday in each month, except December.
We are looking for volunteers to organise each weekend, so please contact Stewart Scott on 01235-868503 or via the contact form.
Saturday 21st November 2009
The intrepid team of David, Jason, Geoff, Alan and Stewart tackled another stretch of the Childrey Brook at West Hanney. We had mild and DRY weather and we were able to remove a number of very dense blockages of brambles and dead trees.
There is still a little bit more to do. The aim is to join up the stretches done in the copse (October and November Sessions) to the stretches we did earlier in the year. So the session in January will be back at the Childrey Brook. Generally the brook is fine but there are specific spots where the brook is blocked and it is these blockages that we are removing.
We hope that the work we have done on the Childrey Brook so far has helped reduce the frequency of flooding at Botney Bridge but If you see the road flooded at any time can you please let us know; photos would be ideal.
This was the last session this year so to everyone who has helped at any time over the last 12 months a big thanks!
Saturday 17th October 2009
The section that needs doing is upstream of Gallows Bridge. It is downstream of the section we did in February and March and is in quite a bad state. The section is in a copse which is badly overgrown. There are some brambles and stinging nettles so please wear robust long trousers, boots and long sleeves. Tools that would be useful are saws, branch lopers and small cutters for cutting back brambles.
Saturday 19th September 2009
We had a good number of people for this working party (eight). We were able to remove a large quantity of weed from upstream of Lower Mill, together with a tyre, a ghetto blaster, and a live & quite large fish (which was returned to freedom).
Big thanks to Wendy, Ian, Max, Geoff, Alastair, Jackie and Meurig for their hard work.
Saturday 15th August 2009
Thanks to the team of Bob Wilson, Ian Green, Hugo and Vivian Shelton , Ian Bateman, Phillipa Kendall and Alan Miles, we managed to perform selective weed clearance on the Letcombe Brook stretch between Dandridges's Mill and the boundary area between The Royal British Legion and Fishponds.
Saturday 18th July 2009
Thanks to everyone who helped to remove some of the weeds around the Iron Bridge. This work keeps the stream velocity high, stops the silt building up and maintains capacity which is essential when we have very heavy rain fall.
The Environment Agency have started removing a lot of silt from the brook. They have started at where the Letcombe Brook joins the Childrey Brook just upstream of Venn Mill. They are using 2 long reach excavators, one to clear trees and bushes to gain access and the second to lift silt out of the brook. This work has allready reduced the water level in the brook and will make a big difference to properties in Ebbs Lane. [PHOTOGRAPHS]
Thanks also to everyone who is helping to pull up the Himalyan Balsam by the brook. Keeping this under control will help the natural plants to stabilise the bank and reduce erosion.
Saturday 20th June 2009
A big thanks to everyone who came to our working party on Saturday. It was a huge success.
We removed 9 bulk bags of gravel from around the bridge which we estimate to be 4 Tonnes! This material was then taken about 1 Km upstream and put back into a section of the stream to help reduce erosion at a weak section of bank.
The team also cleared a large dense patch of Himilayan Balsam and dug out the silted up storm water discharge that connects to the roads by the War memorial Hall.
A great team effort. Thanks to everyone but especially to Iain Brown for making the perforated scrapper boxes and to Nicky and Pete Kauert for the brilliant driving of the Matbro long reach machine and moving the gravel on their trailer.
Saturday 16th May 2009
One of the jobs we had planned to do was to fit a new pipe connecting two ditches together near Ploughley Farm. We had purchased 3 lengths of large diameter plastic pipe, each 6m long and these were delivered some weeks ago. Last weekend we cleared the bushes and barb wire ready for the job today. Graham hired a small digger and all was set for an 8:30 start. When we arrived we found some one had stolen one of our pipes! This is 6m long so not the sort of thing you can walk off with or put in the back of a van. We did however have a spare half length left over from the job we did at Lower Mill, so with this spare half length we just had enough to do the job. Despite this problem Graham and Ian did a great job this morning and all that remains is to refit the barb wire and do some tidying up at the pipe inlet end.
Whilst they did the pipe Paul, Alan, Jez, Patrick and myself did some selective weed removal from letcombe Brook near Lower Mill. We have noticed quite a few families of Mallard Duck, is this more than we have seen before? May be this is a sign of a good mixture of aquatic plants and gravelly bottom. Also today some youngsters reported to us they have seen quite large Rainbow Trout recently. The rapid growth of the weed is something that we have to keep an eye on. We need to balance keeping the river flowing well under both low flow and high flow conditions and maintaining and improving the life in and around the brook and of course minimising the amount of work we need to do. The width of the brook is also something that may need to be addressed particularly around the Iron Bridge. If the brook is too wide the water velocities fall and we get more sediment build up. It may be that we will do some work with hurdles and the like to help establish a mud bank. This will reduce
the stream width to keep velocities high even in summer but allow the stream to widen when we have very high flow rates. This is something we will discuss with the EA.
Saturday 25th April 2009
We split into 2 teams for this session. One team removed weed from the Letcombe Brook just upstream of Lower Mill and the other team fitted a new pipe that connected two drainage ditches. The new pipe connected an old ditch that had two dead ends and so did not drain anywhere. Graham Robbins hired a digger and a new trench was dug out, 3 new pipes were laid and the soil backfilled over the pipe. This new pipe now connects the ditch to an existing ditch system that runs around Ploughley Farm and drains into the Letcombe Brook down stream of Lower Mill.
Saturday 21st March 2009
Thanks to all those who came out and helped. We were blessed with a lovely warm sunny morning to do some hard graft on the Childery Brook at West Hanney.
We removed about 10 blockages from the brook, these consisted of small trees and large branches that had fallen onto the brook and then collected a lot of debis.
As usual removing the blockages was a lot harder than you first think. A special thanks to Councillor Iain Brown who came along with his chain saw, certificate of competence and safety equipment and a donation of another 3 dakers (weed rakes); this certainly was a big help.
We also used the 2 new sets of Waders purchased by West Hanney Parish Council; thanks Kay and your team.
Saturday 21st February 2009
Thanks to everyone who came and helped clear some of the Childrey Brook in West Hanney. I estimate we did about 250m, removing trees, branches, brambles and even a wooden structure!
We did most of the section from the footbridge down stream to Neil Walkers Field.
Saturday 17th January 2009
This was the first of our monthly regular working parties and we tackled 2 activities:
Routine maintenance of the ditch leading from the corner of Ebbs Lane and connects to the Letcombe Brook.
Fitted the additional by pass pipe around lower Mill.
Gravel removal
During July 2009 we removed gravel from under the road bridge between Dandridges Mill and the British Legion. The gravel was removed using some scrappers made by Iain Brown and then loaded into bags. These were lifted out by Nicky and Peter Kauert using their long reach farm machine and then taken about 1 km upstream on their trailer. The gravel was then put back into the brook to reduce erosion at a weak spot.
[PHOTOGRAPHS]
Larger pipe for Ebbs Lane installed
During Febuary 2009 a small blocked clay pipe was replaced with a 600mm diameter new pipe donated by Dandridges Mill. This pipe is part of the field ditch that drains Ebbs Lane to Letcombe Brook. This will improve drainage from Ebbs Lane substantially.
A big thanks to all who helped with this project. [PHOTO1] [PHOTO2]
[PHOTO3]
Additional by-pass pipe around Lower Mill installed
During January 2009 a second 15" bore pipe was added to the by pass around Lower Mill. There are now 3 pipes, a small 4" pipe is at a low level and two 15" pipes at high level.
The low level pipe provides a small flow during both summer and winter. The two larger pipes are to provide flow when the brook is at high level. During summer conditions the larger pipes should have either none or only a small amount of water flowing through them.
The capacity of the by pass stream is limited and so only one additional pipe has been fitted. This by pass will provide an additional flow route that will allow greater flow capacity past lower Mill.
This work is part of the ‘recommended actions to reduce flood risk in East Hanney’ agreed by the Environment Agency.
A big thanks to all who helped with this project. [PHOTO1] [PHOTO2]
[PHOTO3] [PHOTO4]
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