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Working sessions
We are again planning to carry out some regular maintenance in and around East and West Hanney this year.
We plan to work from 09:00 until noon, and as usual, the location will depend upon what needs to be done. Please add these dates to your diaries. It would be great if everyone could do at least one session during the year as it then spreads the load out.
*** Venue and work details will be advised each month by email to subscribers of our E-newsletter ***
REMAINING DATES FOR 2020:
NONE.
We are looking for volunteers to organise each weekend, so please contact us via the contact form.
December
With the Government urging caution over COVID and avoidance of unnecessary gatherings we have concluded that it is best to not hold a
working party in December, giving everyone the chance to stay warm and dry, make mince pies, put up the decorations and many other jobs.
We would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has turned out this year when we have been able to, Jane for keeping the accounts, Adam for keeping the website up to date, Mark for his frequent visits to Hanney and the great work achieved with the fish bypass of Lower Mill. If everyone can keep an eye on their local patch during December and early January we should be able to keep things under control. You may have forgotten but it rained continuously in the early part of 2020 and the water levels were very high and there were a couple of close calls in February.
In the meantime if anyone sees anything that needs action please let us know. Hopefully we can have some feedback after Christmas from the two trial water level sensors deployed earlier this year and see if there is any progress on the Mark 2.
We will let you know about January nearer the time when we know what needs to be done. This year we have repaired equipment, lubricated it and checked it over each time they have been used so the usual
January maintenance session is not as necessary as it has been in previous years. We still need to do a stock take and a thorough spring clean, perhaps run some equipment checks and other tasks including some tool sharpening!
We wish you a safe and peaceful Christmas.
Saturday 17th of October
Fantastic effort this morning with the four small teams meeting all their objectives in a COVID19-Safe manner, commiserations to Paul for the wasp sting. A significant amount of debris has been removed from the Brook and Gods Ditch, hopefully increasing the flow of excess water away from the village. It is not yet winter and we have had a close-call already. During the summer a number of fallen trees have been removed, Himalayan Balsam pulled out, brambles and other overhanging vegetation removed too. Thank you to all those involved today, last week, the week before and throughout the dark period since March. The recent comments on Facebook have suggested people in the villages appreciate our efforts.
I do recommend a walk alongside the fish by-pass which is currently under construction around Lower Mill, it is interesting to see the progress and how the channel is being stabilised which will not be visible when the job is finished. Mark is working with the contractors who are very approachable. Remember it is a worksite with Health and Safety Rules, which must be respected.
Sadly we may soon be losing two of our regular team; Carleen returning to Australia and Steph moving away from the village. We thank them both for their long service and especially Carleen for the bonfire site and many cups of tea and coffee!! We will miss you both but hope you can make more working party appearances before finally leaving Oxfordshire.
We hope we can do some work in West Hanney next month, if not then in December. We will let you know in advance.
Thank you for booking in early this week, an essential part of any event these days.
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Saturday 21st of March
A big thank you to the two teams that turned out this morning to tackle some drainage issues in West Hanney. The team, led by David Corps, removed a number of obstructions around the culverts in the main drainage channel that takes surface water away from the village towards Gallows Bridge to the Childrey Brook. Thank you to David C, David B, James S, Lamorna Z and Stella B.
A second team used the opportunity to clear the main western boundary drainage channel running from the south towards the churchyard and eventually to the drainage system under the Causeway. There was a lot of debris in this channel which had formed a number of blockages holding water back in several places and preventing the main part of the woodland from draining and beginning to dry out. More work is needed but considerable progress was made under Paul Sayer's leadership. Thanks to Paul, David S, Steph S, Nanette G, Phil M and Clive M.
Hopefully the Letcombe Brook will go down soon and we can look at removing more obstacles downstream of the villages.
Saturday 15th of February
CANCELLED.
We have heavy rain, strong and stormy winds forecast for Saturday morning. Added to that the Brook is above normal, more rain forecast between now and then, the water fast flowing and extremely cold. It seems only prudent to postpone this months working party now, reschedule what we had planned for the March session and let everyone make other arrangements for this coming Saturday. We had planned to remove some small trees and branches from the Brook downstream of the village.
Saturday 18th of January
A crisp but beautiful morning to work through the list of tasks needing to be done this morning, thank you to Ian, Dickon, Lamorna, Steph, Phil, Jane, Jim, David S, David B, Paul, Adrian, Stewart and Clive for turning out. As well as the routine maintenance checks, tool sharpening, lifejacket inspection and spring cleaning we also tackled some other important jobs. The gullies used to locate the flood defence barriers around the HWMH and Community Shop were opened, inspected and cleaned out; leaf and other debris was removed from the bottom of the Hall main entrance ramp and the Fool's watercress, Helosciadium nodiflorum, was completely cleared from the stream running behind Mill Orchard.
Special thanks are due to Phil for the home made flapjacks, Ian Green for running the tool sharpening workshop and Stewart Scott for the lifejacket inspection and maintenance training session.
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