D of E and Grounds Team work, Saturday, 10 April 2021
Having only resumed the Saturday work party last week since closing down again in mid December due to COVID, it was especially poignant that our second session was less than 24 hours since the sad death of HRH the Duke of Edinburgh. Hence, we started our session at 10am with a minute’s silence, recognising the immense value that the 40 or so young volunteers who have worked with LHCRT over the last 6 or 7 years have given us, but also the millions around the world who have benefitted since the Award’s inception in the 1950s.
Then, with their usual enthusiasm, our 10 young people and 4 adult volunteers got to work on cleaning bricks taken from old Lock 24 so that they can be reused. This not only saves LHCRT money (about £2 per brick) but also contributes to our fundamental objective of doing all we can to safeguard the environment.
On that theme, along the canal channel nearer to Cricket Lane we had a party of four
removing offcuts from trees and hedges to further along the channel where they cut
the offcuts up and created more habitat piles for invertebrates and small mammals
and then heaped the leafy offcuts into piles which will rot down and return to nature.
Thanks to a follower on our Facebook site who lives in Scotland (thanks, Les) we are
now trying to break branches rather than clean cut them as invertebrates much prefer
the raggedness of brocken branches!
So, we are not just restoring a canal; we’re committed to improving biodiversity for
both wildlife and the community and also giving the wonderful young people chances
to learn new skills, work as a team and contribute to restoring heritage.
Christine Bull
