The Trust volunteers activity over the last couple of weeks has been creating a great deal
of interest with the regular dog walkers and users of the Fosseway Heath section of the
Lichfield Canal.
This all came to a head and flurry of activity over this last weekend with a return visit of a
team of 11 volunteers from WRG BITM to progress the restoration of this section.
In preparation for the weekend our Trust volunteers, assisted by students from Queens
Croft School cleared overgrown vegetation from the south Towpath and canal bed for
access to the area.
Once the canal had been cleared we established that a 100 metre section of the historic
South Canal Towpath that had been lost and taken into possession by the adjacent
farmer. The solution to this problem was to create a board walk structure within the canal
round the missing section of Towpath and make this area into a wetland environmental
habitat. New Towpath walls would be required wide enough for a full width south Towpath
and the Trust volunteers from Tamworth Road constructed the wall bases last week in
heavy rain to be completed for the weekend volunteers.
The WRG BITM volunteers set about building the lower courses of the new South
Towpath walls and also selected suitable Gorse plant which were excavated for
transplanting into the side slopes of the Valley Nature Trail, being formed by a team of
the Trust volunteers with the help of a hired in excavator. The formation of a 130 metre
length of bund by the Trust along the side of the Valley Nature Trail will allow this early
gorse planting on the side slopes to encourage developement of environmental habitats
and wildlife to flourish in this area.
The hard work by both our own Trust and visiting volunteer groups in preparing for the
WRG BITM weekend turned out to be a great success and is being supported by grant
funding from the Post Code Lottery.
Work continues on this Fosseway Heath section of the Lichfield Canal and we look
forward to return visits of the many volunteer groups involved.
Peter Buck
Click on a picture to view larger
