Richard’s Wey August 2017

Published on: 12 Aug, 2017
Updated on: 9 Aug, 2017

The latest report from Richard Cant, the Stoke lengthman on the River Wey Navigations

With the good weather continuing well into July, the grass was more yellow than green and when I was mowing it felt like I was in a Sahara dust storm!

The slow vegetation growth was, however, exactly what I needed to be able to get on with some other tasks, one of which was filling in some holes that had appeared behind the sheet piling at Stoke Lock.

Over time water has managed to get behind the piles and wash away the soil, meaning that suddenly two large holes appeared which needed to be dealt with quickly so that nobody fell into them.

National Trust volunteers helping to excavate an area of erosion at Stoke Lock ready for backfilling with stone.

With the help of my volunteers we dug away the turf and then back filled the holes with stone that couldn’t be washed away, before we finally topped it back up with soil and turf.

What made this job interesting was that we moved all the necessary materials from our storage area by boat. This demonstrates that even 350 years after the Wey Navigation opened the most convenient and effective mode of transporting heavy loads can be by water.

One of my main jobs this month has been trying to keep on top of the Himalayan balsam, a non-native invasive plant that spreads rapidly and grows like crazy next to the river.

Himalayan Balsam can take over a river bank and very effectively out-compete other species.

The best way of dealing with it is to pull it out by hand, which although labour intensive does achieve excellent results.

As well as being very satisfying to look back at the areas we have cleared, my volunteers have also enjoyed the challenge of getting the hard to reach patches of balsam, especially those that can only be reached by boat.

Thankfully I do think our hard work over the past few years is beginning to pay off as the quantity and range of the balsam on the Stoke length has definitely reduced.

Another of the big tasks this month was to trim back the hedges and other vegetation at the back of the towpath, keeping it nice and open for everyone.

This would be a fairly simple task with a tractor mounted flail mower but with no vehicle access to most parts of the towpath it’s meant me cutting back all 3.5miles with a hand held hedge trimmer.

The plus side of doing it by hand is that you can be very careful not to disturb any late nesting birds or remove too much of the fruit which they will rely on later in the autumn.

Of course the weather couldn’t hold out forever, and as seems to be traditional, it started raining the day the schools broke up for their summer holidays.

The baked hard ground has meant that water is running off very quickly and water levels in the river are very volatile.

This has meant some sleepless nights operating weirs, which has been a real shock after such a long period of dry weather.

Let’s hope the sunshine returns soon so that we can all make the most of the river this summer.

Richard

07786 703 832

richard.cant@nationaltrust.org.uk

www.facebook.com/RiverWey