This residential task took place in the picturesque village of Littlebeck,
tucked in a steep sided valley typical of the area. It was made all the more
picturesque by the wonderful sunny weather with which we were blessed for both
days. Having said that, both days tasks took place on the banks of the beck
itself, much of it actually in the beck, so the amount of sunshine we saw was
limited.
Saturday’s task was to build an otter holt on the banks of the beck using surrounding materials either dragged out of the river, or cut from the river bank. There were 3 large blockages at various points on the river, the result of large trees falling from the steep sided banks and holding back more debris carried down by ten river when in spate. There had been incidents of severe damage to bridges following heavy rainfall, caused by build ups of fallen trees being pushed down the river following a storm, (49 bridges taken down in one storm only a few years back apparently). Hence the rangers were keen to clear these ones.
The work progressed well aided by the ranger, Bill who used his chainsaw to
minimal but good effect to help clear the larger trees & cut the trunks to holt
sized pieces. It took all day to construct the finished building, but we made it
before nightfall. Just need some residents now.
The nights accommodation was in the very nice Littlebeck village hall, only a few hundred metres away from the work site, although up a very steep hill. We joined the locals in their bonfire night celebration, the massive bonfire perched on the side of the hill. The fireworks were basic, but added the right atmosphere to the national event.
The next day was back to the same location and a variety of tasks. Some of us cleared a series of overgrown board walks and covered them in chicken wire to make them less slippery. The path by the beck is on the coast to coast route, so gets lots of walkers along it. Another group built a platform beside an existing information board, staking the boards in place and filling the area with sand & stones. A third party decided to clear the final tree blockage in the river, but as Bill was no longer available with his handy chainsaw, this took considerably longer than the previous days activities and threatened to benight us as we battled to at least open the flow of the river to prevent it from clogging rapidly again.
All in all it was a very enjoyable weekend’s task, made all the more enjoyable by the fantastic location and the good weather.
