Monday 19 April 2010

14. Wednesday 14 April 2010

Another lovely spring day, but with a little too much wind for comfortable surveying! However 8 dedicated members set forth, on our last day working on the moorside to the north of the boundary wall. The nesting season is upon us, so from next week we must move to the reservoir side.
We were delighted to welcome Roger with the dGPS to plot in our marker points.

Roger at work ( © Alan Williams)

He and Alan set off up the hill-side, not to be seen again until the afternoon, when all points were recorded. Peter was delighted to see these very closely confirmed the recordings taken with his super- duper hand-held GPS!
Alison, as always, wandered off to closely inspect the walls and sledruns, joining us for lunch and very excited about her discoveries. We really look forward to her report in due course, which should throw a whole new light upon the landscape history of this area.

Checking a marker point ( © Alan Williams)


The remaining six volunteers divided into two teams – Pat, Phil and Peter took to the hills to finalise the area of the upper ponds and their tributaries. Jane, Vera and Ruth continued with the lower pond – what a challenging area this is! However we finished the area to the east which only leaves the western end for some future date, when the nesting season is over.


And this before the vegetation grows back! ( © Alan Williams)

The wind, as suspected was indeed a challenge, with the tapes resonating wildly, especially on the hillside, and drawing equipment scattering far and wide. We eventually found the ranging poles made an excellent barrier fence to hold the tapes in place!

Vera - new to surveying, enthusiastic - and still smiling! ( © Alan Williams)

Apart from the sheep-wash area and the western end of the ‘bog-bean ‘pond, we have now finished the northern area, as far as we wish to go at present. Next week we will make a start on the actual mill site itself, south of the wall.


Ruth Spencer, UWHG Chairman

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