New bridges in Sustead

Fourteen volunteers attended this summer work party at the Sustead sites. Given that it was at the tail end of the previous three heatwaves, I was looking forward to spending a morning in the dappled sunlight of these wooded spaces.

We grouped round to listen to the details of the tasks to be undertaken. The first one was to work in Spurrell’s Wood to scythe and rake out the nettles in selected areas in order to promote grass growth. We had to use the rakes to remove the cuttings and deposit them in designated places.

The second task was to repair the rotten timbers of the bridge in the Surveyor’s Allotment and to strengthen and widen a second bridge near the road. The bridge with rotten timbers is adjacent to the new four foot deep scrape that the mini digger has carved out. Up till a few weeks ago, this scrape had water in it, but the recent spell of very hot, dry weather has dried it out completely. We are due some rain at the weekend onwards for a few days so hopefully the scrape will have water in it again soon. The bridge needed to be wide and strong enough to carry the mini digger at times when work was needed to de-silt the scrape.

We were given health and safety warnings including to check for ticks when we returned home as there are many about at this time of year.

I joined the nettle removal party. We were surprised how dense the areas of nettles were, but our excellent team of experienced scythers soon set to work. I initially regretted attending the work party in shorts and a tee shirt and not long sleeves and long trousers considering the fact that I was going to be working with nettles all morning, but I managed to get by relatively unscathed on the sting front and actually, nettles stings are frankly nothing to mosquito bites which I am particularly prone to attract.

While a number of us were busy raking cuttings, some speedy scythers were scything all the path edges in the wood. Another volunteer, armed with the long armed loppers, made sure that any branches sticking out at eye level were cut back.

And now onto the bridge repair. I’ve observed at first hand the procedure: first remove the entire simple plank bridge. Dig out to a suitable depth areas at both ends of the bridge and place in a cross member (wood that connects to the main beams which help prevent the bridge deck from sagging in the middle.) Now put in the main beams and fix to the cross members. Hammer in staples to prevent slips. Use hardcore during and afterwards to fill in holes and provide a firm base for the cross members. Not sure I’d be great at constructing one without assistance, but it was great to watch the multi-talented folk of Felbeck Trust complete a task like this with ease and proficiency!

It was overall a very satisfying morning’s work. It was pleasant listening to the sounds of scything and raking on one side of the road and on the other, drilling and hammering, and running through these sounds the distant murmur of conversations every so often as we all went about our allotted tasks.

Looking forward to the next work party already!

Elizabeth Shadbolt

July 17th 2025