The year started well enough with a job in December in Cranleigh on the South Downs Link clearing vegetation back from the edges of the path and getting it all back to its original width. This was followed by our traditional workparty Christmas pub lunch which guaranteed to replace all the calories used that morning and give us a small stockholding of calories to see us through to the start of the main Christmas excesses.

In January we were all recovering from the Christmas excesses and getting back to peak fitness (or perhaps just sleeping it off).

In February we were back in Cranleigh this time removing the old rotten decking from a footbridge over a stream and replacing all the bearer plates and decking. At the same time the vegetation team were scouring along the footpath and adjacent tracks cutting back and clearing any encroaching vegetation.

The next task at Pollingford Farm near Ellen’s Green took us away from the genteel folk of Cranleigh with their tarmac paths and gently rotting bridges back to our more natural habitat, mud. There was thick mud, clingy mud, slimy mud, deep mud and mysterious climbing mud which seemed to start off round your ankles and slowly work its way up your legs. However, by dint of perseverance we did manage to install two kissing gates, one H-frame sleeper bridge, a finger post and also cut some veg back. The two kissing gates were donated by the group.

All in all we managed to get 39 man/woman days of work in before lockdown. It seems unlikely that we will restart workparty activities until some time in the New Year when hopefully the Covid situation will be more under control.

On a more positive note, however, Surrey County Council provided an uplift in the capital budget for the Rights of Way team for this year and possibly next. The challenge is, with the delays caused by lockdown, to make use of these funds. Rights of Way are therefore undertaking an enormous amount of improvements including bridges and re-surfacing, and they will also be using contractors to check and replace as necessary all roadside signs and carry out numerous minor projects such as repairing stiles and rebuilding steps. The effect on the network of paths we all use should be evident by the end of the financial year. The countryside team of SCC are also hopeful of getting some additional monies for footpath projects from the government pledge for more funding for walking and cycling.

Thanks to all workparty members for your efforts over the year.

I’m beginning to think our title is a bit of a misnomer: there’s no working and it’s certainly not a party.

A long time ago, a band of enthusiastic men and women battled against the forces of decay and rampant growth: a group of eco-warriors in Cranleigh (a cran, by the way, is a unit of measurement for fresh herring—about 37.5 gallons or approximately 750 herrings). The task: to remove the old rotten decking from a footbridge over a stream and replace all the bearer plates and decking. The vegetation team were to scour along the footpath and adjacent tracks cutting back encroaching vegetation. The bridge repair did have its moments of tension because, apart from not wanting anyone to fall in the stream, there was the more important aim of: DON’T DROP ANY TOOLS INTO THE STREAM.

Our next battle was a fight against gloriously clingy mud. Just to soften us up before battle commenced, it turned out that the gate which gave access onto a track for delivery of materials was well and truly locked. The answer: to carry a kissing gate, all the tools and a H Frame sleeper bridge across two muddy, rutted fields, achieved with much staggering, the occasional flowery expletive and a lot of puffing.

If you take a patch of deep wet clay-based mud and walk backwards and forwards through it and try digging holes and generally working it, what happens is the mud gets even more sloppy; when lining the base of canals, they used to call it ‘puddling’. Suffice to say, we got liberally daubed in mud and had great difficulty setting the gates and bridge firmly in the ground. We did manage to finish all the jobs and hobbled back to our cars. There was then a dilemma of how many muddy clothes should we remove before getting into our nice clean cars? As far as I know, no one was arrested for nude driving, so overall the day was a success.