For our October working party we were at Horton Farm, between Cranleigh and Alfold, where we installed a new kissing gate, a new self-closing gate and removed a redundant stile, whilst our veg team waged war against an enormous patch of bramble, which had completely closed the path. It’s a shame that they wouldn’t let us use Bangalore torpedoes (a First World War explosive for cutting through barbed wire) on the brambles: it’s about the only thing that could make bramble removal fun.

November saw us at Ellen’s Green, near Ewhurst, working on the footpath 450/10, which runs parallel to Horsham Road. Here we installed three self-closing gates and a large kissing (wheelchair-friendly) gate. We installed the large gate mainly because Surrey CC happened to have a few in stock, but it also gave the work-party a pre-Christmas chance to do some weight-training and limber up for the eating bonanza that was ahead (large kissing gates are seriously heavy). We also cleared a load of vegetation from along the path.

Our December work party was promised as a half-day effort, with the reward of our now traditional Christmas pub lunch afterwards. Surprise, surprise—we had a magnificent turnout. The task was to work on the Downs Link path where it runs around the back of Cranleigh, especially near to Sainsbury’s and up as far as M & S. Our aim was to clear away as much of the encroaching vegetation as we could in the time. Whilst it would be true to say that the whole thing would have been a lot easier if we had been allowed to use machinery, we did clear a lot of veg and the resonating sound of multiple shears snip, snip, snipping away made it sound like it was a machine doing the work. We then retired for a lovely and well-deserved pub lunch at the Park Hatch.

To recover from the year’s travails, we all gave ourselves January off.

After our rather stop-start progress at the beginning of the year, you will be pleased to know that this quarter was all go. We started with a job in Witley, near Old Enton and Keepers Lodge. After some nifty parking up a steep farm track off Water Lane, we installed a kissing gate, cleared a load of veg, strimmed a long length of path and fitted a new handrail over a bridge, the old handrail having been destroyed by a falling tree—good job that doesn’t happen when we are all out and about.

Next work party was back to our old stomping ground of Pook Hill, near Chiddingfold, where we installed one kissing gate and one self-closing gate on opposite sides of the road.

Then we moved to Slythehurst, near Ewhurst, where there were a number of gates required and, after discussion with the landowners, it was suggested that we could donate some, if they were prepared to also stump up some money. In the end we agreed on a total of six gates with the cost shared 50/50 between us and them.

Thus over this period we installed a total of four kissing gates and five self-closing gates and fought back against the tide of nettles and brambles—what a team!