Well what with lockdowns and social distancing it’s not exactly been a hard-working year but the good news is that work parties restarted in August and I’m pleased to say that everyone had not withered away from inaction but they were all surprisingly chipper and full of vim.

In August we went to near Cranleigh Rugby Club and installed a new bridge and cut back lots of vegetation from various paths with 13 people turning up for the work.

September saw us at the footpath at the end of Peperharow Road in Godalming ready to clear lots of dense vegetation. First look showed us that all the vegetation had taken maximum advantage of the lockdown and grown lots and apart from the normal nettles, brambles etc there appears to have been a battle for survival between the Mare’s Tail and the Himalayan Balsam each of which was trying to outgrow the other. However, with 18 people turning up, the path soon re-emerged from the greenery.

Unfortunately the now cleared path was in a sorry state with potholes, mud holes and various degradation so we decided to return to Peperharow Road again in October. This time we installed two short boardwalks, cut back parts of the bank and cleared more vegetation from the very end of the path. We also had a second veg team who tackled the completely blocked / disappeared path which was supposed to run along parallel to Hell’s ditch. After hacking their way through a substantial distance they did reach a sort of clearing but there was no sign of where the original path went so, after the serious work-out required to reach that point, we decided to save the rest for another day. This time we had 20 people turn up.

Our efforts at Peperharow Road were noticed by the local residents and we received a nice thank you email from one.

Thanks to everyone for all their hard work and we look forward to seeing even more volunteers on our next work parties.