We've spent a lot of energy in the past, improving this entrance with hardcore etc, as the landowners very kindly allow us to store some of our heavy equipment in their field, but we share it with the cattle, whose feet have a knack of "poaching" the ground where they congregate.
However, this gateway is still giving the landowners problems, as is the drainage ditch just above it, which keeps overflowing into the road. They've asked us to take a look at it, and we've decided to replace the pipe which runs under the gateway with a larger bore, in order to get the water away faster and prevent it backing up and flowing into the road.
Roy and Bob organise us into three groups: one to oversee the dumper safely crossing the road (which involves stopping the traffic briefly), one to do some preparatory work opposite the Wharf, where we are having some field drains installed, and one to strim the Silver Lane crossing.
Mike and I get the third task, so we load up Mike's car with a strimmer, some fuel, and a couple of slashers, and off we go.
Well, the towpath is looking quite nice, if a bit muddy: our revetment is working well, and the path is level, wide, and well defined.
We are hoping to have an official opening of this Permissive Path soon, which will be a good flagship for us. So why have we been sent to strim?
Oh dear, yes, it is quite overgrown. As this is the bit that passing motorists can see, it's worth the effort for us to keep it trimmed neatly.
If nothing else, it means that passers-by can see how much work we've done on the path.
Mike climbs over the fence and starts strimming alongside the road, while I follow behind with a slasher, to take out any cowparsley stems, which tend to be too stout for the strimmer.
In no time, we've done all the way across the top section, and Mike slides down the bank to work his way back to the towpath at the lower level.
I follow behind - at a safe distance, I'm not daft! - chopping any stems and brambles that the strimmer has left.
Doug arrives in time to tell us that we're doing a grand job.
Well, that's a bit better!
You can now see the profile of the bank,
Much improved.
In case anyone reading this isn't clear about what a slasher is, here's the one I'm using today: it's just a short, curved, blade, on a short wooden handle. You hold it in both hands, and swing it horizontally just above ground level, intending to chop off anything in your way.
Slashing participants soon learn to achieve a safe inter-slasher distance - always best to avoid that back-swing!
This particular slasher came from the garage of a friend of mine, Margaret: she'd had it for decades and never used it. Roy adopted it, sharpened it, and now it's part of the team.
Doug drives off to join the main group, and Mike starts on the other side of the road.
There, now we can read our lovely sign without getting our knees stung, and we have also improved the sight line for drivers rounding the sharp bend.
With the satisfaction of a good job done, we round up the tools, load them back into Mike's car, and return to New Road.
Funny, it's only three fields away, but it takes us 10 minutes to drive all the way round the loop!
Here's an extract from the Ordnance Survey map (with kind permission of OS) showing how the canal runs from West to East across the fields.
As you can see, no distance at all as the crow flies, but by road to have to go either northwards, via Challow Station and Silver Lane, or south through Childrey village, east towards Wantage, then down the other end of Silver Lane.
OK, after close inspection of the map, it's four fields, not three!
We get back to the main party just in time for tea break, how convenient.
Afterwards, Roy continues scrub bashing to clear away the brambles from one side of the gate:
While Bob tackles some overhanging branches that are going to be in the way.
Meanwhile Mike has the strimmer bug (I think he's getting addicted to two-stroke fumes) and continues the good work by clearing around the road margins.
It's about time we painted the rails again, you can see they're looking all rusty and dirty, so this is a necessary first step. Mind you, we've lost the young ladies from St Mary's School, as the school has closed now, so we will have to find an alternative work force. Or do it ourselves, of course.
Bob ascends, or descends, lightly: either to or from Beryl, as he is busy positioning her ready for the digging part of the job.
But first things first, there is a tangle of old fence posts and barbed wire that need to be cleared out of the way, so we can see the outfall of the pipe.
"What can you see, Roy?"
"Not a lot."
There's definitely a trickle of water coming out of the pipe.
The problem is, this end of the pipe appears to go "straight" in, and the other end of the pipe, the upstream end, also appears to go "straight" in, but they are not in line with each other. This indicates that the pipe has a bend in it, which is probably blocked by debris, hence the flooding of the road when a lot of water comes down it.
Beryl starts scraping back the soil and hardcore from the gateway.
Jim and I sob quietly into our hankies, as we remember the sweat and backache that went into moving all that hardcore by wheelbarrow and hand.... it took us hours to do it, and it's all scraped aside in about, ooh, three minutes.
Bob carefully removes layer after layer of rich-looking silty soil - probably the aftermath of all those cattle tramping across in and out, year after year - until he find the top of the buried pipe.
Roy then goes in with the shovel and carefully clears the top, so we can check where the bend is.
Hmmmm.. the pipe runs straight across the gateway with nary a kink in it! "Bizarre" is the word that comes to mind.
Either this pipe does not in fact join up with the other pipe at all, or there are two right-angled joins in it, which is ridiculous.
Working on the theory that there might be a second ditch which runs into the pipe, Roy and Jim go over into the field and poke around in the hedge, but can't find any other ditch or source of water.
Actually we're all a bit confused! Bob suggests that we poke a stick down the road-side pipe to see how far it goes before it bends. This reveals that it only goes about three feet in, which possibly means that there are indeed two right-angled bends in it.
You have to wonder what sort of idiot installed a pipe in that configuration!
Roy and Malcy find some polystyrene, and drop fragments into the water.
Some time later, they emerge at the other end.
Right! We are confirmed, it is indeed one pipe with two 'orrible bends in it, no wonder it can't take the water away in times of stress.
The decision is made to remove the minimum amount of old pipe, dig a nice straight diagonal line and insert our new, larger pipe sections.
We proceed with this plan: two bits of old pipe come out, and the first of our three sections is lowered carefully into place.
Meanwhile, for some light relief, Mike and I saw up a dead elm tree that came out of the ditch, into small enough sections to carry it away.
As Mike has been strimming all morning, he's a bit slower than I am (he! he!) and here he is, finishing off his cut.
Oh, all right, I admit it, I had the "thin" end of the trunk!
Mike and I dispose of the smaller section, and Doug comes along just in time to help Mike carry the bigger piece.
Off it goes, safely out of the way.
That was all I had time for, so I left the rest of the gang carefully lifting the pipe sections into place, and by the end of the afternoon they had all three in place, the water was already flowing, and they were well on their way to filling in the hole and making good the top surface.