Stoning the paths of Sharp Hill wood

17 March 2013: DNC is in the Friends of Sharp Hill Wood and we have noticed that the paths have become quagmires. We have spent time in the last two years laying wood chip on the paths, and they looked splendid in 2011. Over the rainy months of 2012 and 2013, there is almost no trace of the wood chip, the thousands of footprints have mixed it with the mud completely and now people have to walk in the undergrowth alongside the paths. The only solution is to drop stones on the paths.

It has become a sort of personal quest, and I am spending a few hours each weekend picking up stones and barrowing them back to the wood to lay on the paths. The barrow won't go into the wood, so they have to be bucketed in for the final delivery.
    At this rate, it will take a lifetime. It is not totally futile, because for thousands of years, since long before even the Romans, people have been turning muddy paths into roads by laying stones, and it worked splendidly. I just don't have a legion of Roman soldiers to help with the work.


This is what many of the paths look like, some are much worse than this. The photo shows a spotting of stones dropped in each wet footprint, and more than that. Some of the paths on the west side are becoming slightly walkable as the muddiest patches get filled in.

     I have an idea, which is to get a cubic yard of roadstone and have that parked at the entrance to the field - and a notice asking each dog walker to bring string bags next time and carry some up and drop them on the paths. All the dog-walkers I have asked have said they would, because the conditions up there are so unworkable! The work of a thousand walkers might be more effective that little old DNC picking each stone off the field.