Dry Sandford Pit - Saturday 14th December 2024

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 Blog by Eleanor, photos by Julio

It was a lovely, sunny day, a pleasant change after the wind, rain or at best cloudy skies of the past few weeks. It was a very good turnout, sixteen of us in total. We were pleased to welcome Carol, new to the area and Jan, back after a long absence.

Our task was to remove brambles and other vegetation from in front of the cliff faces. Dry Sandford Pit, now managed by BBOWT is a former quarry and the cliff faces reveal a number of fossils of shells. We also had to be careful not to get too close to the cliff faces, as there was a chance of rock falls after the recent heavy rain.

We made our way to the cliff faces carrying our tools and saw there was plenty of work to be done.

The cliff face

We spread out along the cliff face and set to work, cutting back brambles with loppers and slashers, Sally and Barbara working with their scythes. We had also brought the tree popper, which is very useful for uprooting saplings Soon there was plenty of raking and clearing to be done and to be transported to the existing heaps.

Working




A robin waits, anticipating a feast




We were certainly ready for our tea break, and relaxing in the sunshine.

Tea break. Notice the shadows!




It would be Sally's birthday on 17th, so we presented her with a well deserved card and a cake to share.


The birthday cake




Then it was back to work.

Back to work



Twelve thirty was fast approaching, and it was time to persuade everybody to stop chopping and slashing and help to clear up.

You can see from the "before" and "after" photos how much we had done.


Before




After


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