midford yesterday

(All pics 8.7.2012 copyright Stuart Seale)

Stuart Seale, Tom Seale and Will Cummings 

formed a work party at Midford yesterday to clear the bank above the station. It is amazing how quickly everything is growing this year. Tom strimmed the top of the bank and Will drilled into the tree st...umps so as to introduce some weedkiller (we need to kill the trees once and for all as they create too much recurring work). We had a great day and the weather was wonderful, if not a little on the hot side.

midford update

Latest from Tom Seale after yesterday's work day at Midford.

Will, Dad and myself spent another enjoyable day down at Midford this Sunday, the weather was glorious and we managed to get quite a few things done.

We started by tidying the bank above the northern end of the platform, there were a few "loose ends" unceremoniously protruding that have now been taken care of. Spring has now taken hold and the banks are covered in wildflower, mainly wild garlic; there is also an abundance of bluebell and primose among many others.

Whilst i was scrambling on the bank, Dad and Will removed the fly tipping from the wall adjacent to the pub car park. Hopefully this will discourage any further tipping.

We also cut through the very large vines present on the trees the other side of the wooden fence, this should let a bit more light through and make any tree 'surgery' a bit easier. The owner of Lynwood has previously enquired about us either topping or removing these trees as they do cast a very impressive shadow in the evening.

We finished of by burning all of the remaining cut wood on site, we re-sited the bonfire to a location much closer to the tunnel, mainly as this is quite a bit farther away from the neighbouring houses. After the inferno had died down we enjoyed a late lunch of sausages and burgers, accompanied by wild garlic leaves and an ash seasoning. 

midford 28 december 2011

(Copyright Tom Seale)

Latest report from Midford -

We had a good session at Midford today. Tom and I were joined by Will Cummings, who came up from Wells. A lot of time was spent clearing the bank above the platform but there was great difficulty in keeping a good footing on the loose steep soil deposits. After some undergrowth had been cleared we saw that it was the bunnies that were responsible for the dirt on the platform as there were burrows to be seen higher up. The trees have done quite a lot of damage to the rockface in splitting it up and we pulled down a good number of loose rocks. There was a nasty hailstorm later in the morning that didn't help matters at all. After lunch I set to with the task of burning up all the cut branches whilst the other two cleared more of the bank. After clearing an area above the delaminated bricks in the retaining wall and the dip in the platform, Tom found a 4 inch earthenware pipe that seemed to be discharging water from the property above - this needs to be investigated as it could possibly be responsible for the damage being sustained on our property.
The fire ran to near 5pm and we managed to burn all of the cut wood, which makes the place look a lot tidier.
Favourable and encouraging comments were made by passers-by.

yesterday at Midford

Here's the latest report from Tom Seale re work at Midford (yesterday 23.6.2011. Photos copyright Tom Seale)

Good day yesterday, we had Will, dad and myself there for most of the afternoon. We took Dad's strimmer to the top bank which now looks suitably subdued and tidier. We also made a start on digging out the layer of dirt and roots on the platform. The tarmac and gutter look in remarkably good condition considering they were buried for years, hopefully we can have the entire platform exposed in a matter of weeks. In the evening we were joined by the last group of Scouts, who have made quite a nice clearing half-way between the bridge and the end of the platform, some natural light should encourage some wild flower growth. It was dissapointing to see some more fly tipping on the parcels office, Will has moved the rubbish out of sight for now in an effort to discourage further contributions. Hopefully when the site is a bit tidier this practice will stop altogether.