Extracts from reports by John Guyler Aug-Sept-Oct2026
Beggarlee: Volunteers charged the dumper and digger batteries, checked the equipment and oil levels, and removed the insecure dumper seat for repair, and then inspected and repaired vandalism damage at the welfare hut.
Volunteers also undertook maintenance on other equipment: the hand strimmer required a new guard fitting, and the vibrating concrete poker needed some attention to free the mechanism after a long period standing. Attention then turned to the motor which drives the poker, it started up and ran for a short time then stopped, which suggests a fuel supply problem, a job for another day. They then spent time checking the digger and dumper over before starting them up and let them get nice and hot.
The work party started clearing the next section which will be dug out in the spring. They removed tree roots which had been out by pulled the digger and a lot of vegetation was also cleared. It was a good chance for those who had not been on the digger and dumper for a long time to get some time in. Also, some training time was useful on the dumper for one of our volunteers who had never driven anything like it before. They moved, tree roots and pieces of tree to the fire heap ready for the correct conditions for burning. It was a good learning curve over some very rough, uneven ground.
There was a lot of strimming done around the welfare cabin, considering that this area was only seeded last year it has come on very well.
Two volunteers were confirming the exact location of the bore holes and test pits that were drilled and dug out at the end of June. Our lads had a great deal of trouble getting precise locations on the GPS because the connection to a satellite was unreliable. The welfare cabin was cleaned out, ready for the visit the next day by a volunteer group from British Gas. The dumper and digger were also checked over for use the next day.
A party of eight volunteers from British Gas accompanied by six FCC work party volunteers continued clearing the site of the next dig out of the canal extension which will include a winding hole. A few tree roots were grubbed out and moved, they must have enjoyed the day because there was a comment to John Barker about coming back next year for another volunteering day.
Volunteers returned to identifying the bore hole locations, this time with Ordnance Survey figures and all went well. The test pits were in precisely the correct places, but the bore holes were a foot out of position, but it was considered, to be ok.
Three volunteers waited for delivery of steel rods from Twiggs at Matlock and then spent the day making many pins for the coir rolls. This entails cutting them to length and profiling one end. They had to make a replacement hammering tool to knock the pins through the coir rolls when on location. The previous tool was made in a hurry and has lasted putting in a hundred plus pins, but it gave up and fell apart last week at Gregory’s tunnel.