Westwood Path Clearing

Our path clearing day started with a Saturday 9.30am meeting along Hay Lane Nr Ombrsley, with everyone coming along we were hoping that many hands would make light work 'and so they did'. Amanda Hill from the Worcestershire County Council had kindly brought us tools and refreshments and offered valuable advice on how to use the tools correctly. Risk assesments and Health & Safety proceedures have to be aheard to at all times when out on public routes so Amanda had things already in hand and paperwork done we set off to park at the Mill House and walk up to where we would be clearing.

I haven't ridden this stretch of path since leaving school, 'so many years ago now' but i always loved riding the route everynight from my house to a friends at Hadley Farm, this was my version of the pony M5 I suppose. It is a very nice ride up over Westwood and through the wood itself, so it brought back nice memories.

As i hadn't ridden this route for so long i was not to sure what to expect, there had been numerous complaints from local riders about overgrowth on one particular stratch which then makes your horse extremely close to a barbed wire fence. This was our mission and challenge to clear.

After having our brief talk on tools etc, we all selected what we wanted to work with and started the cut back. Imbeded in part of the hedrow was a waymarker which was only just visable if you looked hard, so that was first on Sue Hillier and Judith Smarts List to clear.

Alison Partridge and Caroline Gudgeon tackled a good part of the overgrowth and made a hole into woodland where we could push the debris, this itself making a great place for nesting birds. Steve Merrell and Amanda Hill worked further down the route and Wendy Ralphs and Caroline's friend Tracey and local landowner Sue all helped along the entire route too.

After a couple of hours which flew bye we stopped for refreshments, tea, coffee,cold drinks and biscuits were on offer and welcome they all were too. we stopped for about 10-15 minutes had a chat and decided to plod on and try and finish for 12pm. as we approached the end it was amazing to see the difference we had made and how close you would have had to have ridden to the fence in the past.

On Sunday 4 of all rode the Westwood route individually throughout the day and we all commented on the improvement to the route, all we need to do now is address gate issues on this path. Westwood can hook up with Southall Farm and parking is available at Judith Smarts at Cutnall Green, so this makes a fabulous circut of approx 2 hours, longer if you wish to take in the permissive paths too.

Pictures below are of myself riding Mac along the first permissive path just down from Judith Smarts Farm which comes out on the lane to start Westwood circular. There are also 2 pictures of the staircase down to the Mill House off Westwood. They look steep but are fine to descend. this route can be ridden either way, I think the only bit that does spoil this route is a small section where you have to ride the old track which was surrounded by fields, however now it is an industrail estate, but its not to bad, vehicles can't get near you, it just spoils the scenery for a short while.