What a fantastic turnout we had at today's Bolton NEWT event. NEWT are all about community and bringing people together and today's activities certainly had a real community spirit about them, with people of a range of ages all working with a common purpose.
This morning saw volunteers help to clear Bradshaw Brook of litter and fly tipping. Simon, Jasmine and, Aaron and Josh cleared the mound of rubbish, wood and fencing that was potentially blocking the brook. This involved cutting items into smaller more manageable pieces before dragging it out.
At the same time Simon and Adam were hard at it, digging up embedded tyres and metal fence posts.
David, Tracy and Mandy worked on top of the bridge, clearing it from weeds and generally tidying it up. What a difference their work has made. Richard worked hard clearing some surrounding himalayan balsam and smoothing one of the paths down to the stream. Many passers by commented on what great work we were doing.
A huge amount of rubbish was unearthed and also dug up, including tyres, fencing, wire, cables. This is part of the haul we removed!
The it was time for a break and some donuts....
Just after the break, Adam was thinking about the work we had accomplished in the morning. He remarked:
"Does this mean we go to heaven?"
as a reward for the hard work. He then reconsidered whether it would actually balance out previous misadventures!! Hahaha.
And then in the afternoon, Neil, Eileen, Margaret and Simon joined us for some more balsam bashing at the old bowling green. What a lovely spot this is, just to come to, sit and chill.
Margaret regaled us with her balsam bashing moves: the flick, swish and chop!
What a great day all round. Thank you to all of you who volunteered and we would love to see you at the next event in two weeks time.
(Even Luther made an appearance!)
Video from the day: