Benign clearance
work at Thrupp Lake in preparation for creating the Radley
Wetlands Environmental Centre began on Friday. About a
dozen members of Northmoor Trust's "Friday Work Team"
descended on the Sandles property on the edge of Thrupp
Lake, and, throughout the day, were joined by a roughly
equal number of local volunteers, who included parish
councillors and members of Save Radley Lakes, to start
clearing and tidying up the site and removing litter from
the shores of the Lake. The garden at Sandles had become
very neglected and overgrown, having seen no maintenance
for nearly 5 years. Litter of all sorts has been steadily
accumulating around the lake. During the course of the
day, a considerable amount of litter and general waste
was collected and removed from around the site, enough
to fill a large trailer. The guard post overlooking the
lake, a relic of events that took place in 2007, was demolished
and vegetation cut back to open up parts of the site that
had become inaccessible.
What
a load of rubbish!
Northmoor
Trust personnel and volunteers with the large trailer
load of rubbish collected from the Sandles garden
on 12 March.
Although
the day was interrupted by a couple of heavy showers,
there was a little sunshine too and the weather was
less cold than it had been a day or two previously.
All in all it was an excellent opportunity for people
to get out in the fresh air and enjoy themselves doing
useful work in beautiful surroundings. It was also an
opportunity for local people to meet members of the
Northmoor Trust team who will be taking care of the
Lake in the future.
The guard
house/ sentry box overlooking the lake, a relic of sorrier
times, is first toppled...
... then torn apart...
... and finally smashed
to bits.
This
is the first of hopefully many such Community Work Day
events involving Northmoor trust working with members
of the local community, at Thrupp Lake. The Northmoor
Trust plan to re-landscape the garden area and to build
an environmental centre on the site. That will take
several years to bring to fruition. In the meantime,
there remains a lot of rubbish on the site still to
be removed, (including possibly the whole of the existing
house!) and a lot of tidying up to do to repair the
damage and neglect of the past few years.
Loading the trailer
and securing the load
before taking it away.
If
you would like to help by taking part in future Community
Work Day events like this one, please look out for notices
posted on Sandles gate and on the Events
Pages of this website (see also below) or contact
Melati Granucci
