The BIG Clean Up

On Sunday we were very lucky to have the help of the Cambridgeshire National Trust Volunteer Group. The aim was to finally get Burwell Fen barn’s lean-to cleaned up, and in a state where people can walk past without thinking what is all this mess! The ten extra pairs of hands, plenty of effort and a lot of patience cutting piles of old wire apart got the lot done in about 3 hours.  We put the majority of rubbish in a big skip from Ely Skip Hire, and stacked the remainder ready for loading into another which I did today.

Over the past few years a lot of construction has been undertaken on Burwell Fen;  the new bridge over Reach Lode, the Lodes Way, the new ramp for a bridge over Burwell Lode, the cattle handling unit and the water proof bund around the Southern section of the Fen. These have allowed for greatly improved access and wildlife conservation value but at times I have found it hard to keep up with maintenance and make sure everything is looking good. As a result we ended up with the lean-to full of mess, and although many jobs have been done lots of loose ends still to tidy up, like the Lodes Way sign that is for some reason about 4m high! Without help from volunteers like the CNTV I could not get back on top of things like the barn any time soon, their help is appreciated a great deal and it was a great relief to go past the barn today and see all of the mess finally gone. With a spot of luck over the next few months the rest of the Fen will be in the same order.

Paul Created this brilliant time laps video of the days work.
https://picasaweb.google.com/104654616839312421463/BurwellFenTimelapse?noredirect=1#5840796428874425202

Here is a before and after of part of the job along with one taken looking towards the barn from the other side of the fen.