USE YOUR PATHS WEEK 2008

Chippenham Ramblers organised an evening walk for the 1st Corsham Sea Scouts Beavers Group on Tuesday 23rd September. Some 18 Beavers (age 6 to 8) with Beaver Leader Sue and Chippenham Ramblers Footpath Secretary Judy, enjoyed a brisk walk in the countryside accompanied by two Junior Leaders, half a dozen parents, a couple undertaking a footpath audit of the area for Corsham Town Council, Maz and Allan, and Judy's long-suffering husband, Steve acting as back-marker.

Judy started the walk from Chapel Knapp with a brief safety talk where the Beavers greeted each possible hazhard with enthusiasm - brambles, nettles, thorn-bushes, barbed wire, uneven ground an a gate to climb over. She also stated that Rule number one was 'NO STICKS' At which the assembled children reluctantly relinquished all the pieces of wood they had just picked up.The first and only real problem was crossing the busy B-road to reach the track to Boyds farm. It was 'rush hour' and the road curved down and away to left and right. Parents held up the traffic while the children were led across. It had been pointed out during the safety briefing that the Beavers should be walking in double file in a line behind the Leader, Judy and in front of her husband, Steve. However, such was their enthusiasm that a regular intervals it was necessary to cry 'BEAVERS! HALT!' so that Judy could return to the front.

There was a bit of a bottleneck at the first stile while Judy and Sue supervised the children climbing over (not really designed for short legs). Meanwhile those who had already crossed all climbed onto the open gate to the next part of the walk. An eagle-eyed parent told them to dismount from their ride before the hinges gave up. Leaving the parents to supervise the stile, Judy quickly led them up between hedge and paddocks to the next field. A stroke of luck meant that the cows had recently been moved into the field after that so that we only had to negotiate their parting messages (round, brown and sticky) rather than find out if any of the party were phobic. It also meant that the tall gate we would have had to climb was open. Next was a gap in the hedge (bit scratchy) and negotiating the field margins around the disused quarries and woodland of Eastlays. You can tell children to keep to the edge but it only works for 10 minutes before you have to remind them.There was an opening in the barbed wire fence so that went OK. The next problem was negotiating a ditch between two field - the path went round the edge of the woods but was obviously not much used so the nettle were tall and thick. This was when we noticed that some Beavers were wearing shorts. They all braved the nettles and were supplied with dock-leaves on the other side. After a short delay - we were off again .

Crossing the metalled road to Eastlays we entered ploughed and raked fields - unfortunately there was a very narrow grassy verge next to the barbed wire fence so it was hard to keep the children to the path. It was approaching sunset and one child was asking if we could go back now - so Judy pointed out that we could see the road and the cars parked at the start so it wouldn't be long. There was a possible short-cut back to the start but Judy wasn't sure which side of the hedge it rejoined the track to Boyds farm and with the light going it wasn't worth making a detour to check. We carried on to Boyds Farm but found the path blocked by a huge mound of black silage bags. Luckily the boundary to the adjacent field was intermittent so we could nip in and out to avoid the obstruction. We were then on the home straight. The Beavers were going strong but the parents were lagging. We reached the main road bang on time to meet the other parents and before it got to dark. Crossing was no problem this time - no traffic and good visibility from this side of the road. Feedback was all positive - the Beavers enjoyed it and parents were impressed by the landscape.Steve assisted Maz and Allan with their map, commenting that field boundaries had changed. They can now appreciate that they have a tricky area to audit.

Text & photographs by Judy Hible