Tuesday 15 December 2015.

Maintenance of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way .

Location centre Milford Shaw Lane.

The Amber Valley Ramblers Footpath Volunteers turned out to undertake Clearing on two sections of this path which from Shaw Lane Milford runs left towards Milford and Makeney Bridleway ( Dark Lane ) and right runs towards Belper passing Grange Farm and Wildersley Farm.

The team split up to work on the two sections of path in pairs on the advice of Steve Cresswell who as ever had brought all the necessary tools for us in his own car as the Landrover was out of service. This enabled a considerable length of the path to be worked on. Considering the section towards Belper the path was seriously obstructed by holly which had grown enormously over the last few years and as can be seen this was cut back. On the mid part of the path it had become muddy even in summer. The problem, as stated by the experienced eye of David Davison, being due to the path becoming ever narrower as growth such as brambles encroached on it leaving only a small track walkable and these few inches of width were trampled into mud. Clearing the encroaching hedgerow was undertaken to enable a wider walkable path again. On the section towards Milford a lot of overhanging growth was cut back to enable it to be much more comfortably walked.

Peter W.