Latest Restoration News

April 2024

Starting from Badley lock and meeting up to the area mowed the week before at Creeting St Mary. The result is a nice wide path between Hawkes Mill and Badley. Walkers have made their own way around the two 'missing' bridges. Both are in good condition and ready to be reinstated. The Trust hope to do this before the end of the month. Makes a lovely walk from Hawkes Mill / Creeting to Roots and Shoots garden centre with its Caffe. With thanks to them for allowing us to use their car park to get our gear to the river.

March 2024

Trust volunteers completed hedge trimming in February and moved on to footpath ground clearance and maintenance, working at Bramford, Paper mill, Claydon, Great Blakenham and Creeting St Mary

February 2024

The Trust arrange a work party at Bramford to start the BMSDC grant award footpath clearance work to enable regular footpath maintenance work to progress through the summer. Fifteen Trust volunteers helped clear the footpath of fallen trees and heavy overgrowth, starting from the Bramford’s Bushman’s Bridge and working towards Paper Mill Lane. It is essential to do this clearance work prior to the start of the bird nesting season, so that the general grass cutting can be done through the summer without disturbing nesting birds (especially those nesting on the ground in long grass). In many places along this section the path is 10ft to 50ft away from the river, because of tree and general overgrowth obstructions. We plan to migrate the path closer towards the river wherever possible by trimming back tree branches that obstruct the path. We won’t be removing any growing trees. Those that are between the river and the path will remain. The original towpath would have been adjacent to the river with no trees in between (trees would have snagged the towing ropes between horse and barge). Work in progress. Downstream of Baylham Mill we pulled out a fallen tree from the river and used it to repair the path that had previously been eroded away…. Work in progress.

January 2024

With high river levels many log jams have appeared along the river, but we have been unable to attempt to clear much until recently when we cleared two separate log jams up stream of Pipps Ford, when we also made contact with Construction Training Services, our ‘new’ neighbours at Pipps Park. After we had cleared most of the debris accumulated by the tree, they pulled out the remaining large tree trunk laying across the river for us with their teleporter and offered to help us in the future.

October 2023
Trust volunteers have been busy reinstating the towpath alongside the river downstream of Bramford road bridge. The now open reinstated towpath with lovely river views runs parallel to the established footpath some 100ft away from the river.

September 2023

At Pipps Ford volunteers have levelled off the path and straightened it through the trees. A small improvement but one that will help keep the path mud free. At Claydon volunteers cleared maybe as many as 100 old felled logs laying between the path and the river, enabling the path to be made wider and hopefully safer as it’s narrowness created a worn rut in the path making it very difficult to walk without slipping when wet.

August 2023

The final part of the Pipps Ford lock restoration work was completed in August 2023, leaving it ready for lock gate installation. To do this the lock was pumped dry by damming off the river in front and behind the lock. More info here.

The Trust’s Meeting with local MPs

Three RGT Trustees met up with MPs Tom Hunt and Dan Poulter together with Suffolk Council representatives at Baylham on 7th July. They are all very supportive of the work the Trust is doing and are looking at ways to further support us. Copy of Dan Poulter FB page and more volunteer path maintenance work below.

Volunteers at work

Most of the volunteer workload during the summer months consists of river clearance work (above) and path clearance work (below). Click on photos to enlarge.

Footbridge Opening

Dr Dan Poulter cutting the ribbon to officially open Howard’s Bridge on 20th May with the Trust’s Chair John Warren and the Trust’s Restoration Manager Ian Petchey each giving speeches to the 75 attending guests.

Bramford to Badley Lock

Trust volunteers are now working on keeping the footpath clear of nettles and brambles, suitable for walking in shorts, between Bramford and Badley Lock. The footpath between Bramford and Badley will be cut once per month. Volunteers recently worked on the Bramford to Claydon section.

April - Howard’s Bridge

The Trust have named the footbridge at Baylham ‘Howard’s Bridge’ after our much loved and missed volunteer Les Howard who passed away two years ago. Les was instrumental in the early planning and fund raising stages of the Bridge. At the Trust’s naming ceremony on Sunday 30th April, Les’s wife and family attended with Trustees and volunteers. The footbridge in now open to the public with the official opening by Dr Dan Poulter being on Saturday 20th May. All welcome.

Claydon Towpath

Trust volunteers have been working hard, making improvements to the towpath at Claydon. Around 1km of the path has been reinstated and improved.

Restoring the towpath at Claydon

The footpath at Claydon runs for approximately 1km around 100 feet away from the river. Trust volunteers are working to reinstate the towpath adjacent to the river. Judging by the density of overgrowth the path has not been used for around 15 years. The towpath is now walkable between the two road bridges with care. Work in progress

Early February

Volunteers started work on the 1st February and managed to clear about half of the towpath between the two road bridges