Once again the work party was blessed with beautiful weather and an enthusiastic group of volunteers from Virgin Media.

Today’s task was to continue the bank reinforcement by Coed Gwilym Park, and as usual our members started work as soon as we were on site.

It wasn’t long before the Virgin Media group arrived and were enjoying their warm welcome and safety briefing from Martin.

They were soon hard at work clearing the accumulated earth and vegetation from the old towpath stonework in preparation for the sandbags of cement and stone-dust mix being prepared at the cement mixer.

Others were kept busy unloading further supplies of stone-dust from the trailer to keep the mixer party busy.

All was not simply hard work however when a blue tit fledgling interrupted the mixer crew and was carefully placed in the grass where its mother could find it.

After this pleasant interlude work continued with laying the filled sandbags on the cleared stonework while others were further into the park clearing the Himalayan Balsam a pretty invasive plant which can seriously endanger the stability of canal and river banks if allowed to thrive.

Meanwhile the visiting volunteers were continuing to work hard on the bank reinforcement preparations watched by the canal society’s stalwart members.

However the boot was soon on the other foot as Gordon and Martin and Toby were shortly to be seen putting in the timbers for an extension to the canoe mooring and launching area.

Blog and photos by John Gwalter