There isn't much to say on this last part. The digger I saw on Tuesday working around the copse, appears to have completed a channel. It currently runs along the west side of the copse, then eastward along the south vehicle path, before encounter the yellow bridge (which now crosses it) and entering a bit of a mess that will become the western end of Manor lake. The whole site is now plumbed into this channel (which I call Colebrook channel), and thence the culvert under the Longwater road. My nemesis on the south vehicle track has returned. Sandwiched between the copse and my former mighty mound, is a large depression in the south vehicle track. It fills with soft, gooey mud, the consistency of fine porridge and quicksand. The conditions underfoot, when I tried it, were most squidgy. I elected to go around this area, by clambering along some banking on its edges. This is one area of the site I will not regret not seeing again, ever. However, the work done on this channel this past week, does exemplify the flitting nature of how Inert go about restoring a site. This is at least the third or fourth time this year that Inert have worked on this area; in addition to all the times they have done so over the years I have been blogging about it. Having profiled this area at least twice if not three times, Inert are having to do it again - in addition to removing a lot of stuff they spent ages bulldozing into it in the first place. Sorry, it is the engineering/software mentality I have. Plan everything, and don't keep revisiting if at all possible. Wildfowl have really taken to the site, even though it is not finished. They really like the absence of tall vegetation along the margins of ponds. There were hundreds of Canada geese, tens of Egyptian geese, tens of Mallards, at least ten Small Egrets, loads of Lapwing, Green Sandpipers, and an assortment of other birds e.g. Wagtails. Oh, you may have noticed it was somewhat foggy on Saturday morning. I have visit really early, as I am not sure if Inert are working overtime, and hence on Saturdays. With the return of the rains, we see the return of standing water on the site. Ground conditions over much of the area remain surprising firm. Only recently worked soil (either by bulldozer or digger) exhibit softness - though of no concern to the wide tracks of the heavy plant currently on site. As I said in part 1, the western North embankment has almost totally been flattened. Only a small remnant remains, close to the ridge. The area around this remnant is pretty torn up, for some obscure reason. Although I did climb up the ridge (after sloshing through a lot of water) I did not make my way to its south end. It had rained, last night, and the tall vegetation covering the ridge was soaking wet. I did not want drenched trousers. Of great surprise and delight to me was the use of the yellow vehicle bridge. Inert have repurposed this bridge as a means to cross the Colebrook channel (as I shall now call it) which will take water from Moor Green Lakes and the north part of the reserve, across the site, around the copse and onward to the culvert under the Longwater road. In fact, the whole site is now plumbed into this channel, draining water to Fleet Hill farm. Theoretically, this means the pump will never need to be used again. I did have to make a long detour to this bridge. The channel along the banking on the west side of the Main reed bed now makes it virtually impossible to traverse east-west. The bed of the channel may firm up over time, allowing people to walk on it. However, I am not convinced this will be the case, having had to cross many a brook, channel or drainage ditch. I hope the sluice gate will function as bridges, allowing people to cross from one area of the site to another. Inert have neatly profiled the western shore of the Colebrook channel where it runs along the west side of the banking around the main reed bed. I still can't make head or tail of this construction as it diverges so much from the plans I have. The channel should be between two banks where the Higher reed bed and Main reed bed run along each other. There is currently only one bank. Also, the channel is supposed to run alongside the whole length of the west side of the bank around the Main reed bed. Currently, the bank veers away from the bank about half way south to its south west tip. All very strange. Most of this banking along the western edge of the Main reed bed has been capped with a layer of topsoil. Only the southern most end hasn't. Inert have done nothing to extend the banking that separates Manor lake from the Main reed bed. It remains as it was one Tuesday. We had more rain last night and early in the morning. First we've had all week. The drought is still here, but there are signs rains might come next week - 5 days are forecast. Meteorologists say that we are heading for a triple La Nina event. Usually that means wet autumns and winters for us. We'll see. The hurricane season hasn't. Half way through the season and there hasn't been one hurricane to hit the US. Very peculiar. Hurricanes normally bring rain to us. They travel up the east coast of America, cross the Atlantic, and then drop rain on us. Not this year, they haven't, as no hurricanes have yet formed. Other news, NASA hope to launch their new SLS rocket, after an abort on Wednesday. A capsule will fly around the moon, and test out various functions. Back to the blog. I've had a much closer examination of the latest plans I have for the site. I get the feeling that if these are accurate final plans (I have major reservations about this, especially with the banking around the main reed bed) then it looks as if not only will the last fragment of the Colebrook not be retained and plumbed into the drainage system, but also much of the copse will be demolished. I think this is both very sad and very odd. It is very sad as the copse is the last fragment of the original Manor farm south of the lower Finchampstead road. The copse is well loved and used by many, many animals, and provides a starter culture for many fungi. It is very odd in that Cemex and Inert have gone to great lengths, over many decades to retain the copse. I really, really, really hope they do not demolish the copse. Inert have completed demolition of the southern half of the western embankment. It's all lovely and flat, right up to the Blackwater footpath. There are clear views of Manor farm, currently. These might disappear if horrible, thick woodland is planted along the edge of the nascent reserve - like Moor Green Lakes, where it is almost impossible to see the lakes along much of its boundary. One intrepid bulldozer driver has been busy smearing topsoil over the north western half of the site, and smoothing the rough bumps alongside the Longwater road. Shame a whole load of topsoil was dumped here, just where a car park is supposed to be built. Very little remains of the western half of the North embankment. Only a tiny knoll, close to the Ridge. I will be very disappointed with Inert if they do not flatten this last remnant and start on both the ridge and the eastern north embankment this coming week. I do spoil you, dear reader. Another mid-week special. After a bank holiday weekend, I swung round Manor farm on Wednesday for a quick zoom round. I think the trick is to get there early, roughly 9.00 am or so, before the chaps knock off at about 9:45am for a tea break. They were hard at work, two diggers, two bulldozers, two heavy earth movers and the site foreman in his shiny silver pickup. Before we delve into developments. I had a quick crawl around the Wokingham Borough Council planning site, and I found documents as far back as 1958!!! 64 years ago. Some local people have been born, grew up, had careers, raised families and (regretfully) in some cases had died whilst this quarry has been either in planning or operation. Manor farm has changed hands at least once. It is now a fruit farm, with polytunnels stretching up the Finchampstead ridges. I have met walkers along the Blackwater footpath who remember Manor farm and Fleet Hill farm being farmland. Some even played on them! Back to our scheduled program. Inert were working on four parts of the site, on Wednesday. One bulldozer driver was grading land levels along the west side of the site, north of the Longwater road entrance. I know it was a bit messy here, but I thought Inert were finished with it prior to a car park (far too small) being laid. I assume Wednesday's activity was mainly fettling the area. A digger operator was merrily sat on top of what remains of the southern West Embankment demolishing it and filling two heavy earth movers with rather excellent looking topsoil. I wouldn't mind some of this for my garden. It is gloriously brown, pointing at a lot of organic matter - far better than the grey stuff in my garden. The heavy earth movers have to trundle east along the south vehicle track, turn sharp left at my mighty mound, go north along the remaining land bridge, before reaching the south west corner of the Higher Reed bed. Here they turn round 180 degrees before playing chicken with the bulldozer driver as they reverse some 75m up the banking while the bulldozer driver reverses down it. What the Inert plant operators are doing is highly skilled and dangerous. I'm a bit surprised the banking is being covered with top soil. The old gravel bank, separating Cormorant lakes north and south didn't have any on. It did provide a nice environment for various creatures. Roe deer loved running along them. Our final digger operator was digging out a channel around the west side of the copse. I did post a few photos some weeks back of a ditch running around this side of the copse, and I wondered at the time as to what it was for. I need only have inspected the plans properly - I haven't uptil now as they seem to change. There is a channel that runs around the west and south edges of the copse, before becoming the Colebrook channel leading to the culvert under the Longwater road. This is going to make it tricky to maintain the site. Firstly, volunteers have to be told and remember that there is a deep channel here. Secondly, going from south side to north side of the site is going to be tricky without footbridges or waders. I'm intrigued as to what Inert will achieve before the weekend. If there is a plan, my ordered engineering mind can't figure it out. |
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November 2025
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