Dent Car Park
a simple grassy rectangle, involving about 200 metres of digging. What could be easier. Get from A to C via a chamber at B.
1 Here there is to be a chamber. At the exact point where there are three large water mains and a sewer heading for the wastewater treatment works. Also a footpath, and two farm gateways. Balance that lot out to find a suitable location. Then get under a dodgy wall into the car park field. The solution was to move the chamber well away from there and carefully weave through.
2 A small wooded area with only a couple of possible ways through for a digger, and difficult to manoeuvre sideways with the digger arm, so it's more of a scrape backwards. Manual backfill.
3 Out into the open field. Simple? No. This is where the main marquee gets stationed for the annual Dent Music Festival. Fortunately, they have a plan they give to the tent men which shows exactly where to drive their spikes in.
4 This means skirting close to the edge of the field, and that various branches must be quietly lopped off and disappeared.
5 An overgrown corner where the next chamber is to be located. Here you learn that someone specially cultivates these willow bushes and cuts them to make baskets, so avoid the willow bits. Also snowdrops, daffodils, bluebells, and irises of high social standing which must be preserved. Consult at length with neighbours and get general consensus on location, narrowly avoiding a public enquiry involving the Secretary of State.
6 A large swathe of crocuses must be avoided here. Each bulb a Grade I locally listed plant.
7 More trees to skirt round to avoid any lopping.
8 A solid concrete track leads northwards; the car park itself is made up of knobbly concrete blocks. The best place to cross seems to be just next to the concrete track. (But the track is frequently used, so we will have to be quick) We get a digger to lift the blocks and do the rest by hand.
9 Phone cable and electricity run down this side of the field to the works. (Not quite where the utility map says they are)
10 A wall crossing just next to some massive tree roots and you are home free.
When we did it, it was just a bit too early in the year, and the moleplough had trouble traversing the slope at the top, it was sliding down too much and starting to make a mess. This meant running around Dent trying to find a man with a digger who was immediately available. Surprisingly, there was someone, and the job was finished within an hour. A week later the part that was done with the digger was hardly noticeable, but the ploughed bit took three months to disappear. (Complaint two weeks later via the Parish Council about 2 rocks that in fact were cleared away a day after the moleploughing.)
The day before. (Okay it does look a bit wet, that puddle’s not often there) Two lots of duct because one lot is ready to go across the top of the car park and you can’t leave it there overnight.
Moleploughing. I set it up as a ‘come and see’ event to recruit volunteers so there were a few people there.
By the time the digger arrives an hour later, and there is work to do, everyone has gone
So that was that until the time when the houses off the car park decide they want their spurs put in. ‘We’ll organise it, we just need a bit of advice’. So not unexpectedly that had to be completely organised and dug in, while we got pleasant waves from the windows.