39 Steps ....

If its worth doing its worth doing well, not a bad rule to follow especially where conservation and longevity are concerned. My fleeting experience in  drystone walling provides a good example of this so its especially pleasing, given no act of god etc that the Leckhampton 'wall', could still be doing its job several hundred years from now.

Crickley hill

The basic fact that work in the countryside is never ending means that u seldom have the luxury , unless H&S applies, to revisit work  so poor application is costly and unsightly. That being the case even the best construction has a limited lifetime and mother nature will require u to revisit eventually. So in 2011, after Martin had secured funds from the Cotswold Way [team linked with National trails, was under Natural England funding now under AONB?],  I was exposed to 'step' maintenance in woodland at Dovers Hill. It wasn't until we got to the site where the work was to take place the i realised this was going to take a while. The steps form part of the path through the woodland and were in three parts on a particularly steep  gradient. In all 80 steps! would require replacing those in the worst state taking priority. Given the tree roots, rocky ground and the need to master Martin's new approach to implementing steps in this terrain 6-8 steps per day was the going rate. This was going to be a longterm endeavour but my hammering skills were certainly going to improve! At least the steps in worst repair have been replaced and we didn't have to wait long before they came  through their first test, courtesy of local walkers.