Thursday 26/3/26 The floorboards on our footbridge were sagging, today Fred supplied chequer plates to cover the bridge which we took to the mill in our trailer. The riverside track was blocked by a small fallen tree, so we got secateurs and a folding saw from my rucksack and cut it away. We offloaded the chequer plates at the bridge and went to the wagon for a cup of tea and saw pied wagtails around the water wheel, but fortunately they don’t seem to be nesting in it.
We loaded up tools, wood and the old bridge boards and went to the bridge, we swung it round resting on a wheelbarrow and removed the existing boards as they are de-laminating badly and replaced them with the old boards which are in better condition. We put the first two aluminium chequer plates on top, drilled and countersunk holes, then screwed them down using screws Fred gave us recently.
Anne Marie walked to the mill and came to see us at the bridge, then weeded and tidied the gardens around the trees and along the river bank where anemones are still flowering. We all had lunch outside as it was sunny, we saw a water vole on the river bank, a kestrel hovering over a field and red kites overhead.
In the afternoon we added more wooden supports to the bridge. Debra and Hector walked down, Debra saw us working on the bridge and Hector found his football which he enjoys playing with. We swung the bridge back so we could work on the other end, we cut notches out of the last plate to fit the swinging mechanism and cut the plate to length with a hacksaw, then drilled and screwed the chequer plate down.
We put the counterweight back, swung the bridge over the river and walked across to test it. The weight of the chequer plates has not affected it much, one person can still rotate the bridge which is now safe and ready for our open days on 9 & 10 May. It was 10 years ago that we started making our bridge.
We filled the bird feeders at the end of the day and saw a blue tit eating peanuts straight away. We had a last cup of tea in the wagon, when we switched on the nest cameras we saw a stock dove in the barn owl box, they nested there last year, jackdaws used it before that. On our journey back we saw a flash of metallic blue - a kingfisher flying just above the river, it flew up into a tree and I managed to get a photo which shows it has an all black beak so its a male.
Howard gave us a camera trap last year which I set up by the tree on the river bank last week, as Anne Marie noticed holes there. I took the card home to view the pictures, it captured a stock dove which is probably from the nest box, an otter (one picture of its head and one of its body & tail), moorhen, squirrel, pied wagtail, mallard ducks, and what I hoped was a water vole but is more likely a rat, which probably made the holes.
Thursday 2/4/26 When we arrived there was a lapwing calling and flying over the field behind the mill. There were pied wagtails around the water wheel again and a swan flew over the mill. We switched on the nest cameras and saw a great tit in the box several times during the day.
I brought replacement inverter cables today which Eddie fitted, as our repair to the old ones didn’t last. The new cables are thinner but they’re suitable for our tool battery chargers which is all we use it for. The cables are longer which makes the inverter easier to use. I charged the drill battery and checked the cables were not getting hot.
Several insect hotels were leaning over, so we took the worst one back and repaired the stand, the rest just needed screws tightening. The wagon door locking bolts were stiff so Eddie oiled them.
I cut one of the boards we removed from the bridge last week to use on the walkway beside the water butts, I selected the best board, the offcut and two other boards were splitting apart badly and are not usable so we burned them in the incinerator along with small fallen branches from the river bank and the fatball box which was too greasy inside to recycle. We saw a muntjac at the far side of the field behind the mill.
Anne Marie joined us and brought home-made chocolate cake for us which was lovely, then weeded the gardens. Eddie got a bucket of river water and watered all the plants. Anne Marie said she will look for plants at the next Swaffham indoor market. We filled the bird feeders and saw great tits and blue tits eating.
The wind had blown the fence down which keeps visitors away from the damaged wall, so we propped up the corner post with bricks and secured the fencing tape to the brick wall. I strimmed nettles around the compost bay and compound area.
The Annual Parish Meeting will be held on 8/4/26 at Narborough Community Centre where village organisations report on their latest activity, so I sent our December 2025 report to be read out at the meeting and included in the minutes, which will eventually be published on the council website which gives us extra publicity.
Graham Bartlett
Interactive Plan Activity Previous Projects Workers 10 Years Ago
