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Some BADFA Achievements
Example one: Gawan
Vesey Memorial Bench (1998) |
Steps and bridge at Bushey Mill Lane 2003 |
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 Colin Knight of the Ramblers and Chris Beney, BADFA Chairman, built these steps from Little Bushey Lane up to the public open space of Hartspring Meadow in the Autumn of 2003. There had been a steep earth slope up from an accommodation bridge off Bushey Mill Lane. It had been used for over 20 years and so had got public path status, but that hadn't been formalised. The park people thought it dangerous and tried to stop it up. Since it wasn't formalised, the Highway Authority: Herts County Council (HCC) didn't really want to know (wrongly in our view) but they were happy with a creation agreement between them and Hertsmere if the path were put in good order first. Hertsmere had no money, at least not until the Hartspring Estate was built, so BADFA did a deal with Hertsmere. We agreed to do the steps and enhance the bridge if they agreed to dedicate and at least to use best endeavours to pay us. We did the work and after only a fairly modest delay they did pay us, so we were not out of pocket. We used English oak from Hatfield House sawmills. Chris had to make two trips to the mill to collect it all on BADFA trailer, about 1 tonne. The steps were part excavated, part free standing, to fit the slope variations. We put a landing half way for safety and a handrail. We filled the steps with brown concrete which caused much hilarity but actually looked very nice. We did a lot of work on the bridge, choosing our times when the stream
was low enough to work from. It serves as a surface run-off and comes up as
fast as any mountain torrent. The steps and bridge is well used and seems to be much liked. Note at January 2005, due to the other access to the field being blocked, it is currently the only access point.
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