New Seat at Hilton

It is just 12 months since the opening of the Hilton Greenway, a new off-road section of NCN Route 549, which runs along the Dove Valley to Uttoxeter from Hilton, where it links with NCN Route 54 the Derby to Burton-upon-Trent Route.  The path was constructed by local property developers St. Modwen plc as a section 106 payment.
Our contibution was to put in a seat for the benefit of weary cyclists and pedestrians, and today was the day to do this, before the Winter weather sets in. This time last year the path was covered by 5"  of snow.
Since the path has not  been formally adopted by Derbyshire County Council as yet, we do not have keys for the locked bollards  and therein lay our first problem. The borrowed keys did not fit any of the locks at the Egginton end, but we found eventually that they did fit the locks at The Mease end.
Problem number two was that we could not extract the bollards from their holes in the ground, but after much huffing and puffing, and few judicious clouts with a sledge hammer, we finally got them free to allow the trailer carrying the new seat to pass through.
Installing the seat was then child's play by comparison.

Here we see Phil Harris taking a turn at digging the hole for the legs of the seat, whilst John Ratcliffe (left) and Nick Potter (right) take a breather and offer advice.

And here is a picture of the finished seat which is situated half way along the path,  so that from it, you can see along both legs of the path.

The seat faces South and will be a popular resting place for the increasing numbers of people using the path. It has been sponsored by Don Amott and is dedicated to the memory of Tony Weavers, one time Chief Executive of Don Amott's Leisure Kingdom. A memorial plaque will be fitted to the seat.


And here we are at this time last year ..........................................

................................. well wrapped up against the bitter winter weather. What a wonderful selection of hats!