Contours Holidays head out on a conservation day to fix up a flood-damaged local trail with the Peak Park Conservation Volunteers.

Conservation Day

by Alex Jenks

Croutons, the crocheted Contours Holidays mascot, sits at the base of a spade planted in the ground. In the background, Contours are hard at work volunteering to fix a damaged trail on conservation day.

For Contours, the footpaths that criss-cross the countryside of the UK are the core of our business. The many accommodations, luggage handlers and other suppliers that we book with are all critical for getting out into the countryside, but it’s the paths themselves that draw us and our customers in the first place.

Unfortunately, with over 140,000 miles of footpath in the UK, these trails are chronically underfunded. They rely on help from volunteers to keep them from falling into disrepair.

Contours volunteer in Goose Nest Wood

We earnestly believe that businesses have a responsibility to contribute above & beyond their legal obligations, and that’s why we provide support for the trails ourselves. Of course, it’s also a great excuse to get out of the office and onto the trails on a summer’s day!

For this expedition, we set out for a stretch of trail through Goose Nest Wood, 45 minutes from our head office. This short but charming riverside amble follows the River Derwent, and features on our White Peak Way and Derwent Valley Heritage Way tours.

Erosion and overgrowth on a Peak District path

We’ve just had the wettest winter on record in the UK, with flooding and erosion all around the country. Here in Goose Nest Wood, a sizable stretch of the path had dropped into the Derwent, closing the trail entirely. It was a real struggle to clamber over the damaged section, and we were sure somebody would be in the river by the end of the day.

The team gather just beyond the point where this path through Goose Nest Wood has collapsed into the river, with a steep mass of roots preventing anyone from walking across with ease.

Further along, several trees had fallen directly across the path. These were all readily climbable for an agile ambler — but for anyone with mobility challenges, not so much.

A few other parts of the path had become much less manageable from erosion, and things were starting to look pretty overgrown, too.

A fallen tree lies across a woodland path, making it impassible for many.

Working with the Peak Park Conservation Volunteers

We set out in the tender care of our Peak Park Conservation Volunteers handler, Matty, with his assistant Ian.

Matty gave us a quick safety rundown on the various tools we’d need to set things right — mattocks, spades, root choppers and a long machete-style implement for swiping away light foliage. To our regret, he wouldn’t let us handle the chainsaw, which requires a two-week training course for certification. Terribly disappointing, but probably for the best.

Croutons masters the spade, while in the background, Contours' staff use shears to get rid of overgrown undergrowth.

Digging out the damaged path

We split up into teams, with five of us handling the largest job on the site: repairing the path where it had collapsed into the river.

After giving us a loose explanation of how to sort it out — by cutting into the bank, clearing any roots in the way, and digging down to lower the new path & reduce the incline — Matty headed off to explain the other jobs along the way.

Initially, we felt a bit unsure, intimidated by the size of the job and the gravity of the trees growing above us.

But after timidly prodding and poking for a bit, we started to get into the swing of things and shift the earth in earnest. The heavy mattocks made short work of the thick, clay-rich soil, and before long, we’d started to make some serious progress.

Croutons oversees several of the Contours team as we cut into the steep bank to dig out a new, level path for walkers to use.

Contours scour out a new path above the River Derwent.

Remedial work along the trail

Meanwhile, the rest of the team tackled a broad array of work. Two further sections needed levelling to make the path less treacherous underfoot, while brambles and lighter foliage were chopped back all the way along the trail. Without regular traffic, nature moves in quickly.

After around an hour and a half of work, we took a quick break for snacks & drinks, reflecting on the work we’d done so far and what we still had to finish up. Croutons kept an eye on the time and quickly hustled us back to work.

The Contours team take a snack break, sitting on the ground and a bench in the woods beside the Goose Nest Woods sign.

Croutons sits impatiently atop a rock at the work site, hoping the team get back to work asap.

I took this opportunity to break off from the heavy work I’d started out on and spent a little time visiting the other sites along the path. I pitched in where I could and irritated the whole crew with the camera. There’s nothing quite like a sweaty, out-of-breath photo to make everyone look their best!

Hard at work with a mattock, digging out a portion of the trail.

Even Gino, a brown labrador and part of Contours' Fuzzball Department, is at work on the conservation project, primarily as moral support.

With Croutons in the foreground, Contours use a spade to dig a clear edge to the trail.

A professional with a chainsaw adds the finishing touches

After a further hour and a half or so of work, we stopped again for lunch, before a final push to wrap up the major jobs so far. Ian stepped in with extra guidance on that tricky first section, helping us cut down even deeper into the bank. His keen eye helped us to minimise trip hazards and ensure the new path was as approachable as possible.

The last major task of the day was for Matty to tackle with the chainsaw. Several fallen tree trunks were chopped away, with sizable chunks pushed off the path and down towards the Derwent. Your esteemed blogger nearly gave themselves a hernia attempting to lift the largest such log singlehandedly — but thankfully, Customer Services Manager Ben used his dadly strength to conquer the task solo and save me from real injury.

Park Ranger Matty uses a chainsaw to cut into a large fallen tree that's blocking the way.

And further along, past the fully-closed section of the trail, a much, much larger trunk needed sorting. As it was too big to move, Matty set to work on some artisanal chainsaw sculpting, cutting into the log to create a beautiful, refined set of steps — with handrail to boot.

With a bit of guidance from Ian while Matty fetched more fuel, we were entrusted with hammering the posts into place, and much fussing was done over the appropriate height and angle of the handrail.

Contours use the cut-out section of the log to create a lower step.

Contours use a sledgehammer to drive supporting posts into the ground beside the log steps.

With the steps and railing in place, Contours use a mattock to clear the remaining undergrowth and make the new crossing accessible for all.

The final result: a walk to be enjoyed

As we wrapped up the day, most of our gang gathered to watch (and comment helpfully on) the final stages of this task. To our delight, after the finishing touches were complete, several walkers passed by, and with great ceremony they became the very first to conquer the brand-new steps. They offered unanimous praise for the results.

The collapsed path through Goose Nest Wood repaired by Contours Holidays. The intruding roots have been cut back and the path itself levelled for easy crossing.

The path has been carefully smoothed out so that it's safe to walk.

This path through Goose Nest Woods has been cleared of overgrowth and properly levelled, with a cut-in border.

So — after hours of intense labour we found ourselves returning to the start of the footpath. All fooling around aside, it was a delight to see this knackered footpath — a safety hazard, and a bugger to navigate — return to its former glory as a pleasant, gentle amble alongside a beautiful bit of the River Derwent.

Goose Nest Wood is not some astonishingly famous bit of path, and it may not even stand out on the trails that use it, but we can’t say enough how proud we are to have given something back to a local trail. We hope our customers and our neighbours will enjoy the fruits of our labours.

Contours staff pose with the new log steps.

We’re excited to be back out maintaining our local trails. Be sure to read more about our past conservation efforts, as well as our charity events in general.