Many of you, like me, will have been walking with small groups of friends while our club walks have been restricted during the pandemic. There are several picturesque footpaths and lanes around my village of Dormansland, but a recent walk was a trip down Memory Lane for two friends - Ken Clare (he of the Krew fame) and John Nathan, who were part of Ken's Krew that had overcome a very sticky problem near Dormansland in the wet autumn of 2009.

This had been along a particularly bad stretch of footpath that was an impassable quagmire of deep mud every winter. The Romans had the answer to this problem - which was to lay logs across the mud. Known as a Corduroy Road, the logs float on the surface, drying out the mud underneath to form a solid walkway.

Ken's Krew laid this corduroy road over several Tuesdays in the autumn of 2009

Not only did it survive the winter, but by the next summer the corduroy road had become a lovely new feature of a local walk.

The corduroy road in the spring of 2010

Over the years, the gaps between the logs gradually filled so that the road became an almost smooth surface. Ken and John (along with Lisa and Barbara) were keen to accept my invitation to come and see how well this corduroy road had fared after eleven years.

John Nathan's photo of Ken inspecting the corduroy road after 11 years.

Ken and John were rightly proud of their work, as should all the other members of that team, and I assured them that it was very much appreciated by all the locals and other walkers who use this path.

You can read more about Corduroy Roads here.

I have led this, as a club walk, several times over the years and, if you would like to do it yourself, you can find it in our website Walks Library here.

Just click on the Half Day Walks and zoom in on Dormans Station to select walk Dormansland-H02. You can print a map and download a gpx file if needed.

Well done again to Ken's Krew and their continued good work.

Adam Wilson