The Trust continued its clearance of pennywort from the Baddow ditches on Saturday.

This session started at Barnes Mil where the group met before crossing over the lock and walking across the very wide water meadow towards Great Baddow. It was quite a hike carrying all of the gear - and the lunch! - and the prize on the far side was a ditch full to overflowing with pennywort. Even us hardened pennywort pickers were surprised by the amount, and it was still growing vigorously even in March!

Working in ditches is more difficult than the main river because of the steeply sloping banks and the overhanging vegetation - quite a number of trees had been felled by westerly gales and were still sprouting branches in all directions. This coupled with clumps of prickly hedges and boggy patches tended to slow things up a bit. The pennywort team is very experienced and it wasn't long before we had a continuous pile of weed along a hundred yards of bank.

For the most part it was possible to reach the weed on the far bank, especially as its matted nature allowed large amounts to be extracted in one go. For the fragments, it has to be said, the coracle would have been a help, although one or two more daring team members managed the crossing to the opposite bank ; one by means of leaping over a narrow part and another by climbing over a fallen tree!

The group was fully occupied throughout as the bank side piles proved. One could only reflect on job well done although conscious that it was unfinished business. There was no further pennywort to the west but there are still numerous patches along a 500metre stretch to the east where the ditch meets up with the north/south ditch which we cleared previously. There were signs that odd fragments of weed are finding their way into the main river so, despite our hard work, and we still have a problem

But our volunteers are not to be defeated.

And some made easy going of it

At first glance it seemed that we had come to a dry ditch, but investigation only 20 metres away showed that we had come to the right place - a flooded ditch with an almost complete covering of pennywort. But, used to the task, our volunteers got to work, and it wasn't long before impressive results were evident

Before	After

There was no shortage of pennywort to work on, and spreading out along the route of the ditch steady progress was made.

Before	After

The enthusiasm was such that only an insistent tone of voice managed to get the work suspended and the refreshments started. They were not completely finished - our party failed to eat everything.

Back to work after the break, and it was then time to look at a bigger drainage ditch nearby. The situation was depressing with a huge amount of pennywort in the deep wide ditch, just waiting to be flushed down into the main Navigation by heavy rain. But our volunteers are not the sort to let an opportunity pass by, so back to work they went on the weed most likely to be flushed downstream

Finally, and bearing in mind the fact that the Raider had to be paddled back to Sandford, it was time to go.

Another good day's work.

Our task for today was to deal with what we thought was going to be small patches of rogue pennywort in the Beeleigh area, with most of our effort to be devoted to the part of the Blackwater that flows into the Long Pond just below the Beeleigh floodgates.

The refreshment break, enforced on those who would otherwise have carried on regardless, was indeed a well-earned break. Luckily there were sufficient refreshments to reward the hard work that was being done.

After the break, as so often is the case, it was back to more of the same, trying to ensure that every piece of visible pennywort was removed from the water and placed somewhere where it would rot.

Sadly the coracle suffered serious damage (causing the occupant to make for the bank p.d.q.!)

Meanwhile the main task was completed thoroughly

And finally the task was complete.

How we found it	How we left it
An excellent morning's work!	"We'll meet again!"