UKH

Hi all

One very simple but very important message for anyone climbing at Wintour's Leap, which I've mentioned before but it may have got lost in other access messages.  If you are parking on the main road in Woodcroft, please park wholly on the road - please DON'T park on the pavement anywhere in the village.  This applies to vans too - yes you will stick out further into the road than parked cars, but that's not a problem as the road is effectively single lane anyway.  This issue is causing considerable aggravation among some of the residents - even a slight encroachment on the footpath can mean a wheelchair or mobility scooter is forced out onto the road.  

Thanks very much

Rick 

BMC Wye Valley Access Rep

Thanks for your efforts. 

is there any alternative parking with a slightly longer walk in? I went to Shorncliff instead a few Sundays ago as the village was heaving with climbers' vans and didn't want to add to the problem. I assume it's so busy as people aren't lift sharing (good thing) but seems unfair on the poor locals?

There's Lancaut lane, but that's full by mid-morning too. Some of the creative parking down there on Sunday was pushing it a bit.

Possibly worth mentioning that it is also illegal to block the path.

Al

Hi Oliver, if you drive back towards Chepstow there's often parking near the Tutshill Church ( probably more on Saturday than Sunday for obvious reasons!) - from where the Southern approach that takes you underneath Fly Wall would be best ( probably about 20 mins)

Cheers

Rick

Hi all

In advance of the bank holiday weekend I want to reiterate the reminder not to park on the pavement anywhere in Woodcroft.  In addition, it’s also become clear in recent weekends that the sheer number of climbers’ cars parking in Woodcroft at weekends is causing a lot of inconvenience and ill-feeling even when done legally.  The problem is that there ends up being a very long stretch of effectively single-track road with no passing places (other than a couple of side road entrances), resulting in something approaching gridlock.  While climbers have parked near the old Rising Sun for many years without problems, the “perfect storm” of understandable wariness about car-sharing, restrictions at climbing walls and a lot of new lower grade sport routes in the quarry (and a new guide to them) have made this year exceptional. 

I would therefore ask that – at weekends – climbers firstly always use the Lancaut Lane parking places if there are spaces available (for those who don’t know, it’s the turning on the left heading north, about 200 yards north of the village, with a big carved peregrine falcon at the first parking bay).  If this is full, and the roadside in the village is already filling with cars, please consider driving south towards Tutshill where there are fewer houses and less pressure (see my last posting above), and make a slightly longer walk-in, or choose another crag.  Finally, those of us lucky enough to live reasonably nearby could consider walking or cycling to the crag rather than adding to the problem.

Cheers

Rick

Another really helpful and detailed update from Rick. Many thanks Rick. And a great advert for BMC access volunteers. Such a contrast from some of the BMC bashing on other threads.

Martin

Thanks for the reminder Rick. I was walking up through Woodcroft Quarry last week and stopped to chat to the owner of the house next to it. He did reiterate the annoyance which is being caused to local residents with the inconsiderate parking, especially to those who have mobility issues who live on the main road.

He also said that the code is now widely known in the local area. He did mention a funny story of noise coming from the top of the quarry late one evening. He went to investigate and to ask the people to quieten down and said he was surprised to find it was a group of teenagers playing monopoly by headtorch

Thanks again for all the work you do.

Time to change the code?

You can also just slide the bolt open with your finger. 

Anyways, if the code is going to spread like wildfire among the locals who want access for their wandering, dog-walking, whatever they do etc. then it won't ever take long for the local youths to find it out. 

Would it be more effective to have a controlled mailing list of people (ala Fairy Cave) and a regular code-change?