Pennywort Removal along the Canal and Riverside areas - started in July 2023

After receiving training and permission from our partners Canal and River Trust, volunteers have made a start on removing this invasive weed which clogs up canals and destroys native wildlife. It starves water plants of light and sucks the oxygen fish need to breathe. With no fish to eat, wildlife like kingfishers suffer.

October 23

The Weed boat was spotted at Barrow Weir on 6th October - Jason, has one more week to get to Pillings Lock.

You can see huge piles of pennywort along along the river banks towards Mountsorrel except in a few places where the river is too shallow for the boat to edge close enough to drop its load safely.

Summer 2023 

Volunteers have been out on the water for several tasks between July and September clearing as much of the pennywort as possible from along the canal section running thru the village. They also worked opposite The Moorings Pub on 2 occasions to help keep the bridge and Deep Lock Approach clear.

However, with the weed boat due to pass thru Barrow from about mid September  - having finished at Sileby Lock approx 10th September, our tasks are put on hold until they have removed the largest of the floating mats.  The weed boat is currently removing 100 tonnes of weed each week.

August 2023

August  2023

July 2023

Volunteers have made a start.

Pennywort is dragged out and left on the river or canal side for a few days to allow any wildlife trapped within it to escape back into the water. It is then moved into local hedgerows to decompose.

Work on Installing the Sleeper Planters was finally able to start in August.

Volunteers worked on various Sundays in late August, September and October to install 100 sleepers and move over 6 tonnes of topsoil down onto platform 1 - all by carrying it by hand down the 4 flights of steps - all really hard and tiring work.

The new 60m long planter will have new all year round plants installed over the next few months, with more to be added in spring and summer next year.

15 October - Planted up

15 October - Planted up

8th October - last of the Topsoil

1st October 3rd lot of topsoil

24 Sept - Our 2nd Sunday of moving Topsoil

27 Aug 23 - Painting the back of the sleepers

 20 Aug 23 - Finishing the installation of the sleepers

20 Aug 23 - Starting the installation of the sleepers

February2025

After a few weeks of waiting for the temperature to pick up sufficiently to allow the varnish used during installation to set correctly, two brand new sections of artwork were fixed in place at Barrow Train Station in late Feb 2025

After some preparation of the fence by the Station Adoption team (cleaning and painting the fence along platform 2), and the new artwork sections, (complete with 50 new beautifully vibrant hand painted flowers created by the Barrow community), a Fox, a Fox Cub and 2 Hares, have now joined the original Muntjac trial piece installed back in October 2023.

Thank you so much to everyone who has joined us so far at workshops and have contributed to this colourful bit of community fun. (Spot your own flower, marked with your initials on the platform next time you’re passing).

New workshops will take place in March 2025 to paint 40+ more flowers to join the scene. The artwork is just one part of a host of improvements and initiatives made by the Station Adoption team to improve the appearance of Barrow upon Soar Railway station.

The pieces appearing on the fence on platform 2 are essentially part of one large picture being added to bit by bit as we go along. So far 50 artists have contributed (and still counting). The flowers are just beautiful and so varied. Go take a closer look and you will see what I mean.

So there is more to come: there are more plants, more flowers, more animals, more colour (what ‘more’ colour?) all connecting the pieces together.

The test artwork will be monitored for how it withstands the weather over winter. If all goes well, in March 2024, the volunteers will be asking to extend the range of pieces and will be looking for community groups to come forward to help. Please get in touch if you are interested.

The completed artwork was installed on 22nd October by volunteers.

Opposite - A second workshop was held on 4th October 2023 for Barrow Scouts to complete the flowers - and they really look amazing!

Our volunteer and artist, Stewart, with the artwork during the first workshop with Barrow Scouts.

Opposite - the flowers after that workshop - what a great selection of colours and designs - Well done all!

Work was approved to install a small test piece of artwork in June 2023. 

Volunteers will need to ensure the materials chosen are robust enough to resist the rain, wind, including wind rush from the trains on the fast line, and the sun.

The artwork will also be checked each month to ensure it is safely secured to the fence.

Volunteers hope to install many more pieces of artwork, following the same design work, along the whole length of the platform in future years.

It is hoped that the whole community can join, in starting with Barrow Scouts helping to paint the flowers used in the first piece.