A Tale Of Two Sites
Friday night saw two vans and numerous cars disgorge thirsty navvies into the pub adjacent to the accommodation at Dymock (The second van need not have worried about arriving at five to closing time!)
Saturday morning saw the normal faffing about and the customary moving of the brick pile ..
.. until the real work began. One of the jobs was to expose the remains of the aqueduct below Oxenhall lock so that an engineering survey could be undrertaken.
Another team went to the Newent station site to continue the tree clearance and to tirfor out the roots. Fencing was also erected at the old railway overbridge.
The amount of people on the dig saw the unprecededted site of people queuing for their lunch
Back at the aqueduct ...
... steps were built down to the stream ...
... from where its parlous state could be seen.
Martin and Adrian watch from the safety of the Bailey bridge.
Meanwhile further up the canal another team were clearing the canal bed of felled trees
A view of the canal
Yet another job was to profile the canal bed below Oxenhall lock
A view of the lock - its nearly finished!!
Back at the aqueduct it was getting a bit wet ...
... so Martin decided to plug the leak and get very wet in the process.
Nigel decides to have a go on the excavator ...
.. as the clearance work got completed.
Martin surpassed himself with the quantitiy of meat in the evening meal, even the 25 wrgies couldn't finish it !!
A special cake was baked to celebrate Marcus's birthday
Tha evening session in the pub became very blurred!
Back on site on Sunday and the H & G Trust had made the unprecededted decision to trash one of their caravans ...
... a job that was carried out with great entheusiasm ..
and burnt on a 'small and controlled' fire.
Martin took a small group up to the tunnel ...
... whilst the caravan group were getting a bit carried away.
Sunday afternoon saw most of the volunteers at the station site where the remaining felled trees were burnt and the last of the fencing erected.
Caravan, what caravan?
The aqueduct after the survey had been carried out. we also cleared the sides and the bed of the stream.
Elanor finally got a go at the excavator 'blue' ...
... I hope we let her out first !!
An excellent weekend.
Additional photos by Ed and Alan