A good turnout of about a dozen of us arrived in Dymock on Friday evening and immediately headed for the Beachamp Arms (so very badly situated right behind the hall!), where enough beer was drunk to make the publican worried about the following night.

We made our way to House Lock the following morning after an admirable breakfast cooked by Alison. We were given five main tasks for the weekend. One group tackled the finishing off of the offside wing wall below the lock with some rough (and some not so rough) stone walling. Another bunch worked on a dry stone retaining wall opposite. This was a messy job (beloved by some) involving mining for clay, then puddling it in a bucket - not because the bucket had a hole, but to make it the right consistency to glue/seal the stones in position.

Yet more people attacked the offside lock wall below the gate after moving scaffolding and positioning Acrow props. Substantial chiseling out and the fitting of new stones (cut to fit with a brick saw and fixed to adjacent stone work with stainless dowels) was done.

Using Essex WRG's Tirfor (borrowed with permission) a stump was removed from the nearside lock wall, the newly rebuilt brick outhouse being used as an anchor point. Not all the stump ended up in the lock, but the bit that did was lassoed and pulled out (hard work as it still had a coping stone in its grasp!). Being enthused by success, the team moved on to the next stump which is rooted into a substantial part of the lock side.

Work was halted by the locals who weren't ready for the demolition required to remove this stump; but not before several coping stones had been removed together with the layer beneath. The stones were marked on the plan and numbered accordingly, a couple of mistakes leaving us feeling that some of us need to go back to infant school to re-learn basic numbers and letters!

Last, and probably least, the fifth task was more of a self-appointed one - disposing of a large bonfire shaped pile of stumps, etc. The resulting blaze had then to be carefully watched to make sure it was "safe".

Martin cooked an excellent chicken thing and treacle tart for supper, after which we went to test the beer reserves of the Beachamp Arms (sufficient as it turned out).

Sunday dawned as usual, with breakfast following. Three of our company who happened to be bell-ringers went next door to the church to help two local ladies ring the bells for morning service. The locals were appreciative of this, as five out of six bells is better than two! On site, things progressed much as the day before, with both wing walls being completed before knocking off time and the journey home to London.