17-18 April 2004

A report by Andy Richardson
Photo by Alan Lines
 

The weekend of 17-18th of April 2004 found London WRG working on the Hereford and Gloucester Canal. With Rick A having to pull out of leading due to illness (hope you get well soon Rick) the leadership role for this dig was carried out by democratic concensus – the rule being that if you asked who was doing a job this pretty much volunteered you straight into the role. With WRGies falling like proverbial flies, and the excuses pouring in (something about work/moving/someone’s wedding, etc.) a select group made it out to Hereford and Gloucester. As usual the meeting place for minibus travel was the post box inside Waterloo Station. New John Gee promptly made Tim, Sally and myself feel decidedly underdressed by turning up in a suit since he had had a job interview that day. It also appears that not attending digs improves Martin’s timekeeping as he turned up with NJF at Waterloo at 7.15pm for a 7pm start which most will agree is not too bad going for Martin. With plenty of room in the minibus with only four of us travelling in it we set off. With the sun shining there was a lot of good cheer and optimism in the minibus including comments along the lines of “…bother I forgot to bring my shorts”. However, this optimism (at least about the weather) was rudely shattered once Tim started driving and the heavens opened (I should point out that it was the rain and not Tim’s driving that shattered our optimism). By 10.30pm the minibus arrived at Yarkhill Hall, which appeared to be deserted. However, Marcus and James had already arrived but with nothing to do but keep each other company they decided to go to bed (at opposite ends of the hall I might add). Hot on the heels of NJF Nigel arrived along with Moose and Helen and our small band was nearing completion. After unloading all of the supplies and having eaten the obligatory toast we eventually all settled down to bed only to be awakened by nocturnal noises coming from one end of the hall indicating that some of us were less tired than others.

Saturday morning arrived and with it breakfast cooked by Tim. As we loaded NJF ready for the trip to site, Bob arrived bringing the essential chocolate rations. After a short detour to the petrol station, where it appeared that everyone had to get something from the shop, we arrived at the Aylesford Park site. This is the site where we recently built the plant compound. Due to problems with contamination of the canal bed the work for the weekend mainly involved the laying of a cyclepath across the Aylesford Park site. To this end we had a fleet of plant including 5 excavators, 3 dumpers and a ride-on roller as well as the hand tools. The heavy rains and plant moving in and out had turned the ground in front of the compound into a mudbath which is not good news if you are trying to drive a ride-on roller with metal rollers front and back out of the compound. After much effort (and mocking) Moose and the roller were finally towed out of the mud and onto better ground. With the excitement over the work started with dumpers dumping, excavators excavating and rakers raking – I don’t believe there was a partridge in a pear tree but will not swear to it. With the Burco being temperamental tea break was taken slightly later than anticipated and with slightly less hair on Marcus’ hands and arms. With the sun shining through the clouds the weather on site was quite good and the work was progressing smoothly (although that is more than can necessarily be said for the cyclepath). After lunch the cyclepath laying continued although Sally and myself were now working alongside the canal excavating and levelling the ground to construct a towpath. Whilst Sally and I were away Tim managed to get one of the dumpers well and truly stuck. Eventually and with the aid of Marcus’ Land Rover Tim and the dumper were pulled out. The rest of the day passed with the cycleway laying only interrupted by the arrival of Sleepy Dave and afternoon tea.

We left site at about 6pm and made it back to the accommodation, with the rush to get changed less frantic than usual due to the reduced numbers. It seems that we left site just in time as the heaven’s opened after we got back to the hall and didn’t let up for the rest of the evening. Owing to a variety of circumstances and the number of people involved Saturday night’s dinner was provided free of charge courtesy of Mr Chips in Hereford. It seems that the owner of the chip shop (which is in the Guinness Book of Records for frying the biggest bag of chips in the world) is the former Mayor and local councillor for the ward that includes Aylesford Park and the food was his way of thanking us for our efforts. After a very nice fish supper (or derivative) London WRG settled in for an evening of what they do best – namely putting the world and particularly WRG to rights. The evening also saw the very rare instance of London WRG turning down the opportunity to go to the pub, even though Alan Lines (who had turned up late in the afternoon) offered to drive us. Instead we “chewed the fat” as well as a superb Apple Strudel, which had been supplied by Alan, before turning in for the night. At 3am noises were again drifting down from the far end of the hall, however the rhythmic pumping was due to a deflated mattress.

Sunday morning saw the unusual site of me in the kitchen cooking breakfast for everyone. After breakfast and having cleared up and prepared lunch we headed out to site where we continued the work from the previous day. We were joined by local Community Service Volunteers who were putting in a few hours on the cyclepath as well. With Helen feeling reassured that in a site the size of Aylesford Park the chances of putting a dumper in the cut was pretty remote she had agreed to be retrained to drive dumpers. She then spent the day terrorising the Community Service mob by delivering the cyclepath bedding material to them. Sunday also saw Bob trying to outdo Tim by getting a dumper stuck not once but twice (although he will argue that it was only stuck once since on the other occasion he managed to drive it out even if it was over the shiny, new cyclepath). The plan was to leave site at about 4pm but with the field still very wet and muddy from the rain the dumpers were starting to have trouble delivering the material to the top of the hill by early afternoon. This meant that we called it a day earlier than expected and left site at about 3pm with the heaven’s again threatening to open. Back at the hall a quick clean up and the hall was emptied by 4.30pm. All that was then left was the drive back home for everyone including the four in NJF. Apart from a bit more rain to contend with, a quick stop at Over Basin to look at a completed part of the restoration work, and a traffic jam on the M40 the journey back into London was pretty uneventful and NJF managed to meet up with Martin at Waterloo without any problems.

Thanks to Tim for nominally being the leader, Moose for bringing along the food, others for the lunch preparations, Mr Chips for Saturday’s supper, Adrian and the locals for their help and onsite organisation, Sally and Tim for driving NJF up there and everyone who turned up and made it a good weekend.

Andy Richardson