26-27 February 2000

Another weekend, another dig at Over for London WRG. meeting up with the rest of the group in the Royal Exchange pub we found that the work list (i.e. wish list) read like something prepared for the builders of the Egyptian pyramids. A few jars later we returned to the five star village hall for forty winks before site.

On site the next day the first job was to prop up the shuttering a bit more to prevent a repetition of the bulging/leaking that had blighted the previous pour. After a brief tea break a concrete lorry appeared and with the help of the JCB 3CX the last of the concrete on the short limb was poured. While some of us were working Marcus decided that Blue the excavator was obviously way to clean and managed to get it completely stuck while trying to excavate behind the long limb of the wall, a couple of hours later, a few of the locals lovingly restored pallets, many photos and the threat of the 805, Harry managed to extricate the well mired machine.

The afternoon was spent laying crusher and terram for the H&G Trust's compound, painting the site hut and more behind wall excavation, this time Marcus decided to go "over the top" as opposed to "round the end". Strangely we managed to leave site while it was still light, not sure what went wrong there, DP must be slipping in his old age. A brilliant team effort on dinner and a few pints in the pub wound up a very productive day, everyone was too knackered to drink very much!

Back to site the next day, shuttering was struck from the short limb and a start made on re-electing it on the long limb, crusher was laid behind the walls, Adrian deined to turn up on site and do some work (apparently the girlfriend was over from Norway or somewhere, as if that's a valid excuse!) and promptly got Blue stuck again while puddling clay behind the gabions, again it was Harry to the rescue. Come 3.30pm and the weather had got significantly worse and it was decided to pull off site before someone injured themselves.

About the only thing I can say about the dig is that everyone worked bloody hard and we put a real dent in the work list, a few (lot?) more digs like this and we may get this job finished.

Ed Walker