7-8 February 2004

A report by Liz Wilson
Photo by Tim Lewis

Our weekend started at the toasty Yarkhill Village Hall complete with wood stove, which was enough to keep the pyros among us busy all evening. As the nearest pub was a bit of a trek away in an unknown direction, the Lwrgies had the perfect excuse to bring more beer than usual. How do you do it guys? You must be substituting clothes or something!

The added appeal of the accommodation was the ‘two-door’ challenge. It is a law of the universe that if two doors are hung next to each other, wrgies will try to fit in the gap between them. The loud ‘crack’ and scream ‘Ow my ribs’ did not deter the next challenger. And I am sure that the lack of success on the part of everyone will not stop us trying again next time…

What with the stove and the food and the beer during the evening, we were all soon melting and I know that by the next morning I was looking forward to some fresh air. And fresh it was. In fact it was very fresh, at least, outside in the car park it was; the site was a different matter. By the time we got there, nobody was using the word ‘fresh’ anymore (more like fookin’ freezin’) as we scrambled to put on every item of clothing we had brought to try and keep out the bitter wind. It was really windy, and pretty unrelenting at that. On the plus side, it gave lots of opportunity for puerile ‘wind’ related jokes such as “Ooh err, isn’t it windy”, “Oops sorry, rather too much Butcombe Gold last night” – you get the idea….

The actual canal did not feature very highly over the weekend as the work was concentrated in the adjoining field. There had been concerns that the field might be too flooded to work in, but apart from a few puddles there was nothing to worry about… so we set to work building a compound for use by the local canal group. As I understood it, the fencing and hardcore for the compound was funded by the local council, with the agreement that the local canal group would find volunteers to put it all together. The canal group could then use the compound for their own plant/tools/materials during renovation of the canal, after which the council would use it for themselves. The field will eventually house a playground/recreation area; which should hopefully increase the use and appreciation of the nearby canal.

Over the two days we had umpteen truckloads of hardcore delivered to the site that was shifted by Martin in the dumper (who was driving like a man on a mission). Meanwhile, Marcus in an excavator removed the topsoil between the compound and the gates to allow for a more solid drive to be made. A white geo-textile was then laid (which I think looks a lot like snow in the pictures) with hardcore to top it off. Sally did the same inside the area of the compound, with Nigel dumpering the excess topsoil away.

This left the rest of us the job of putting together the giant mechano set that was to become the security fencing for the compound. The fencing was brand new, so there weren’t even any panels; just bits of metal and lots of bolts. The bolts were quite nifty (it don’t take much to impress me!) in the way the nuts tightened up and the end twisted off to make it more secure. And what with the cold wind, we were quite literally ‘freezing our nuts off’.

The nature of the fence meant that the four sides of the compound had to meet up exactly so precise measurement techniques were employed (left a bit, right a bit) and the fact that it was a semi-permanent structure also made us a bit more diligent (cue Moose and his magnetic level). The end result was something to be proud of – it’s not often that we get the chance to build something this visible. The fence didn’t exactly ‘blend in’ to the field either so it would have looked pretty naff if it had been wonky.

In between jumping up and down to keep warm, we huddled round the burco to drink tea and get out of the wind, but without much success – have you ever tried to shelter 10 people behind a burco? Claire’s personal solution to combat cold was to borrow as many clothes from as many people as possible. Her wardrobe tally at one point was: Taz’s t-shirt, Leslie’s t-shirt, James’ jeans, my fleece, my gloves and her brother’s jacket. She was a bona-fide Michelin man.

By Sunday afternoon, the last few loads of hardcore were being shifted into place so a group of us wandered over to the canal to inspect the work on the outfall that lwrg completed back in April 2003. The new brickwork culvert had blended wonderfully into its surroundings – so much in fact that we walked right passed it and ended up walking the towpath twice. Having not seen it before, I was very impressed with how it looked – almost like it had been there 100 years (100 years in the good way).

All in all, a successful and enjoyable weekend. It’s just left to say thanks to Tim for organising, to Sal for driving the bus on the scenic route around London, and to Moose and Maria for feeding us all.

Liz Wilson