Return to Dingly Dell…otherwise known as Baylham Lock on the Ipswich and Stowmarket Navigation and the site of our London wrg dig on 29th-30th September 2007. A really beautiful site made even more picturesque than last time some of us were there (back in August for a Canal Camp) by the fact that the cofferdam had bust and the river was flowing through the site again.

If you’re racking your brains trying to figure out why the name ‘Baylham’ is familiar, it’s because it’s also home to Baylham Rare Breeds farm, recently made infamous by an outbreak of Blue Tongue disease. It seemed as though the outbreak might force our dig to relocate for the weekend, but it turned out that the press were making a bit of a big deal out of not much, and the site was duly opened again in time for us to visit.

I met Martin and Helena on Friday at Tottenham Hale and we set off for Ipswich along the never-ending A12. We had two pick-ups from the station, Matthew and Colin, both new recruits to Lwrg, and then headed for Somersham Village hall to collect keys and unload the van. Hot on our heels were Nigel, Moose and Maria, who stayed at the hall while the rest of us got back in the van and headed to the supermarket. After a brief discussion as to which exit from the motorway we wanted, we found Morrisons, despite looking for Tesco or Asda. Four people made the shopping go very quickly, and we were soon back in Somersham in the Duke of Marlborough pub, which had deigned to stay open past 9pm (in contrast with the summer camp!). Glad to see that Helen had found the place after travelling in ever-decreasing circles, as had Ed and Suzie.

Saturday morning I awoke everyone gently by using the snooze function on the fire alarm. Most effective. (Note to next person using Somersham village hall – keep the kitchen door shut when cooking bacon!). After breakfast and an efficient bout of sandwich making we headed to Baylham lock, 15 minutes down the road. A beautiful sunny day awaited us.

Colin Turner greeted us with his usual cheerful smile and outlined the work for the weekend: Bricklaying and backfilling a new retaining wall (for which we’d installed the foundations back in August), demolition of the old concrete wall (lying sideways in the canal), and excavation/removal of the lock-side coping stones to enable eventual demolition and rebuilding of the lock wall.

The work to the lock was borne of Roy Sutton’s structural report from the summer, which identified that most of the wall would have to come down, as would most of the bank behind it, to a depth of 2.5m back from the lock side. This being due to some significant detachment of the brick facing from the earth behind, and a visible bowing-out of the existing wall. In short, the wall’s got a bit of a belly on it. A job for next summer!?

Maria & co set to work on the top of the lock, removing debris and starting on rolling the copers back, using Ed’s Landrover as a dead weight. Winching the Landrover closer and closer to the ditch brought a definite smile to Suzie’s face.

Helena was happily installed on the cement mixer, with occasional help from others. A steady stream of concrete and mortar kept the brickies and backfillers happy (except when they were tripping over each other). Martin did some sterling work training Mel and Matthew in bricklaying, at great sacrifice to his own addiction for it! Nigel was multi-tasking with much success as he co-ordinated bricklaying, concrete shovelling and vibrating all in equal measures.

Sleepy David and Moose jumped at the chance to have a go on the pneumatic hammer and set to work on the huge chunks of concrete which used to be a retaining wall. I can’t imagine anything less fun than breaking up 40-yr old concrete using something that looked like a toothpick, but they seemed to enjoy it.

During the day, Frank, Adrian and Graham (another new recruit) also turned up, and Mark ‘II’ Richardson put in an appearance for dinner, which was excellently provided by Melanie. Fabulous lasagne followed by scrumptious pear and apple tart. That third helping was just too good to resist…

Back to the pub where we were relegated to the garden after Mel groped an old lady and got us thrown out. Just kidding; but we did get a few sniffy looks. Probably because we hadn’t showered.

Day two was sunny again and the work continued. More moving coping stones, more bricklaying, more demolition and more sandwiches. I had to sneak off after lunch as I had to get to a wedding in London, but I am reliably informed that the brickies made good progress and got the wall up to the minimum level required to enable the complete removal of the cofferdam. Colin Turner was very pleased with our progress, and happy that he also managed to get a bit of bricklaying done himself!

Moose unfortunately sprained his ankle in the afternoon (a very passé injury if you ask me!) and had to sit with his foot in a bucket of cold water. Luckily nothing was broken but I know from (much) experience that it’s still not fun.

Apart from that I think everyone had a pretty good time, and we would certainly accept an invitation back to such a well-run and interesting site. Thank you to everyone for making it a very enjoyable dig, particularly to Mel and Frank for cooking and Martin for driving and collecting kit.

Liz Wilson