80 degrees inside the van made the usual Friday traffic almost unbearable: any weight I’d recovered since returning from India I sweated off that afternoon. Started well by doing the weekend shopping in the morning, but by the afternoon a visit to check that Marcus still had his nose in his college books, and a last minute check of the emails found the number of volunteers had doubled from 7 to 14! Still made it to Waterloo, even if they now send you the wrong way round the roundabout ...well it has been a year! But nearly didn’t make it to the 'Bell' as those of us still awake in the front seat will testify.

I’d been forewarned about the prospect of a chamber clearance under three feet of water, and so it seems had everyone else, being unable to find a spare hiding place in the van for my own wellies! All but Andi seemed grateful to BITM for clearing the wellie depth silt from beneath the KL15 crane. Besides which we managed to convince Neil that our efforts would be better employed reconstructing the bywash and head of Valley lock.

Now there’s a lovely word....reconstruction - and it seems most of LWRG are equally well acquainted with its old friend....demolition! So as Saturday was spent measuring, photographing, then breaking out the upright weir stones, we were glad to find that we were quite literally pulling apart the supporting brickwork. Hats off to Rick & Richard who judging by the constant sound of bolster vs mortar, or should that have been vs gunmetal, didn’t quite have it so easy preparing the offside gate recess for Phill to re-brick.

A baking hot Sunday and after a morning spent replacing the supporting brickwork, the resetting of the weir stones progressed rapidly after lunch, leaving only one more for NWPG to lift into place and the rest to grout. Tim amazed us all when he put the camera down for the afternoon and took up a trowel, and even surprised himself by raising the entrance culvert brickwork a few more courses. We're not sure whether the journey of a very large tree down the steep valley sides had anything to do with the arrival of the chainsaw team at the end of the day, but Tenko & Graham did a fine job of knocking up timber supports to protect the freshly laid weir stones.

My thanks to everyone who came along over the weekend, I know our work was greatly appreceiated by Neil and the countless visitors to Chalford taking advantage of the attractive surroundings via the re-opened towpath. Not only were we seen as an alternative to the local book stall, but you can be sure we took their minds off the fact that now it's not just their water bills that they receive through their gas supplier... after a failed experiment by Severn Trent Water left 16 miles of Transco gas main through the valley a little damp...

Matt Taylor