The dig started as is almost traditional now, Rick phoning to say he was going to be late, unusually so late he wouldn’t make it to site till lunchtime on Saturday! Met up with everyone else at Waterloo and headed out towards the Thames & Severn, stopping at Target roundabout to collect Sally, who had flown back from Switzerland especially for the dig! Emergency phone call from Adrian saying the pub opposite the hall had turned into restaurant so Martin kindly drove us down and back to the pub down the road. Sapperton Village hall is definitely slightly higher class than we have had recently, it even has showers!

After what can only be described as a rather civilised breakfast time we finally made it to site. After unloading the van, Martin, Natalie and Glenn set out to the yard to collect the bricks, cement and wood needed from the compound. Meanwhile those of us left on site split into two groups, fencing and brickies. The fencing gang set to with the mattocks to whip up the holes for the new fence, much discussion entailed as to whether we were working to a male or female 18 inches! Progress went well except for the discovery of various lumps of concrete, which had to be tackled with the wrecking bar. However initial progress on the brick laying was distinctly slower as it was a definite case of how many wrgies does it take to decide how high the wall should be! Finally the return of the van, and the ever-essential tea break ensured the work progressed rather more quickly. The uprights of the fence were soon concreted in and the brickies were soon busy laying, trying to ignore the fact the water seemed to be rising! Post lunch it was time to battle the reeds past the river and also battle with some scrub removal along the towpath. This filled the rest of the afternoon with another brick collection run thrown in for good measure. End of site signalled the return to the accommodation for dinner and dig report writing before the ever traditional jaunt to the pub.

Sunday morning
Despite the rain we arrived on site to finish the fencing and the brickwork.
Rick, Bob and Robert had to demolish one wing wall to build up the other wing wall and it rained
We almost finished the post and rail fence but it rained
We were two courses short of finishing the brick work in the bywash but it rained
Lunch was held in the minibus yes you guess because it rained
All in all it turned out to be a great debut organised dig by me.
Big thanks to all those who turned up. Did I mentioned it rained all day on the last day.

Ed Walker
Sally Nutt
‘Tunji Faleye