This was promised by the local society to be a dig on a virgin site and it developed into a dig that harked back to the good old days on the Basingstoke (allegedly). The main site for the weekend was Moredon lower lock on the North Wilts branch of the canal but due to problems with pumps work ended up being done at a couple of other sites as well.

The Saturday started out with a number of pump problems that meant that the group was split into a number of teams, one making a start on clearing the brickwork on the lock, another going off to put up some fencing at another site and the remaining completely mad people taking the scaffolding down on the aqueduct. This scaffolding seemed to have been put up by a team of mad monkeys and so an "interesting" time was had by Adrian, Martin and I as scaffolding disassembly over ~3' of water is always a hair raising experience. Upon completing the days work we repaired to the hall for dinner and a couple of pints to settle our nerves.

The Sunday started better with enough pumps to drain the lock and so the whole London WRG team carried on clearing the old brick work so that brick laying. This work was of the old school of canal restoration as all it involved was shoveling shit and exposing the existing brickwork, none of these fancy new skills we've been diligently learning were needed, just dedication.

Thanks to everyone for coming along, I believe that everyone enjoyed themselves and it looks like we could be going back to the Wilts & Berks at some point in the not to distant future.

Quote of the dig: "I've never seen Rupert's big sausage" (Alison)

"I'm not sure I can quite visualise what Rupert's long sausage shaped thing looks like", Alison said straight-faceidly, as we sat downing a few pints. The resultant hilarity probably had the publican wondering about our sanity, but he wasn't bothered so long as we bought a few more rounds - even if we didn't intend to leave the pub by the "back door". The quote had led on from a discussion about fuel filters, and the problems we had been having with the big 5" pump that day. Why such a big pump? Well, initially we had been using a small 2" pump in an attempt to empty about 4ft of water out of the chamber of Moredon Lower Lock on the Wilts & Berks Canal (North Wilts Branch). But we decided that if we relied on the small pump, it might just get the job done by the next millennium, and we only had the weekend...

Our work was distributed over several sites. The main site, where most of us worked, was at the lock. Or rather, the remains of the lock. About 3ft of lock wall were still existent, but the top of the walls was covered in earth. So our task was to dig the soil off the top of the walls till we reached sound brickwork. This would allow rebuilding work to take place. Some of us were amazed at how thick the lock walls had been built - up to 5 stretcher-courses thick in places. We managed to expose most of the brickwork, but some people got rather wet feet. Needless to say, there was the inevitable brick cleaning and stacking taking place for those (myself included) who were too lazy to do some shoveling.

The second site was at Moredon aqueduct, where some scaffolding needed taking down. Apparently this required the dismantlers to pretend that they were all monkeys, trying to support their weight on vertical poles while reaching over to undo a scaffold clip. Nevertheless, both the scaffolding crew (Martin, Edd, Adrian) and the scaffolding was still alive at the end of it, so it couldn't have been that bad!

The last site was at another lock (Dunnington Bottom lock) where they were putting up a barbed wire fence. Sounded as if it went without any hiccups, except the "bonker" was very heavy...

...in contrast with the marmalade cake (or was that "marmalade sponge cake"?) that we had to celebrate my and Martin's birthdays. This was very good, despite the matches not really being up-to-the-job as candles. Oh well, that's another thing we need to buy for the catering kit.

All in all, a really good dig. After push starting the van (after Tim had left the radio on after listening to the "Archers"), we were on the road back to the Capital. On the way back, we tried to do a words/numbers brainteaser quiz that one of the W&B locals had sold us. We stand about as much chance of winning as Harold in the "Battle of Hastings" (1066, BOH) - but if we do, perhaps we could try to go "Around the World in Eighty Days" (80, ATWIED)?