So many wanted to travel by van on the Friday that it looked as if would be a seriously cosy trip to the accommodation at Melksham. Another van was not available and nobody wanted to go by car.

The situation was saved by Martin stoically offering to take his car and get the shopping, and by a couple of last minute withdrawals. Even so, cosy it certainly was with the kit, tools, personal gear and Rick packed in the rear and the rest of us taking up the rest of the van. The journey was fast and funny thanks to the accompanying repartee and banter helped along with jelly babies. Testosterone levels rose when a similar van full of women constantly drew alongside. Marcus was in his element!

Although instructions said meet at the nearest pub, that was found to be in nightclub mode, complete with bouncer, and we weren't, so we gathered at the watering hole next door, the King's Arms.

The accommodation was called the Rachel Fowler Centre. It sounded like a leisure centre but surprise! turned out to be an ex-United Reform church and most of us slept in a large room with a very nice organ at one end, but may be that's the norm for some! A few others slept in a smaller room near an even smaller kitchen where the usual toast party was held on the Friday night.

An advance party went to site ages before the rest of us were up and without breakfasts. The van had to make two runs to and from site each time, as unfortunately we were 20-30 minutes away and had a stroppy farmer and therefore restricted parking space to cope with. The concrete mixer also lived a van run away near Devizes and went to and fro in the van.

The deeply rutted and muddy path to the canal had been transformed by gravel into a broad dry road. (but vehicles not allowed along it) All kit was walked down and over stiles too (see ref to farmer)

There were 3 main areas of work. The spillweir pipe, the paddle gear chamber and scrub-bashing.

The advance party were happy to see us arrive, or maybe it was their breakfast, albeit between bread. They had got to grips with the pipe, which instead of concrete was now orange plastic (easier to move) and in place. The ground needed building up above it to level, a brick arch built directly over it and brick work around it at the canal end. It actually needed a lot more than that but that was this weekend's job.

Marcus was happy raising clouds of dust as he flattened each layer with a vibrating machine (just up his street?) which looked a lot handier than a roller. Andy R seemed to be supervising and listening to the rugby (Saturday). Ed made mortar and other useful jobs and on the Sunday Nigel and Sally made an arch, working from each side of the pipe. Clev-ver!

The bricking on the lock site was to make half an arch in the lock where the paddle sluice would be. Martin and Sal, his help on the Saturday, worked on this, while some of us at various times cleaned bricks. More clouds of dust.

Contractors had done some heavy clearing of the canal bed leaving a mess of vegetation to be burned. Scrub bashing went on all weekend. Unfortunately the scrub hit back and many were the scratches, runs of congealed blood and scars shown in the pub that night. More serious were the long thorns with which some trees defended themselves. Richard Cool was pierced in the leg to a depth of well over an inch and limped the weekend away. (ask to see the thorn!)

The main fire was so hot that it singed Moose's beard and an eyebrow. (Actually a rather neat trim Moose)

So bloody, dusty and sweaty we went back to the hall to wash in the washbasins. At least we had hot water!

A major disaster was running out of gas in BOTH cylinders and no garage being able to replace them in the size we wanted. Having 3 bottles was vetoed in favour of ensuring replacement as soon as one was emptied!

There were some new faces for the weekend. Edward Higgins joined us at Waterloo for the weekend, and Peter Platt and Sam and a 'local', Rob, from the Chippenham branch on Saturday. Hope to see some of you again!

Although the church was no longer used by the original sects it had a new congregation and so we had to be out and cleaned up by 10am on Sunday morning. But it was nice not to have too much to do when we got back from site on the Sunday. There was little food left over, everybody paid up and a small profit will buy the material for Sally’s knife roll and another potato peeler.

Thanks to Sally and IC Andy for doing the least popular meal slot (breakfast) and to Martin and IC Andy (again!) for helping me prepare what I thought a simple meal (cottage pie) but with vegetable preparation that seemed to go on and on. (Hence the desire for another peeler!) Thanks too to the technical team Andy R, Marcus and Ed, and to all the others for coming.