|
|
|
RIVER KEY AQUEDUCT - DIARY OF A WORK PARTY ORGANISER Dec 2000 Took over the River Key Aqueduct 14/01/01 Burning scrub, clearing site 28/01/01 Burning scrub, brick recovery from wall 04/02/01 Cutting down tree branches across River Key 11/02/01 Cleaning bricks, taking out trees across the top of the aqueduct 21/02/01 Foot & Mouth epidemic started, stopping any further work on the site for a while 10/06/01 Back on aqueduct, working on pump? 12/07/01 Pulled out tree on south end of aqueduct 15/07/01 Removed top stones from aqueduct, cleared vegetation from south wall 22/07/01 Clear loose rocks from north side, finalise vegetation from south side 29/07/01 Remove tree roots, make walk-way 04/08/01 Fencing on bank 19/08/01 Clearing stumps and clearing back end of culvert 13/11/01 Putting in dam at the end of two culverts 24/11/01 Clear ditch, cut back trees, fill rest of sandbags with clay 31/11/01 Level bank on north side, clear out centre in north side of river bed 09/01/02 Finalise dam by adding clay-filled sand bags, move pump to the aqueduct 12/01/02 Try out pump 17/01/02 Make walk way with tree trunks & pallets 18/01/02 View & purchase container for £350 + VAT. Lorry got stuck in mud trying to deliver it and had to be pulled out by Dave's Discovery 25/01/02 Built walk way. Tidy up. 03/02/02 Moving trailer from Morningside to aqueduct 14/03/02 Scaffolding delivered 17/03/02 Fix fencing, clear wood out of river, picked up 16 scaffolding boards & gantry 04/04/02 Alan Tanzel came to help put up scaffolding 07/04/02 Fitted hoist beam etc, tried out hoist & generator 14/04/02 Hoist training, painting container, strip down pump, measure for finger guard 22/04/02 modify scaffolding, fit and drill finger guard 25/04/02 Paint container roof, safety covers on scaffolding, measure for hanging wheelbarrows, set up kitchen 28/04/02 New Honda pump trial 05/05/02 Another pump trial - now working, 16 barrows loads taken out 11/05/02 60 barrow loads dug out of centre culvert 12/05/02 86 barrows of silt dug out of centre culvert 23/05/02 62 barrows of silt dug out of centre culvert 01/06/02 Kingdom coach tour party to look around the aqueduct 22/06/02 Scrub bashing 30/06/02 Digging out bricks from culvert 15/07/02 Digging out mud from south end of culvert 21/07/02 Digging out centre collapse in culvert & south end pier, Receive dumper truck 22/07/02 Start work on dumper truck 28/07/02 Bricklaying right hand side of centre pier - south side & beginning of left hand side of centre pier. Lay bricks in layers to repair centre collapse, dug out 61 barrows of silt from centre culvert 04/08/02 Excess rain stopped digging because of water level being too high 15/08/02 Build scaffold platforms for Ron Robertson on south side 18/08/02 Dug 40 barrows out of centre culvert, rebuilding left hand centre culvert pier on south side 25/08/02 Finalise centre culvert roof brickwork, rebuilding south pier 01/09/02 Building south pier, completed digging silt out of centre culvert, started clearing the entrance on east culvert 03/09/02 Move hoist from centre to east culvert 08/09/02 Start clearing east culvert 15/09/02 Clear east culvert, finalise centre arch on south face 22/09/02 Clear 80 barrows of silt from centre of east culvert 29/09/02 Clearing more silt from centre of east culvert, puddle in blue clay to seal centre of mended collapse 06/10/02 Ron completed centre & east culvert face - south side, dug out 105 barrows of silt from east culvert 08/10/02 Fit scaffold over river on south side 13/10/02 Completed silt clearing from east culvert 03/11/02 Cleared top of south wall to expose position of towpath wall General maintainance & clearing up of site carried out when bad weather stopped anything else being done 01/12/02 Help Alan Timpson clear out his garage 08/12/02 First time for 8 weeks the water level is low enough to finalise south arches & pump out water to remove frame and acro jacks, dig out & add shuttering to major collapse, work on towpath wall base, cut steps into bank 09/12/02 Complete south arches, remove frame & scaffold in east culvert, finalise shuttering in major collapse 22/12/02 Because of high water, cleared top of south side wall. Cut branches off trees 05/01/03 Cut trees on south top side wall. Remove all scaffolding from south side. Very cold. 06/01/03 Re-lay boards. Take off fittings & store scaffolding tubes. 08/01/03 Went to Alan Timpson's to remove engine from dumper to garage. Can now scrap other dumper. 12/01/03 Worked on south side wall clearing trees 23/01/03 Still clearing stumps from south side wall. 23/02/03 Build scaffold hoist for south west wall. Remove gantry from north scaffolding 27/02/03 Work on dumper truck at Alan's 02/03/03 Build and finalise the south road wall hoist gantry (Alan Cowes helped) 09/03/03 Set hoist on scaffolding south road wall and dig out river silt - to fill in centre hole in canal route 18/03/03 Digging out south road wall bank. Sort thin bricks & clean thick ones. Remove stump from river 23/03/03 Clean north east arch bricks ready for Ron Robertson next week. Paint yellow & blue stripes on scaffolding. Clean wall of ivy & spray with weed killer 30/03/03 Clean arches again. Pump out water. Mend Honda pump. Build towpath foundation wall 2/3rds complete 6/04/03 Build lower arches of west culvert, north side. Finish building base of towpath wall 13/04/03 Build from base start of centre north arch (saw sill extension for the 1st time). Build area to receive 4 tons of gravel 27/04/03 Rebuilding north arches 28/04/03 Pick up bricks from Summit lock and transfer to River Key Aqueduct 29/04/03 Bricklaying north face arches 03/05/03 Lower scaffolding to accomodate formers on north arches 04/05/03 Rebuilding arches and centre collapse. Pick up 250 thin bricks from Summit lock 11/05/03 Ron bricking north arches. Set 2 off formers east/centre culverts, north side. Alan doing more brickwork on the centre collapse. 15/06/03 Still rebuilding north arches & finalising centre collapse 29/06/03 Building last north west arch. Set up clay bath with water to soften it 06/07/03 Remove large stones & build top of all arches ready to rebuild wall. Set shuttering for towpath wall for delivery of concrete next Saturday 12/07/03 Concrete delivered for towpath wall foundation. Fix 2 stringer stones. 20/07/03 3rd row of stones to north wall. Site scrub bashing, including river bank, ready for WRG. Bags for grey clay constructed and filled 27/07/03 Scarecrow weekend at Purton Stoke. Remove top scaffolding. Raise lower platform to height of stones 03/08/03 WRG 20+ to train for hoist - work as per report. They were there for a week. 10/08/03 Bricking east culvert 17/08/03 Remove road scaffolding. Brickwork east culvert 21/08/03 Add centre scaffold pieces to remove silt later. Bricking centre culvert. Create entrance for dredging diggers 24/08/03 Bricking up east collapse 25/08/03 Publicity stand at Cricklade Show 19/10/03 Clear centre culvert of silt using hoist 21/10/03 Car came through hedge and ended up on its nose in the river. Scaffolding damaged 24/10/03 Rented digger to open up centre culvert and to take more out of River Key 26/10/03 Still using digger to open centre culvert. Remove the rest of the damaged scaffolding. 28/10/03 Digger picked up with £200 damage to doors 02/11/03 Fit fencing. Bricklaying centre culvert 09/11/03 Heavy rain. Clean up site. Check scaffolding 30/11/03 Shore up centre culvert. Clay wall 07/12/03 Walk to follow the course of the River Key, to check water levels, then 5 onto White Hart for lunch 23/12/03 Cleared culvert of brush wood 04/01/04 Fixed chestnut fencing to centre culvert opening. Cleared brushwood 01/02/04 2 trees blown over in high winds from the day before 08/02/04 Added extra layer to top of north wall. Planted trees in gap in road hedge, caused by the car accident 15/02/04 Working on trailer. Raised scaffolding level by 3ft 22/02/04 Continue building scaffolding. Pull down shuttering on centre culvert - scaffold bars and boards bending 29/02/04 Raise height of hoist to working level. Rebuild shuttering on centre culvert with wood piers. 07/03/04 Set up hoist. Used once only. Strengthend shuttering on centre culvert 28/03/04 Pumped out water. Removed clay from centre culvert 04/04/04 Clearing mud from centre culvert 17/04/04 Alan & Dave welded trailer and added light board 18/04/04 Finalised clearing of centre culvert 02/05/04 Building north face of wall. Sorting large bricks. Cleaning bricks. Building centre culvert roof. Fit hand rail The same for the next few weeks while Dave, Alan, Barbara & Liz are in Canada 06/06/04 Moving formers on centre culvert. Finish off top of north end wall 13/06/04 Brickwork on centre culvert. Support Ron 20/06/04 Finnished centre culvert roof. Finished centre culvert roof. Started pointing east culvert Road blocked off for new sewage pipe for three weeks 27/06/04 Removed formers from centre culvert. Pointing east culvert. Bricking centre culvert. Ceili & Bess's first visit to aqueduct 04/07/04 Pointing again. Ron fell in the water 08/08/04 Finished pointing both centre and east culverts. Cleaning both of wood and planks etc. 22/08/04 16 volunteers!! North wall scaffolding removed and stored on a rack. Clean and grease acro jacks. Strim banks 28/08/04 Temporary fence added to north wall. Tree removed to aid digger access. Tent put up on Cricklade show field in howling gale 05/09/04 Clear for digger. Strim top bank. Clear shuttering from centre culvert 12/09/04 Cut scaffold tube that was damaged in the car accident. Walk Hayes Knoll lock and Chaddington lock, because Pam, Paul & Steve had not seen them before. 19/09/04 Start building north west wing wall. Clean bricks. Move sand pit for digger 25/09/04 13 ton digger and digger driver from Holland Handling. Move coffer dam to west (road) culvert. Fill centre culvert, the roof hole. Dredge river towards Cricklade 26/09/04 Add fencing to north and south walls. Pick up stone from Wootton Bassett. Clear site of glass 03/10/04 Fill 30 sandbags with blue clay to soak in the river inside coffer dam. Building hoist gantry. Clear glass from site to protect wildlife and wellies. Hayes Knoll Lock bought this week. Clearing scrub. Have £4,000 grant to use by November 16th. Chain saw ordered. 10/10/04 Clearing Hayes Knoll lock and putting up scaffolding to south wall of aqueduct 17/10/14 Hayes Knoll lock clearing 22/10/04 Holland Handling, Hilary, Mike & John levelling Hayes Knoll lock for security fencing 23/10/04 Fitting security fencing around perimeter of Hayes Knoll lock 30/10/04 Scrub bashing at Hayes Knoll lock. Picked up cement mixer from Laura's. Clean up site taking all rubbish to the dump at Purton 07/11/04 Seal coffer dams. Clean bricks. Set up platform for pump 09/11/04 Digger hired for 3 days from Holland Handling clearing a space at Hayes Knoll lock, along the verge, for car parking 14/11/04 Wing walls. Fill up 24 sandbags with clay for sealing the dam. Clean bricks 28/11/04 Building north west wing wall. Exposing north east wing wall. Pointing south wall. Mend pump. Clean bricks 05/12/04 Continuing west wing walls adding bricks to top. Clear foundations for east wing wall to find route 12/12/04 Ron finished north west wing wall. Clear east wing wall. Clean bricks 20/02/05 Rebuilding north wing wall, east side. Clearing west culvert.
03/05 to Rebuild east wing wall Present Rebuild towpath wall using bricks harvested from Hayes Knoll Fix holes etc. in west culvert Start work at Hayes Knoll lock, clearing site for cabin and survey work
|
|