Wilts & Berks Canal Trust Camp: 1st-9th June The camp started off well, with weather dry, and even some sun! We welcomed two new navvies, brothers Chris and John Barnes, who proved both good workers and good company. On Saturday, we started strimming and mowing the towpath with our "new" ride-on lawnmower at Dauntsey, while Deb and Chris started surveying Lock 2 at Seven Locks with surveying equipment Deb had borrowed from Nottingham University. The following two days we finished concreting behind the off-side wall on Lock 3, and strimmed the towpath from the road to Lock 5. The surveying team continued their work around Lock 2, finally completing the survey on Tuesday, before the equipment had to be returned, and Deb had to get back to work for the rest of the week. There was a hold-up on the bridge deck for Foxham, which we’d been hoping would be delivered in time for us to erect on this camp, although it should be ready for our July camp. However, the road planings had arrived, and we spent two days spreading and compacting them with a vibrating roller, to provide ramps up to the eventual bridge. We also puddled behind the wing walls, covered with topsoil. Unfortunately, the weather changed on Wednesday afternoon, when the rain came in, and continued on and off Thursday and Friday. We spent a very wet morning on Thursday clearing out an old shed and moving rubbish up to the tip, and in the afternoon Rachael went up with Blue to do some towpath repairs at Dauntsey. Luke and a small gang went to Foxham to finish the ramps, and mow the towpath. Unfortunately, the mower proved not up to the job, and packed up! June Jubilee Camp at Seven Locks (mostly!)
Camp 0206 at Foxham (mostly!) report on p11-12 ûùþ øý
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...starting with the Wilts & Berks 'Jubilee Camp' in June... Said lawnmower, incidentally, is such a new acquisition for us that it has not yet been given a name, unlike all the other bits of equipment (not to mention sheds and small buildings) at Dauntsey. ‘Tim’ is a small digger, the large cement mixer is - naturally - ‘Jumbo’, ‘Little Willy’ is a small dumper, ‘Olive’ is the oil store, ‘The Toybox’ is our workshop. We have a workman’s hut on site at Seven Locks called ‘The Elephant’, and a portable store known as ‘The Wendy House’. George ‘Bungle’ Eycott has a name for the lawnmower at the back of his mind, arising from a car whose back axle broke, so he is trying hard to remember it. On Friday, we strimmed the towpath higher up behind the pub at Dauntsey, and cut the re-growth of stumps ready for pulling, and we also brought back (in Little Willy) a load of logs from trees cut out of the hedge. Di and I then departed for a Song & Ale Festival in Devon, while the rest of the team went down to Wootton Bassett to help George and Jen set up for the Waterways Festival on Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday.
We had 10 navvies overall on the camp, although not all at the same time. We were unable to book the Foxham Reading Rooms for the whole week, as there were prior bookings for the Jubilee celebrations, so we all piled into my cottage, which was quite cosy at Wilts & Berks Canal: times. Di had to this year's Canal Camp sites turn everyone out of the kitchen ÿ ÿþýüûú ø when she was tryùýúú ûûýý ing to dish up ùùøû ÿûþýû ÿ meals, but otherüýùþ þ û wise it worked øþ ú ÿþýüûú úþúùø quite well. Dave ýý ø Rudland, through ùúùû choice, slept in a ùûûþ NWPG Camp 0207 at ýúú tent on the lawn... Summit Lock report
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Camp reports
next time (we hope!)
Site for Xmas Camp at Dauntsey see p22 for details Where Camp 0208 would have been if it hadn't been cancelled due to nesting buzzards!
Thanks to Di for cooking, and we look forward to seeing some of the volunteers again on the July camp. Rachael Banyard
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