Camp Report
New Year at Seven Locks on the Wilts & Berks Wilts & Berks Canal New Year Camp Although the volunteers didn t start arriving until Monday afternoon, so work didn t start officially until Tuesday, Ray Aldridge spent most of Monday (with the assistance of the excavaor Blue ) recycling the silt from Lock 4 of the Seven Locks flight to infill between the blockwork and towpath on Lock 3, accompanied by myself until I had to go and welcome the volunteers. Tuesday morning was bitterly cold (although we only saw about six of the snowflakes that were falling in the South East), and while Ray continued infilling on both the towpath and the offside, the rest of us shifted the two-man-lift hollow concrete blocks and bricks into position ready for raising the walls. After lunch, we all built up another course of blockwork on the offside, and filled the hollows with concrete, while Di (the camp cook) cleared another section of hedge by Lock 4 ready for laying, thus producing the foundation for our first bonfire on Wednesday. The weather is definitely against us for some of our plans, and Wednesday proved just as cold, well below freezing, even if we didn t get the snow. No blocklaying or bricklaying was possible, and once again we concentrated on backfilling, a bit of hedgelaying, and our two D of E ers, Jason and Chris, mattocked up a large stump from Lock 2. Even on Thursday, we started off at -4 degrees C, but at least we got a big bonfire going, burned all the hedgerow brash plus a lot of scrub from the offside of Lock 4. Di s hot soup was very welcome at lunchtimes! On Thursday evening, we realised that we had spoken too soon in thinking that we had avoided the snow. Around teatime, it started falling thick and fast, and we abandoned our plans to go into Chippenham to see Narnia , and anyway people seemed to be too tired (can I really have worked them too hard?). The Foxham Inn seemed very welcoming, particularly with its good choice of ales, including an appropriate one called Festivity - a strong dark beer, which proved very popular.
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On Friday, we woke up to howling gales and lashing rain. It was supposed to be warmer, but we d almost have preferred the quiet, dry, sub-zero temperatures of Monday to Thursday! In fact, the day turned out to be Wet, Wet, Wet... We got some stumps pulled from the offside of Lock 4 and burnt, and prepared the fence ready for moving it out into the field to provide a space for piling up the soil from the offside preparatory to dismantling the lock wall for rebuilding. We poured the pea-grit up to level on Lock 3, and did yet more backfilling, but by the time we d had lunch, we d reached a unanimous decision to retire to the hall for a warm, dry, laid-back afternoon. After a satisfying tea of spag.bol. and chocolate sponge with choc. sauce, we motored off to Chippenham to see the Mighty Aslan at last, our usual skittle alley being fully booked. Saturday, the final official day of the camp, at last dawned dry, bright and comparatively mild, and we achieved several courses of blockwork laying, and infilling with concrete. Best of all, Chris, Jason, Lifeboat Alan, Welsh Alan, Luke, Rob and Ken decided they d like to put in an extra day s work on Sunday, New Year s Day, and work until daylight went! We had hoped to finish Lock 3 by the end of 2005, and we will be very close to achieving our target. In fact, on Sunday, we d recovered sufficiently from New Year s Eve party to manage quite a bit of concreting, and Rob was at last able to indulge in his favourite occupation, bricklaying. Farmer Janet, the landowner for four of Seven Locks, allows us to have our ballast delivered to her yard, and we took the dumper down for a couple of trips, where it was loaded up by her nephew operating the large tractor. He assured us that he has been operating a tractor - Big Boy s Toys since he was 8, and he must be all of 12 now. We couldn t allow him onto our site, but he sure was useful down on the farm. For Mina, our 14-week-old flat-coated retriever, it was her first camp, although she has put in brief appearances on December digs at 7 Locks, and she provided the evening cabarets. True to her breed, she retrieved various socks, trainers, Tshirts, and even muddy boots onto my bed, which then had to be re-retrieved by their respective owners. The polished floor of the Reading Rooms provided a smashing skating rink when she was chasing after her ball (with 4-way splits), and when Jason tried to change his jeans before going down to the pub, Mina had other ideas. As fast as he tried to pull them up, she pulled them down again, and he was stranded half-mast. At one point, she was inserted into a sleeping bag, and this proceeded to bounce and wriggle itself right down the middle of the hall.