Camp report
It wouldn t be a National Festival without some fencing duties, now, would it?
Redhill IWA Festival
IWA National Festival at Redhill WRG site services camp
All photos by Martin Ludgate
On Sunday 23rd August Mike Harlock and I drove up to Redhill Marina, Ratcliffe on Soar, Nottinghamshire in Mike s motorhome. After going through the Security gate we were met in the WRG compound by our leader Neil Collings who showed us to our camping pitch. We set ourselves up on our pitch and then joined others in the WRG compound marquee. Four team leaders were assigned along with individual team members. This year we stayed in these same teams for most of the week. On Monday morning there was some broken wooden fencing that needed tidying up and stacking neatly. Then some of the fencing around the rear of the IWA marquee needed repositioning. It just wouldn t be a National Festival without some fencing duties now would it? On Monday evening there was a full health and safety talk in the WRG compound for all the red and blue shirts on site. Tuesday. More fencing needed moving. This time the fencing around the Main
The chain ferry
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Public entrance and admin buildings was repositioned. A water pipe laying across the entrance needed burying in the ground. For this task we called upon the services of Ju on her tractor with plough attachment. Wednesday. Exit gate B was created by yes, you ve guessed it, moving and adjusting some fencing. Wednesday was also craning day, as usual, when land-based boats arrive on flatbed lorries to be lifted off by crane and placed onto the ground. At one point the crane and a lorry repositioned themselves to nearby Redhill Marina where they lifted out one boat which had arrived by water and put it on the lorry. The crane and lorry then returned to the festival site, offloaded the boat and placed it onto the ground next to the others. There was then a lot of wood chip that was spread on the ground on several large damp patches around the festival site. The whole squad of WRGies appeared to be out on this task. On Thursday morning there was the Exhibitors car park to sort out. The first job was to take down the main gate into the field. Then we had to level the ground out at the entrance with hardcore and shingle and roll it flat with a heavy roller. The next task was to take some wooden fencing down to create an exit from the field. We managed to take down the horizontal boards OK but we could not remove the fence posts as they were really embedded into the ground. However, who should be passing by at that time but Digger on a digger so we flagged him down and asked him for his assistance. Using the Right tool for the Right job principle the posts were lifted out of the ground with no problem at all. There was going to be a Chain Ferry operating across the canal from the Festival site to the towpath side so that some of the boaters moored over that side could get back and forth to their boat moorings. This was to be operated by WRG personnel. When the call went out we all had to assemble at the ferry for the demonstration of how to carry