Restoration Blog

Ham Mill Mon Feb 25^th

by: Andy P.

A chilly start for the 7 of us, greasing, oiling and refuelling the diggers before we disappeared into the trenches.

Some more of the wall was removed and shipped away whilst the bank was used as infill around the trench box.  The hand digging and bucket lifting rota was reformed as we dug down to water level as we wanted to get the next bit of pipe installed.  The other wall side was showing signs of slipping so BD quickly sorted that out with a couple of scoops.  A bit of external shovelling revealed some long buried grass as we worked in the first T shirt weather.

We pre assembled a short length of pipe and a collar before it was lowered into the trench box.  It was just the right length to fit in the box.

I wish the people who made the video about the pipe just pushing together could have been here to see all the efforts we made.  Bob applied plenty of lube to help with the push, but BD failed as not enough room, strong folks pushing had no effect, sledge hammer was barely helpful. 

So the big straps were extended and fitted and slowly the pipe was squeezed into a position. However we ran out of time and did not quite finish it. Therefore, it's plan B on weds. 

A fly past and the big boss watched over us and we rescued, yet again, a frogtoad.