Restoration Blog

Ham Mill April 15^th 2019

by: Andy P.

5 folks today, with the original plan being to help on the barge and to dig out and explore near the collapsed wall.  However that was done on Thursday and footings were not found.  Lots of messages, phone calls and site visits to sort out why 2 groups seem to be doing the same job. Therefore we set about our to do list and brilliantly succeeded in doing none of them.

Reg sent a crew to pick up the MD but it was fully employed moving type 1 to the dumper and then to the back of the wall.  Then MD started moving stones to build the last course of the wall. Possession ruled so sorry Reg and we continued to find, carry, lift, chip and cut suitable stones.

These were dry placed on the wall and several were swapped, discarded, replaced elsewhere, until we were happy.  Lots of mortar was made and each stone lifted and carefully place, tapped and beautifully pointed into place.  Our new lifting tool was brilliant to pick and place but the most heard topic was mind your fingers. MIND your fingers.

Ron arrived to assess the picker/hammer device and agreed the connection was the wrong size so no doubt this will be sorted swiftly.

We were very pleased with our days work and a good team effort all round. 

Tues April 16^th

It’s always good to meet up with other groups so had a visit to the landing stage team at Ham Mill, who were starting on a plan to insert one of their ‘piles’ into the area by the collapsed wall.

It was good to see everyone swing into action, lift and place the metal in place, attach the hammer and start a very noisy banging.  Yes the neighbours were warned and who came out with their ear defenders.

The pile went down about 2.9m and was still going down very slowly when they stopped. This seems to be typical of what happens with piling on the landing stages.

So hopefully, after conversations with the engineer, we can have a signed off plan for what to do next.