What happened to sunny Stanton?

Thursday 25 April 

A change in the weather to shock us all back into reality, no shorts in evidence today 😉. With a full team out, overspill transport was required to even get to the starting blocks. Then the hailstones arrived, not just once, but frequently during the day just so that we could resume work and then run for shelter yet again. As the truck only has 5 seats the extra person had to brave the elements 😟 

The gang draw lots for a seat when it rains next 

Michael started off by calculating how many of the new bricks he would need for the day. 

Michael counting 

Dave took on the gully grab to clear the base of chamber 3. 

It's wetter in the chamber almost 

Rods and grab working in unison 

Wall 4 start point 

Progress during the day was sporadic as the the covers had to go on the bricks to stop the mortar washing out 

One enterprising individual sheltered under the bridge  

Roger working under the covers 

Later, Capability Dave took on a job change and went back to landscaping round chambers 1 and 2. 

Michael trying to get on while Dave landscapes the area 

Andrew with the grab and Roger bashing on 

The bit of blue sky we saw today had to be captured, it was such a rare occurrence 

Blue sky - something evidently went wrong 

Alastair and Stuart adjourned to Bridge 11 for a design review with Peter the Civil Engineer. We are into working our what can feasibly done within the confines of the available budget. Again it rained! 

Bridge 11 a wet down side 

The brickwork continued between the downpours; Andrew and Dave went to sort the recyclable bricks at Bridge 11. 

Roger making headway
(Photo: Alastair) 

Michael reaches above ground level 

Some bright spark suggested that we should rod the down pipe from the crest to the cess, needless to say it proved impossible. Water is running though the pipe, but an investigation was called for. The CCTV was called in and to everyone's astonishment there was a problem. The pipe is crushed towards the foot of the slope and the chamber stub end seems to be into a hole in the clay. 

Stuart with the CCTV
(Photo: Alastair) 

The blue paint soon came out to mark the location for Excavation 5. Another dig will begin next week to repair the pipe into the chamber in the cess. 

The treasure map - X marks the spot 

By the end of the day, the weather had beaten us. Michael was placing headers on chamber 2, he would have completed the top if it hadn't been for interruptions. Roger was at header level as well, but the covers were still on. 

Headers on Chamber 2 

Wall 4 up to ground level on the long side 

Day off on Saturday, there's a war on. It's our 1940's event, Wartime in the Cotswolds and Winchcombe yard will be taken over preventing access to the stores. 

We are looking at addressing the site accommodation issue highlighted today and a Welfare Cabin will hopefully be hired in for the duration of the works. We may even get a kettle, no proper worker can survive without a brew 😊 

You can't stay at Stanton for ever

Tuesday 23 April 

Life away from Stanton goes on so someone said. To prove it we paid a visit to the steam loco shed at Toddington this morning to drop off some of our concrete lids for a water valve chamber outside one of their shipping containers. We even left some bricks, sand and cement so that they can create a new step. 

Concrete covers delivered 

Then it was back to Stanton as we were due a delivery of bricks, enough to keep Roger and Michael going for a couple of weeks. Alastair did a spot of landscaping round Chambers 1 and 2 while waiting for the delivery.  

Enough to keep Roger and Michael going for a while 

The lonely gardener 

Then we pottered down to Bridge 11 to assess the gully drain, we need to know what to do with it when we rebuild the channel wall. 

Alastair and Dave digging out more pipe 

The end of the channel has been missing for some time, it has laid forlorn in the grass by the wing wall. Well today it was prepared for recycling into the rebuild. 

End section of channel wall 

Bricks for reuse during the rebuild 

Dave inspects the gully drain pipe 

Having worked out that repairing the pipe was a forlorn hope, we decided to look at what had been the original end of the brick arch to see if the pipe was any better there. 

Stuart and Dave onto the scent of gully drain
(Photo: Alastair) 

A chance discovery 

Bingo! the gully drain cover was discovered by a random probe with the bar while trying to rescue a tapered brick buried in the ground. After a liberal dose of WD40 and some gentle persuasion the cover eventually opened up, but not after a quarter had been broken off.

Dave and Alastair explore through the corner 

Dave and Stuart persuade the lid to open
(Photo: Alastair) 

There is water in the bottom amongst all the silt, but the good news is that it seems to be the end of the run, no pipe was found going east under the bridge 

Probing the base with the bar 

Bar showing depth 

Wrapped up until the next time 

Stopped off on the way back to investigate reports that intruders had been seen heading along the track towards Winchcombe yard over the weekend. We found a broken fence post that stopped the gate being secured. A temporary fix was applied and a request sent out to the Lineside Manger for his fencing contractor to attend. 

Orchard access gate 

The warning sign goes on
(Photo: Alastair) 

Mystery object found today: 

• What relevance has it to the railway. It could be a late iron age angled wedge for uncovering Roman artefacts. You can send your guesses on a postcard to the 'Farmer's Dumped Scrap Competition' 😉

Is it worth any money? 

The Stanton Journal

Saturday 20 April 

With a clear blue sky and the temperature over 20 degrees it wasn't the day to be working, but like a lot of volunteers in other departments, we were keen to make progress 😇 

Only 2 jobs tackled, first off we lodged Roger in excavation 4 with a pile of bricks and his packed lunch and left him to it. 

Start Point - Excavation 4 

Alastair back in action on the mixer 

The bricks arrive 

Roger in his element (Photo: Alastair) 

The other job was to continue the search for the hidden gully drain under Bridge 11. A straight forward little task one would think, just stick the rods in the outlet an Bob's you uncle!.  

Root saw, sawing clay 😟

Small screw, more clay 

CCTV out again 

After clearing most of the clay at 2 metres in, progress stopped at another block 4m in, so the CCTV was called in again... 

The void at 4m calls for intervention therapy, so we dig in to see what the problem is. 

Stuart breaks the surface with the long spade
(Photo: Alastair) 

If all else fails, scoop the clay out by hand
(Photo: Alastair) 

Area of collapsed pipe 

Solid clay in the pipe
going towards the bridge 

We will be back to dig further along next week. 

When Roger eventually surfaced, he had almost run out of the 100 bricks we brought up this morning. 

Excavation 4, end of day 

Another plus point today, the puncture proof tyres on the new barrows work, as proved by a couple of blackthorn spikes 

Thorn in the side (or tyre) 

More progress at Stanton

Thursday 18 April  

The weather is being kind and we are making good progress along the down side crest at Stanton. Michael was first to get started with the build of Chamber 2. Then Roger set up on excavation 4 to build what will be an open sided inlet to take the stream into the crest drain and away to the cess drains.  

Dave and Roger pumping out excavation 4 (Photo: Andrew) 

A bit more gabion stone was dropped into the cess below the spring in the cutting slope to the south of the work site. 

Cess soak away now completed 

The bricks removed from chamber 3 have been cleaned up and will be reused to rebuild the chamber. 

Dave and Andrew sorting the bricks for reuse (Photo: Alastair) 

We had a resupply drop this morning with more sand and cement, a couple of pallets of bricks should arrive on Tuesday. This will save us carting stores up from Winchcombe. 

More sand and cement delivered 

By late morning the thirst for adventure had overtaken the team, so it was over to the up side cess to finally nail the location of the missing chamber. The video taken on Monday had provided an approximate location. The dig commenced... 

Andrew and Dave start to dig (Photo: Alastair) 

The blue line should be the centre of the chamber
(should being the operative word 😕) 

Andrew and Alastair with the rods   

Second opinion, slightly north of first position 

The short trench only uncovered drain blocks so a second opinion was sought. The cess was rodded again from the south to identify the north end of the chamber. This showed we had been digging about 70mm short. This chamber is to the north of it's opposite number on the down side. breaking the model for the rest of the run. 

Found chamber, covered with steel sheet 

Stuart clears the steel sheet to check the integrity of the cover
(Photo: Alastair)  

Sheet in place and capable of bearing traffic 

After checking the steel was in place on the chamber, the ballast was replaced and the excavation backfilled. 

While all the furious digging had been taking place Michael and Roger had been busy building. Excavation 4 now has the bottom 2 courses of brick in place and Chamber 2 is nearing ground level while Dave backfilled the hole where the second pipe was re-routed. 

Base layers in Excavation 4 

Michael still building while Dave landscapes the south end 

Last job was to remove the 'headstone' from the end of the land drain. 

Concrete head marker slab removed