The team suffered a ridiculously-wet Wednesday at the Folly loco shed site, but still managed to get some more work done. Both the heavy concrete bases which used to support the pump platform timbers (and had been rescued from within the well shaft) were put back into place, forming a six foot level square – with a nice traditional low-tech device used to ensure they are square – a Pythagorean triangle (the sum of the squares…I’m sure you all know the rest).
The last (south-western) quadrant of the untouched land beside the ash pit was completed by hand – this had been left, as access with the digger was impossible, past a very large tree. In the course of this, the base for the original door-stop was re-discovered, with some of the original 4” x 4” timber still inside – so we had a bit of a delve about, and found the opposite one as well. These two door stops were as eccentric as the rest of the SR, being about nine feet tall, according to the photos: we
can only think that they were designed to stop the (very heavy) main doors from banging, in the wind, against the building, and possibly damaging the structure. We were unable to continue to dig out the well – conditions were against
it. So – a temporary “fence” to mark the well-head, a very welcome snack in the adjacent Holton Road Garden Centre Café (which we are determined to visit again), and some photos of SR fencing at Rail’s End on the way back, completed the work for August: the team will (with the permission of the Millennium Green Trustees) return as soon as outstanding work at Wenhaston allows. You can view our work – so far – from the adjacent footpath on the Millennium Green – which is a very beautiful area of countryside, and well worth a visit.