A relatively simple job for three of us at Hotchley Hill today: Providing safe access to the foot of the embankment.
As mentioned previously, the bank's side is made up of ballast, ash, coal, broken glass (pictured), scrap iron (also pictured) and who-knows-what besides. To reduce the chances of someone taking a dive headfirst into the brambles at the bottom, we decided to put in a flight of steps beside the south wall of the structure.
These were built up using the lengths of old sleeper kindly cut for us by the Cutting 'Edge gang, and sections of point rodding prepared last week. The positions of the sleepers were carefully measured out to ensure we didn't accidentally put a stake through last week's drainpipe discovery. That pipe is still something of a mystery - but it was clearly put in for a reason, so we intend to put some effort into ensuring the outlet remains clear.
Digging through the soil we found:
* Three ballpoint pens
* Half-a-dozen shredded polythene bags
* Another broken quadrant from the old lever frame (that's three, now)
* A very rusty tappet from interlocking on the same
* A cast iron tray, and other unknown rusty castings
* A bent piece of sheet metal
* Several rags
* A fragment of mirror
* A glob of congealed white paint
* A cylindrical stick of hard black ceramic material
* A cheap, broken padlock
* Numerous bits of brick
*...and a blue glass marble
We also encountered a bundle of black and yellow wires, lacking any external insulation or armour. These were firmly rooted in place, so were left as they were. The observant reader will also notice that one of the retaining stakes is at an odd angle. This seems to have hit a who-knows-what, as no amount of attention from the Big Hammer would convince it to go in straight. For the moment, fixing that is probably not a priority!
As always, we'd love to hear from anyone who fancies lending a hand (or two) on a Saturday.
