When we arrived at Hotchley Hill today, we discovered that the local vandals have visited again, and not very long ago. Somewhat strangely, they seem to have climbed up onto the roof to pry the concrete slab off the top of the chimney, which the roofers only put on a few weeks ago to keep the rain out. They then proceeded to throw the slab off the roof, where it landed on stairs and shattered. We didn't notice any other damage.
The good news is that we have now dug-out the complete length of the drainage channel from the back of the signalbox to the nearby culvert. It doesn't seem like a long excavation (perhaps around 20m total), but it certainly feels like a long time since we started digging it!
Of course, what day of digging would be complete without a slew of archaeological finds? This week, we uncovered:
- Seven bottles
- Four jars
- One shoe
- One fire extinguisher (Unlikely to pass a pressure test)
- One hexagonal brass screw fitting (Any idea what it's for?)
- One concrete bench for supporting point rodding
- A brown "Tams" mug, in pieces
- Some batteries
- Most of a glass bowl
- Two broken indicator lenses, one glass, one plastic, perhaps off a car or trailer.
The last few feet of the ditch contained only one bottle, but a great many old tree roots to cut through. With two of us squelching around in the sodden clay wielding shovels and saws, and another carting-away the spoil, we barely finished by the end of the day. There was just time to throw a few celebratory buckets of water down the trench, so as to see how it flows.
In the meantime, we were treated to a gratuitous display of steam and smoke from the austerity, which I presume was a special request of the group that chartered the train (and one of the centre's heritage buses, too).
Next week, we'll be embarking on a much-needed tidy-up campaign at Ruddington, which we expect to take up around one day per month. I'm afraid the piles of rusty cast iron and stacks of electrical equipment aren't very entertaining subjects for photography - but it isn't going to sort itself!
