After the vandalism of a few weeks ago, we finally reached the time to tidy up the locking room at H.H. As illustrated, intruders had tipped over the old battery shelves when they broke in a few weeks ago. What a mess. Some of it fell through the hole burnt in the timbers during a previous break-in, years ago!
Repairing that hole is, of course, one of the many tasks on the list - but not quite the top priority at the moment. Considering the building is still relatively vulnerable, we took the prompt to not only clear the chaos on the floor, but also reduce the amount of material stored on the site.
Aided by a generous supply of plastic tubs, we sorted out the things worth keeping, and the fragile items to be stored at Ruddington. We filled two buckets with small signalling items that can be reused, and many more with rusty iron so broken or boring that even we think it's scrap. A few more were filled with plain old litter. After all that, what remained went back on the re-erected shelving.
As a passing note, the glasses case we dug up previously, but daren't try to open was cracked apart in the chaos. It still contains glasses!
There is even less of interest to an intruder at Hotchley Hill than previously, but that doesn't seem to be much of a deterrent - and we'd love to start keeping more useful equipment there. New doors are still sorely needed, and we're pushing ahead with that behind the scenes. My thanks, again, go to everyone who has contributed towards the cost.
A few of you have made comments on the way we're collecting donations - and feedback is always helpful. We're working on it!
