Day 4 at Usk

Nine of us today, quite a regular little gang, and good to meet each other on site after the long drive.

This job has drawn quite some attention, and today a blog reader dropped in with two bags of doughnuts in support. Very kind of John, although munching these might actually have slowed us down at bit. They were certainly appreciated.

Shortly afterwards there was a delivery of wooden stillages. These were spare in a local shop and the owner was kind enough to give them to us, even deliver them. We were just going to help unload them when the Transit turned out to be a tippper and the whole lot came cascading down with a big crash! Well, that's one way of doing it.
But these stillages turned out to be very useful indeed, so we are very grateful.

Mike and Dave set about planting them in a row, so that they could be picked up later by a forklift when full.
It is becoming more and more apparent that the majority of the material with which the weighbridge hut was built was not just the dressed stone, which only forms an outside skin.

About two thirds of the walls is rough Raglan stone rubble, with plenty of lime mortar in between.
As we don't want to rebuild the hut with concrete blocks inside - that wouldn't be very historic - we are taking the stone rubble with us, and this is where the wooden stillages come in so useful. Today we made a start in filling them, taking the rubble out from the inside, where we have been pushing it.

The walls are now down low enough for the window cills to appear. This one was taken off the little window in the western end.

But how to get inside to get the rubble out? The door is blocked up with rubble from the inside.
Answer - remove the door!
The door is in quite good nick, with its frame, except for the bottom few inches, where rainwater must have got in. We believe the entrance was modified at some time, as the door step was raised with two layers of engineering blues. This made the door rather low though. As we mentioned before, the whole of the building is about two courses into the ground, which must have been piled up around it over the years.

While the door was being removed with its frame, we made a start on collecting undressed stone from the interior (you could actually just reach in by now)

The undressed stone was taken to the stillages which were filled slowly during the day. At the end of the day we had ferried in 5 stillages' worth, about 2 1/2 tons we reckon.

Next we took off the big cill for the large window that overlooked the weighing platform. Note how the cast iron Pooley scales are completely buried in rubble. Only the top stuck out.

Next it was lunch. Jim and Clive very kindly sponsored a number of cheeseburgers from Kelvin, our friendly burger van man next door. These were munched with great satisfaction at our refectory table:

As we sat and munched a white van drove into the yard, did a wide turn and stopped by the Heras fencing. Two suspicious looking characters called out 'Do you want them scales?' We said yes, they are going to a museum in Winchcombe. As the van drove off we could hear scrap iron rattle about in the back.

This put the cat among the pigeons. Could they steal the cast iron Pooley scales? We thought not, they were firmly bolted down with rusty nuts on top, and the bottom was buried in a huge pile of rubble anyway. But then it dawned on us that someone intent on scrap iron recovery would quite happily smash the whole thing and pick up the pieces.

We stared at the Pooley scales.... could they be smashed with a big hammer? We thought they probably could, despite the rubble pile around the column.

After a bit of a debate, and given that your blogger had brought a large and a small angle grinder (little Bertha and big Bertha), it was decided that we had better preempt the possible theft and remove the column ourselves.

On closer inspection we found this GWR item number attached to the column.
The plate says:

H. Pooley & Son Ltd, Contractors

GWR 2753.

The column was held down by 4 big bolts with rusted nuts on top.

Time to release big Bertha!

Paul soon had 3 of the 4 nuts off, the fourth was in an awkward corner and that's where little Bertha came in.

All 4 nuts eventually came off, but the column wouldn't budge. Inside there were some levers with hooks and eyes, which we managed to disconnect.

The reluctance to shift was traced to the fact that the building seemed to have been erected after the scales were put in by Pooley's, and part of the front wall weighed upon the feet of the column.

We therefore resorted to pulling down the lower half of the front wall, a bit earlier than we had intended. We didn't want to leave the mechanism behind for thieves, with most of the job already done for them.

One more shove, and the column came free, undamaged too.

Here it is lying on its end. It was rather heavy, so not easily lifted from its place. We scratched our heads about what to do with it. Dave hadn't brought his trailer, so we would have to leave it here.

With 6 men tugging and shoving we got it this far, with the Heras fencing panel behind it opened to get an easier exit.
Our neighbours on the site have been very helpful and friendly. They supplied a long cable extension for big Bertha, and stored our scaffolding and other kit for a month now.
They also offered to look after the Pooley scales until next week, when Dave would bring his trailer.

But how to get it to the secure compound? Again our neighbour came up trumps with this big sack trolley.

Due to the sudden effort on the Pooley scales, demolition of the rest of the building slowed a bit this afternoon.

But you can see here that we have it down to about knee level at this end, with a bit more to go by the door.

The big lump in the corner is what was filled in with rubble under the chimney flue that ran diagonally across it.


With a bit of luck we might get some more of the wooden stillages next week.

Clive doggedly continued with clearing out the usable rubble from the door end. After a lot of scraping and prising out bits of rock he eventually found the flagstone floor of the building. Once he had a flat area he was able to start using the shovel on the limestone mortar that remains if you pick out the bits of rock. This we tipped a few feet away, as we will need it to back fill the hole that will be left when the building is gone.

Here is Clive towards the end of the day, surrounded by a sea of rubble.

This is how far we got at the end of the day - just the bottom of the wall left all round, but with two more courses buried below ground, and then the foundations. Clive was so keen he didn't notice the others wrapping up. There comes a point when we are all tired, catch each other's eye and think - that's it, I can't go any further this time.

When we took away the column, we left behind this hole under it. There is in fact an inspection pit under it, and, we think, a crawling space to somewhere under the weighing table for inspection and maintenance. We'll find out more next time.

Here are also some loose parts we took off - the top of the column, and the balancing arm.
The hook on the end and the weights that go on it are gone though.

As we have already got a weighbridge at Winchcombe, these parts are going to a supporter at Toddington for his museum.

Here's the view at the end of the day. The building has almost vanished (but there is plenty of stone still to remove and store) and we took care to have exactly 12 pallets stacked and shrink wrapped, ready for removal. That's what the lorry can take. Next Wednesday a first transport back to Winchcombe will be arranged.

Quite a neat job, don't you think?

History corner

Our history picture this week is of the Usk station site today:

There isn't a lot to see really. The site has been flattened, and it is now heavily overgrown - just a narrow footpath goes through it, leading up to the tunnel, which is open for inspection.

This picture shows the edge of the former bay siding, now filled in. The cameraman is standing on the main platform, as was.

https://youtu.be/Po88uU54xJA

There's quite a good 'before' and 'after' video on this link. It also shows the goods shed that is still there, and at the end - our weighbridge hut! It is all covered in ivy. True enough, that's how we found it. The brick built goods shed is almost identical to the one at Toddington.

St. Eadburgha, next to big Bertha.

On the way home we drove up to Gorsehill Abbey farm in Broadway, half a mile from our station, and stopped to buy a home made St. Eadburgha cheese. Mrs. Blogger will cope with a lot after a slice of this delicious cheese, even your blogger's horrendously dusty clothing, which got no further than the back kitchen door.
You'll have to imagine the rest of the journey to the bathroom...