No doughnuts at Usk...

.... but there was cake, all the way from Tewkesbury! For such a distant project, we needed plenty of provisions, and we always make sure we are well looked after.

Today was day one of actual work on the project. Ten of us volunteered for Usk, and the objective was to remove the slates off the little weighbridge hut, and maybe more.

Here's the little building without its ivy coat, and also before a French lorry reversed into the corner a few weeks ago. We want to take it down, mais pas si vite, s'il vous plait. This was the starting situation today.

Amongst the volunteers was Paul, well known in the PWay mess coach fro his frank points of view, and wonderful bacon butties at Hayles.

Today, no doughnuts but here two sponge cakes made a worthy alternative. Peter can be seen handing them round, essential provisions before we start work. Well, most of us already had an hour and a half in the car just to get here.

Mike, our local representative and loyal supporter of the GWSR, was on site and awaited us with great enthusiasm. On the right he is giving us a brief potted history of the Usk station site and its layout. We then moved on to take a group photograph for starters.

This then is the Usk project team:

Jim, Clive, Bob, Mike, Peter, Doug, Jo, Paul, Dave (project leader) and behind the camera, Chris.

Behind them is the profile of the weighbridge house, altered by that French lorry reversing in to it on the LH side.

Why is my end so much heavier than yours?

The first job was to clear the ground of the fallen stonework, dislodged by the lorry. We had a large supply of pallets for the constituent parts, which will all be numbered. Well, except for these, as they were already lying on the ground.

We started removing the original slates (we suspect this is the second roof the building has had) from one end, with Paul opening a second front from a scaffolding tower on the flank.

They were carefully handed down and stored in Dave's trailer.

Paul, with many years of experience in the building trade, brought a long a special slate removing tool. Ever seen one of these before?

This implement is mostly flat and has two hooks at the end. You hook these under one of the soft copper nails, give a jerk downwards, the nail is cut through and the slate comes away easily in your hand.

That was the theory.

Annoyingly, when they rebuilt the roof many years ago, the nails were not made of soft copper but of hard, galvanised steel. It was a heck of a job getting them out, as they would not be cut with Paul's tool. Eventually each nail gave way as it was stuck in the softwood slats.

We did make progress, bu the number of unbroken roof slates was less high than we had hoped for. We do have more slates in store on the railway though, so not a great disaster.

We managed to get all the slates off without too much (other) difficulty. Then we moved the scaffolding to the chimney end, where the gable was still held in place by ivy.

Paul was then able to take down the chimney. Quite a simple job really. The bricks were excellent engineering blue imperials, but the mortar was lime and Paul was able to lift the bricks off one by one quite simply. No lump hammer and bolster required here!

Doug was the first in a human chain, which passed the bricks down the scaffolding and then along the ground to the pallet.

Here's a view of the human chain  on the ground, with a number of blues in the system making their way along to the pallet at the rear.

With the roof off, the inside of the weighbridge house (which dates we think from the opening of the line in 1857) was a lot brighter than before, and you can see here the fireplace in the corner with its grate.

The flue was rather curious. As you might have noticed, the fireplace is in the corner but the chimney sits on top of the gable end. Were the two at all connected?

Indeed they were, by means of a diagonal tunnel from left to right. Our suspicions are though that this may not have been the original arrangement. Perhaps a straight chimney above the fireplace didn't draw well enough? The chimney the building has today is made of blues, a completely different material.

Looking towards the right you can see the original weighing mechanism still in place, but no longer functional (the big plate outside has been scrapped). We will take this out in due course, and leave it with a member at Toddington.

For lunch we had (almost) our own burger van parked across the road, but most had brought sandwiches, so it didn't get much trade from us. Maybe next time. There's also a good pub (or three) in Usk, so there is the opportunity for a last celebratory meal there when all is done.

We took down a couple of scaffolding planks and made ourselves a nice bench between two piles of pallets.

Because of their fragility, we decided to take the slates with us straight away. Here they are, neatly stacked in Dave's trailer.

This picture was taken to show how the trusses sit on the stonework. Note the lintel that has failed. All the lintels were made of wood, and all have failed after 150 years. Not a big problem for us, but one of the reasons the building had to come down.

Without the slates and with the slats removed, it was a simple job to lift out each truss in turn. They were surprisingly crude, another reason why we suspect that they are not the originals. We are taking one truss with us, the rest will be scrapped and new ones made. The ends are completely eaten by woodworm and rot.

The last ones are coming out in this picture, with Doug and Dave on the inside. It was enough to just lift them up and pass them out, they were not heavy at all. Simples.

Now, way on top, a peek into the chimney at gable end level. Note original stonework in front, but red brick behind. The flue dives down at 45 degrees to the right. The (newer) chimney stack of blues sat on top of this. Everything was very dusty and crumbly, from mouldering wood, ivy penetration and failed lime mortar.

With all the slates and rafters safely down, Mike started the process of numbering each dressed stone. He has a photograph of the gable end, and a little sketch showing each stone and how it is numbered. The numbers were applied in wax builder's crayon, plus a letter denoting which face it is.

What on earth are they doing up there?

Despite the thought that had gone into the numbering system, a committee formed at the bottom to discuss the process....

Here is a picture of the fallen stones picked up at the start. At least two more quoins are buried in a pile of general rubble in a corner of the site, which we will extract next time. Also the truss we are keeping, and the pile of blues on the end from the chimney.

This pile of 'sundries' is actually the gable end that we took down.

There are 23 stones here, all numbered with wax crayon and on the same pallet. That should make for a logical reassembly.

Dave and Doug then left for Winchcombe, where they will unload the slates and ridge tiles that we recovered today.

This is the end of the day picture, the scaffolding is just being taken down for secure storage.

We are pretty pleased with ourselves, as we achieved more than we set ourselves as a minimum target. We hoped to get at least the slates off, but we got the trusses down too, all of the chimney stack and a part of the gable end.

A happy band returned to Gloucestershire, pleased with a job well done. More next week !