Yard lamp lifted

Today was the day 3 heritage minded volunteers went to dig out the GWR yard lamp at 'a village near Evesham' as described in the auction catalogue. This turned out to be Dumbleton, just down the road from us. Great!

The first volunteer, John, was already on site and had started digging the hole. The post was positioned rather awkwardly - for a dig - right in a corner up against a fence, so we could not dig a hole right round it.

But every cloud has a silver lining, the access for the lorry was brilliant, hard standing right next to it. So that was a box ticked.

As you can see, the post has a later light fitting, but one which is still period GWR.

By the time Neal (you must now realise that we are talking about the canopy/footsteps team here) had arrived, the digger was standing in an annoying pool of water. This worsened when we revealed the slots in the bottom of the post, as this released a whoosh of water from inside. John and yours truly really hadn't reckoned with working in a pool of water so wore normal steel toe capped boots, but Neal, bless him, had brought wellies, so he was immediately promoted to chief digger.

It took almost two hours to get to near the bottom of the post. We borrowed a plastic flowerpot from a neighbour to bail out the water, but more arrived almost immediately.

Frustrating.

But by lunch time we had dug deep enough for a trial wobble. Without success too.

More digging was required though, particularly round the tricky back, which was hard up against the fence. We knew the base was 2'6'' deep, but those who planted it made a deeper hole than that and included 6'' of fluting, which made us have to dig three feet down. Neal had a special narrow spade called a grafter, and this proved ideal to excavate a narrow channel round the rear.

Then we had a second go at giving it a wobble. It did seem to give a tiny bit. Encouraged, John and then your blogger heaved and released that rope repeatedly, until at last some visible movement became apparent. Oh joy!

Gradually, by heaving and releasing, we were able to work the tall post to and fro, until it began to take on a pleasingly alarming angle.

Once it was down far enough, held up by the edge of the hole, we were able to take off the lighting bracket that was on top.

This is a standard GWR fitting, we heard, but you could see from the remains of some sheared off bolts further down the post that this was indeed once a proper yard lamp with steps and platform.

This is the fitting we retrieved, together with a lamp shade provided by the owner. Sadly there was no one after the very many years this post was on site who could tell us from whence it came, nor when. Malvern Road, Gloucester perhaps?

A friendly neighbour then came over and asked if we would like any tea? Would we indeed! Yes please. We were exhausted after all the digging in the muddy water.

We didn't get 3 mugs of tea, we got a whole tea service, brought to us on a tray and served in the back of his car nearby. Heaven.

The neighbour turned out to be a member and while people felt sorry that the old post was being dug up, they were pleased to hear that it was going to a good home, where the new owners would reinstate it with its ladder, platform and a new replica copper lamp top.

While waiting for the lorry to arrive we had a brief excursion back to Toddington for lunch, and there we found the freshly galvanised footsteps, already back after just 2 days. Great service.

The lorry we needed came from Honeybourne company Fairview, who we think deserve a plug for their friendly service and willingness to help.

Fairview sent their largest lorry - we needed at least a 16 foot bed - and this also had a powerful HIAB on the back.

Neal paused the lift in order to clean off the worst of the dirt still clinging to the post.

The 16 foot post was lifted easily. It was such a relief to see it finally up in the air. We have dug out a few posts now, and they are all different, you never know how they were put into the ground and what is underneath. This one had a concrete block round the base, but luckily it was only a small one, determined by a little test dig we did a few days earlier.

If you follow the GWR drawing, these tall posts should be bolted down to a substantial concrete block underneath. Luckily, in this case the new owners hadn't read the GWR book.

We asked lorry driver Dave to wait for a few minutes while we back filled the hole again as best we could.

We left the site neat and tidy, later putting a pallet we found on top, as there was still a small dip remaining, the post and its concrete block now being absent.

Then it was off to Toddington in convoy.

Here we dropped the post off by the entrance to the shed in an unobtrusive spot.

This will allow us to clean it up and measure it for the new ladder and platform we are going to make.

We need the post to be within striking distance of an electrical supply, so that it can be worked on.

We are very lucky that we have another yard lamp, already restored by the loco lads, inside the shed, and this one is equipped with its original ladder and platform. We have been told that this is quite a rarity.

With a sample nearby, we should be able to fabricate a new ladder and platform for the Dumbleton post. As to its future location, we see it in the loco yard somewhere a little ahead of the lorry in the picture above, to the side of its twin, which will be situated in front of the water tower. That will give the loco yard a very authentic pair of GWR yard lamps, and a great chance to take photographs of GWR locos in their natural shed environment.

Here is the post, parked in its temporary location. John has started work on removing the concrete jacket at the foot of it. Unfortunately the people at Dumbleton were not acquainted with the idea of 'weak mix' and this lump was made of hard, solid concrete.

On the left here, Neal has got out his trusty SDS drill and is giving that hard concrete a bit of bother. We did get it all off in the end, but it was getting very cold and dark at the time.

On the right is a GWR yard lamp with its original ladder and platform. That one is at Gotherington.

We are at an advanced stage with a specialist in designing two new lamp tops. These will be given to the manufacturer who made the Broadway canopy lamps. Once they are complete, the loco department will dig in both posts in front of the shed.

Something to look forward to, wouldn't you say?