The 3rd Long Late May Bank-holiday Weekend dig at Inglesham
24-27 May 2019
The aim of the weekend was to complete all the structural work on the lock, remove the scaffolding back to storage in Brimscombe port, and set up the barrow hoist for the final clearance of the chamber of the rubble, detritus and lost tools that had inevitably fallen in during the rebuild. These long weekends had built up a good following over the previous two years, and this event was no exception, with a really healthy turnout of enthusiastic and willing hands.
The plan required that the final coping stones were placed on the south wall on the Friday; the new hinge quoin coping stone and one other replacement stone on the chamber wall were cast on the Saturday so they could be faced on the Sunday, before the final bays of scaffolding were removed; then on the Sunday eight more stones were cast in the upper gate recesses and upper wing walls, including around the stop plank grooves, so these could be faced up on the Monday. All the while the scaffolding was being removed further down the lock, sorted, and returned to storage.
Needless to say, by the Sunday evening, all the scaffolding was safely sorted and stored in the warehouses at Brimscombe port, and by the Monday afternoon, all the coping stones had been faced up, the site largely cleared and work had even begun doing the final chamber clearance. An incredible effort to completely rebuild the lock structure from the first bit of pointing on the Summer camp in 2016 to last coping stone in May 2019 – under 3 years later.
