Two out of three ain’t bad

With already one of the work weekends out of the way, it’s really a bit late to start harking on about this being the third of my three year stint as Coordinator, so I can’t get all ponderous and introspective on you. Aren’t you lucky?

What I will do is babble on about what’s been happening behind the scenes, and what the plan for 2012 is.

Water

Need it bad.

Some of us have been harking on about getting it on site for quite a few years now. It was even mentioned in my manifesto. Well, a lot of things were mentioned in that. Mostly it was about how driven and committed I was to the project and how I would open up the control of what happens at and in Wychurst to as much of Regia as possible. This last bit, I think I have achieved and was fairly easy. The first bit, about water on site, is less so.

We had three options really.

The first was to do nothing, and bring our own water. Well this pretty much is what we’re doing now. The downside to it, is that there aren’t any toilets or other associated amenities on site, so there isn’t really the opportunity to just turn up and use the Longhall for a weekend, without the rigmarole of buying in portaloos, whose costs fell to the local group that wanted to use the site.

The second option is the simplest (as far as planning goes) which is to get a man in to drill a fecking big hole downwards until he hits water. This is called a bore hole. Now I wont bore you (get it) with the technicalities of the geology of where the water comes from , or the exact method of it’s extraction, because I couldn’t really give a toss unless it hurts the site, or doesn’t do what is intended.

The “Pros” for this option is that the water is “ours” and we can pretty much use as much as we want (or so it would seem – as this is “hear say” knowledge).

The “Cons” are that we need power to bring it up out of the well, and a housing to house the pump. And if the pump fails, then we have no water! All these things are minor problems, but have to be considered in the cost-comparison exercise. The final “Con” is that it will cost Quite A Lot. So all these things will have to be considered together.

The final option is getting water piped up the roadway  and into the burgh. Until recently the figure of £16K was banded around as the base costs of getting water across the road. This has now been quashed with a quote received this week of a fraction of that amount.

What this price doesn’t give us is water on our site. It is just to get it to the end of New Road. So I now have to get a quote or two for the job of laying a pipe under the Privately owned road, and up through the burgh to it’s final resting place. And it probably wont be cheap.

There are other issues, like security and the problem of pipes freezing that do need considering, but I won’t need to worry about that until I get all the quotes in.

Toilets.

There has been a lot of conversations about what sort of toilet we should have over the same amount of years that there have been about the previous subject. But finally it was agreed that a septic tank is the only way forward. This, unless someone pops out of the Regia woodwork who does this sort of thing for a living, will be done by a professional. The toilets themselves will take the form of a portacabin – style building that will simply be ferried in and connected to the pipe work of the bore hole or cold water tank.

I doubt that this will happen in 2012, but it would be a nice surprise if it did. There’s a lot of grounds work that needs doing before all that happens.

Authentic structures.

Everything is in place for the fighting platform and the gate to be constructed this year. The lean-to which was built last year to protect the Northern face of the building, will be shingled, and hopefully there will be an attempt to do some green woodworking with some of the chestnut lying around.

Unfortunately, that’s about it for actual construction. While there has been a minor re-design of forge, the craftwork building (or Kraftwerk Building as we sometimes refer to it as) is a more substantial structure and needs all sorts of stress load analysis stuff going on. And so, as the two structures are part and parcel of the same planning application, they both need fully designing before the application is made. Which takes a fair bit of work. It should help the building, as the plans will be fully available to all, and not rely on any one person having it all in their head.

Anyhow, with Easter lurking around the corner, I am getting feeling that I’m going to go and be all co-ordinator-like and send out a calling notice to find out who’s willing to cook.

Now where’s that Easter egg hidden?

A Time to Tidy

July 2011

I had two plans.  One for wet weather – which was to burn things!  And one for dry – which was to continue with the covered walkway. Both featured a meeting on Saturday morning.
Well, it rained. So I went with option 1.

On Saturday morning, as threatened, I led the walk from the security gates around the site, to discuss the condition of the siteand ways to increase the effective camping space.  We acheived this and then some.

The Security Gate – Bracing was discussed and a consensus reached. Works will happen later in the year after nearby steel fabricators have been contacted.

The Sarking board stack – The man who delivered the scaffolding on Saturday offered to move it, for a nominal fee, over to poo corner.  Not the most convenient place, but it is easily accessible from the ring road and it’s removal releases viable camping area 

The outer palisade bank – It was agreed that it is overgrown.  The bracken will be strimmed and trees chopped to knee height, so their roots helped consolidate the bank, but would not grow to such a height to pull it apart in high winds.  Like all the other jobs, this will be done during the work week. At least one space (opposite the gladiator grass) will be cleared to allow a small structure to be placed between the road and the ditch/moat. Various trees on the outer bank will also be cut back/shortened.

Camping Space – Manure will be delivered over the next few weeks and deposited in two places; in the area where the sarking pile was, and in the wood yard. Various unproductive / in-the-way chestnut root structures will be removed and where possible, relocated to the hedge line dividing the camping areas.  Small trees were identified as to be removed to further increase capacity and improve drainage.  This last action has alread started with the felling of two pines by the gladiator gress and one undersized birch in the middle camping strip.

Road Works – Westleys have been contracted to “sort out” the entranceway which is a quagmire during wet weather and a danger to low level vehicles.  This will happen before the work week.  It will also provide spoil for improving areas of the ring road, and the earthier element used on the wood yard to improve surface drainage and allow the area to be graded towards the land drains.

Water – A provider having been sourced, he will drill a bore hole near the lake which will in due course, provide fresh drinking water for the site – Kim will enrol the bore-holer for him to be a temporary member of Regia, so he’s covered by *our* liability during the works.  Out of necessity this will another small cabin to be made, to protect it from frost and house the filtration system.  I will source a provider to test the water quality for e-coli and other nasties.

Site Drainage – Henry drains will line the road and be covered with tanalised planks.  This will start by the DeBec ground and works it’s way up. (See Repercussions topic, slightly later).

The Wood Yard – After all brash pile was burned (there was A Lot Of It!) the majority of the pine, oak and other spurious bits of timber were then sorted, graded and generally tidied (see my webshot / facebook page  later for a preview).  This included moving the wood from the archery range (we found two arrows!).  The entire area will then have the earthier spoil from the roadworks deposited on it, together with a lorry load of manure.  Having then been graded, this will, during the work week, be covered with bark chippings, left until the new year and covered in either turf (if I have my way) or seeded (if I don’t!)

The repercussions from all this work means that, for the August Work week, people may need to either tent inside the burgh, or on the modern camp site by the scout hall. Of course, latecomers may find various camping areas “finished with” and can camp where they used to.  Please be assured that I will try and arrange this to be done as conveniently for campers as possible (being one myself!).

Elsewhere on site….

The painteresses braved the rain and painted one and a half gable ends with the linseed oil, and the plaster panels on all of one side of the yellowy-terracotta-peachy colour. The rest is destined to be done next month. Mighty pretty it looks too (see previously mentioned photos!)  A few feasting benches were also finished by Roger. 

In other news : After discussion with Kim, it was tentatively agreed that next year (multi-thousand-quid-show-dependant) there could be a second show around the first May BH
Thanks….

Special nepotistic thanks to Carole for cooking for all 20 of us in the longhall.  It wasn’t too different than cooking on the Wic, but putting it mildly, it will certainly not be setting a precedent!

And thanks to Carole, Owen, Finn, Easlasade, Ketil, Kev Lawless, Jordan Rich, Roger Burton, Stephanie, Grace,  Alison Offer, Ian and Hannah Lewis, Kim, Paul Assheton, Steve Etheridge, David (Baldric) Burrows, Paul and Toby Kettlewell and John (The Bee) Holmes for making this Work Weekend, like so many before, remind me why Regia is such a fantastic society. 

Forges, Forward thinking and Free buildings.

After a year of deliberation, we have as some of you might notice, have come up with a design for the Forge and the Craftwork building.  Since then, however, one of our groups, DeBec have decided to build a structure of their own.

So, I felt the desire to add their building to the Planning permission process at seemingly, no extra cost.  Of course, I still procrastinated as I had nobody to check my application, as our resident expert has taken a leave of absence from the project and is happily getting on with life, getting married and so on.

So I rang the Planning office.  Something I should have done some months back.

It seems a lot has changed since we begun the longhall some years back, and you need full plans of the building to progress.  This was something we didn’t have.  So I had two choices.  Delay the application further while I waited for the other two designs to be completed or think of a way to redesign the Forge, so we could get on with it.

I chose the latter option.

This didn’t meet with much resistance, especially from the only person in the small group of core workers who expressed any particular vested interest in it’s design.   So now it will have a shallower pitch and be just under four metres high (which is the limit of what’s allowable without planning permission). 

I may not even have to change the drawings as we will be (hopefully) building it out of green oak, which is not necessarily straight.  The drawings would be only useable to indicate approximate locations of bracing points, but other than that, they would be more in the way than anything else.

The other upside to the forge being somewhat lower than before (about 2 metres lower!) is that we may well be able to source all the timber for the building from nearby, and for free!

This might bring forward the notion of having water on site, as our business manager wont have anything else to spend his money on!

Handy, that!

A cunning plan

Over the past year a few of us have been discussing the design of the next stage of the project, which involves a forge and a weaving shed (or craftwork building, as it is has become known).

Of course, you cannot just knock these things up in this day and age, so you have to not only design it, but submit a request for planning permission.  Which involves a hell of a lot of work.

Part of the result of this, which is worth showing at this moment, is a photoshopped sketch of the two buildings in situ.

Some of the minor details will be wrong, and the proportions will be out very slightly, but the feel, I think, is right.

I reckon it’ll take a good five years or more to get both of the structures up and shingled.  Sooner if I can get heritage funding.

How Wychurst Works

In life things only ever get done because you either want them or are persuaded to do them.

Ten years ago a few members of Regia Anglorum wanted a longhall, and through luck, the misfortune of others, and the selling off of redundant assets, the land and the timber for the Longhall was bought. Ten years later, it is pretty much built.  And it is only through the good will and hard work of the society’s members that it has got this far.

This year, during the project’s tenth anniversary, about 65 separate souls have come to Wychurst. On average about ten of these come almost every month.

What drives these regulars (and irregulars) to turn up every month? Feeling a part of a bigger idea, gaining a sense of usefulness or achievement that they don’t get in their day job, perhaps just the company, I don’t know. But I’m glad they do.

Each brings their own skills to the project, and this is taken advantage of to lesser or far greater degrees. The danger of this is that if you take advantage of people’s talents too much, you turn a pleasant hobby for them into a chore, and their enthusiasm wanes.

The solution, which is to vary the jobs that occur from week to week, is not always possible. So you accept the risk that sometimes *they* will not want to do some onerous task – but hope that they will respond to gentle encouragement, and give generous praise and recognition for hard work and enthusiasm.

Occasionally someone steps to the fore, and has the unique drive to take over a particular job, be it, construction, plastering, or building a palisade. These are brief sunny days in the unsettled weather forecast of coordinating any project. At these times, you can mentally sit back and relax.

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It does not have universal appeal or approval to all Regia’s membership. Some people don’t see the point of it, some people believe it too far away to be of use and too far away to be practically involved – it being as south-easterly as it could be in the country. But we are where we are, and it is where it is. Since its inception It has become a valuable asset and has paid for itself.

So, to say that the project has worked, would technically be correct. But laurels must not be sat on, else you would look a fool should you ever try and wear them. So you must always think of ways to try and keep the project alive and fresh in the minds of the society’s membership.

One could try to use modern business techniques to publish a mission statement or add spin to the concept, to try and convince people to spend petrol money in working on such a long-term project, but it would have to be either very detailed or be incredibly brief.

Both alternatives would lose impact and make the exercise pointless. Also, everyone aims to “get” something slightly different from Wychurst. So giving the project a “mission statement” is all well and good, but if the target audience is as wide ranging in opinion as our Society is, then ones energy should be diverted into something more useful.

So, if someone asks What is Wychurst, I will say that it is Regia’s Spiritual Home (thanks for that, Alison).

If someone asks me what it is that we plan to do there, then that is completely different. It varies, depending on what stage of completion the site is.

Pretty much, we have got to the point where we are, by having a “new” project which people have been excited in. We have used the site when possible and we have shown the society and members of the public that the site and the project can carry out its role successfully.

It’s role may change and re-enactment events may alter as buildings go up, and our sights will, out of necessity, move as it nears completion.

Perhaps it is the current fluid nature of Wychurst that will keep it alive. And rather than resting on our laurels, which will inevitably be sat upon now and again, we will out of necessity wear it at different, jaunty angles.

Wychurst – A change of perspective

As my first year as Project Coordinator comes to a close, I thought I’d restart my Blog to tell those who cannot stand Facebook, or be bothered by the Regia E-Group or the Forum.

However, do I start with explaining the entire events of the past year, or summarise the current state of play.

 

Perhaps a bit of both…

On the face of it 2010 was the year of the floor, and perhaps it was for the vast majority.  It was a long hard slog, digging out the eleven inches of clayey-silty soil, the arguments on how best to deal with the underlying damp, the working around the painters, the film crews and everything. 

But it was also involved a vast amount of preparation – more so than was ever evident with the Longhall.  Partly this was because the beginning of that construction took place in an atmosphere of ignorance, and possibly naivety.  Planning permission and disability regulations were far from the minds of those of us that were there.  But we survived that through the skin of our teeth.

However, times they have a-changed and I was certainly not going to go ahead with anything firm without the appropriate permissions and authority.  Not that I’m fool enough to believe I had any choice in the matter – but I wasn’t prepared to take any chances.

The first hurdle was the fact that the foundations had already been dug.  It wouldn’t have been my choice to have gone ahead with digging the foundations without any building design in the can, and it certainly may a few problems with the orientation of the building, but the resident expert of forges had managed to fit everything he needed into the footprint, so there was no need to re-dig out the foundations.  Which was a relief.

At the end of the day, we seem to have ended up with a narrow, high building which looks decidedly strange.  Hopefully we can add bits here and there to make it look a bit more sensible, and perhaps its close proximity to the other structure, the weaving shed, will divert attention away from its odd proportions.

As at the date of this blog, I have seen one or two scaled drawings from our “engineer” who is designing the Weaving Shed (Or “Craftwork building” as we’ve re-christened it).  But I will need a cutting list before we can order the timber, and we’ll need plans to stand a chance to get planning permission.

So, as hopefully you can see, there are many irons in the fire. 

A lot of people were given the opportunity to influence the design of both buildings.  A few even made suggestions.  But the vast majority are quite content for these things to be decided without them.  And perfectly acceptable that is too.

Wychurst Work Weekend: March 2008

Though I had been there in February to do some filmwork, it had been four months since the last work weekend. 

 

As usual I was filled with a mixture of enthusiasm and despondancy when thinking about the coming year.  So much to do and so little time.  And so few of us have the tools to do what some might consider "carpentry".  What we need are more "workmates"!  There is only so much you can acheive by resting your wood on a trestle.   You can’t plane wood on a trestle, or chisel it.  You can barely (safely) drill it!  Worse case, I suppose getting some clamps would be a bonus… but I do feel a slight inkling of guilt as having the tools and others not, and it being down to "us wot have" to do all the complicated and glamourous stuff.

 

If that be the case, so be it!

 

Having been shortened from a full work week down to a long, bank holiday weekend, the usual number turned out and got buckled down doing what they do best; plastering , knocking things down, and burning things.  Ian, Trevor and I (the carpenters of that weekend) had shutters to do, which unfortunately required a hell of a lot of thicknessing and timber preparation.  Which we got done over a two day period.  we also managed to get a couple of wooden hinges completed, which, all things going well, should be able to be used in April.  Personally, I’d have liked to have been there, but I have other plans.

 

The only other point of interest, was that we put the roof on the cottage (now renamed, rather cruelly, as a "shed") of featherboarded timber.   Cutting a long story short, we needed storage for all the crap that is usually in the longhall.  Let’s hope it clears it out a little bit.