On New Years Day some pieces of pottery were found in a mole hill on the riverside footpath, so when we start working down there again we will see if we can find any more. Over the Christmas holiday Dennis took the elevator to his workshop, stripped it apart, cleaned and painted it and now the chain wheel turns in the bearings. We will put it back in place on a piece of oak similar to how it was mounted when it was discovered. Dennis had a lot of help from Martin Hill at Ewart Chain who has provided lots of useful information including a parts catalogue which helped identify the type of elevator, sprocket, chain and buckets for our device.
On Thursday it was raining hard so we went to the Heritage Center to continue recording the exhibits. There were 5 of us, so two laptops were brought along. One team was logging the East Anglia books section, and this has only one more shelf to go before it is complete. The other team logged some of the artefacts which include a car AA badge, cycle lamps, railway lamp, a wooden telescope, shoe horn & stretchers, a skirt lifter which gave us some amusement, an insect microscope, candle snuffer, clay pipes, box of card games and a smokers companion. All these items had numbered tags added for identification. David was moving between us advising about ownership and details of the items and answering our questions as well as making us tea. We have made good progress, there is plenty more to record, but the Ice Age exhibits are already on a database so I will import this into our spreadsheet. A bonemill website sign was put in the display board outside the Heritage Center which has a feature about the bone mill project. If anyone is wondering why some of us are wearing our hats in the pictures at the heritage center its because it was cold!
As the weather improved around lunch time we went to the maltings to work on the railway wagon. We took the doors off as they were soaked with water from heavy rain. They were taken to the workshop with the heater on to dry them out. Some of the plywood sides had been fitted with just a few bolts to hold them in place, so we drilled the rest of the holes and fitted coach bolts and nuts all round to fully secure the panels to the metal frame. By the end of the afternoon the doors had started to dry out so they will be able to be put back soon. We noticed a damp patch where water had penetrated the roof at one end so this needs to be sealed.
Our Project Manager Peter Goulding finishes his contract on 15 January and sends his best wishes to all the volunteers, past and present. We wish Peter well with his new projects and hope he will continue to view the website and keep up with what we are doing.
Graham Bartlett Interactive Plan Volunteer Previous Next
