Steady progress today, and getting closer to the end. There were 7 of us, although two had to go at lunch time. Before we start - news of last Wednesday, when Bob popped down with John O to do a bit of work.
With John O's support the third row of corbelling was put on the 160m section - just needing the infill and sloppy mix on top to complete. The final heading course was laid on the 170m section, so as of this morning this now ready for a first row of corbelling. The 180m section had the tower built to enable blockwork to commence, and the first course of brickwork was started on the 190m section. Not bad for just two guys.

Our opening shot today shows Bob laying a second course of blues on the 190m section, and Pete is seen on his hands and knees on the 200m section. Yes, the last one - whoo-hoo! Pete is cleaning out the remains of the brickwork from the previous foundations. A great day, a milestone.

Rain was forecast for lunch time today, and you can see in this picture how everything was covered up in readyness. Disappointingly, no rain came, so we had to keep working. Here Bob is on the first layer of the 190m section; far in the background there is corbelling and backing up going on.

While Brian pushes a trolley load of pea gravel down to the recently finished 160m section, Pete gets instruction from Bob on how to start a section off. You measure down from the profiles, like this.

Pete then had to clean out the bed, previously swept out with a broom, with a lump hammer and bolster, to get a clean run of blues for the first time. Because we had to break out some remaining imperial reds, this first layer wasn't strictly the first row, but what Bob called an 'underground row'. On the right the winner's flag - this is section 200, the part of the wall that slopes down again.

Later in the morning Pete laid the 'underground bricks', and here he is, almost finished. Far in the background is Cleeve Hill, surrounded by heavy clouds that threatened rain. In the middle distance our cars, which we were asked to move to let in - a big, big burger van. Much to our disappointment it did not start trading, so no burgers for us today. The Race Course is gearing up for the big event. Luckily this doesn't actually clash with any of our days, but there was lots of activity in setting up their site ready for the storming masses.

Moving on to the 160m and 170m sections, we can see JC here laying a final row of corbelling to finish off the 160m section. Another one ticked off ! Tony laid a row of blues in the foreground, then backed up the corbelling and finally levelled off the top with a layer of slush.
I am awarding Tony 4 rows of bricks laid today, because last week I reported the laying of two, when it was really three. The injustice of it ! I hope in this way honour is satisfied again. Tony certainly uses up a lot of mortar.

Mortar, ah yes....

''Now I do believe you didn't want to do this''

Such enthusiasm, perhaps a tad too much, Paul? It reminds me of a schoolby rhyme form many years ago:

This is the grave of Samuel John
Whose motorbike stopped
But he went on.

The same can be said for Paul's barrow. That trolley is a sneaky little thing. Relax your grip on the brake just a tiny bit, or find a pebble on the rails, and the trolley will stop dead. No quarter given.

Up on the cutting side we still had 8 pallets of blues. Paul, Keith, Brian and yours truly got down two of them today, leaving 6 still to go. 800 bricks shifted then.
Another job done was the removal of the final 2 dumpy bags of pea gravel on the car park side behind the signal box. We had intended to move these with the Fairview lorry, but due to their age the loops on the last two broke, and today we emptied them by hand, and spread the contents over the next piece of drain pipe along the rear of the 160m section. Need some ballast in there now, to raise them to the next level.

Near the end of the day we see Bob cleaning up the 190m section, so that concrete can be poured into it next time. He has just laid that row of headers on the left, and pointed it. Tony has finished his backing up, JC his row of corbelling, all that is left to do now is tick off the completed section:

This is always a very satisfying moment - 160m of wall completed, 40m to go, but all last 4 sections have been started, with one almost finished too.