3rd Gidea Park Scout Group Change Log

THE BUILDING THE ROWSWELL HALL EXTENSION

Once the JCB had finished, we started the seemingly endless task of fine tuning the size depth and position of the main foundation trenches. The hall was to be built on a reenforced concrete, raft style foundation with these deep trenches around the perimeter.

All the soil from this stage was carefully transported and deposited across the other side of the church car park with the intention of transporting this "top quality top soil" back to site when it came to lanscaping.

JOHN WITH ANOTHER BARROW OF "TOP QUALITY TOP SOIL"

Next the Rowswells went forth and cleared up the scraps of food that had been left after the steal dragon's feast. This was to prove a mammoth and monumentally boring task especially as the head of the Rowswells would keep finding more food for us to move!

Mark making fine adjustments to the foundations.

Once the digging of the foundation was complete, it was lined with a rough concrete mix.

The concrete was delivered onto a polyethylene sheet on the car park floor and was then manually moved into the foundations by a dedicated team armed with wheelbarrows and spades.

This was one of the very few days that we were helped by more than one parent.

David Weller supervises Mr Canning (A rare parent!) and Nicola fill the barrows with concrete.

Dave Gardner chips away.

In the background Dave and twin do a stint on the slightly less constructive task of chipping any nobly bits off the old hall foundations that may get in our way.

The wall to the right of Dave's head can no longer be seen as the new wall more or less touches it. For some strange reason (Possibly tax related) the new hall is not an extension to the old hall. It is in fact a completely separate building and there was to be no way of getting from the old building to the new one without going outside.

This was fine by the Venture scouts as they didn't want people having to walk through there room to get to the new store and then dumping kit in there room when finished with it.

The rough layer of concrete was laid over the shape of the foundations to act as a lining. The shape of the ditches could still be clearly seen. The foundation ditches would later be filled with the concrete used to make the foundations proper.

Tony is standing about where the entrance door now is.

Geoff Hutton and Toney Jones shape the hardening concrete (29-Apr-1995)

VSL Andy J shows Venture Scouts Ross and Dave how to shape the concrete. (29-Apr-1995)

This photo was probably taken either just before lunch or just after lunch. Dave Gardener managed to perfect the art of turning up just as we were about to break for lunch, then enjoying a two hour lunch break before having to leave just after lunch.

The rest of us normally arrived on site between 8:00 and 9:30. The Orange fencing in the background is where the driveway gates now stand.

In the picture on the left the rough concrete is drying.

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