Sing along … you know you want to …
Remember that lucky sod from a few posts back who got to play with that sexy little mini-piling rig?
Well his piles (concrete ones, not his bottom-grapes) were all located so as to avoid any archæology, especially around Edward Longshanks' old palace foundations and before we can go any further we have to ensure that they're up to the job.
This entails using our jolly, cheerful, yellow, "whacking great crane" to hoist enormous lumps of hefty steel up from the moat, all the way over the castle keep roof and down the other side into the old café area … without hitting the castle on the way.
Then do the same with a bunch of reinforced concrete slabs and get a couple of guys to stand on top for good measure.
If this fails, then it's back to square one, so pretty nerve-wracking …
Whew! The lady with the pooter she say "Yes!"
Yaaay! Mini-pile party!
Then of course we have to repeat the whole process for all the other piles (that's them with the little yellow "don't trip over me" antennæ on top).
The darker line at the bottom of the keep wall on the right indicates the old café floor level. We're adjusting our levels so that we can make a feature of the Barnack stone plinths to the buttresses as these date to 1096 and the first phase of William Rufus' palace build.
Next time: a grinning archæologist points at a shovel. Don't miss it!
6 comments:
I understand crane operators earn a VERY good wage, especially those that are skilled enough to avoid smashing medieval stonework or squashing architects. Years ago, I figured that one guy working on a local skyscraper quit because he'd earned about a quarter-million $$, including substantial over-time, and so was set for the rest of the year. For a while at least.
Boggles my mind to be working on a building with features dating from 1096. The building where I work dates from 2005.
I'm not sure I follow what's going on but I like it. Kind of like watching a Fellini movie.
Speedway, you wouldn't get me up in one of those things for love nor money. Even using a virtual one in Grand Theft Auto 5 scared the crap out of me. Brr …
Katie, I'm like an over-excited two-year-old whenever they hand me a period building to play with. This one's the best yet.
Hee hee, Petrea. I know just what you mean.
Yeah, Katie, the closest we get to "medieval" over here is the remains of a settlement in Virginia ... or the minds of the GOP.
I haven't understood much of what's going on, either, but because of your posts I did end up watching those talks about medieval stonemasons I've been ragging on about, AND they did lead me to some inquiries into stonemasonry in the 1840's - a few centuries slide, but who's counting? AND after watching Mr Darcy rescue Elizabeth Bennett from gentile starvation for the zillionth time, I re-read the books, as well as articles and papers about the economics and social realities of the period. Somehow, it all ties in to my interest in steamboats - and that's another story I'm working on.
And now, Dive, as I watch the Royal Ascot races, I heard another word used that I saw referenced in the work of the stonemasons: "Hurdles" were the platforms used in the stonemasons' scaffolding. Who knew?
Yay for the Queen of Research!
Some folk still use hurdles, Speedway. Our own stonemasons for example.
Expect scaffolding in the next post, as well as the closest the Castle Team gets to a Gay Pride March.
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