A pretty wet end to the week cut work a little short for the heavy machinery this week, but not before Dunbar Plant had finished cutting out the full foundations footprint of the hall. We can now see clearly where all the rooms in the building will be! TRF will be back next week to dig trenches for the various services coming into the building, and to start shuttering and laying the metal reinforcements, ready for concrete to be poured into the foundations. Conduits, rebar, and timber already arriving on site for those jobs!

An exciting week, as our funders of the hall, CWP Energy, came to check out our progress! Ray and Eldon were pleased to be able to come and see in person what a real difference their community benefit funds are making to us.

TRF and Dunbar Plant have had a tough few days, battling rain and frozen ground, which has meant a bit of catch up work was required on Saturdays but we are back on schedule. The builder’s welfare huts are now plumbed in and just waiting on power.

The end of this week saw yellow spray paint mark out the final footprint of the hall and foundation trenches going in!

It’s been a muddy week of site prep, while hoping that the snow holds off, which thankfully, it pretty much did! TRF now have their bright yellow, on-site accommodation for the next year or so in place and just waiting on power and plumbing. The site is being roughly marked out for the location of the new hall and pipes are being delivered to be buried in the early stages of the works, that will eventually hold our power and internet cables, as well as heating pipes from our ground source heat pump!

Full demolition was completed this week. She was gone in the space of only a few hours! All waste material has been expertly removed by Dunbar Plant, and we now have a clean, flat space to start building in the new year! The playground is inaccessible at the moment, but will be opened up as much as work allows.

Demolition of the old hall has begun! The Ridge have done their “soft strip” this week, meaning that everything that is to kept for reuse has been carefully removed, including the floor!

As part of our farewell party for the old village hall, Gordon, from the The Ridge Foundations, came to chat to us about their approach to taking on the build of the new hall.