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The sun was shining and we were all happy as we gathered in the car park near Herbert’s Quarry. We donned our extra pairs of socks and commented on the presence of snow and the lack of an almost gale force freezing wind – compared with the windy conditions last week presented us today was balmy. Almost tropical in fact!

After a quick tour of some of the kilns and quarries we had not seen before and a little discussion on the unusual tufa rock that forms in the area we headed up to site hut and collected the equipment required for the day’s endeavours.

From left to right; Joe, Tony, Rob, Jude, Menna and Sue on tour

Today we were joined by lots of eager volunteers – Joe, Tony, Rob, Jude, Sue and Colin – all of whom did a great job of recording different aspects of the office block.  We were split into two teams, one of which was in charge of the plane table equipment, the other in charge of drawing a wall (an elevation drawing, as we call them).

Whilst team one (Team Plane Table) carried on drawing a scale floor plan of the office block, team two (Team Elevation) set about drawing a scale plan of one of the interior walls. We had a great deal of fun playing (when I say ‘playing’ I mean ‘working’) with a chalk line – basically a string covered in chalk dust which leaves a line of chalk on any surface it touches (including hands, gloves, faces). Chalk lines are used to create a base line on a surface – usually one would use nails and a piece of string, but it was not possible to hammer nails into the walls and any attempt to do so would have damaged the render.

Team Plane Table. From left to right; Tony, Rob, Jude and Joe

Team Elevation. From left to right; Holly, Sue and Colin

Team two’s aim was to, by the end of the day, complete a scale drawing of the wall shown in the picture above. We succeeded though not without a few mishaps and inventions – one tape measure literally exploded and in order to reach the highest points of the wall we devised a makeshift measuring tool; a hand tape attached by masking tape to a ranging rod.

Makeshift measuring pole

What happens when a tape measure explodes

By the end of the day both teams had completed their aim and there were no difficulties with the plane table (for once)! Even though we now have one elevation drawn, we have many more to do. At least now we’ve done the first one, the others should be easy!

Elevation plan

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