Sunny Steyning!

Time Capsule!!

2011-06-05T07:46:00.000-07:00

Inside the "subtle" package are all the pages of this blog up to this point. Also pictures of this years Boarders and a list of staff. They are all sealed into one length of thick laminate to make it all 100% waterproof.

This prospectus went into the box together with 3 newspapers for the day, a school crested shirt, some coins, an old school tie.... and a random white mug.

Hopefully the colour scheme will make them easy to spot! We'll put a plaque on the wall above them so

that those that demolish the building will know where to look.

John Loader (retiring Head of Boarding) on the left and Building Site Manager Alan Randall looking into the last bit of the floor to be sealed up. The tube and box will go into the space under the floor rather than be buried.

Obviously this is a perfectly safe spot to put the Time Capsule.

Boarding Head Boy George Philpott hands the box to Mr Loader. Head Girl Jess Nowell has already handed over the laminated package.

John Loader hides them both carefully away.

And so they rest.... waiting for future generations to uncover. If Bolton building lasts as long as Brotherhood Hall..... that should be in around 400 years time!

ALL STOP!!!

2011-03-05T16:03:00.000-08:00

On the 8th of November 2010 the electricity cupboard gained a reprieve! Our building firm, ROK, went into administration. Alan Randall, Site Manager, had the news at much the same time as we did and, after a meeting with his men, all work stopped. Whilst waiting in this strange limbo Alan had time to show me around the now quiet site.
All the materials that were being stored outside have now been moved inside for security.
This will be a "feature" window near to the main entrance.

Looking into what will be the kitchen area. On the left will be storage I think.
This will be the common room. The window spaces are all boarded up whilst we await a new builder to take over from ROK.
Part of the ground floor dining room area. You'll notice the outside access is boarded up here as well.

One of the corridors giving access to the student study-bedrooms. The "doors" with the wood across them are in fact the access panels for the shower pod feeds. The next picture shows this in detail.
This is all the "gubbins" behind a shower pod that makes it all work. The convenient access make for incredibly easy maintenance.

Looking left into the pod. The silver thing high on the wall is a shower head. The bar below is in fact the water control.
... and looking right into the pod. Sink... heated towel rail. It's remarkable what they've fitted into these things.
Right.... well.... as you can see we have a new builder. All work stopped here when ROK went into administration. ROK had been doing a great job here and it was a shame that we lost a couple of months work whilst it was all sorted out. Primus have taken on the contract and are working with speed to get the work completed and ready for next year. Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, will be opening the new building in late March.... so they have their work cut out to have the place presentable!

In case you are wondering.... Primus have kept Alan Randall on as their Site Manager... this is great as Alan has been great throughout the ROK period and inbetween securing the site.

Top floor windows are smaller than the first floor. The square section open. The windows below are larger... but the view isn't as nice. :-)
Boards are gone now and the big windows and doors fitted. This will be our common room.
The dining room area. I think these will be servery hatches... but don't quote me on that!
Looking into the common room.

Looking out from the common room onto the path running behind Bennetts.
This is the entrance to Matron's flat from the new building side. Looking down the corridor you can see a pair of white doors. These lead into the new Sick Bay in Bennetts and will eventually be connected to the new building.
Looking out from the living room of what will be our Matron's flat. On the posts in the background you can see the night lighting for the path that connects the two sides of the Boarding House at the moment.
We are having some snazzy lighting on the ground floor. This is just outside the Boarding Staff Office.
This is a more completed one. There will be a central light fitting with lighting coming in less directly from the edge.
One of the large ground floor rooms. This will be (I think) the computer suite. There's certainly a whole load of insulation!
On each floor there is a room designed for wheelchair access. The rooms are larger and do not have the standard "pod" bathrooms.
This is the bathroom for the room for any students with mobility problems. It will have rails (currently sitting on the toilet!) and is large enough for easy wheelchair access.

The corridor roof spaces are full of wiring, water pipes and emergency sprinkler systems.
The first floor staff flat has three bedrooms and looks out onto a balcony accessible by those doors.

"In front of you there is a dark stairway going upwards."
Looking out of the top floor student kitchen window toward Bennetts House. The top floor window you can see is my room and where most of the early construction pictures were taken from. Bottom right you can see the basketball posts on their sides. The students will be really happy when these are fitted with new backboards (the old ones have warped) and put back up on the new playing court.

Window looking out of one of the top floor student rooms. The windows are smaller than the first floor and the roof more intrusive but the room itself is longer and the views better.
The inside of the one bedroom staff flat. The floor rests on those batten on the floor. Each batten has a rubber layer under it to improve soundproofing.

View from the one bedroom flat on the top floor. That partly white building is Wykeham with Dormer behind it ocver the lane. Behind that is the lower school. The white "M" shape made by the roofs in the background... the one on the left is a Maths room whilst the one next to is is my "R.E." room (711).
Taking out the fuses... and cutting the power prior to working on the main power cable to the existing building.
This should now be only half true!

The electricity cable! We've been waiting to do this for a while now. It's being done in half term so that the students don't suffer the power out... and in case there are problems.

New cable on the left.... old cable on the right. Through this comes the entire power for Bennetts. As this is where I live I'd like it to work!

This is the bit of kit that will ensure that the link stays watertight. The plastic housing surrounds the cable joint and then epoxy resin is poured in. It will be completely sealed. I can tell you that it's working well... or I wouldn't be typing this now!

This is the back of the building. The scaffolding is down and the rendering completed on the two student kitchen areas on the left.

Yup.... another crane! A lorry came in, put down it's stabilising feet and hey presto! HUGE crane.

This crane has a man in a cab at the top. It was brought in to move all the roof ducting etc into place.

Window ledges are being added... tidying up the outside which is nearly finished.

FINALLY... the old electricity cupboard is gone!

New jackets and old.

Looking good! Hopefully we'll be ready for the grand opening later this month.

A look around the inside of the New Building.

2010-09-06T13:31:00.000-07:00

Our old friend the electricity cupboard is still in place. It shows the level of the old floor and how much the new building has been dug down to reduce the height.

This large open space will be part of the dining room. It will seat well over 100 Boarders and also be used as the day-school canteen. It will be great to not have to travel up to Shooting Field for every meal any more!

Lighting wires, emergency lighting & alarm "armoured" cables and a sprinkler system!!
This will be part of the kitchen area with storage rooms, staff toilets & cooking equipment.
Looking back out across Bennetts' playground with the top of St. Andrew's church just visible.

Stairs going up!

The long corridor which will have study-bedroom off each side. The metal framework you can see will have the internal wall insulation mounted into them.

The wide corridor link between the two wings. On the right will be a kitchen for that floor and on the left one of the staff flats.

View from the middle floor out over Wykeham Lawn to the shed.

The back of one of the "Pods". Each study-bedroom will have a pod which provides en-suite shower, basin and toilet.

What will be Matron's flat viewed from above.

These bricks have flints set into them. When the concrete rendering is placed between them they look exactly like an old style flint wall.... of which there is a lot in Steyning. Very cunning!

The lift shaft... not really a lot else I can say really. :-)

One of the great views from the top floor. The trees in Steyning make a nice backdrop.

From the top floor in the direction of the Lower School... which you can see in the background.

View across to the other wing of the top floor.

Alan at the top of the building. There will be study-bedrooms in these eaves.

View out of a top floor bedroom window. The local library is just visible in the background. The grass on the left is "Wykeham" lawn. (Wykeham is one of the Girl's boarding houses.)

The stairs on the way down and out... ex(c)iting eh?

Pictures on Alan's office wall showing what the final build should be like. (You can see these better on the school website.)

Alan's office with a fine view of the building work out of the window.

Thanks for showing me around Alan! The place is starting to look huge and impressive now!

We've hit the roof!

2010-07-15T05:28:00.000-07:00

The Mulbery tree fights for survival!
The frame of the building starts to be filled in... now it really IS starting to look big!

I can't resist a picture of two cranes!

The new building will have efficient insulation.

REALLY thick insulation!

The sixth form Art project to decorate the hoarding has got to the stage where the background is Finished. I thought that was it... but I was wrong.

Insulation & walls creeping up all over now.

These metal frames will hold insulation panels... then the walls are built up either side. Sounds strange but it goes up really fast!

Fletcher's Croft on the left... new build on the right.

See..... we have GEESE!

Stairwell moulds ready for concrete.

Outer brick walls appearing now.

Those metal frames with the insulation in them.

Insulation and steel roof frames.

The brickwork goes higher!

Roof timbers are delivered.... a LOT of roof timbers... this is just some!

Insulation with holes for windows.... which is just as well I suppose. :-)

How to do the curvey bits!

Now we have all the Geese added! It's pretty impressive. (But will people flock to see it?)

Shower/sink/toilet "pods" arrive.

The pods fit into a corner of the room and are self contained and "en suite". No more waiting for Dipo to finish showering!

And the roof starts to be built.

They are REALLY quick at ROK!

The roof timbers fly up!

View of the emerging roof from the lower school site.

Roof view from the path behind Bennetts.

Lots of electric cables being put in place. The old boarding houses were built with a socket for a hoover in the corridor. Now there are multiple sockets in every room for all the elctronic ephemera we just can't do without.

Reall REALLY getting on with the roof now!

And on the other side as well.

So..... huge spurt in the building process. ROK are efficient as ever. As I write the work has been stopped for a little while as there is a gale blowing. Makes the crane GREAT for playing conkers... but not a lot else. Hopefully the next blog will show some internal details as I get to walk round inside.... with a hard hat apparently. Looking forward to it!!

2010-05-11T15:52:00.000-07:00

There's a whole load of stuff going on in this series of pictures! I'll try not to loeave it so long next time.
The "Left" side (out of my window) is just going up to the second story... the first few frames for the pillars are in place. Soon I'll not be able to see Fletcher's Croft (The Housemaster, Mr Loader's, residence) at all.

The "right" side is being prepared for the pouring of the first floor.
Huge amounts of plywood are fixed in place to have the steel reinforcements rested on before the concrete is poured over them. The whole lot is kept up by those yellow beams and steel supports.

"Now... you're SURE that this is the right way up??"

Scaffolding arriving as the work gets higher and higher!

Cranes and chains.... everything is still pretty much moved everywhere by the remote control crane.

Big palates of internal wall bricks are delivered.

Trimming the last bits of plywood to fill the gaps. Don't want any holes for the concrete to fall through!

YES! The path around the back of Bennetts is started!

Work on this went pretty quickly.

The build from another angle. The path goed down to School Lane via what was Mr. Loader's old garden gate.

More pillar framed up and ready for pouring.

The frames are removed from the set pillars and moved over ready for the next ones.

Gravely base for the path is laid.

Another "side on" picture of the building work.

This is a view of steyning from the top of the Bostal Hill. You can just see St Andrew's Church and the crane.

Lets zoom in a bit. There's the flat roofed Bennetts building to the left of the crane.

Back down from the hill.... and tarmac is going down! These guys really are FAST!

Flattening the path... love to have a go at driving one of these.

The guy delivering was keen on a little publicity. :-)

Another load of tarmac.

Raking it out.

Looking good! Nearly finished.

Virtually finished with posts for lighting at night.

Past Bennetts and down to School Lane.

Side view of the left side of the build.

Brickwork going up. These are the internal bricks. A layer of insulation will go onto these before the outer bricks will be built up.

Here's a really good look into the supports that keep the floor up whilst the concrete sets.

Nice "arty" view of the crane and scaffolding.

Most of the pillars on the left are in place of setting.

The right side being prepared for the first floor concrete pour.

And there we go... LOADS 'a concrete!!!....

.... all delivered by the huge pumping arm.

A bit more "casual" pouring.

The pour being levelled of with one of the "Flymo" thingies.

All getting ready for the next floor on the left.

On the right the pillar frames and a shear wall are all ready for pouring.
More scaffolding goes up.

Our old friend the Electricity Cupboard is still there from the old building.

Lots of "Thermalite" style internal bricks were delivered. Alan tells me these are high spec ones!

MASSIVE great mortar storage tank! And the work on this side's upper level is well under way.

Bolivia 1..... a parcel too far?

2010-05-05T08:03:00.000-07:00

It arrived! In spite of the reputation of the Bolivian postal system, despite volcanic ash, regardless of Joe not wanting all his passport details photocopied onto it (but seems he relented at his identity card) "Bolivia 1" arrived!! Joe and Denise Holman sent me a parcel of stuff from Cochabamba in Bolivia where they are missionaries.

As you can see it was eagerly opened by Her Majesties Customs in search of drugs, contraband and illegal objects. What they should have realised is that NO-ONE from Bolivia would send anything high value like that in the post. That would just be silly! So having found only cool Bolivian stuff.... they resealed it with packing tape.

Inside was LOTS OF COOL STUFF. :-) A Bolivian notebook (I'll use that on my roleplaying holiday in the summer) and a CD (in dodgy Bolivian CD style) that I put on to play whilst opening the rest of the parcel.

Nice bag... likely have my packed lunch in it when I'm halfway up the Welsh Hills. (I would say "Mountains"... but when you see where the Holmans live I'm afraid that the Welsh ones are only hills.)

Nice shirt and a warm fleecy jumper.

The traditional South American pipes... which I managed to get a wheezy couple of notes out of. They are the proper job... I'm just not very (OK.. "at all") musical.

I LOVE these carved pens and the tube they came in. Llamas seem to get everywhere on Bolivian stuff.

Nice set of coasters and a cool cup!

Right.... NOW WE'RE TALKING! Bolivian Chocolates. Para Ti make the best chocolates in the country... I'd researched this before. The box is still unopened... but the basket is nearly all gone already. The peach creams and mint creams are really nice. Nom, nom nom!

Nice traditional pattern blanket + incredibly soft Aplaca scarf. (Could have use that on Monday in the wind and hail on the top of the Downs in Kent!) I really like that scarf.

A pair of en-Llamad gloves! There was a pencil holder/tub, a bendy rat/lizard thing (which is cool) and a wallet as well. (I was going to buy a wallet to put some of my roleplaying character cards in... so that has sorted that!)

Hope subtly hints at the superiority of the Hershey Bar. (Personally too sweet for my taste. But then I'm a dark chocolate & sour sweet fan myself.)

Faith promises to eat any candy (sweets to the civilized world) that I can send. Denise and the kids are experts at candy consumption!

Hope has caught the "Spirit of Bolivia" in this one I think. It's either a Bolivian guy (though usually the ladies wear the hats) OR me stealing kids. Hmm....

Joy has the heights about right... and the tache.

Patience has given me some quite spectacular hair!

Cool picture by Patience. I think that this is someone on top of a mountain... or it's Joe riding an Elephant. There's a secret agent code on it as well!

There we are then. Great parcel from Bolivia!! Loads of cool stuff. Not sure I'll ever pluck up the courage to wear that jumper... but the shirt is right up there with my roleplaying stuff. It's uncannily similar to a couple of shirts that I made for a friend..... looped tie neck string and all.

Thanks humongously to Joe and Denise and to all the Holman kids that drew or wrote stuff. I'll try to write back to David and Josh.... might mean one more R&W to squeeze through. Ben wrote a cool note and Joe's letter was really brilliant. (Joe... you have a real talent for that kind of stuff.) I also have to get to read the story that was included as well.

Soooo....... just under a month until the Holmans return to the USA for furlough. Nine months to a year back home to visit their sponsors & churches before heading back to Cochabamba in Bolivia. Plenty of time for my "Posting tin" to fill up!

Hooray and up she rises!

2010-04-12T02:39:00.000-07:00

Either this is a way of communicating across large distances or cleaning the old concrete out of a giant bucket. (Possibly this is a normal sized bucket and we have the smallest builder in the world??

And so the prefabricates beams for the first story arrive. Site Manager Alan Randall tells me that these Doka beams are great and that construction with them is really fast and efficient.
And yes.... our old friend the Electricity cupboard is still there.

Here we are with the concrete pillars ready for the first floor to be started.

These supports go in to hold things up before all the reinforced concrete is in place and set.

When Alan said these beams went up fast he wasn't joking!! On top of the beams plywood is laid to keep in the concrete.

A better look to the beams in place. There are two basic sizes and and they all fit easily into place.

Fitting the plywood.

On top of the plywood the steel reinforcements are laid. These will be covered in poured concrete later. There are some emergencey bells in case of... well.... emergency.

Close up of one of the bells. I've not heard any ringing so far though. In fact I'm impressed by the speed with which all the building is proceeding.

A bit of detail on the use of the supports and beams.

The upper floor is starting to spread over to the west side of the site.

The steel reinforcements are being placed.

The reinforecements are carefully placed.

Sections are cut to fit.

Coming on pretty well!

Nearly ready for pouring!

Meanwhile the first floor spreads across the other side of the site.

Closeup of the spreading beams.

And the fist of the many, many deliveries of concrete arrives. You can just see the other lorry it is being poured into.

The second lorry has a HUGE pumping arm. It's capable of delivering the concrete to the first floor in a continuous stream.

Here's the pumping arm. It is really impressive and extremely efficient. When this baby gets going the work, as you'll see, really got going!

The concrete being poured.

Now that is FAST!

After pouring the concrete is smoothed over.

Nearly half done!

Some precision pouring.

Over half finished!

And here it is all completed. You can see the "flymo" style machines used to smooth over the surface.

Here's a close up of one of those machines showing the concrete before and after.

The surface was hosed down for a final smoothing over.

And there we have it. The surface is given a final smoothing over.

Lets hope that all the rest of the building goes as Smoothly. :-)

In at the ground floor.

2010-03-22T05:23:00.000-07:00

This part of the Blog documents the laying of the ground floor. It's really starting to take shape now.
The pillars on the south side of the site are finished and soon it will be time to put in the bricks to rest the floor beams on.

Here's our old friend the Electrical Cupboard!! Still here defying the new build like a brick built King Canute.

Yup... more rain!!

Two shear walls up and the pillars are being cased ready for filling.

Most of the shear walls are now up.

The last of the pillars being filled with concrete.

And the last of the concrete goes into the foundations.

Bits of wall are going up!! But it's the floor next.

The south side is ready for it's floor beams.

The north side of the site has all the footings ready to receive the floor beams.

Most of the floor beams now laid on the north side of the site.

The floor beams ready to receive all those bricks!

Time to start laying all those bricks.... it's going to be quite a job!

The south side floor bricks are mostly done.

The north side of the site has most of the floor beams in place ready for the bricks.

There we are... all done. (Well... except for the bit by the Electrical cupboard.)

Cutting the floor bricks to fit the final gaps.

The final touch at this stage it to brush a cement mixture between the bricks. Alan says that he can pull up a brick to put the time capsule under... though there is still space next to the electrical cupboard... yes... our old friend is still there!

From pillar to post!

2010-02-25T06:44:00.000-08:00

Things have gone apace since our last update. Below you can see the massive mecano set that has been delivered. All this stuff is for the steel supports to go inside the concrete. Personally I'd like huge Lego bricks.

For those who like cranes... this is the base of ours. It is all remote controlled as said earlier.
But these are the working gubbins. I was told that the crane top is left to swing with the prevailing wind for safety. That means we probably have one of the biggest weather vanes in Sussex!

The far side of the work. Not as advanced as the other side but.... you'll notice that the electrical cupboard is still there! I'm starting to wonder if it will exixt in the new building in a "Narnia" type way. When you go to the back of the cupboard you end up in the 60's??

More areas to dig out.

The ghost of the swimming pool lives on! Rain is not making work easy... but at least it's not snow! Time for a pump??

The footings are ready to be built up on. The pillar supports will be built on the steel bases that can be seen sticking out of the concrete.

There's a whole lot of checking done. Nobody wants to have to "Move the building a bit to the left" later on.

This is one of the long steel pillar supports being prepared.

Close up of the construction of the insides of the reinforcements for the concrete pillars.

The start of the upwards building.

The first row of steel reinforced pillars awaiting their concrete. This comes in big rotating lorry loads and will be poured in using a special "bucket" on the crane.

The second row of pillars under construction. These guys work FAST!

Pouring the concrete into the moulds. Once again the crane does stirling work!

And then there were three rows of pillars!

This is the cladding/mould for a "Shearing Wall". One of the men from Rok explained it to me. The pillars give vertical support. The job of a shearing wall is to give lateral strength to the structure. There will be a number of these walls in the building which will stiffen up the reinforced concrete frame.

Getting in there with a hammer!

The second "shearing" wall goes up. You can see the cladding removed from the first one.

The bricks for the lower sections of the wall foundations start to arrive.

Lots of bricks!

Crane and Concrete.....

2010-02-10T14:51:00.000-08:00

And the crane arrives! It had to be big enough to carry anything from Bennetts playground to anywhere on the site! It even stretches over some locals back gardens! It will ferry all the materials (concrete, steel reinforcements, bricks, beams etc) from lorries to where they are needed. Eventually it will lift the bathroom "Pods" into each of the single rooms..... so each new room in the Building will be en-suite with toilet, basin and shower. I'll try to get a full scale map & plans to post here... assuming that it's all right with the Architects. They are a pretty friendly bunch. We had a full meeting with them answering all the questions from last years Boarders and taking on board their suggestions. It was pretty impressive.

Nice colours!

It's quite a tight squeeze getting it in.

Sliding it into position.

This is a picture of the crane at night out of my top floor window. It just goes on and on! There will be more pictures later of what it looks like from further off.

There's no guy up at the top of the crane. It's all controlled from a little remote control box. Kids have toys like this.... but who wouldn't want to have a go with a real one! The ROK guys are pretty skilled to say the least.

The concrete is delivered in those huge great tumbling lorries that you see on the road but never know where they are going and then....

....poured into a giant orange steel bucket....

....lifted off the ground....

....hoisted across the entire site....

....pulled into position....

....... and gets poured into the trench.

Steel reinforcements for the concrete. These are pretty huge!

ROK Site Manager Alan Randall.

"Yup.... this drain is definately blocked!" Our Groundstaff try to sort out the flooded path that Matron has to negociate to get off site.

View from the back of Bennetts. Notice the added ramp. There should be a path going round to the left linking the two halves of the site by the end of February. It will be very welcome.

As you can see... the crane is very visible from Steyning High Street.

It's important to get everything in the right place!

More huge steel reinforcements awaiting concrete.

Footings well under way now.

Larger footings are poured in via a huge tube.

This video is in two parts.... (Second part will be uploaded onto the next Blog all on its own... the thing won't load here.... it's been trying to load for 2 hours now,,, and it's 2 minutes long!) due to having to move camera positions. It is the actual first pouring of the concrete into one of the footing trenches. I saw the Cement Truck arriving and had to run upstairs to grab my camera.... and just in time!

The (deep) end of the Swimming pool.

2010-02-04T05:16:00.000-08:00

In our last blog we were just unearthing the old swimming pool. Many years ago a team of crack Boarders (including our very own Mr. John Loader - Current Housemaster) built this pool. John told me just how thick and tough the base of the pool was.... and the new builders had to bring in the "Heavy" hammer to dent it.

The digger, with it's pneumatic hammer, heads for the deep end!

With a LOT of
"persuasion" it starts to come to pieces.

The pool reduced to rubble...

...and the rubble ready to go.

You'd hardly even know there'd been a pool there!

This boring bit of ground is where the MASSIVE crane is going to stand!

You'll notice the absence of a Mulberry tree.... more of that later.

The electric cupboard is still there! It gives a useful reference to show far down the new building will be compared to the old level.

The electric cable has been sprayed red to avoid nasty electrical death type stuff.

This is the new location of the Mulberry Tree.... or stump as it now is. (according to experts this is the best way to move it??) If it lives it will be a few years before I get to have another Mulberry crumble I fear. :-(

This is a close up of the stump of Ye Olde Mulberry Tree.

The building work goes on despite rain, sleet, wind and, yes, SNOW!

2010-01-28T06:27:00.000-08:00

So this is the old Church Street swimming pool. It was taken out of service a few years ago and filled in. Now it's being "unfilled".

As you can see we have quite a few Archaeologists on site. They watch the big digger at work and then call a halt if anything of interest comes up. They then dig a pit or two to explore the find... if any.

Though it might be nice... we're kind of hoping that they don't find anything too interesting as that would hold us up a lot. They found an old well near to the Mulberry tree. Other than some post holes, bits of goat bone and the odd oyster shell. Steyning used to be a port until about 1350 ish.

Here's my first attempt at a video using my still camera in "Video" mode. It'll be interesting to see what the quality is like. The first one is in the sleet. I put the shorter one in to show the snow!!

Yup... real live SNOW!

The way they are digging there will be a new Blog entry pretty soon! These were taken around the 12th of January 2010.

Steyning in the January snow.

2010-01-28T05:31:00.000-08:00

Some views of Steyning High Street in the recent snow. Our friendly Post Office, local (Award winning) Greengrocer and our "out of everything snow related" hardware shop.

Mmmm.... Truffles, our local cake shop. And some of their cream cakes.

Part of the Lower School frontage in Church Street. The parts either side of the brick middle are both now computer rooms! (400 years old!) The timbers are real but the "plaster" was replaced with fibreglass 20 years ago to avoid ongoing maintenance.

Some of the houses have plaques showing their age... 1771 isn't that old though. :-)

Saxon Cottage built around 1550.

The Lyche Gate of St Andrews Church.

And the Churchyard.

The Church itself. The statue of St. Cuthman, the patron Saint of Steyning, was made in 2000 and looks at the site of the "modern" (12th Century) church built on the site of the original (9th Century).

And the tree goes.... TIMBER!!

2010-01-05T16:23:00.001-08:00

As you can see it snowed just before Christmas.... but that didn't stop the builders digging down. That electrics cupboard is still there... if that goes all of Bennetts and Matron's house loses all power!

This is a nice old Beech tree.... (you can see the trimmed Mulberry in the background.... that will be moved behind Bennetts to hopefully survive and thrive.) but unfortunately the new build will come all the way over there and the roots will be a nightmare therefore it's completely in the way and has to go. :-(

T I M B E R!!!!!

And there we go.... but the work of a few minutes to bring low. Then the whole thing gets sawn up into managable chunks.

So then the big beastie starts to move earth BIG TIME! The whole plot has to come down in height to lower the profile of the new building.

And then... full cycle.... back to snow again! Hopefully the bad weather won't bring too many delays. (Did put an end to my "Sales" trip to Bluewater though. :-(

"The Little Shop" in Steyning - Virtual shopping for the Holman Family!

2009-12-17T08:44:00.000-08:00

Candy Wars.... this time it's LOCAL!

Hello Holmans! I've "Virtualised" "The Little Shop" in the quaint village of Steyning for you.

So.... Caleb, Ben, David, Josh, Faith, Hope, Joy, Patience & Mercy (or Mum)..... here's what you do. Choose 2 types of sweets from the JARS each.

I'll then potter down to the shop, get your order (100g of each choice) and post them off! (That should come in just under the magic 2kg posting weight.)

Joe and Denise (well.... especially Denise) there are some rather nice chocs in the last 4 pictures. Make a choice from some of those and I'll get them sent with a few other things.

There are some of those "Seriously Sour" sweets in there if you want Patience. For those "non-Holmans" reading this Caleb and Patience seem immune to sweets sour enough to turn most people's faces inside out! These are the types of sweets you need to keep in a magnetic containment field rather than a paper bag. I'm seriously impressed guys. You rule the sour battlefield!! (Ben on the other hand.... when he eats one it looks like someone is cutting his leg off with a rusty saw.)

Denise is a chocoholic by the way. (But she does have VERY good taste.)

So.... enter the Ancient Arena of the Sweety Shoppe at your peril and make your choices but remember.... if you are BAD children your dad will change all your requests to "Seriously Sour"!

Demolition Begins!

2009-12-10T11:31:00.001-08:00

So..... last time we still had a dining room that looked like this.

Then a whole load of portable site offices and storage rooms arrived on Bennetts playground.

Paths avoiding the way across the playground were laid.... currently a bit of a detour.

Then the "Big Beast" of "Subtle Demolition" arrived. I kept expecting it to "Transform". :-)

At first it pulled down the railings with it's scoop. Made VERY short work of those.

Then they switched to a hydraulic crab of quite awesome power. They literally "peeled" off the roof of the dining room!

This grab can spin continually round. If something resists the initial grab & pull it just spins around until it breaks.

The guy using this was super-skilled. He could pick up individual pipes, as well as massive bundles as here, with the utmost precision.

The building on the right is Wykeham House. one of our Boarding buildings, whilst those on the left are part of the Lower School.

Everything was dumped into huge demolition skips... and then pounded down flat by the grab. As you can imagine... we're not playing much basketball at the moment!

Here we are mostly destroyed. The bit left up has the electrics cupboard in it.... destroy that and all Bennetts + Matron's flat loses power. (Matron Clements described the whole affair as "A series of minor earthquakes!")

You can see the South Downs in the background. That ridge is part of what we call the "Upper Horseshoe". It's a run route I've only ever done twice without stopping. (It just goes up and UP!)

And a testament to precision destruction! Just the electrics cupboard left standing.

Here's a closer look at that grab.

It certainly could lift a whole lot of stuff.

So..... most of the dining room is flat now. Lorries have been taking away the rubble. Once the electrics have been diverted the rest will go. Then I would think they'll start to dig down to the new level and start on the foundations.

The new building will cover the old school swimming pool as well as the dining room. It'll take a year to build but should be great. Single en-suite rooms, computer points, social rooms.... and of course a new dining room. Sick bay will also have a new home, as will the Boarding Offices. I'll see if I can get permission to put the plans on a Blog.

Only a year to wait!! Tim.

The last days of the dining room.

2009-12-10T08:29:00.000-08:00

..... or how I learned to love the sound of demolition equipment. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Here we are in the Steyning Grammar School dining room for our last meal.

Richard Beels has the honour of reading the last "Names" to check that no-one has escaped. ("Names" is one of those old words that has survived through the years. It's clearly about calling a register. Now "Slogs" is an entirely different matter. It's food after school... mostly things left over from main school dinner. Rumour has it that it's an acronym "Supper's Left Over's Grilled". But that's by no means certain.)

Sue Weekes gets to do the last notices in the old building.

Catering manager Trevor is last to leave... Captain, sinking ship and all that.

And here's the room empty prior to demolition.

First of all it was necessary to trim down the old (and I mean OLD!) Mulberry tree so that the site hoardings could go up. (The dining room is in the background.) You can see some of the age on the younger cut branch below.

Later on the remaining tree will be transplanted to behind Bennetts building in the hope that it will survive and thrive there. This tree has produced huge amounts of mulberries in the past... and I like mulberry crumble.

"Demolition begins" follows.... almost at once!

Tim.