arches

The Dean's Eye revisited

I was in lincolnshire this week and had time (for the first time for some years) to visit the Dean's Eye. The "restoration" project is very well on. Much of the new tracery is carved. The glass is compete, though somewhat confused if the pictures available are anything to go by. I will put some more up here real soon now!

Archives

I've been a bit busy, and I am a slow learner! Just realised there are no archive links s I hav added them. If you lost the Dean's Eye notes they start in August.

All over

There is always a slight feeling of anti-climax on such a morning. It's completed. The service is over. The bridge is to be carried away to store this morning.

The service went well. Of course, I sat there redesigning details but I have said many times that details need sleeping on and there wasn't much time for sleeping on things in the past couple of weeks.

I have no photos from the service and the ones taken afterwards are grainy (interesting feature of low light photography even with a digital camera. I have a video of most of the service, but the tape ran out at the critical moment becasue it couldn't be attended.

Anyway, two students wanted to make a symbolic meeting afetr the service so we can add two photographs of them climbing up and meeting.

Now I must get on with something else.

Rehearsal time

What an afternoon. Well, what a day. We began at 8am removing the bridge from the room in Engineering which was needed for a class this morning. Then at 1pm I began the business of final assembly and removal to the Cathedral. Brian joined me at 2pm when we took the first abutment down. The round trip tok fully half an hour so it was 3.30 by the time the last bits were there.

then we had to position things and line them up and fix them, which all took longer than enough.

Finally, we got it togethr, then took it down again and re-assembled it with the students doing the work.

The Cathedral staff were very helpful, lending trolleys, and particularly allowing us to leave the abutments in position till tomorrow evening for the service.

This picture shows the finished bridge carrying Paul and Bruce the two full time chaplains. The view is from just inside the west door so it shows the most distant view available.

Looking good

Here is the first picture of the almost completed bridge. Just the keystone to cut and fit and all should be well.

Almost Done

The bridge parts have been painted today. My work is almost done. The painting was undertaken by Felicity Jackie Paul and Brian.

Tomorrow is the big test. At 11 we must raise the whole bridge and make the keystone (which has to be cut to fit). I will also have to reach a final conclusion on fastening the abutments together and leveling them. Then there is a rehearsal in the Cathedral on Wednesday and the big event on Thursday.

The Clients

It is long past time I introduced my clients.

The easiest way I can think of is by ponting you to their web site. The names I casually use will make much more sense then.

The one name missing here is Brian who is Jacqui's husband and a retired Quantity Surveyor who seems (to me) to spend an enormous proportion of his life supporting church work.

Coming together at last

Sorry I didn't get here yesterday. I had an outing to Bristol for an I Struct E meeting on the amazing glass roof to be put on the dock around the SS Great Britain. Then had dinner with Hamish which is always a pleasure.

Back today and seeing some serious progress. Brian worked on after I left yesterday and was back long before I returned today. That meant there was much for me to see when I did get back. Brian had finished the vousoirs and fitted all the uprights and Felicity was busy painting them. This and this was the sight that greeted me.

Soon, Derek arrived and we started assembly. Once four voussoirs were up it became clear where we were heading. The fifth forms half the bridge We will cut the keystone to fit when the two sides are fully assembled. This setup confirmed the stability of the cantilever and of our assembly scheme with light rope tie backs at the top of the handrails. We may need to relieve the joints slightly to get things to assemble easily, but the general impression was excellent. I was very pleased to find that the edges of voussoir five were exactly plumb so we should be able to get things to fit as required.

There are a few bits and pieces to clear up in the other half, but there is nothing to prevent me finishing those in an odd hour over the weekend. As I said above, the keystone needs to be cut to fit, unless I recut the abutments slightly. It is interesting that the first voussoirs cut, where the angles were wrong, almost fits in the current bridge.

Painting day is Monday. Where that will be is not yet certain. In clearing away this evening, I found that we could stack three voussoirs high under the carport. That means only four piles, and I think they can be painted like this, or at least restacked when partly painted and finished in the stack. If that is so, we can do the painting here at a push, but the exposed situation is asking for holdups and other problems.

Are the final knotty problems solved?

Well, Wednesday is done so we have just a week to the service. Brian and I finished the day happy that we had worked out schemes for everything we need to do.

First we had to collect the wood kindly donated by Buildings and Estates at the University of Exeter.

That encouraged us to get an abutment together to the point where we could hang a voussoir on it.

Then it started trying to rain so we had to restack all the wood to get under cover. Luckily, because the faces of the abutments slope straight down we were able to slide our voussoir down to get it under the car port and continue assembly at a lower level. Once we had two voussoirs in place it began to be clearer that we would end up with a bridge. It was also clear that the slope would be uncomfortable and we would have to make steps at least at the ends.

Fastening the risers to the lower edge of the handrail posts means that they rest nicely on the top of the previous voussoir and provide the vertical location we needed. The only thing left is to stop the cantilevered voussoirs from rolling off before the keystone is in place. By fastening a light chord to the top of each post, we can tie it back to the abutment and provide the moment connection needed. Hope to get to the stage of having all the voussoirs up tomorrow before I go off to Bristol for a meeting and a rest.