To Heronshaw after a very early start and breakfast on the way with Steven on the warmest of this year so far, with it being sunny and still as well. We laid out the positions of both the extended boat dock and new boatshed and also gauged the heights of various parts of the plot above water.
Then a visit by a roof truss maker and a viewing of Mr Howlett’s nearby boathouse (which we see as a model to scale up and follow) before meeting up with Mr Amis about the necessary piling. Home after a high-speed journey to join the panel for an HDC Parish consultative meeting, sadly missing out on messages from a structural surveyor.
I had agreed a starting time of 7.00am for us to leave for Norfolk and we were not too late in meeting this goal. It meant me rising an hour earlier than usual but it was worth it as we were greeted by a wonderfully mild day, the warmest of this year so far, with it being sunny and still as well. We stopped off at our favourite "roadie" for coffee and a share of some bread pudding (with Steven falling for a bacon buttie as well!) and then drove into Ropes Hill Dyke around 9.30am. We worked hard to lay out the positions of both the extended boat dock and new boatshed and also gauged the heights of various parts of the plot above water.
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In the end I concluded that to have the river frontage six inches above present was sufficient and that this could step up to a foot in front of the boathouse with the piles suspending the floor a further foot higher than that. We were visited by a representative from a roof truss maker who felt that they could design and specify trusses that would achieve what I wanted and then we also saw Jack who had seen Mr Howlett nearby about us trying to build a boat-house like his. He was out when I called but his wife gave us permission to look at his boathouse from the outside and we gleaned quite a lot from this opportunity. We could see that just twelve telegraph-pole piles had been used at three metre centres and had seemed to hold up very well.
A quick lunch of fish and chips from Wroxham which we ate parked in the back lane under the grand old oaks. My attempts to get through to Diana on the telephone proved futile given the local Horning reception and so I could not find out the news from home. We worked hard again this afternoon, and, after some setbacks and changes of plan, we eventually achieved our objectives and were ready to see Mr Amis who came by specially. Apart from some minor problems of us wanting him to do four foundation piles in the water (for which he will have to get some steel collars made up), he was happy with our plans, and we have just to make up our minds over the pile position and spacing for which we are getting a better idea all the time.
Then the rush to get packed up and away and the race against time to get back in time for my meeting. In the event, we left Heronshaw at 5.00pm and I was home by just on 7.00pm after a high-speed journey. This just left time for me to wash, shave, gather my papers and change into a suit to arrive at the Priory Centre for my 7.30pm meeting. I was on the panel again for this consultative meeting with parish councils in the south of the district. I was very tired after an active day but gave a fair enough account of myself.
However, the meeting was rather flat with most parish councillors present thinking that the district had little to propose or say and that such discussions seemed premature. I tried to arrange a time to see Parish Chairman, John Knight, afterwards but he bid me wait until after he had finished the church audit which he had just started. Home and to relax with Diana and eventually play back the messages from my answering machine. It transpired that Mixer & Co had been trying to get hold of me for much of the day to arrange a meeting with their structural surveyor which was a blow for now I will have to try and go again to see them.