Cabin Update: Preparing the ground
On Friday 23rd April, Tim Potts and Claire Vidler from the Carpenters’ Fellowship were on-site with ATU Trustees Daniel Lobb and Wendy Davis to mark out post holes for the cabin. We used rebar (short for reinforcing bar) which Dan had previously cut into 1m length rods. Thank you to Jewsons, Andover, who very kindly donated the rebar. These post hole markers show where the main support timbers for the cabin will be and gives us the footprint for the building.
On 29th April, AWA Structural Engineers, Romsey gave approval for the design of a ‘foot’ that will connect the main support timbers to the concrete foundation pads and Dan will now arrange for their bespoke manufacture at a local steel fabricators.
Although the carpenters will process as much as they can by traditional methods using axes, a mobile saw mill will still be required in June to supplement the hand-crafting and we are in on-going conversations to secure this.
The community and Monday workday teams have been busy for the past several months removing saplings from the proposed work area and temporarily reducing in size the tree nursery bed in the wood to allow for a walkway from the work area, where the carpenters will prepare the frames, to where the cabin will stand.
The next task will be to dig out the 16 post holes, ‘watched’ by Southampton University-based archaeologist Chris Elmer, who will record any significant findings that might help us to ascertain the location of a ploughed-out Bronze Age burial mound known to be in the vicinity of the proposed Cabin. We are actively seeking as many ‘strong arms’ as possible to undertake this task - please get in touch if you can help, or know of someone who might be able to.
If you are interested in finding out more about traditional timber frame buildings this page by the University of West England gives a brief introduction into the history of the tradition and how they are constructed.
We will also be presenting the cabin project (online) at 10.45am on Tuesday 11th May as part of the Festival of Construction. The festival is linked to COP 26 and is open to all secondary school children and teachers. We will share a video of the presentation after the event, as soon as it has been made available to us.
And finally, we are excited to bring you details of week-long voluntary apprenticeships to work with the Carpenters Fellowship on the cabin build. These apprenticeships will be a fantastic opportunity for individuals (18 years+) interested in sustainable building practices. Details will be released later this week.