Something more to say?

Any fears volunteers may have harboured that today would be “a dull day” proved to be unfounded.  How could any day be dull in the company of Green Gymmers? 

Even the weather forgot it was supposed to be overcast all morning:

It was not with reference to the building in whose shadow we were working today …

that conversation at one point returned to the topic of the origin of the term ‘jerry-built’.  Extensive research (ie C looked up a couple of internet sites) had revealed that it definitely has nothing to do with war-time slang for Germans.  Sorry to disappoint, guys: 

it was a cute theory.

Where ‘jerry-built’ did come from, is harder to establish.  We can date it and place it, in the sense that there is evidence it is a British-English turn of phrase, and first turns up in print in 1869, referring to poor-quality building work.  There are at least three theories entertained by professional etymologists about the term:

1. It comes from the name of a particular firm of builders in Liverpool
2. It is a reference to the walls of Jericho, which fell down thanks to the combined efforts of the bandsmen and the chaplains’ department in the Old Testament Israelite army (Joshua 6:1-20)
3. It is derived from nautical terminology, where ‘jury’ means ‘improvised/temporary’ – the specific term ‘jury-mast’ dates at least as far back as the 17th century.  No connection with the Latin root jurare (‘to swear’), which yields another word I did not know until Green-Gym conversation this morning, ‘jurat’ (as in the system for law & order in Jersey)

Our own volunteers naturally are expert amateur etymologists.  (We do love our ’ologies at Green Gym.)  A couple more things which could be said on the subject:

• If it originated around the port of Liverpool, the phrase might have been the product of a combination of those factors: a 19th-century scouse joke, which we moderns don’t quite get because we don’t pick up the allusions?
• Any connection – at least in later usage – with the word ‘gerrymandering’?

Back to constructing the record of Green Gym’s work this morning: it came largely under the heading of Summer Tidy.  Excess vegetation was trimmed, mostly with billhook (as above) or with shears and loppers:

There was also a certain amount of imagination and improvisation in the use of tools.  As one volunteer cheerfully explained: “Green Gym and orthodox don’t really go together.”

Cut stuff could then be collected up and transferred to bags for disposal by another site-volunteer later:

Naturally there was also time for more conversation.  In this case, earnest discussion of whether the winch, which is being restored at another site, could indeed have handled a weight of 30 tonnes:

Conclusion was yes: the weight was only being pulled, horizontally, along rails.

And once more, by session end, you could certainly tell the difference:

Before

After

Sooo good

Last week’s not-quite record attendance is, I am told, the envy of groups which have difficulty getting people to turn out for an AGM. 

Today numbers were slightly lower; and after last week’s exertions by/in a Chilterns chalk stream, this week we were firmly on dry land, with tasks which were (mostly) physically less demanding and garage-orientated.  These, we were assured, were very necessary, and promised to be quite satisfying:

cleaning, marking, and organizing our tools and storage in the garage.  We have some donated shelves and new tool storage fittings to put up and affix in the garage.

In the course of this, various items were extracted from the back of the garage, and removed to where they were meant to be.  Thus it was possible this morning to come across a Green-Gymmer who had apparently been given the command to pick up his pallet and walk:

If, futhermore, you came across the same Green-Gymmer later walking through woodland apparently carrying a roll of carpet …

you could be assured that, “It may look like carpet, but actually it’s pond liner” – for the Big Pond project, early autumn.

In the paintshop, tools were being marked with a distinctive red stripe to show they belong to ACCT (Anne Carpmael Charitable Trust):

Meanwhile, our pair of dedicated restoration-experts (who didn’t know they were industrial archaeologists until they joined Green Gym) were continuing with their self-appointed task of saving and refurbishing the Saunders’ boat winch.  To this end, extra pairs of hands were pressed into service from time to time.

First, however, there was the matter of thinking about what exactly did need doing.  Here, from his position on the bridge, the Tools Officer gives his opinion:

It was thought a little tidying would be a good preliminary move.  To that end, the Tools Officer called at the garage, asked for a brush, and was given the separate pieces from which to make a working broomstick – no magic allowed:

This never happens in the wizarding world

It worked well enough, provided the user brushed in only one direction:

The winch, remaining pieces of, was then moved to its new home, where the remaining engineering problems could better be attended to:

Not least of these is the challenge of getting various bits to move, which have done no such thing for something like a century:

If repositioning the winch proved to be a rather easier job than expected (and one best done when there were plenty of willing folks around to lend a hand), breaking up the remaining unwanted concrete proved rather harder.  “I can see that’s definitely a man’s job,” remarked one fellow-Green-Gymmer incautiously, before one of my colleagues pointed out that ‘C’ had been taking her turn wielding the heavyweight sledgehammer.

Clearing the area turned up the usual crop of ‘finds’.  “Anyone here an expert in porcelain?” called out one Green-Gymmer.  The reply came instantly, equally tongue in cheek: “Oh yes, I think I can roughly date that: Woolworths, 1953.”

“Found in the north trench”

Thus we (Green-Gymmers and our international visitors - G’day! Willkommen!) passed
a delightful summer’s morning, at a site which has a glorious mix of natural and technological interest:

Tea-break beside the Wildflower Garden.  Behind: the study centre.  Behind that: Network Rail

H-2-Whoa

Guest blog today from our retiring webmaster:

Here we have an example of nature gone wrong next to technology gone wrong.  Clearing the Ewelme Watercress Beds of excess growth is, like essentially all Green Gym tasks, one that always needs doing.

This is a site where water is involved no matter what the weather conditions are.  Wellington boots or similar are therefore essential.  There’s even an old well visible directly underneath the visitor centre:

Today’s other task was more or less a drier version of the same, simply substituting hay for watercress and rakes for forks:

The visitor centre is presently full of children’s messages pertaining to a recent field trip.  These two possibly related gems stood out:

Today’s session was followed by Wallingford Green Gym’s 2015 annual general meeting.  This rare photograph of C sums up the informality of said meeting quite well: