Normally the beginning of July is the time for Henley and holidays with a bit a of relaxation in order to recharge the batteries for the coming academic year, so it was no surprise when Gordon, in the course of some conversation at the end of the term, slipped in that wouldn't it be 'noice' (that's supposed to be Irish!) if we could do something with the rowing tank in Shaft Road. This as both Carl and I have found out is a very gentle and subtle way of telling us that he wanted it refurbished and made more user-friendly for both coaches and students alike.
So first a bit of the past. As most of you will probably know the tank was installed half way up Shaft Road by Dick Hole, the then Master in Charge of Rowing (we didn't have Directors of Rowing, or anything else, for that matter, in those days) sometime in the mid-50's, and a truly wonderful construction it was too, consisting of two interconnecting water tanks with a concrete divider down the middle of each to keep a circular flow of water going when a crew are rowing in the centre dry section. [The tank came into use in 1960. - JMB] These tanks are fed by a spring which has its source about half way up Brassnocker Hill and feeds into a ditch below Clarendon House and then into a stream alongside Shaft Road. To keep the tanks full it has been diverted through as a feed and then out through an overflow pipe back into Shaft Road, the whole thing is a very beautiful piece of design and construction. In an emergency the tanks can be emptied by two large plugs which will dump the entire contents into the playing fields below while flooding the Head Master's house in the process!
It was last refurbished by Adrian Gaynor and Brian Mawer in 1989 who brought it up to specification for the modern racing boat, i.e. adjustable slides and stretchers with modern riggers and gates with adjustable heights and spans dispensing with the old fixed pins and fixed seats that the really ancient among you can remember with affection. [For accuracy's sake, it should be said that the fixed pins went much earlier than this refurbishment, but the Editor remembers them still in use on the river in the mid-'60s.] The one major drawback it has, as those of you who have suffered in it over the years will well know, is that it is wide open to the elements which of course in the middle of February can be howling gales and snow storms, creating all sorts of problems.
So by the Easter of 2005 things were looking pretty sad up there, with no end of vegetation growing in it and all sorts of wild flowers and pond life in the tanks, a conservationists delight! (Rotten leaf mould makes a wonderful nutrition base for virtually anything and there was about 5 inches of it in the thick smelly mud form in the bottom of the tank).
Come early July the time had come to bite the bullet. Gordon and I were to be found up there in shorts and waders trying to relocate the newts that had made it their primary residence, slippery little things they are too, especially when they are at the bottom of the aforementioned mud, but after a very smelly morning we had managed to get the majority out and off to pastures new in some sheltered backwater down at the Midford Brook. The water boatmen, dragonfly and mosquito larvae, and a couple of goldfish were easier, we just pulled out one of the two plugs and off they went down Shaft Road, with most of the mud!
About this time, fortunately, the Head Master's House was being refurbished, which involved a certain amount of scaffolding around the area; so while Gordon got busy with his newly acquired pressure washer, removing 50 years of mud and lime scale, I was studying the art of scaffold construction next door and making enquires about any surplus materials that might possibly be left out on the site and available for roofing! At this point Gordon emerged covered in mud and vegetation looking like something out of Aliens, and work started in earnest.
By the third week of July things were coming along nicely with both water tanks now gleaming white and a fine scaffold frame on which to attach a pitched roof in place, Gordon was by now using his painting prowess with liberal quantities of Mauritius Blue (the Monkton colour) on the frame. A marine ply pitched roof was now attached with the able help of some of the pupils who couldn't stay away from the place: Luke Squire, Andy Groves, and several others were involved. Who says that Monkton doesn't supply an all round education? Meanwhile Carl was using his building skills to refurbish all the rendering on the internals of the water tanks and on the hottest day of the year we all managed to get the felt on top and tie up various final jobs to finish it off, including some rather ornate gable ends.
We now have a top class training facility not only for the school but also for Bath University who have stated their intention to hire it on an hourly basis for their centre of excellence up on Claverton Down. At the time of writing this we haven't had any rain for a while and the aforementioned spring had dried up! So we have a wonderful White Elephant with no water, but I'm sure with the onset of Autumn the weather will change and we can start using it properly. Having said that, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have just pounded the Northern Gulf coast which has me worried about what will happen when the Autumn winds get underneath the whole structure. Hopefully it won't get sent off down Brassnocker and onwards to Limpley Stoke, but I have it on good authority from John Snow, the School Estates Bursar, that even though it doesn't exactly comply with today's building regulations it should see most of us out! Praise indeed.