Author: Ros Plume

Geostructures completed the foundations on target on Friday 16th November, and then spent three days in our “contingency” week tidying up the site. Passmores came to site on Monday 26th, erected all the walls and partitions, glazed them all, and left site again on Tuesday afternoon. Wow, how fast was that!

Next week we have a scaffolder coming on site to put scaffold all round the structure, so that Passmores can put the roof trusses on. And we should have a roof on by Christmas. But don’t expect a Christmas Party in there, lots of work still to be done.

Remember we reported on the local bikers’ Fun Day back in August? Well, on Friday 26th October they invited us to meet them at The Gate pub to receive their donation to our New Scouting Centre fund. In the photo you see Doug Horgan and Richard Plume being presented with a cheque for £1,643 by Nick.

In addition, one of the Posse members, Jackie (far left), passed on a donation for £500 from her employer GSK. Thank you everyone!

They have now completed all the brickwork and blockwork to bring the foundations for the new Scouting Centre up to a single level.

This picture shows the view from the road; if you look carefully you can see the porch entrance at the right-hand side. Next week we will see the concrete beams lifted into place by a crane

On 22nd October 2018, Paul Akers, Richard Plume and Leo Mindel were delighted to accept a cheque for £30,000 on behalf of 1st Northwood Scouts. This was our share of the funds raised by Cllr Carol Melvin for her three charities during her term of office as Mayor of Hillingdon 2017/2018.

Thank you, Carol  – a great result!

 

 

 

 

 

L to R: Paul, Richard, Carol, Leo and Andrew Melvin

 

Northwood Hills Councillors Jonathan Bianco and Duncan Flynn were given a guided tour recently by Scout Project Manager Richard Plume. The foundations are on track to be completed by mid-November and the shell of the new building should be in place by  Christmas.

     

The Councillors have a very strong interest in the project, as Hillingdon Council has awarded the Group a substantial contribution to the costs.  1st Northwood Scouts is one of the first Groups to  receive money from the Council’s newly-created capital fund to support capital projects for youth organisations.

A group of Bikers called “The Posse” meets regularly at
The Gate pub in Northwood. They held their 13th
Annual Bike Show on Saturday 11th August at The Gate,
and all the proceeds from their Fun Day are being donated to
our New Scouting Centre Fund, around £1500.
As well as lots of interesting motor cycles to see, there were
games and competitions for all the family, a Hog
Roast, music and lots more.

A rota of volunteers manned the 1st Northwood Scout Group stall, chatting to visitors about progress with the new buidlding and encouraging all to play the Buzzer Game. Thanks to all who attended and special thanks to The Posse for making us their charity of the event.

 

What better way to pass a hot summer’s afternoon than watching men at work on the New Hut! This is what I learned about the craft of pile-driving, the stages are:

• A 1m screw is attached to the machine, cage door closed
• Screw lowered, displaced clay shovelled away
• Repeat above steps until a total of 12 screws have been used
• Reverse the motor to raise the screws one at a time taking care not to allow those remaining to fall back down the hole

  

  

  

  Now see the action for yourself:
  

Once the old hut had been demolished, the site was cleared and pegs put in the ground to mark out the footprint of the New Hut. The foundations will be built on piles – 30 altogether. For each pile, the clever machine in the photo screws out the soil leaving a vertical hole about 25cm in diameter and 11.5m deep. Then the holes are filled with concrete.

Thanks to the amazing dry weather, our contractors have made rapid progress and have completed 20 piles already.

Let the photos speak for themselves:

And a bit of video: