So much for "back to Stockham Park, gang", instead we received an emergency call from our colleagues at the Swindon branch, asking for our help in finishing a job that over-ran somewhat last weekend, when they had a big WRG bash. That's the Waterways Recovery Group, or "Wergies", who are a sort of mobile task force which moves around the canal network lending help, expertise and a lot of bodies at makeshift campsites. Also known as The Younger Generation, for some reason.

Anyway, the Wergies did some sterling work at the: (fanfare of trumpets)

...Purton Road Bridge, but weren't able to finish off the task of moving a large amount of clay and "puddling" it against the stop-planks at the far end of the newly-build road tunnel.

So, East Vale to the rescue, here is Roy's van and a trailer full of wheelbarrows, with Malcy showing his relief that we finally turned up - having taken a somewhat scenic route through the backstreets of north Swindon - as he was starting to think that he'd have to do all the work himself.

So here it is! The fabulous new road bridge taking the Purton Road over the line of the canal, and the contractors made a narrow tunnel for boats, a somewhat wider tunnel for walkers (? Don't ask me...) and some lovely embankments. Not quite visible in the photo are the number of newly planted trees on the left-hand end of that embankment opposite: it will soon green up.

As you can see, there is already some water in the tunnel: as it has a solid concrete bottom, the rainwater is starting to collect, hence our urgent invitation to finish making a solid "end" to the far end of the tunnel, as it doesn't go anywhere at present, and if we left it as it is, the water would just fill up the cut, overflow out the far end and start eroding the bank. We don't want it eroded yet! So, stop planks have been installed with a waterproof membrane, and we have to move several tons of clay down to the far end of the tunnel to shore up the stop planks.

Here's us taking orders for the day from Ray of the Swindon branch, the chap on the left without a hard hat. Roy is presenting a wheelbarrow for inspection, by the looks of it.

Right, first one down the ladder is a cissy! One of the Swindon Merry Men clambers elegantly down the ladder, with Swindon Ray saying "Go on! It's only a couple of inches deep!"

Swindon Ray putting his money where his mouth is - or rather, putting his wellies where his mouth is! "Oh all right, look, I'm coming down as well."

Roy starts paddling for East Vale. "Come on you lot, get down here, it's not very deep. And a nice solid bottom!" Stop looking at me, everyone.

Heave ho, Malcy hands down the first of many wheelbarrows, with Oliver behind him doing the same thing. Might have been better if there's been someone below to catch it... splash! (Only joking.)

Bob, meanwhile, has been loading up the dumper with the first of many loads of lovely blue clay, and now arrives with it. We're not allowed to drive the dumper along into the tunnel (drat) so he gets as close as he can, to reduce the amount of wheelbarrowing that the rest of us will have to do.

Bob in position: hmm, a lovely big pile of clay. Stand back everyone.

Whee! Splash! Down it goes, then Bob goes off for another dumper load, and the rest of the gang start shovelling it into wheelbarrows, trundling it through the water-filled tunnel - only a few inches deep, but enough to be a nuisance - and then shovelling it out of the wheelbarrows and onto the stop planks at the end. There, it will have to be "puddled" by stomping around on it, in order to realign the particles into a waterproof mass. In the olden times, this was done by herding a few sheep around in small circles until they had trodden it into submission: thanks to advances in modern engineering, we have two blokes in wellies doing it instead.

As I'm not feeling strong enough in the back for heaving wet clay about, I get volunteered into doing some tree planting, which will make a change from my day job (not). Actually, not true, as I seem to have spent most of the last week planting bulbs, not trees. Swindon Roy (as opposed to Our Roy) and Oliver, plus Mike and me, load ourselves us with spade, shovel, crowbar (really!) a hundred or so hawthorn trees and a big box of tree protectors, and we set out along the towpath. We plant them a yard or so apart, and we hope that a good proportion of them will survive. Here's a stretch of the towpath that we did:

Looks crazy, doesn't it? Some of the trees weren't quite as big as the protectors, hence the strange floppy appearance of some of them. But the soil was excellent (said the gardener) as it was mostly previous dredgings plus leafmould - lovely stuff! Should give the trees a good start. We also had a couple of oak seedlings to plant, which went a bit further back from the towpath, to avoid problems with root ingress in years to come. In addition, Swindon Roy had been given half a dozen little conifers by a local, so we found a good place for them as well.

Feeling in need of a hot drink, we made our way back to the bridge only to find that we'd missed tea break altogether, drat! I went along the tunnel to see how they were getting along: the council had specified a run of metal grilles between the footpath tunnel and the canal tunnel, presumably to stop people jumping from one to the other. Slightly "Fortress Swindon" in feel, but we assume that it was considered necessary. This meant that the puddlers appeared to be working in a cage - how appropriate, ha! ha! Here's Phil insisting that he is the one on the outside, and that I am the one in the cage.

Malcy, smiling cheerfully, tells me that it's going well: you can see on the right the ramp of clay leading up to the plastic membrane against the stop planks, and on top of the ramp are the two blokes in wellies mentioned earlier, puddling the clay down against the boards. As you can see, a bit of a wet, splashy, messy job!

Apparently these are a brace of Malcolms!

Having not much to contribute to the tunnel, apart from casual insults, I stroll off to see how Bob is getting on with the clay. It's been stored in a heap a short distance away, and Bob has been gradually loading it onto the digger. That large muddy patch in the foreground is where the good clay was stored, now all carefully barrowed into the tunnel.

Having used up all the good "blue" clay, we're having to use up the nasty brown stuff to finish off the job."Hup" it goes.

And "splat!" into the dumper. Well done Bob, precision work as always.

Back at the tunnel, Roy is waiting for the next instalment, and Jim looks as though he's just about had it for the morning! Cries of "Lunch break!" are heard, especially from myself and Mike, as we missed out on tea-break, being down the other end of the stretch, planting trees. Tongues hanging out, we wait for Bob to bring in the last dumper-load for the day.

And here it is! Sadly, I missed the first portion to drop into the water, as it made a tremendous splash which made everyone jump back several feet, good one Bob! Well, it woke Jim up, at any rate.

Once this load was tipped in, we broke for a well-deserved lunch. After lunch all we had to do was barrow this final load down to the stop planks and puddle it in, and we'd be done for the day, with many thanks from the Swindon branch for our help. You're welcome, guys!