Demolition Begins!

So..... last time we still had a dining room that looked like this.












Then a whole load of portable site offices and storage rooms arrived on Bennetts playground.

Paths avoiding the way across the playground were laid.... currently a bit of a detour.

Then the "Big Beast" of "Subtle Demolition" arrived. I kept expecting it to "Transform". :-)

At first it pulled down the railings with it's scoop. Made VERY short work of those.

Then they switched to a hydraulic crab of quite awesome power. They literally "peeled" off the roof of the dining room!

This grab can spin continually round. If something resists the initial grab & pull it just spins around until it breaks.

The guy using this was super-skilled. He could pick up individual pipes, as well as massive bundles as here, with the utmost precision.

The building on the right is Wykeham House. one of our Boarding buildings, whilst those on the left are part of the Lower School.

Everything was dumped into huge demolition skips... and then pounded down flat by the grab. As you can imagine... we're not playing much basketball at the moment!

Here we are mostly destroyed. The bit left up has the electrics cupboard in it.... destroy that and all Bennetts + Matron's flat loses power. (Matron Clements described the whole affair as "A series of minor earthquakes!")

You can see the South Downs in the background. That ridge is part of what we call the "Upper Horseshoe". It's a run route I've only ever done twice without stopping. (It just goes up and UP!)

And a testament to precision destruction! Just the electrics cupboard left standing.

Here's a closer look at that grab.

It certainly could lift a whole lot of stuff.

So..... most of the dining room is flat now. Lorries have been taking away the rubble. Once the electrics have been diverted the rest will go. Then I would think they'll start to dig down to the new level and start on the foundations.

The new building will cover the old school swimming pool as well as the dining room. It'll take a year to build but should be great. Single en-suite rooms, computer points, social rooms.... and of course a new dining room. Sick bay will also have a new home, as will the Boarding Offices. I'll see if I can get permission to put the plans on a Blog.

Only a year to wait!! Tim.