MCT - Katy's Wall Project

Katy's Wall Project

The Beginning:

The project was in memory our dear friend & fellow committee member, Katy, following her terrible tragic death in a car accident, whilst on holiday with her husband & two daughters in 2005. The project was a joint venture between Middlewich Vision & Middlewich Clean Team.

The project:

The site, an area situated in Lewin Street between the Library and Jenny Edwards material shop. To design - remove ivy & plants from a walled area & redesign. Incorporating a new brick wall, replanting & include a seating area with bin. There will be a memorial plaque to Katy. The cost is to be funded equally the Clean Team & Middlewich Vision & is estimated to be in the region of £5000. Work has already commenced and at this time are awaiting a new quote from a local contractor for the brick work. The project was actually an idea that members of the Clean Team committee developed over two years ago. At that time Katy our much loved committee member was in full support of developing this area. Carol Eccles wrote to Mr Bailey who is actually the owner of the building and asked his permission to develop the area.We are really excited about this venture as it will certainly brighten up a very visual part of the town.

Monday 12th February 2007:

Yipee.. today work started how exciting is this !

We mean business! The weather conditions were far from ideal, cold & wet and miserable. The guys turned up complete with hi viz jackets, boots & woolly hats! Of course they brought all the necessary equipment spades, pick axes & most important a mini digger! However the first most important job was to secure the area. A steel perimeter fence was erected with safety signage. Once this was in place the hard work began. The existing low brick wall was demolished and the rubble contained behind the old wall was removed. The back wall now exposed after the ivy removal is found to be in a poor state and will require some attention. A grinder was used to start to clean up the brickwork. By the afternoon a total of nine skips had been filled to removing all the debris. This whole process took approximately 9 hours with five contractors

Men at work! The contractors move in! The contract has been undertaken by Dave Latham and he and his co workers braved the February weather to get the project started.

Tuesday 13th February 2007:

Tools of the trade have arrived and the working materials, sand, cement and Cheshire bricks. The groundwork continues and the base for the paved area is dug out, likewise the footings for the walled area. Work continues on the retaining wall to remove loose bricks and grind out the old mortar.

Wednesday 14th February 2007:

The brick layers are back on site in earnest and are preparing to put in a few days hard work to rebuild the old walled area with the new Cheshire brick. The finished result is going to look amazing!

Monday 19th February 2007:

The brick layers continued to complete the brickwork and despite a few days omission due to wet weather, the walled area was completed by the Thursday. Alongside this work still continued on the retaining back wall to clean the existing bricks and replace where necessary. The painted walled area also required attention to prepare for the painters. The rendering ‘painted area’ after removing the ivy was in a poor state. An attempt at cleaning the remaining ivy roots from the paintwork with scrapers as final resort was ditched in favour of a blowtorch!

By Friday the ‘paved’ recess area was ready for flagging. The ‘Indian Slate’ flags were laid into position and the retaining ‘back wall’ pointed. The site area was also tidied and cleared. Then just when you think it’s going to be plain sailing another added decision had to be made throwing all our careful costing to the wind! The rendering on the back wall was in a far worse state than originally thought and we had to decide if we should ‘make good’ the old paintwork on the rendered retaining wall and box in the strips of wood which acted as wall ties. After a ‘brave decision’ it was decided to go ahead with the extra costs to ensure that the project was completed to a high standard. Choice of paint was decided and we were ready for action.

Monday 26th February 2007:

A couple of hours work and the pointing is finished on the flagged area

Wednesday 28th February 2007:

The site area is power washed ready for the wall painting.

Thursday 1st March 2007:

The joiner arrived to box in the wooden wall ties and make a display board.

Friday 2nd March 2007:

The contract painters are on site their task to repaint the walled area. This task covered quite a large area and took most of the day. The end result freshly painted walls. The colour was actually brighter than expected in fact rather ‘pink’ but we are expecting the ‘pinkness’ to calm down. The soil was brought onto site by mid afternoon to fill the flower borders. This was brought in from another contracted job by tractor & trailer. By 5.30 pm the borders were completed.

The wall plaque:

This is for you Katy & all you achieved.

The finishing touch:

A bench on which to rest and enjoy the garden.

A bench on which to rest and enjoy the garden finishes the project beautifully.