Thursday
Quiet night. Lovely
morning, no ‘planes going out for once, in fact hardly any moving all day.
This afternoon went out to Wormingford with Molly Blomfield in
her car, (on National Buildings Record petrol), killing two birds at once. Went to see Balls Farm which now has the roof
off, but the main frame is not yet touched.
All around were great masses of “wattles”, as fresh and “live” as the
day they were embedded in the daub some 400 years ago. Brought half a dozen away with me.
On the way back round the perimeter track stopped to see Harvey ’s Farm, very nice
early 16th century structure, with a lovely reeded ceiling extending over most of
the ground floor. This is not in the
Report of Royal Commission of Ancient Monuments perhaps because the outside of the building looks
rather modern. Must get some measured
drawings and a plan, and must take steps to save this ceiling. Molly Blomfield was quite horrified at the weird
desolation of the site. Back to Colchester and called at Alderman
Blomfield’s house for a cup of tea. Mentioned
about my going back to the Museum, about which he is very anxious, but nothing
can be done yet.
Back to the office, and found Capt Folkard very angry about
excavator men’s pay. He had just
discovered that they get a bonus for work done – so much a chain – but they
also get a bonus when the work is not done in case of breakdowns, on a
basis of how much might have been done if the beastly machine had not
broken down! This mad scheme came down
from Writtle, and is apparently sponsored by Priestmans’, the makers of the
excavators which we use.
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