Renovation 6.

On Thursday 22nd October 2015 Rob and I met again to complete the building up of the two new banks. Once satisfied that we had put enough rock and soil in place, with the right contours, and had faced it with old pieces of carpet, we put the old liner back into the pond. Here it would act as an under-liner for the new one.

You can see from this picture how clean we had managed to get the old liner before putting it back it in virtually the same orientation that it had previously occupied.

I should say that during all this time we had perfect weather for the job. Apart from some rain which fell during the weekend, we had clear, sunny days, and temperatures of about 13C.

Renovation 5.

It was the following Tuesday, 20th October 2015, when Rob and I re-convened. I should say that each day we worked on this project, we spent up to three hours working together - between five and a half and six man-hours.

By the end of Tuesday 20th the two new banks were built up. You can see in the above photo a length of red carpet which we used to maintain the bank on the near side. You can also see a length of black hose leading into the empty pond cavity. This would stay in that place under the new liner and act as a release conduit for water accumulating under the liner.

We hoped that by replacing the old liner, which had indeed been leaking, we could cure the build-up of so much water under the liner.

The old liner had been rained on a few times over the weekend and, together with some scrubbing down from Rob and I, was now more or less clear of sediment on its upper side.

Renovation 4.

Overnight on 16th October it rained quite a bit. Rob and I were glad because the old liner would get a good soaking and make it easier for us to clear all the sediment from it. Sadly, I didn't take any photos of the old liner being cleaned. But during the next day, 17th October, we set to with brushes and a hose pipe, and did our best to remove more of the mud.

We also worked again on the two new banks that we were establishing for the pond. The photo below shows the results of our work that day. The new bank on the far side of the pond is a little clearer in this pic. And you can see water still pooling in the pond cavity.

Renovation 3.

Next day,16th October 2015, Rob and I faced the hardest job of all; we decided to take the old liner out of the pond and lay it out so that we could clean it more thoroughly. We needed every ounce of strength to drag the liner out and across the grass to an open space where we could lay it out. There was still sediment on the upper side, and mud clung to the underside - it weighed a ton!

Our hope was that if it rained the upper side of the liner would get a good wash.

We were interested to see that water was already pooling in the open pond, and it soon became clear that the top soil of the garden was laid over a solid seam of clay.

We then began a new task. We had decided to make the pond a little smaller by creating two new banks. Our work would result in reducing the size of the pond from being an irregular 6m diameter circle, to being 6m in one axis, and 5m in the other.

We started on the far bank, placing first rocks and then soil to build a new bank. You can just make out, in the photo above, the new soil (and rocks) which we put in place along an eight or nine foot segment along the far side of the pond. This was another back-breaking task which ended the third day's work.

Renovation 2.

The following day, 15th October 2015, Rob and I emptied all the sludge out of the pond by hand. We used a bucket and a washing-up bowl to scoop out the knee-high sediment, which we then spread all over the garden among the plants and bushes - back-breaking work. In two and half hours we had just about cleared all the mud out.

Having revealed the liner we were able to make an inspection for puncture holes. We found a few holes, two of them on the pond sides were about an inch long - yes, there had indeed been a slow leak.

As we gazed at huge expanse of exposed liner we knew that the next day's work was already presented; we would have to clean up the old liner quite a bit more.

Renovation.

Here in the presbytery garden at St Ignatius' there is a wonderful pond, which was created by one of my predecessors twenty five years ago. Last year, 2015, the pond was so over-grown that I even launched an inflatable into it so that I could do some weeding.

I also suspected that the pond liner was leaking. The question then was, should I attempt a small clearing up job, or should I replace the liner. 

The pond is an irregular circle with a diameter of 6 meters, so emptying the pond and replacing the liner would not be an insignificant task. This is what I decided to do.

With the help of Rob, from the parish, the two of us began this huge work of renovation on 14th October 2015. We pumped some of the water out of the pond so that we could catch the fish. I should say, at this point, that there had been nine good-sized goldfish and one large dark fish in the pond. We retrieved only five goldfish - the herons had taken the rest. The pond is also full of frogs and common newts.

This is how the pond looked after our first day of work:

By the time we started work on the pond the newts had already migrated into the garden to overwinter; many of the frogs on the other hand, made their own escape out of the pond as we worked, others tried to conceal themselves in the deep mud, hoping that we hadn't seen them. 

Having pumped much of the water out, we discovered that there was about 16 inches of sludge and sediment right across the bottom of the pond. No wonder the weeds were so prolific! We would have to remove all of this by hand. It suddenly became became clear to us the size of the job which we had undertaken.

To be continued.

A very happy birthday ...

… to our dear Queen, Elizabeth II. She is our longest lived monarch. May God bless her on her ninetieth birthday, and through her, the whole nation.

Undimmed witness.

The memorial to the martyrs of Durham is by the small roundabout on Framlingate, north of the city and close to Durham City Hall. The memorial (photo above) could easily be missed, so it is better to park the car and walk over to see it. The inscription reads: "Without doubt these priests were martyrs to God."

It is good that this memorial exists, but the place where six priests and three laymen gave their greatest witness is a quarter or a mile further north, on the very crest of the hill. Here, nineteen years ago a gully named 'Dryburn' was filled in with ballast so that a new hospital, The North Durham University Hospital could be built.

On this arial photograph of the hospital, somewhere in the top part of the picture stood the ancient gallows of Dryburn, which was last used in 1805. Here on 27th May 1590, Frs Richard Hill, John Hogg, Richard Holiday and Edmund Duke were hung, drawn and quartered. These four were beatified by Pope St John Paul II in 1987.

On 4th February 1594, Mr John Speed was hung for having assisted Fr John Boste.

Then on 24th July 1594, Fr John Boste was hung, drawn and quartered. He was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970.

Then on 9th August 1600 Fr Thomas Palaser was hung, drawn and quartered, and Mr John Newton and Mr John Talbot were hung. Fr Palaser and Mr Talbot were beatified by Pope St John Paul II in 1987.

What a record! What a blessed site for healing!

All these martyrs would have been held, before execution, in the old Gaol, which was the then north Gate of the old city of Durham, part of which still exists just behind the shops near where Owengate and Saddler Street meet.

Also, we must include Fr Thomas Plumtree, who took part in the Northern Rising of 1569 and celebrated Mass in Durham Cathedral. He was captured and hung, drawn and quartered in the the Market Place at Durham on 4th January 1570. He was beatified in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII.

The Market Place (photo above) is as busy as ever, but holds no memorial to Durham's first saint.

All these martyrs are commemorated in the beautiful Church of St Godric, just to the west of the old city, and where there is Eucharistic Adoration every day.

May the life and witness of these ten men be a light for many, a light that will never grow dim.