This is definitely a forgotten corner....
Once the demolition of Ellenroad Mill had reached the stage where we had a clear site I had time to draw breath. So much of what came after depended on keeping Coates Brothers onside and I realised when the surveyors moved back in on site that they were finalising things like levels and pipe runs. I asked what base lines they were using and when they told me that they were using the original datum points established before demolition commenced I pointed out that they would do well to check those datum points very carefully because since they were established we had taken thousands of tons of masonry and bricks off the site and it would have heaved as the weight came off. They did and sure enough some points were as much as three inches higher than they had assumed. This saved an expensive mistake and I was flavour of the month.
As an encore I got Norman Sutcliffe to lend me John and the new Liebherr excavator. We went digging and unearthed three of these, the mass concrete base that supported a large block of solid rock that in turn was the base for the cast iron pillars that extended up through six floors of the mill. Once we had the locations of those three we could accurately mark the position of all the others because we had the original architect's drawings of the mill. That meant that we could plot the route of pipes runs and services to avoid these hidden obstacles.
This saved another expensive error and established me as a valued advisor for the rest of the build which was a great benefit for the work of the Trust. All this is forgotten now but was just part of the thought and planning that went into getting the Monument up and running....
