Some progress....

The Groundwork team has returned and done a couple of days more work. They have dug out a couple more arches under the existing wall and laid a base slab underneath. They are basically continuing with the underpinning while waiting for some progress on the foundations.

Quite a lot of nice stone was dug out today, so I have pulled some of it aside for walling. Talking to one of the chaps he recommended leaving the stone open to the elements through the winter as some of it will be poor quality and will shatter in the frosts. Anything that survives should be usable.

Jan is hoping for a call from the piling specialists tomorrow, and hopefully they will send someone out on Thursday or Friday. Looking at their website, they offer an alternative to standard piles - compacted stone columns. A rig is used to make a hole and it is then packed with stone using a vibrating poker to compact it. Whether this technique will work for us is as yet unknown. However, it sounds interesting, particularly if it reduces the need for copious quantities of horrible concrete.