Inert prepare for Manor farm return? Possibly. 4th April 2019

An early update as I have decorating to do this weekend. Yuk!

My foggy, Wednesday morning stomp revealed signs Inert are preparing to return to Manor farm quite soon.  Though from experience, such pronouncements need to be taken with a huge pinch of salt.

Firstly, the pump was chugging away. Indeed, so vigorously the out flow into the Blackwater was the highest I have seen for some months.

Secondly, there was no activity to the immediate west of the works building. There was a lone digger putting more stuff onto a gigantic spoil heap that has been a feature of Chandlers farm for as long as I can remember. There may have been more vehicles to the west of the heap, but I didn't see or hear any; partly as I didn't go further west than the Bailey bridge.

Thirdly were these yellow things, I spied last week, piled up near the Bailey bridge.

I couldn't work out what they were. Crowd barriers, perhaps?  All was revealed this week.

Barriers on the Bailey bridge.  I can't work out if they are for vehicle traffic or for pedestrians when the area opens as a reserve.  My suspicion is the latter. Vehicle traffic has been happy using this bridge for decades. The are rather snazzy and bright.

You can just make out a digger in the right most photograph, piling earth onto sand that had covered the gigantic pile.

A quick drive by peek, this morning, showed no activity on Manor farm; despite water levels being much lower than last Wednesday. I reckon water levels need to be at least four feet lower before Inert will consider returning to Manor farm.  Perhaps next week.

I was somewhat unnerved on Wednesday morning.  As I set off south from the MGLG car park, along the footpath, I heard sirens going off. For those who do not know the area, Broadmoor Prison (used to house the most dangerous and psychotic of prisoners) is located near Crowthorne, a few miles east from MGLG.

There are air raid sirens located around the area; one of which is the Shell garage on the London road in Wokingham. They are triggered if a prisoner escapes from Broadmoor i.e. to warn residents to go into lock down.

Thing is, they are normally tested every Monday morning, I think about 11:00 am. Firstly, there is the air raid warning sound. After a couple of minutes this is replaced by the all clear.

What concerned me was the warning sound kept going for the 15 minutes it took me to walk to the Bailey bridge. I kept scanning for anyone that might looked liked a crazed axe murderer!

Relief was mightily felt when I reached the Bailey bridge, and the all clear sounded. Strangely, only a couple of times.

I did read that there were proposals to do away with the early warning sirens. They were to be replaced with announcements via social media, email, possibly phone calls (e.g. to schools), and radio and tv messages.  This appears not to have happened, as I still hear the sirens on Monday morning: if I am out and about at the correct time.