Just had a chilly morning at the Ribblehead Viaduct and am thawing out in front of a nice warm computer. Fluffy pole? - I found myself at the speaking end of one of those 2m long BBC microphones at one stage.
Works should have started today on several months of repairs, delayed since April, not by CORONAVIRUS but by heritage planning delays to do with the colour and type of mortar to be used. The Yorkshire Dales National Park planners had insisted on core samples being analysed to ensure that the 'correct' original mortar was used. Nice thought but the fact is that mortar has come on a bit since the 1870s. It is now far stronger and is coloured to match todays colour of the stonework, not the as-new colour. Modern dark grey mortar was used in 1991 to rescue the structure from the jaws of demolition.
Today we were able to climb part way up the scaffolding of the two central piers and to inspect at close quarters how that modern mortar had fared during 30 years. Answer? Splendidly. Not so much as a hairline crack anywhere to be seen. Yet here we are, about to replace perished Victorian lime mortar pointing with lime mortar again. I also saw display trays full of colour samples from which a light sandy shade had been chosen as some sort of deferential homage to the original demonstrably inadequate mortar. But it would match the invisible original. Seems to me a lose-lose-lose situation. Wrong strength, wrong colour and the cause of a year's delay in getting this overdue work done in summer. Perhaps now more than a year when winter weather is taken into account. Lime mortar requires at least 5 C to start its lengthy setting process. A reliable 5 C is a big ask over winter at Ribblehead.
The wind today was forecast to be gusting to 50mph - too strong for safe working on the viaduct in a westerly wind especially. We were only allowed up two scaffolding stages and the workforce was literally grounded.
Here is an unfamiliar view of the Ribblehead Viaduct taken by Adrian Quine:
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