Land Farm.
On a day when slow-moving weather fronts delivered light rain, heavy rain, stinging hail and brief interludes of sunshine, Neil D and Frank H tackled the repair of a semi-collapsed kissing gate on a right-of-way (Blackshaw 005) that goes behind the impressive grounds and house of Land Farm (see map).
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| 1. Worksite marked with blue 'pin'. |
The Details.
This is the original state of the kissing-gate:
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| 2. Old gate: sagging because lower hinge is missing. |
The original gate is heavy and, because it hangs on lightweight, incorrectly fitted hinges, has sagged to jam against the ground. There is some (but not fatal !) decay in the strainer post which doubles as a hinge-post. The closure spring is ineffective because it is not working in torsion and non-optimally links a flat surface (the gate) to a curved surface (the strainer post) . . . time for some remedial work!
The task involved several compromises:- basically . . .
i) Firmly embedding a new hinge-post (2.0 m x 100 mm x 100 mm) which could be screw-bolted to the existing strainer.
ii) Face mounting robust hinges to the old gate and re-hanging it on the new hinge-post.
iii) Reducing the width (and hence weight) of the old gate by one paling so it closed effectively against the end posts of the kissing-gate 'cage'.
iv) Fitting a closure spring that worked in torsion and (as back-up security) adding a chain closure-loop.
Mmm! Lots of digging, double-check measuring, vertical trimming of top of strainer and matching old alignments with the new . . . all to the rattle of hail and the occasional soaking!
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| 3. More open than usual! |
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| 4. New hinges being fitted (face-mounted). All tools and fittings not in use are kept dry under a groundsheet. |
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| 5. New hinge-post being screw-bolted to old strainer. |
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| 6. End result: new, narrower gate, re-hinged and 'spring loaded' with Neil testing the chain closure-loop. |
