The driveway

Not much was done with the driveway at first as all efforts were put into getting the essential work done in the cottage. The first change was when Malcolm put up a set of oak gates given to him by a fencing contractor that he had employed on a building site in Ringwood. Once the garden paths had been completed and the raised rose bed constructed, the drive could be laid properly. Malcolm had a load of hoggin delivered and hired a vibrating roller. Working in the evenings of one week, he had cleaned off the surface of the driveway, dug out the soft spots, graded the ground to a consistant slope and spread the hoggin. By the Friday he was ready to compact the hoggin for which he sprayed water onto the surface then went over it with the roller. He had hardly started when the water presure suddenly dropped until virtually nothing was coming out of the hose. This transpired to be due to the fire brigade taking all the water to fight a catastrophic fire in the paint factory in the village. It was also the only time that the water company had lost pressure in their system in their entire history. The roller was driven by a petrol motor and was controlled by a lever to change direction. Heading up to the garage doors, Malcolm missed the lever once and was temporarily pinned against the doors by the handle which had a padded band at waist level. Anyhow, the job got done and the driveway lasted very well over the following years.

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